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]
Allegra Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh), the greatest game designer in the world, is testing her latest virtual reality game, eXistenZ, with a focus group in a large hall. The game is fully immersive; to play, players must plug a 'pod', a bio-organic gaming device, into a 'bio-port' near the bottom of the spine.
As they begin, Geller is attacked by an assassin armed with a bizarre organic gun which is undetectable by security. Fearing other assassins, she flees with marketing trainee Ted Pikul (Jude Law), who is suddenly assigned as her bodyguard. Unfortunately her pod, containing the only copy of the eXistenZ game, is later damaged by a fan named Gas (Willem Dafoe). 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. The results lead the pair on a strange adventure where it becomes impossible to tell whether their actions are their own or the will of the game, and whether they are in the game or the real world.
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.
