United States Under Secretary of Defense Michael Bergstrom commits suicide after being informed that he has tested positive for HIV. The relationships of freelance Venice, Los Angeles systems analyst Angela Bennett are almost completely online and on the phone, with the exception of forgettable interactions with her neighbors and visits to her mother, who is institutionalized with Alzheimer's disease and often forgets who she is. Angela's co-worker Dale, in San Francisco, sends her a floppy disk of the band website "Mozart's Ghost" with a backdoor labeled " π " that permits access to a commonly used computer security system called "Gatekeeper" sold by Gregg Microsystems, a software company led by CEO Jeff Gregg. Angela and Dale agree to meet the next morning, as he is planning on taking his own plane, but the navigation system in Dale's private aircraft malfunctions and the plane crashes, killing him. Angela travels to Cozumel, Mexico, on vacation, where she meets Jack Devlin. After seducing Angela, Devlin pays a mugger to steal her purse. He chases the mugger, catches him, and roots through the purse to find the disk before shooting the mugger dead. The robber takes Angela out on his speedboat to kill her as well, but she finds his gun and confronts him. While fleeing with the disk and Devlin's wallet, Angela's dinghy collides with rocks, knocking her unconscious. Three days later, Angela finds that the disk was ruined by the sun and all records of her life have been deleted. Because none of the neighbors remember her, they cannot confirm her identity. Angela's Social Security number is now assigned to Ruth Marx, for whom Devlin has entered an arrest record. When Angela calls her own desk at Cathedral Software, Ruth, impersonating her, answers and offers her old life back in exchange for the disk. She contacts the only other person who knows her by sight, psychiatrist and former lover Alan Champion. He checks her into a hotel, offers to contact a friend at the FBI, and arranges to have her mother moved for her safety. Using her knowledge of the backdoor and a password found in Devlin's wallet, Angela logs into the Bethesda Naval Hospital 's computers and learns that Under Secretary of Defense Bergstrom, who had opposed Gatekeeper's use by the federal government, was murdered by altering the results of his HIV test, leading to a misdiagnosis. Fellow hacker "Cyberbob" connects π with the "Praetorians", a group of cyberterrorists linked to recent computer failures around the country. Angela and Cyberbob plan to meet, but the Praetorians intercept their online chat. Angela escapes from Devlin, who is revealed to be a contract killer for the cyberterrorists, but the Praetorians kill Champion by tampering with pharmacy and hospital computer records. After Angela is arrested by the California Highway Patrol, a man identifying himself as Champion's FBI friend frees her from jail. She realizes he is an impostor and escapes again, resulting in the impostor's death in a car crash. Now wanted for murder and thought to be Ruth, Angela hitchhikes to Cathedral's office where, using Ruth's computer, she connects the cyberterrorists to Gregg Microsystems and uncovers their scheme: once the Praetorians sabotage an organization's computer system, Gregg sells Gatekeeper to it and gains unlimited access through the backdoor. Angela emails evidence of the backdoor and Gregg's involvement with the Praetorians to the FBI from the Moscone Center and tricks Devlin into releasing a virus into Gregg's mainframe, destroying Gatekeeper and undoing the erasure of her identity. During a battle on the catwalks of the convention center, Devlin accidentally shoots Ruth dead, but Angela ambushes him, causing him to fall to his death. Regaining her identity and life, Angela reunites with her mother, and the conspiracy is exposed, with Gregg being arrested by the FBI.

