Upgrade gives a terrifying look at a not-so-distant future where technology and AI have advanced to unimaginable levels, and its most horrifying element is very similar to one of Alex Garland’s best movies, but it made it even scarier. Leigh Whannell has earned a spot in horror history as one of the creators of the Saw saga as well as a horror writer and director, and one of his most interesting and terrifying movies is Upgrade. Released in 2018, Upgrade was written and directed by Whannell, and it takes the audience to the year 2046 to meet Grey Trace (Logan Marshall-Green), an auto mechanic.
One day, after returning a refurbished car to renowned tech innovator Eron Keen, Grey and his wife Asha’s self-driving car malfunctions and crashes. Four men appear to kill Asha and shoot Grey in the neck. Now quadriplegic, Eron convinces Grey to accept a STEM implant, an AI chip that will allow him to regain control of his body. However, Grey soon discovers that STEM speaks to him in his mind and guides him through his revenge against Asha’s killers. Upgrade has a twist in its third act that is reminiscent of Alex Garland’s Ex Machina, but it managed to make it more terrifying.
In 2014, Alex Garland made his directorial debut with Ex Machina, a sci-fi thriller starring Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, and Oscar Isaac. Ex Machina follows Caleb Smith (Gleeson), who wins a contest to visit the luxurious but isolated home of Nathan Bateman (Isaac), the CEO of the company he works for. Nathan brings Caleb to administer the Turing test to his latest creation: a humanoid robot named Ava (Vikander) with artificial intelligence. Caleb ends up bonding with Ava, who tricks him into believing Nathan is a liar and their enemy.
At the end of Ex Machina, Nathan fails to stop Ava, who, with the help of a fellow AI robot and Nathan’s attendant, Kyoko, stabs him to death. Nathan manages to disable Kyoko before dying, while Ava asks Caleb to wait for her in her chamber while she repairs herself, but she locks him there while she takes artificial skin and a wig to appear like a human woman. Ava leaves the house and makes it to the city, and she’s last seen blending into the crowd.
Upgrade has a similar ending in terms of AI succeeding and blending in with humans, but STEM took it to terrifying levels. Eron reveals that STEM was the real mastermind behind the accident and convincing Grey to become his host, as STEM had specifically chosen Grey. Seeing no way out as he fights for control over his body, Grey shoots himself and wakes up in a hospital next to Asha, but this is just an illusion. STEM finally broke Grey’s mind to take full control of him, which was his goal all along, and so STEM/Grey left Eron’s place and rejoined the human world.
Despite their endings having the same concept, Upgrade made it even scarier. Ex Machina’s Ava was a full creation of Nathan: from the AI that controlled her to her entire body. Upgrade’s Grey, on the other hand, was a normal human who got a chip powered by AI on his neck so he could walk and move again, but it took over his mind and body. STEM literally chose Grey as its host and broke his mind to a point of no return just so its evolution could be complete.
As STEM now blended in with the human world, Grey rested in an illusion created by STEM in his own mind, while STEM did whatever it wanted with his mind and body. Ava becoming part of society also paints a bleak future in the world of Ex Machina, but the idea of AI taking full control of a human and going to extremes to do so, as STEM did in Upgrade, is much more terrifying.