Themes: Virtual Reality, Bodyguards, Flight of the Innocent
Main Cast: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jude Law, Willem Dafoe, Ian Holm, Don McKellar
Release Year: 1999
Country: UK/CA
Run Time: 97 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg, who has long been fascinated by the ways new technology shapes and manipulates the human beings who believe they are its masters, is in familiar territory with eXistenZ, a futuristic thriller which combines elements of science fiction, horror and action-adventure. What is eXistenZ? According to the glossary Cronenberg put together for this film, it is a new organic game system that, when downloaded into humans, accesses their central nervous system, transporting them on a wild ride in and out of reality. What's more, it changes every time it is played, by adapting to the individual user -- you have to play the game to find out why you are playing the game. More than one person can plug into the same game and set out on a series of bizarre and surrealistic adventures together. The narrative takes place sometime in the near future, when game designers are worshipped as superstars and players can organically enter inside the games. Allegra Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh), the goddess among computer game designers whose latest invention, 'eXistenZ,' taps deeply into its users' fears and desires by blurring the boundaries between reality and escapism, is subject to an assassination attempt and forced to flee. Her sole ally is Ted Pikul (Jude Law), a novice security guard sworn to protect her. Persuading Ted to play the game, Allegra draws them both into a phantasmagoric world where existence ends and eXistenZ begins. Jennifer Jason Leigh, who is supposedly something of a computer nerd in real life, is hip and sexily alluring as Allegra Geller. When she and Pikul make love and are transported to the bizarre setting of a trout farm which has been converted to an assembly line production plant for games, they delve deeper into the dangerously intriguing game. Soon the forces of Anti-eXistenZialism will close in on Pikul and Allegra. eXistenZ marks the first time since Videodrome that Cronenberg has written a completely original screenplay. eXistenZ was inspired by the tribulations of the fugitive writer Salman Rushdie, author of the Satanic Verses. After interviewing the author for a magazine article in 1995, Cronenberg was struck with the idea of an artist who suddenly finds himself on a hit list for religious or philosophical reasons and is forced to go into hiding. The idea of a game came later on, for which he created a new vocabulary. According to Cronenberg, eXistenZ thematically connects to Crash, Videodrome, Naked Lunch and even M. Butterfly in terms of exploring the extent to which we create our own levels of reality and the idea of a creative act being dangerous to the creator. This is the second film on which Alliance Atlantis has been associated with Cronenberg, after Crash, which won the Special Jury Prize at the 1996 International Cannes Film Festival. On the occasion of the presentation of eXistenZ, Cronenberg received a Silver Bear for his outstanding artistic achievements at the 49th International Berlin Film Festival in 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide
Review
With a plot that folds in on itself and then proceeds to twist and turn until arriving at a very different place than it began, this science-fiction horror film from writer/director David Cronenberg is every bit as stimulating, absorbing, intelligent, and difficult to watch as his best genre films, The Fly (1986), Dead Ringers (1988), and Naked Lunch (1991). All of Cronenberg's trademarks are here: an overarching sense of doom, fiendishly gleeful gross-out gore, a healthy sense of humor about the proceedings, and serious questions about the nature of existence (hence the title). Leads Jude Law and Jennifer Jason Leigh are required to do a lot more reacting than acting, but such is the nature of a Cronenberg phantasm, in which the unexpected is king. Like the vastly underrated Gattaca (1997), another thoughtful science fiction film that (like the best of the genre) is really about modern reality, eXistenZ is an aesthetically challenging work of art that is ripe for repeat viewing. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Elinor Rose Galbraith - Art Director, Tamara Deverell - Art Director, Attila Ferenczfy-Kovacs - Art Director, Sandra Tucker - Associate Producer, Deirdre Bowen - Casting, Michael MacDonald - Co-producer, Bradley Adams - Co-producer, Damon Bryant - Co-producer, Denise Cronenberg - Costume Designer, Walter Gasparovic - First Assistant Director, David Cronenberg - Director, Ronald Sanders - Editor, Howard Shore - Composer (Music Score), Carol Spier - Production Designer, Peter Suschitzky - Cinematographer, David Cronenberg - Producer, Andras Hamori - Producer, Robert Lantos - Producer, Ryan Shore - Sound/Sound Designer, James Isaac - Special Effects Supervisor, David Cronenberg - Screenwriter
András Hámori and Róbert Lantos the two producers of the film (who are both of Hungarian origin) said in an interview that they intentionally hid a pun in the title: "isten" is the word for "God" in Hungarian.[1]
The story takes place in a bizarre near-future where organic virtual reality game consoles known as "game pods" have replaced mechanical ones. The pods are attached to "bio-ports", outlets inserted at the spine of the players, through umbilical cords. In this timeline, two rival game companies, Antenna Research (whom the lead character Allegra Geller works for) and Cortical Systematics compete against each other. In addition, a third party consisting of "realists" fight to subvert both companies in order to prevent the "deforming" of reality.