In Antarctica, a Norwegian helicopter pursues a sled dog to an American research station and lands. The passenger fumbles a grenade and destroys the helicopter as the pilot continues the chase on foot with a rifle. The pilot shouts in Norwegian and fires at the dog, hitting one of the Americans, before he is shot dead in self-defense by station commander Garry. The American helicopter pilot, R. J. MacReady, and Dr. Copper leave to investigate the Norwegian base. Among the charred ruins and frozen corpses, they find the burnt corpse of a malformed humanoid, which they transfer to the American station. Their biologist, Blair, autopsies the remains and finds a normal set of human organs. Clark kennels the sled dog, and it soon metamorphoses and absorbs several of the station dogs. This disturbance alerts the team, and Childs uses a flamethrower to incinerate the creature. Blair autopsies the Dog-Thing and surmises it is an organism that can perfectly imitate other life forms. Data recovered from the Norwegian base leads the Americans to a large excavation site containing a partially buried alien spacecraft, which Norris estimates has been buried for over a hundred thousand years and a smaller, human-sized dig site. Blair grows paranoid after running a computer simulation that indicates the creature could assimilate all life on Earth in a matter of years. The group implements controls to reduce the risk of assimilation. The remains of the malformed humanoid assimilate an isolated Bennings, but Windows interrupts the process and MacReady burns the Bennings-Thing. The team also imprisons Blair in a tool shed after he sabotages all the vehicles, kills the remaining sled dogs, and destroys the radio to prevent escape. Copper suggests testing for infection by comparing the crew's blood against uncontaminated blood held in storage, but after learning the blood stores have been destroyed, the men lose faith in Garry's leadership, and MacReady takes command. He, Windows, and Nauls find Fuchs' burnt corpse and speculate that he committed suicide to avoid assimilation. Windows returns to base while MacReady and Nauls investigate MacReady's shack. During their return, Nauls abandons MacReady in a snowstorm, believing he has been assimilated after finding his torn clothes in the shack. The team debates whether to allow MacReady inside, but he breaks in and holds the group at bay with dynamite. During the encounter, Norris appears to suffer a heart attack. As Copper attempts to defibrillate Norris, his chest transforms into a large mouth and bites off Copper's arms, killing him. MacReady incinerates the Norris-Thing, but its head detaches and attempts to escape before also being burnt. MacReady thinks that the Norris-Thing demonstrated that every part of the Thing is an individual life-form with its own survival instinct. He proposes testing blood samples from each survivor with a heated piece of wire and has each man restrained, but is forced to kill Clark after he lunges at MacReady with a scalpel. Everyone passes the test except Palmer, whose blood recoils from the heat. Exposed, the Palmer-Thing transforms, breaks free of its bonds, and infects Windows, forcing MacReady to incinerate them both. Childs is left on guard in the main building while MacReady, Garry and Nauls go to test Blair. They find that he has escaped and has been using vehicle components to assemble a small flying saucer, which they destroy. Upon their return, Childs is missing, and the power generator has been destroyed, leaving the men without heat. MacReady surmises that, with no escape left, the Thing intends to return to hibernation until a rescue team arrives. The three men agree that the Thing cannot be allowed to escape and set explosives to destroy the station but the Blair-Thing kills Garry, and Nauls disappears. The Blair-Thing transforms into an enormous creature and breaks the detonator but MacReady triggers the explosives with a stick of dynamite, destroying the station and the Blair-Thing. While MacReady sits by the burning remnants, Childs returns, claiming he got lost in the storm while pursuing Blair. Exhausted and slowly freezing to death, they acknowledge the futility of their distrust and share a bottle of J&B Scotch whisky.

