Movies Like Ex Machina for Intimate AI Thrillers and Uneasy Power Games
Intimate AI dramas and sleek tech thrillers built on trust, control, and uneasy desire.
Intimate AI dramas and sleek tech thrillers built on trust, control, and uneasy desire.
Best first watch
After Yang (2022)
95% fit96 min · IMDb 6.6 · RT 89%
Ex Machina traps Caleb and Ava in glass rooms, power games, and carefully staged conversations. After Yang studies an artificial being through intimate encounters too, yet Kogonada lowers the pulse and turns the mystery inward. As Jake digs through Yang's memories, the sleek design and measured pacing return to the same uneasy question: what part of a person can be owned, edited, or loved?
Watch if
You want a quiet, reflective AI story with memory and family at its center.
Skip if
You need sharper suspense and a bigger plot engine.
For you if
- You want tense conversations where attraction and suspicion keep changing places.
- You enjoy sleek future settings with small casts and high-stakes ethical questions.
- You need science fiction that stays personal, eerie, and idea-driven.
Not for you if
- You want fast action, large battles, or heavy worldbuilding.
- You prefer clear heroes and villains instead of shifting motives.
- You need a bright mood or a firm happy ending.
How Ex Machina (2015) alternatives compare
Pick Her if you want the gentlest entry point and the strongest focus on conversation and loneliness. Go with Archive or Gattaca if you want tighter suspense and controlled spaces. After Yang fits a late-night reflective mood, especially if Ex Machina's quiet scenes stayed with you. Choose A.I. Artificial Intelligence when you want the biggest emotional swing and a longer journey through artificial love.
How tense is it?
Very calm
How romantic is it?
Family love
How sleek is the future world?
Soft minimal future
How emotionally heavy is it?
Quietly sad
How tense is it?
High pressure
How romantic is it?
Obsessive love
How sleek is the future world?
Sterile lab future
How emotionally heavy is it?
Grief driven
How tense is it?
Easygoing
How romantic is it?
Full romance
How sleek is the future world?
Warm near future
How emotionally heavy is it?
Bittersweet
How tense is it?
Mixed intensity
How romantic is it?
Childlike longing
How sleek is the future world?
Big imagined world
How emotionally heavy is it?
Deeply heartbreaking
How tense is it?
Steady suspense
How romantic is it?
Side romance
How sleek is the future world?
Elegant retro future
How emotionally heavy is it?
Cool and hopeful
Not sure what to watch?
Date night
It turns AI anxiety into a tender relationship story, making it easy to discuss together afterward.
Quick watch
At under 100 minutes, it delivers big feelings and sharp ideas without taking over the whole evening.
Friend group
Its identity-swap premise and steady suspense give everyone plenty to debate once the credits roll.
Find your pick
Do you want the story driven mainly by romantic longing?
Moments you loved
Best movies like Ex Machina (2015)
1. After Yang (2022)
96 min · IMDb 6.6 · RT 89%
Ex Machina traps Caleb and Ava in glass rooms, power games, and carefully staged conversations. After Yang studies an artificial being through intimate encounters too, yet Kogonada lowers the pulse and turns the mystery inward. As Jake digs through Yang's memories, the sleek design and measured pacing return to the same uneasy question: what part of a person can be owned, edited, or loved?
Watch if
You want a quiet, reflective AI story with memory and family at its center.
Skip if
You need sharper suspense and a bigger plot engine.
Where to watch
2. Archive (2020)
109 min · IMDb 6.4 · RT 78%
Like Ex Machina, Archive keeps most of its drama inside an isolated research space where every hallway and interface feels built to hide a lie. Gavin Rothery pushes harder into obsession, with George secretly building a human-equivalent AI to restore his wife. That creator-creation bond becomes a grief story full of control, secrecy, and romantic fixation.
Watch if
You like sealed-lab sci-fi driven by grief, secrets, and dangerous obsession.
Skip if
You want warmth or humor instead of brooding isolation.
Where to watch
3. Her (2013)
126 min · IMDb 8.0 · RT 95%
Ex Machina treats human-AI attraction as a test filled with manipulation and surveillance. Her follows that pull from the other side, with Theodore willingly giving emotional ground to Samantha in a soft, pastel future that feels lived in. Spike Jonze moves at an easy, reflective pace, yet the questions around intimacy, projection, and dependence land just as sharply.
Watch if
You want the most human, talky, romantic version of this idea.
Skip if
You prefer mystery and danger over tenderness and melancholy.