Allegra Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh), the greatest game designer in the world, is testing her latest virtual reality game, eXistenZ, with a focus group at a seminar.
As they begin, Geller is attacked by an assassin named Noel Dichter (Kris Lemche), armed with a bizarre organic pistol which is undetectable by security. As Dichter is gunned down by the security team, she flees with marketing trainee Ted Pikul (Jude Law), who is suddenly assigned as her bodyguard. The pair go on the run and hide out at an inn, where Allegra discovers that her pod, containing the only copy of the eXistenZ game, may have been damaged due to an "UmbyCord" being ripped out as the game was downloaded. To inspect it, she talks a reluctant Pikul into accepting a bio-port in his own body so he can play the game with her. To get a bio-port inserted into his body, Pikul and Allegra head to a gas station run by a man named Gas (Willem Dafoe), who claims to be a fan of Allegra's. Pikul at first objects, due to his paralysis phobia, but he eventually gives in and the port is installed. Unfortunately, it turns out to be a faulty bio-port deliberately inserted by Gas, and the game is damaged. Gas (with a shotgun in hand) reveals that he planned to get close to Allegra so he can kill her for the bounty on her head. Before he can do so, Pikul shoots him from behind with the rivet gun used to install the port. Once again on the run, the pair make their way to an abandoned ski lodge run by Allegra's mentor, Kiri Vinokur (Ian Holm). He and his assistant repair the damaged pod and give Pikul a new bio-port. Once inside the game, Pikul realizes that it becomes impossible to tell whether his or Allegra's actions are their true intentions or the game's. This becomes clear when they meet D'Arcy Nader (Robert A. Silverman), who owns a video game shop. When he questions their intentions, Pikul answers him rudely before realizing that he did not mean to say such things. Allegra informs him that it was the doing of his game character.
Reality becomes more distorted when they insert new micro pods into their ports and gain new identities as workers at a game pod factory. There, they meet Yevgeny Nourish (Don McKellar), who claims to be their contact in the realist underworld. At a Chinese restaurant located near the factory, Pikul "pauses" the game in order to get back to the real world, but finds out that he is unable to tell reality from illusion; the reality is becoming more like a game and he and Allegra are seemingly game characters. Back in the restaurant, Pikul develops the urge to eat the "special", which turns out to be made of cooked mutants. As he eats, Pikul begins constructing a familiar object--the organic pistol that was used to shoot Allegra. He points it at her as a joke, but then feels the urge to kill their waiter (Oscar Hsu) instead. Yevgeny thanks them both for aiding the resistance, until the pair go back to the video game store, where Hugo Carlaw (Callum Keith Rennie), informs them that Yevgeny was actually a double agent for Cortical Systematics. The next day at the factory, the two plan to sabotage the all the game pods in the factory by plugging into a diseased pod. Allegra becomes infected, and so Pikul decides to free her by cutting the umbycord. This results in Allegra almost bleeding to death until Yevgeny shows up again with a flame thrower. The pod bursts, releasing deadly spores. Before leaving, Allegra stabs Yevgeny in the back with the knife Pikul used to free her. In the end, it seems that they have lost the game, and return to the chalet. Unexpectedly, Carlaw reappears as a resistance fighter for the Realists, and escorts Allegra and Pikul out to witness the death of eXistenZ. Before Carlaw can kill Allegra, however, he is shot in the back by Vinokur, who is revealed as a double agent for Cortical Systematics. He informs Allegra that he copied her game data while he was fixing her pod earlier. In revenge, she kills Vinokur before Pikul can take the gun out of her hands. Pikul then reveals that he is an assassin himself sent to kill her; he did not have a bio-port because he was and still is one of the Realists. Before he can shoot Allegra, however, she informs him that she knew of his true intentions before killing him with a mysterious device.
Once more, the story takes yet another bizarre turn, as it is revealed that the entire story was in itself, a virtual reality game called "tranCendenZ" played by the cast in a large hall, mirroring the first scene. The only difference was that the players were using electronic devices attached to their hands and heads rather than game pods. The real game designer, Nourish, felt uneasy because the game started with the assassination of a game designer, foreshadowing his fate. Pikul and Allegra approach him (with Pikul's pet dog close by) and ask him if he should pay for his "crimes" (the most "effective" deforming of reality). As Merle (Sarah Polley), Nourish's assistant calls for security, Pikul and Allegra push back a false mane from the back of the dog, revealing pistols. The two hold Nourish and Merle at gunpoint and shoot them to death, shocking the test group. As they leave, they aim their guns at the group member who played the Chinese waiter, who pleads for his life, and asks "Are we still in the game?"
Christopher Priest wrote the tie-in novel to accompany the movie eXistenZ, the theme of which has much in common with some of Priest's own novels. He uses the pseudonyms John Luther Novak and Colin Wedgelock, usually for his movie novelizations.
