Ex Nihilo is an experimental short documentary about life, death and our attempts to control them. It tells the stories of an advanced humanoid robot, a cryonics facility, where the brains of deceased people are held and of an international seed vault, where crop seed from around the world are held frozen. The first part is about one of the most advanced humanoid robots, HUBO. It can walk on uneven terrain, drive a vehicle and operate different tools. The second part is about Oregon Cryonics, a cryonics organization in Salem, Oregon, USA. At their facility human brains of deceased people are kept at very low temperatures. The third part is about the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which s situated on the island of Spitsbergen midway between Norway and the North Pole. The vault holds seeds of more than 4000 different plant species at -18 °C. The crates of seeds from all around the world are kept side-by-side deep inside the frozen vault.