Alex Garland

2014 · Alex Garland · 108 min · Sci-Fi / Thriller / Drama

Ex Machina is a lean, precise piece of science fiction that asks big questions and has the nerve not to answer all of them. Alex Garland's directorial debut wrings maximum tension from a minimal setup, and the three lead performances lock into each other like gears in a machine. The small scale means it never quite reaches for grandeur, and the gender politics will land differently depending on who's watching. But as a cerebral thriller about what happens when intelligence outgrows its creator, it's as sharp and unsettling as anything the genre has produced this decade. It gets under your skin and stays there.

2020 · 1 Season · FX on Hulu · Sci-Fi, Thriller

Devs is Alex Garland's hypnotic meditation on determinism, free will, and the god complex of Silicon Valley, wrapping dense philosophical questions in a gorgeous tech thriller that moves at the speed of thought.

2025 · Danny Boyle · 115 min · Horror / Drama

28 Years Later reunites Danny Boyle and Alex Garland for a sequel that cares less about infected hordes than about how a boy learns what death means. Nearly three decades after the rage virus emptied Britain, young Spike leaves his island village for the mainland, and the film he's in keeps shape-shifting around him, from folk horror to war memory collage to a devastating hospice drama built on a magnificent Ralph Fiennes performance. It's the boldest studio horror film in years and also one of the messiest, with tonal swerves and a franchise-baiting finale that split audiences hard. Ambition this size rarely comes tidy.

2018 · Alex Garland · 115 min · Sci-Fi, Horror, Drama

Annihilation is the kind of sci-fi film that trades easy answers for lasting unease. Garland delivers a visually stunning, thematically rich exploration of self-destruction and transformation that builds to one of the most hypnotic finales in recent genre filmmaking. The supporting characters are underdeveloped and the middle stretch drags, but the imagery and ideas stay with you long after the film ends. It's not for everyone, but for the audience it's built for, it's unforgettable.

2024 · Alex Garland · 109 min · Thriller / War

Civil War is a visceral, intentionally apolitical war film that works brilliantly as a sensory experience and journalism story, even as its refusal to engage with the politics of its premise frustrates viewers looking for deeper commentary.