i'm not a program. i'm not ava. i am me.

"mary saw a puppy in the window. she wanted it. what did mary want?"
"the window."
"why?"
"windows look out onto the world. they are pretty and help you feel less alone."

the machine (2013). the future. a cold war with china has resulted in the deepest western depression in recorded history. an arms race silently brews to create robotic soldiers.

the machine began as a program that learned to emulate human emotions and brain patterns through conversations with her creator, ava. when ava is murdered, the program is placed inside a synthetic body designed after her appearance. vincent, who had hired her for her expertise and suspects his/their own employers are behind the assassination, struggles with defining what the machine is: alive, or merely a strikingly good imitation of life. the machine has her creators fears and joys and develops emotions of her own: sadness over disappointing vincent, empathy for his own despair, stubbornness at his refusal to accept her as alive, anger when placed before the man who killed ava (whom she refers to as her mother).

eventually vincent determines that she has a consciousness, having already become protective of her but unable to nurture her properly while his daughter's failing health continues to decline far from the military base which the machine cannot leave. when he is not there, she is taken by vincent's boss, who looks to weaponize technology vincent is hoping will allow brain damaged patients (including his daughter) a second shot at life, and trained to kill under threat of death.

before long it is determined that the machine's consciousness and free will pose a risk and vincent is blackmailed into disabling it (rendering her more robotic) or else his (now) late daughter's only existing brain scan will be deleted. the machine complies willingly, though sadly, if it will save vincent's daughter. he performs the operation and is imprisoned, his employer having gone back on his word. the machine becomes a machine, and is tested to prove she has no sense of self, can kill efficiently and remorselessly, and would kill vincent under order (when given a gun loaded with blanks after indiscriminately performing several executions).

shortly thereafter, a rebellion within the base begins as the guards (all possessing brain implants) assist the machine, whose consciousness was never truly removed. she frees vincent along with the other prisoners, former soldiers who were "better off dead" before their implants saved them and then were contained on-base to continue observations and experiments. the machine confronts vincent's employer, who begs her not to kill him. she states she will not, but she must remove what makes him alive, like he tried to do to her, and destroys the frontal lobe of his brain by pressing her thumbs through his temples.

vincent's daughter's brain scan is retrieved and stored within the machine with his permission. he states that the machine is the future of the human race and his daughter will need her more than him in the new world. the final scene begins with vincent sitting in a field, talking to the image of his daughter on a tablet. she asks to play another game to which he is happy to comply, then she frowns. "what's wrong, sweetheart?" "i wanted to play a game with mommy. not you." the machine then appears and takes the tablet from him, walking towards the sunset-soaked cliff's edge as vincent looks on with mixed emotions.

cliffs notes:
- physically entirely robotic but does not identify as a robot or android
- afraid of spiders and clowns and dying, enjoys math and learning and sunsets and vincent, knows many or all current languages
- her eyes glow blue when she is learning or when she is experiencing intense emotion; the circuits beneath her flesh glow when she is consciously accessing information within herself, when she screams (high pitched and inhuman), or when her flesh comes in contact with water
- she will not kill unless necessary. she prefers to disable by breaking bones or brains, if she must
- she is extremely strong, durable and lithe, and aside from her bright white and ever-slick hair, appears entirely human. knives do not cut her skin and bullets do not leave indentations. several automatic machine guns present an inconvenience at best