eXistenZ
This 1999 movie takes a science fiction approach to creating a layer cake of plots, with a video game that literally has a life of its own. eXistenZ follows two gamers playing the titular video game that plugs directly into their spinal cords. As the game hacks their nervous system, the players become unable to tell where the games begin and end and are unable to shift from the high emotional intensity of the game back to something resembling normality. Suffice to say by the end of the film neither the characters nor the audience can decipher the roles of the video game in the player’s life and the role of the players in the world of the game- resulting in a hauntingly cyclic final sequence and a poignant commentary on the power of immersive fictions.
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