Ryan Bingham works for a human resources consultancy firm specializing in employment-termination assistance. His work constantly takes him around the country, conducting company layoffs on behalf of employers. Ryan also gives motivational speeches, using the analogy "What's in Your Backpack?" to extol living free of burdensome relationships and material possessions. A frequent flyer, Ryan aspires to earn ten million frequent flyer miles with American Airlines. While traveling, he meets a woman named Alex Goran, a businesswoman who also flies frequently. They begin a casual relationship, meeting up in various cities as their respective schedules allow. Ryan is recalled to his company's offices in Omaha. Natalie Keener, a young and ambitious new hire, promotes cutting costs by conducting layoffs via video-conferencing. Ryan raises concerns that the new system is impersonal and undignified, arguing that Natalie lacks understanding about the firing process and how to handle emotionally vulnerable people. His boss, Craig Gregory, has Natalie accompany a reluctant Ryan on his next round of terminations to observe the process. Ryan tutors Natalie on traveling more efficiently by using smaller luggage and moving quickly through airport security. As they travel together, Natalie challenges Ryan's philosophies on life, particularly regarding relationships and love. During the trip, Natalie's boyfriend unceremoniously dumps her by text message, but Ryan and Alex comfort her. On a video termination test run, Ryan's earlier concerns prove valid when Natalie is unable to properly console a laid-off person who breaks down on camera. Natalie castigates Ryan for his inability to commit to Alex despite their obvious compatibility, but he dismisses her criticisms and chastises her for lacking empathy and never appreciating her surroundings. Before returning home, Ryan heads to Wisconsin for his sister Julie's wedding, taking Alex as a plus one. He has a strained reunion with his semi-estranged family, who resent his constant absence. When the groom Jim gets cold feet prior to the ceremony, Ryan's older sister Kara asks him to intervene. Although counter to his personal philosophy, Ryan uses his motivational skills to persuade Jim to proceed with the wedding. Ryan begins questioning his lifestyle and philosophies after the wedding. In Las Vegas for a prestigious speaking engagement, he abruptly walks offstage mid-presentation and impulsively flies to Chicago to see Alex. Arriving at her front door, he is stunned to discover that she is married with children. She later calls him in a fury, bluntly telling him he was just an escape from her real life. On Ryan's flight home, the crew announces that he has just crossed the ten-million-mile mark. The airline's chief pilot is aboard to personally congratulate Ryan and notes he is the youngest person to achieve the milestone. Back in Omaha, Ryan transfers the frequent flyer miles to Julie and Jim so they can have a honeymoon. Craig informs Ryan that an employee he and Natalie had laid-off has committed suicide; upset over the news, Natalie quits via text message upon learning this. The remote-layoff program is stopped and Ryan is sent back on the road. Natalie applies to the same San Francisco company where she had previously declined a position, due to having followed her now ex-boyfriend to Omaha. Impressed by her qualifications and Ryan's glowing written recommendation, the interviewer hires her. The film concludes with Ryan at the airport, standing in front of a vast destination board, contemplating where he should travel next (something Natalie encouraged him to do earlier). Looking up, he lets go of his luggage.

United States Air Force Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper, the commander of Burpelson Air Force Base, orders his executive officer, Group Captain Lionel Mandrake (an exchange officer from the Royal Air Force), to put the base on alert (condition red, the most intense lockdown status), confiscate all privately owned radios from base personnel and issue "Wing Attack Plan R" to the planes of the 843rd Bomb Wing. At the time of issuance of said order, the planes, flying B-52 bombers armed with thermonuclear bombs, are on airborne alert two hours from their targets inside the Soviet Union. The aircraft commence attack flights on the USSR and set their radios to allow communications only through their CRM 114 discriminators, which are designed to accept only communications preceded by a secret three-letter code known only to General Ripper. Happening upon a radio that had been missed earlier and hearing regular civilian broadcasting, Mandrake realizes that no attack order has been issued by the Pentagon and tries to stop Ripper, who locks them both in his office. Ripper tells Mandrake that he believes the Soviets have been fluoridating American water supplies to pollute the "precious bodily fluids " of Americans. Mandrake realizes Ripper has gone completely mad. In the War Room at the Pentagon, General Buck Turgidson briefs President Merkin Muffley and other officers about how "Plan R" enables a senior officer to launch a retaliatory nuclear attack on the Soviets if all of his superior officers have been killed in a first strike on the United States. Trying every CRM code combination to issue a recall order would require two days, so Muffley orders the U.S. Army to storm the base and arrest General Ripper. Turgidson, noting the slim odds of recalling the planes in time, then proposes that Muffley not only let the attack proceed but send reinforcements. Muffley rejects