The name of the game is eXistenZ, a system
based on technology so advanced that it borders on biology. It's a quantum leap ahead of
anything ever imagined possible.
The top executives from Antenna Research are all on hand for the testing of their new
game, but what sends a buzz of excitement through the audience is the presence of the
brains behind eXistenZ, the adored game goddess herself, Allegra Geller (Jennifer Jason
Leigh), who is hip, hyper-aware, sexually alluring, and utterly dedicated to her
invention.
The air is crackling with anticipation in the small community hall where dozens of game
devotees are gathered to experience this ultimate adventure that will forever shatter the
line that separates wild and unpredictable fantasy from reality.
What brings such intense realism to eXistenZ is the fact that the game's driver, a pod
that bears a resemblance to a living organ, plugs directly into it's player's nervous
system via a bioport or spinal jack, which has been implanted into each of these fanatical
gamers. Because the pod has access to the memories, anxieties and preoccupations of its
players, the direction each game takes depends entirely on who's playing.
The moment finally arrives, and the eager players plug in for the ride of their lives,
rocking and. swaying, lost in the dreamy world of the eagerly awaited innovation.
Suddenly, they're jarred from their fantasy world by an anti-eXistenZialist protester
wielding a strange weapon - an organic fusion of gristle and bone, capable of shooting its
ammunition of human teeth at fatal velocity. Shouting "Death to eXistenZ! Death to
the demoness Allegra Geller!" the man fires the weapon, severely damaging the
game-pod.
In the pandemonium that ensues, Allegra is whisked away by Ted Pikul (Jude Law), a
low-ranking Antenna Research employee who is serving as a security guard for the event. A
chase follows, with the unlikely duo of Allegra and Pikul seeking shelter in a world where
nothing is as it seems, and where the villains of the game become real. A world where the
hunters pursue our heroes directly into eXistenZ, the game Allegra has invented.
Allegra is strangely at home here, but for Pikul, whose imagination doesn't extend beyond
dreams of the boardroom, it's a landscape brimming with peril and danger. He's uneasy in
this odd land as he struggles to keep himself and Allegra ahead of the assassins - out to
cash in on the $5-million bounty that the Anti-eXistenZialists have put on the game
genius' head.
Pikul finds eXistenZ breathtaking in its realism, as the pair is launched into an eerie
and strange new setting. The action is swift and full of fiendishly clever effects and
plot twists conceived in the imaginations of the players as the couple explores deeper
realms of the game.
Finally, with the game threading its way through increasingly fantastic levels of
intrigue, the forces of Anti-eXistenZialism close in on Pikul and Allegra.
Allegra Geller.......................... JENNIFER JASON LEIGH Ted Pikul............................... JUDE LAW Kiri Vinokur............................ IAN HOLM Gas..................................... WILLEM DAFOE Wittold Levi............................ CHRISTOPHER ECCLESTON Yevgeny Nourish......................... DON McKELLAR Hugo Carlaw............................. CALLUM KEITH RENNIE Merle................................... SARAH POLLEY Directed by............................. DAVID CRONENBERG