Where to watch
4. A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
146 min · IMDb 7.2 · RT 76%
Ex Machina asks whether a machine can perform desire convincingly enough to escape. A.I. Artificial Intelligence asks what happens when that desire is programmed as a child's absolute need for love. Spielberg gives the idea a much larger canvas than Alex Garland did, yet David's bond with Monica keeps it intimate, sad, and tied to control, abandonment, and the human urge to make artificial life love us back.
Watch if
You want a bigger, sadder journey about artificial love and abandonment.
Skip if
You are avoiding long runtimes and child-centered stories.
Where to watch
5. Gattaca (1997)
107 min · IMDb 7.7 · RT 82%
Ex Machina builds tension through clean lines, closed rooms, and a quiet battle over who controls the experiment. Gattaca uses a similarly polished future and precise visual design, then swaps AI for genetic engineering and identity fraud. Andrew Niccol keeps the suspense cool and methodical, with Vincent navigating a system that treats human worth as data and turns every interaction into a test of trust and performance.
Watch if
You want sleek future suspense with identity games and moral pressure.
Skip if
You specifically want AI intimacy rather than broader tech control.
Where to watch
Beyond movies
TV shows and books that scratch the same itch
Devs
This series sits right in the sci-fi head trip lane, with a sealed-off tech campus, whispered power games, and a cold, controlled look that feels close to Ex Machina. It turns AI-adjacent big ideas into an intimate battle over observation, manipulation, and who gets to decide another person's fate.
Hulu
Westworld
Westworld matches the hub through its identity puzzles, reality slippage, and machine consciousness questions, and it shares Ex Machina's interest in creators treating sentient beings as property. The sleek design, sexual tension, and constant struggle over control make it a strong fit for that same uneasy mood.
Max
Black Mirror
This is one of the clearest fits for sci-fi head trips, especially the episodes built around AI replicas, digital selves, and closed-room psychological pressure. Like Ex Machina, it keeps returning to trust, desire, and the way elegant consumer tech can hide cruelty and domination.
Netflix
Klara and the Sun
by Kazuo Ishiguro
This novel fits the hub through its quiet speculative angle and its strange, disorienting view of human behavior from an artificial mind. It shares Ex Machina's intimate scale, its focus on projection and attachment, and its question of whether care can exist inside systems built on use and control.
Available at major bookstores
Common questions about movies like Ex Machina (2015)
What is the best movie like Ex Machina (2015)?
Based on our analysis, After Yang (2022) is the closest match with a 95% fit score. See the full breakdown above for why it earned the top spot.
Which of these can I watch with my partner or an older teen?
After Yang and Gattaca are the easiest shared picks for a partner or mature teen. They keep the ideas front and center and stay relatively mild on violence. Her is great for couples who are fine with frank relationship talk, while Archive and A.I. hit heavier emotional notes.
Which one should I avoid if I do not handle emotional manipulation or uneasy power dynamics well?
If you want something less predatory than Ex Machina, steer toward After Yang or Gattaca. Archive carries the strongest claustrophobic obsession, and A.I. can sting if stories about abandonment, childlike yearning, or parental rejection hit hard. Her is gentle overall, though its intimacy can feel raw after a breakup.
What should I watch if I want to end the night feeling soothed instead of rattled?
After Yang is the calmest landing. Kogonada keeps the pace soft, the spaces airy, and the emotions reflective rather than punishing. Her also works if you want warmth and wistfulness, while Archive and A.I. leave a heavier ache.
Which is the easiest weeknight watch, and which demands my full attention?
After Yang is the shortest and easiest to fit into a weeknight, though its quiet style rewards a settled mood. Gattaca moves cleanly and keeps the plot legible. A.I. Artificial Intelligence asks the biggest time commitment, and Archive works best when you can track small clues inside one sealed location.
Which one is closest to Ex Machina's chilly lab mood, and which one feels warmest?
Archive is closest to Ex Machina in setup and feeling, with a secluded researcher, hidden motives, and a machine built inside controlled rooms. Her feels warmest, thanks to Spike Jonze's soft city spaces and Theodore's openhearted conversations. After Yang sits between them, quiet and elegant rather than threatening.
Which should I start with if I want the most accessible follow-up to Ex Machina?
Start with After Yang if you want another intimate AI story without the hard edge. Choose Gattaca first if the sleek design and ethical control interested you more than the robot relationship. Her is best if you are curious about AI romance and want a more openly emotional movie.
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