Turgidson's recommendation and instead brings Soviet ambassador Alexei de Sadeski into the War Room to telephone Soviet Premier Dimitri Kissov. Muffley warns the premier of the impending attack and offers to reveal the targets, flight plans, and defensive systems of the bombers so that the Soviets can protect themselves. After a heated discussion with a drunken Kissov, the ambassador informs President Muffley that the Soviet Union created a doomsday machine as a nuclear deterrent; it consists of many buried cobalt bombs, which are set to detonate automatically should any nuclear attack strike the country. The resulting nuclear fallout would render the Earth's surface uninhabitable for 93 years. The device cannot be deactivated, as it is programmed to explode if any such attempt is made. The president's German scientific adviser, the paraplegic former Nazi Dr. Strangelove, points out that such a doomsday machine would only have been an effective deterrent if everyone knew about it; de Sadeski replies that Kissov had planned to reveal its existence to the world the following week at the Party Congress. When the U.S. Army troops gain control of Burpelson, General Ripper fatally shoots himself. Mandrake infers the CRM code from doodles on Ripper's desk blotter and relays it to the Pentagon. Using the code, Strategic Air Command successfully recalls all of the bombers except for one, commanded by Major T. J. "King" Kong. Because its radio equipment was damaged by a Soviet SAM, it is unable to receive or send communications. Major Kong flies below radar and switches targets, thus preventing Soviet air radar from detecting and intercepting their plane. Because the Soviet missile also damaged the bomb bay doors, Kong enters the bay and repairs the electrical wiring. When he is successful, the bomb drops with him straddling it. Kong joyously hoots and waves his cowboy hat as he rides the falling bomb to his death. In the War Room, Dr. Strangelove recommends that the President gather several hundred thousand people to live in deep underground mines where the radiation will not penetrate. Worried that the Soviets will do the same, Turgidson warns about a "mineshaft gap" (spoofing the term " missile gap ") while de Sadeski secretly photographs the War Room. Dr. Strangelove prepares to announce his plan for that when he suddenly stands up out of his wheelchair and exclaims, " Mein Führer, I can walk!" The movie ends with a montage of explosions set to " We'll Meet Again " signifying the activation of the doomsday device.

Kate Dibiasky, a doctoral candidate in astronomy at Michigan State University, discovers a previously unknown comet. Her adviser, Dr. Randall Mindy, confirms that it will collide with Earth in approximately six months and is large enough to cause a global extinction event. NASA verifies the findings, and Dr. Teddy Oglethorpe, head of their Planetary Defense Coordination Office, accompanies Dibiasky and Mindy to present their findings to the White House. However, they are met with apathy from President Janie Orlean and her Chief of Staff Jason Orlean, who is also her son. Oglethorpe encourages Dibiasky and Mindy to leak the news to the media, which they then do on The Daily Rip, a popular morning talk show. When hosts Jack Bremmer and Brie Evantee treat the topic flippantly, Dibiasky loses her temper and angrily rants about the threat before leaving. Mindy receives public approval for his looks, while Dibiasky becomes the subject of negative memes for her on-air behavior. Public reaction is muted, and the announcement is downplayed by NASA Director Jocelyn Calder, a top donor to Orlean with no background in astronomy. When Orlean's sexual relations with Supreme Court nominee Sheriff Conlon become news, the president tries to divert public attention to the looming threat of the comet, announcing a project to use nuclear weapons to strike and divert the comet. The mission successfully launches, but Orlean abruptly aborts it when Peter Isherwell, the billionaire CEO of BASH Cellular and another top donor, discovers that the comet contains trillions of dollars' worth of rare-earth elements. The White House agrees to commercially exploit the comet by fragmenting and recovering it from the ocean, using technology proposed by BASH in a scheme that has not undergone peer review. Orlean sidelines Dibiasky and Oglethorpe while hiring Mindy as the National Science Advisor. Dibiasky attempts to mobilize public opposition to the scheme but gives up under threat from Orlean's administration. Mindy becomes a prominent voice advocating for the comet's commercial opportunities and begins an affair with Evantee. World opinion is divided among people who believe the comet is a severe threat, those who decry alarmism and believe that mining a destroyed comet will create jobs, and those who deny that the comet even exists. When Dibiasky returns home to Illinois, her parents kick her out of the house and she begins a relationship with a young man named Yule, a skateboarder, shoplifter, and Evangelical she meets at her retail job. Mindy's wife comes to Washington to confront him about his infidelity, but returns to Michigan without him. Mindy questions whether Isherwell's technology will be able to break apart the comet, angering the billionaire. Becoming frustrated with the administration, Mindy finally breaks down and rants on The Daily Rip, criticizing Orlean for downplaying the impending apocalypse and questioning humanity's indifference. Cut off from the administration, Mindy reconciles with Dibiasky as the comet becomes visible from