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Films about virtual reality

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Re: Films about virtual reality

#2
> The big breakthrough work was The Lawnmower Man (1992), a conceptually absurd film where scientist Pierce Brosnan uses VR to somehow turn an intellectually handicapped gardener into a psychic genius. What made The Lawnmower Man a hit was the ground-breaking computer graphic effects used to depict the virtual environment. An even sillier work was the sequel Lawnmower Man II: Beyond Cyberspace/Lawnmower Man II: Jobe’s War (1996), which had the psychic genius trying to become a messiah in cyberspace.

Lawnmower Man was both awesome and ridiculous. Loved it.

Re: Films about virtual reality

#3

> The big breakthrough work was The Lawnmower Man (1992), a conceptually absurd film where scientist Pierce Brosnan uses VR to somehow turn an intellectually handicapped gardener into a psychic genius. What made The Lawnmower Man a hit was the ground-breaking computer graphic effects used to depict the virtual environment. An even sillier work was the sequel Lawnmower Man II: Beyond Cyberspace/Lawnmower Man II: Jobe’…

I still want to give that hamster ball thing a go though, it looks fun. Also the obstacle flying game, the hardware for that could be made and I believe almost exists.

Re: Films about virtual reality

#5

> The big breakthrough work was The Lawnmower Man (1992), a conceptually absurd film where scientist Pierce Brosnan uses VR to somehow turn an intellectually handicapped gardener into a psychic genius. What made The Lawnmower Man a hit was the ground-breaking computer graphic effects used to depict the virtual environment. An even sillier work was the sequel Lawnmower Man II: Beyond Cyberspace/Lawnmower Man II: Jobe’…

There's a SNES game based on the movie that has some decent sections.

Re: Films about virtual reality

#6
Looker (1981) is a great film, but it's a stretch to call it depicting virtual reality. Perhaps you could say superimposing the computer-generated humans into real world scenery is like AR. (Yes, the computer can generate lifelike moving 3D representations of people, but static furniture is far beyond its capabilities ...)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082677/

Re: Films about virtual reality

#7

> The big breakthrough work was The Lawnmower Man (1992), a conceptually absurd film where scientist Pierce Brosnan uses VR to somehow turn an intellectually handicapped gardener into a psychic genius. What made The Lawnmower Man a hit was the ground-breaking computer graphic effects used to depict the virtual environment. An even sillier work was the sequel Lawnmower Man II: Beyond Cyberspace/Lawnmower Man II: Jobe’…

>somehow turn an intellectually handicapped gardener into a psychic genius

waddya mean somehow? They got him to understand the Sacred Geometry. I saw it in San Francisco when it came out and the guy next to me said "oh shit! it's the SACRED GEOMETRY!"

Re: Films about virtual reality

#8

> The big breakthrough work was The Lawnmower Man (1992), a conceptually absurd film where scientist Pierce Brosnan uses VR to somehow turn an intellectually handicapped gardener into a psychic genius. What made The Lawnmower Man a hit was the ground-breaking computer graphic effects used to depict the virtual environment. An even sillier work was the sequel Lawnmower Man II: Beyond Cyberspace/Lawnmower Man II: Jobe’…

Shameless dual-plug:

The director of Lawnmower Man (and Virtuosity), Brett Leonard, presented at the Silicon Valley Virtual Reality meetup recently. After everyone thanked him for his movies, he talked about how he is currently involved in using VR for remote physical and mental therapy.

https://www.ubiquityvx.com/about

Re: Films about virtual reality

#9
> The striking Japanese film Avalon (2001) had players gradually becoming aware that the environment they are inside is a videogame simulation.

This film was made by Mamoru Oshii, director of Ghost in the Shell. It was the next film he did right after it. I loved this movie when came out. He filmed this movie in Poland and all the actors in it are Polish. Highly recommend it if you haven't seen it.

Re: Films about virtual reality

#10
Kind of OT, but FWIW... a very fun series was ReBoot. An animated series set inside a computer.

In one exemplary episode, the user initiated a reboot of the machine and this set off an entire string of song & dance numbers by the system's inhabitants.

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