Movie: eXistenZ (1999)
- Director: David Cronenberg
- Release Date: 2 November 2000 (Hong Kong)
- Run Time: 97 min
- Country: Canada , UK
- Genre: Adventure , Horror , Sci-Fi , Thriller
- MPAA: Rated R for strong sci-fi violence and gore, and for language.
Tagline: Play it. Live it. Kill for it.
Trivia: In the scene where Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jude Law hole up in a motel room after the failed assassination attempt, the bag their fast food comes in has “Perky Pat” written on it. This is a reference to the novel “The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch” by alternate reality sci-fi master Philip K. Dick. As many have noted online, eXistenZ takes many of its themes about nested reality and alienation directly from this book by Dick. In “Three Stigmata,” however, the framework of the false realities is not a video game, but drugs called Can-D and Chew-Z.
Goofs: Continuity: The first time we see Ted Pikul at the trout farm, he labels an envelope with the letters LA. The L is clearly connected to the A. However in the next shot with the envelope on the conveyor belt the L and A are no longer connected.
“Allegra Geller, the leading game designer in the world, is testing her new virtual reality game, eXistenZ with a focus group. As they begin, she is attacked by a fanatic assassin employing a bizarre organic gun. She flees with a young marketing trainee, Ted Pikul, who is suddenly assigned as her bodyguard. Unfortunately, her pod, an organic gaming device that contains the only copy of the eXistenZ game program, is damaged. To inspect it, she talks Ted into accepting a gameport in his own body so he can play the game with her. The events leading up to this, and the resulting game lead the pair on a strange adventure where reality and their actions are impossible to determine from either their own or the game’s perspective. Written by Kenneth Chisholm <kchishol@execulink.com>”
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