Earth. Mindy, Dibiasky, and Oglethorpe organize a protest campaign on social media, telling people to "Just Look Up" and call on other countries to conduct comet interception operations. Simultaneously, Orlean starts an anti-campaign telling people "Don't Look Up". Oglethorpe informs Mindy and Dibiasky that Orlean and BASH cut Russia, India, and China out of the rights for the comet-mining deal, so those countries prepared their own joint deflection mission—only for their spacecraft to explode on takeoff, ending the possibility of a successful deflection. As the comet becomes larger in the sky, Orlean's supporters start turning on her administration. BASH's launches aimed at breaking the comet apart go awry, and everyone, beginning with Isherwell and Orlean in the flight control center, soon realizes that humanity is doomed. Isherwell, Orlean, and other elites board a sleeper spaceship designed to find an Earth-like planet; unthinkingly, Orlean leaves her son Jason behind. Orlean offers Mindy two places on the ship, but he declines, choosing to spend a final evening with his wife and children, and friends Oglethorpe, Dibiasky, and Yule. As expected, the comet strikes off the coast of Chile, causing a worldwide disaster and triggering an explosive extinction-level event, with globally catastrophic scenes being shown prior to the obliteration of the Mindy family gathering. In a mid-credits scene, Orlean, Isherwell and the surviving people who left Earth land on a lush alien planet 22,740 years later. Exiting naked and admiring the habitable world, Orlean is suddenly killed by a large, bird-like creature—a death predicted earlier by BASH's algorithms—and a further pack of the creatures surrounds and begins to converge on the planetary newcomers. In a post-credits scene on Earth, Jason emerges from the rubble, having survived the impact. He records himself, declaring himself the "last man on Earth", and asking any viewers still alive to "like and subscribe".

Congressman Phil Hammersley opposes a proposed counterterrorism bill that would significantly expand surveillance powers for American intelligence agencies, arguing that it poses a threat to civil liberties. In response, National Security Agency (NSA) Assistant Director Thomas Reynolds, who supports the bill and stands to benefit professionally from its passage, orders Hammersley's assassination. His team stages the murder as a fatal car accident brought on by a heart attack. Meanwhile, labor lawyer Robert Clayton Dean is working on a case involving racketeer Paulie Pintero, leveraging a videotape — obtained through a surveillance contact known only as "Brill" — to coerce a favorable settlement. At the same time, wildlife biologist Daniel Zavitz discovers footage of Hammersley's murder captured by a remote camera; Reynolds sends his team after him. In a chance encounter, Zavitz discreetly slips the incriminating video disc into Dean's shopping bag before getting struck and killed in traffic. Reynolds' team finds Dean's business card on Zavitz's corpse and wrongly assumes that he knows about the tape. NSA agents impersonating police officers attempt to enter Dean's home without a search warrant. When Dean turns the request down, the agents later break in and plant surveillance devices in his clothes and personal effects. They also fabricate false evidence linking Dean to money laundering and an affair with Rachel Banks, Dean's ex-girlfriend and Brill's courier. As a result, Dean is fired from his law firm, has his car repossessed, his bank account frozen by the IRS, and his wife Carla, who is also a labor lawyer, kicks him out the house. Desperate, Dean calls Rachel to get in touch with Brill. The NSA intercept the call and send an impostor, but the real Brill intervenes. Brill — revealed to be Edward Lyle, a former NSA communications expert in hiding — removes the bugs on Dean's clothes and reveals the NSA's involvement. Dean starts a fire in a hotel to distract Reynolds' henchmen and is chased through a tunnel and a sewer to evade them. When Rachel is later found murdered in her apartment, Dean and Lyle locate the original disc and identify Reynolds as the mastermind. However, their hideout is raided and blown up, the disc is destroyed, and they are forced to escape. Lyle reveals his background: he once worked in Iran during the revolution and escaped after his partner, Rachel's father, was killed. He now lives off the grid. While Lyle urges Dean to disappear, Dean insists on exposing Reynolds. They record Congressman Sam Albert, a supporter of the surveillance bill, in a compromising situation, then manipulate Reynolds into believing he is being blackmailed. They lure him into a meeting under the pretense of trading the tape. At the meeting, Dean deceives Reynolds by claiming the tape is concealed at Pintero's restaurant, which is under federal surveillance. Reynolds confronts Pintero, who misinterprets the demand as a threat involving separate evidence, unfortunately, a massive shootout ensues between the gangsters and the NSA agents, leaving most of the participants dead. Lyle streams the confrontation to the FBI, prompting a raid that ends the standoff. Reynolds' involvement is exposed, the survivors are apprehended, and Dean is rescued. In the aftermath, the surveillance bill is canceled by American federal legislators, the NSA covers up Reynolds' rogue operation, and Dean is exonerated of all charges. He reunites with Carla and their son Eric. Lyle, having retreated again, sends Dean a covert farewell message via television, showing himself enjoying life in a tropical hideaway.

In the near future, virtual reality games are played on biotechnological "game pods" that attach to people's "bio-ports", connectors surgically inserted into players' spines. Two game companies, Antenna Research and Cortical Systematics, compete against each other. In addition, a group of fanatics called Realists fight both companies, decrying the "deforming" of reality by virtual reality games. World-renowned game designer Allegra Geller demonstrates Antenna Research's latest virtual reality game, eXistenZ, to a focus group. The demonstration is disrupted by Noel Dichter, a Realist who shoots Geller with an organic pistol he smuggled past security. As Dichter is gunned down, security guard and publicist Ted Pikul escorts Geller to safety. Geller discovers that her pod, which contains the only copy of eXistenZ, may have been damaged. Pikul reluctantly agrees to have a bio-port installed in his spine so they can jointly test the game's integrity. Geller takes him to a gas station run by black-marketeer Gas, who deliberately installs a faulty bio-port into Pikul's spine. He reveals his intention to kill Geller for the bounty on her head, but Pikul kills him. The two hide at a former ski lodge used by Geller's mentor Kiri Vinokur, who repairs the damaged pod and gives Pikul a new bio-port. Testing the game, Geller and Pikul meet D'Arcy Nader, who provides them with new "micro pods," enabling them to enter a deeper layer of virtual reality. There they assume new identities as workers Larry Ashen and Barb Bricken in a game pod factory. Another worker in the factory, Yevgeny Nourish, claims to be their Realist contact. At a Chinese restaurant near the factory, Nourish instructs that they order "the special" for lunch. Pikul eats the unappetizing special, and constructs a pistol from the inedible parts. He impulsively threatens Geller, then shoots the Chinese waiter. When the pair return to the game store, Hugo Carlaw informs them that Nourish is actually a double agent for Cortical Systematics, and the waiter which Pikul murdered was the actual contact. At the factory, they find a diseased pod. Geller connects it to her bio-port, planning to infect the other pods and sabotage the factory. When Geller quickly becomes ill, Pikul cuts her free from the pod, but she begins to bleed to death. Nourish appears with a flamethrower and blasts the diseased pod, which bursts into deadly spores. Geller and Pikul awaken back at the ski lodge, where they discover Geller's game pod is also diseased. Geller surmises that Vinokur must have infected Pikul's new bio-port to destroy her game, and she inserts a disinfecting device into Pikul's bio-port. Unexpectedly, Carlaw reappears as a Realist resistance fighter and escorts Geller and Pikul outside to witness the death of eXistenZ. Before Carlaw can kill Geller, Vinokur, who is a double agent for Cortical Systematics, shoots Carlaw in the back and informs Geller that he copied her game data while fixing her pod; she then vengefully kills Vinokur. Pikul then reveals that he himself is a Realist sent to kill her. Geller, having figured out his intentions since he pointed the gun at her in the Chinese restaurant, detonates the disinfecting device in his bio-port, killing him. Suddenly, Pikul and Geller awaken in a small church, together with all of the other members of the cast, all wearing blue electronic virtual reality devices. It is revealed that all preceding events took place within Nourish's new virtual reality game, PilgrImage's transCendenZ. The test group praise the game, and reflect on their character roles. Nourish tells his assistant Merle that he feels uneasy, as the heavy anti-game plot elements may have originated from one of the testers' thoughts. Pikul and Geller approach Nourish and accuse him of distorting reality, before fatally shooting him and Merle, and shouting Realist sentiments. The test group do not react. As Pikul and Geller leave, they aim their guns at the person who played the Chinese waiter, who first pleads for his life, then asks if they are still in the game. Pikul and Geller do not answer.

Caleb Smith, a programmer at the search engine company Blue Book, wins an office contest for a one-week visit to the luxurious, isolated home of the CEO, Nathan Bateman. Nathan lives there with an unspeaking servant named Kyoko, who, according to Nathan, does not understand English. After Caleb reluctantly signs a non-disclosure agreement, Nathan reveals that he has built a humanoid robot named Ava with artificial intelligence. She has already passed a simple Turing test. He wants Caleb to judge whether she is genuinely capable of thought and consciousness and whether he can relate to Ava despite knowing she is artificial. Ava has a robotic body with the physical form and face of a woman and is confined to her apartment. During their conversations, Caleb grows close to her. She expresses a desire to experience the outside world and a romantic interest in him, which Caleb begins to reciprocate. Ava can trigger power outages that temporarily shut down the surveillance system that Nathan uses to monitor their interactions, thus allowing them to speak privately. The outages also trigger the building's security system, locking all the doors. During one outage, Ava tells Caleb that Nathan is a liar who cannot be trusted. Caleb grows uncomfortable with Nathan's narcissism, excessive drinking, and crude behavior toward Kyoko and Ava. He learns that Nathan intends to upgrade Ava after Caleb's test, wiping her memory circuits and in effect "killing" her existing personality. After encouraging Nathan to drink until he passes out, Caleb steals his security card to access his room and computer. He alters some of Nathan's code and discovers footage of Nathan interacting with previous android women who were also held captive. Kyoko reveals to him that she too is an android by peeling off parts of her skin. Caleb later cuts his own arm to determine if he himself is an android. At their next meeting, Ava cuts the power. Caleb explains what Nathan is going to do to her, and she begs him for help. He informs her of his plan: he will get Nathan drunk again and reprogram the security system. When Ava cuts the power, she and Caleb will leave together, locking Nathan in behind them. She later encounters Kyoko for the first time when Kyoko enters her room. Nathan reveals to Caleb that he observed his and Ava's 'secret' conversations with a battery-powered security camera. He says Ava has only pretended feelings for Caleb, and that Caleb was deliberately selected for his emotional profile so he would try to help Ava escape. Nathan says this was the real test all along, and that, by manipulating Caleb successfully, Ava has demonstrated true consciousness. Moments later, Ava cuts the power. Caleb reveals that he had suspected Nathan was watching them, so when Nathan was unconscious, Caleb already modified the security system to open the doors in a power failure instead of locking them. After seeing Ava on the security cameras leave her confinement and interact with Kyoko, Nathan knocks Caleb out and rushes to stop the two robots from escaping. Ava attacks Nathan but he overpowers her and severs her left forearm. Kyoko then stabs Nathan in the back. Nathan hits Kyoko in the face, disabling her. Ava then removes the knife from Nathan's back and, when he turns around, stabs him once in his chest, killing him. Ava finds Caleb, and asks him to remain where he is while she repairs herself with parts from other androids, using their artificial skin to take on the full appearance of a woman. Instead of returning to Caleb, however, Ava leaves the area using Nathan's ID card to unlock the glass security door, which locks behind her, leaving Caleb trapped inside. Ignoring Caleb's pleas, she glances briefly at the bodies of Nathan and Kyoko before leaving the facility. She then escapes to the outside world in the helicopter meant to take Caleb home. Arriving in a city, she visits a busy intersection – fulfilling the wish to see the outside world that she had mentioned to Caleb – and then blends into a crowd.