十大必看的虚拟现实电影

丹·宋 索菲·查拉拉

Virtual reality is a gift of a mechanism for screenwriters and directors in Hollywood. It allows them to push plot limits of what’s governed by the laws of physics and， best of all， it means they can play with that most delicate of subjects of what is real.

Fortunately， the silver screen of years gone by is littered with such sci-fi classics， particularly the 90s. Here are the very best movies about virtual reality.

The Lawnmower Man （1992）

First things first， yes this VR horror thriller is well worth a watch if you haven’t already seen it. Based on a Stephen King story， The Lawnmower Man sees Jobe Smith develop psychic genius powers after being put on a regimen of crazy drugs and computer simulated experiences （cough： VR） by a scientist. It’s really weird. But also easy to see where Palmer Luckey2 and the rest got their inspiration.

Black Mirror （2016）

Season 3 of Charlie Brooker’s endlessly imaginative dystopian anthology series Black Mirror includes a couple of episodes which deal with virtual reality. In the lovely but melancholy， hour-long San Junipero， it is only revealed towards the end of the TV movie episode that the 80s party town in which two girls meet is inside a virtual world.

In Playtest， meanwhile， the future of VR and mixed reality—specifically gaming—is much more sinister and scary. In this version， the tech works via an implant and the gameplay is generated based on the individual’s worst fears.

The Matrix （1999）

The Matrix is probably the very best virtual reality film there’s ever been. Didn’t really think of it as a VR flick at the time？ No， neither did we and that’s probably because it’s a rather dark and twisted virtual world. Nobody realises that they’re in it， nobody would want to be in it if they knew and， unless you happen to bump into a bunch of kung-fu goths3 with coloured pills， you’ll be destined to spend your actual existence with your very life force serving the needs of your captors. Nasty stuff.

Of course the real VR fun begins once you understand the rules of the game that you’re playing and how you can ultimately turn you into a superhero. There is no spoon.4

eXistenZ （1999）

A cult5 classic， eXistenZ is a VR film for the purists. It’s centred around the launch of the world’s greatest and most immersive virtual reality game where the game’s creator goes on a journey into fantasy with a room full of the lucky first to try it. It also happens to be a wonderful subject matter for the ever-dark David Cronenberg to melt your mind while exercising a little of his trademark love for latex6 body horrors.

The effect for the viewer is that you get to embark on a form of VR journey of your own with the plot shifting from setting to setting with dream-like subtlety and absorbing you completely along the way.

The Thirteenth Floor （1999）

The Thirteenth Floor would probably have won the Saturn Award for the best science fiction film of the year if hadn’t had the misfortune to be released at the same time as The Matrix. The bonus7 is that it affords this VR classic cult stasis—loved by those that know.

Virtual reality is the centre piece of the story that begins very much as a who dunnit. A billionaire owner and creator of the world’s most advanced VR simulator pops his clogs8 under suspicious circumstances leaving the heir to the company framed as the murder. The plot thickens as the search for the truth enters the computer simulation. Mind-bending9 ensues.

Strange Days （1995）

Virtual reality is the tool in Strange Days which helps to answer questions about what it would be like to see through the eyes of others. An ex-cop turned futuristic digital drug dealer of a kind trades in emotions and experiences recorded on what’s basically MiniDiscs （remember them？）. The user dons a headset and gets to feel exactly what that other person saw and felt down to the every sense. There’s excitement， joy， thrills and， of course， porn for all to enjoy so long as they’re happy to tread on the grey side of the what’s right and wrong.

The reason we’ve got it in our best VR movies list is because a） the acting’s spot on and b） because there’s something very believable about the kind of VR content that’s bought and sold. Written by James Cameron， directed by Kathryn Bigelow and starring Ralph Fiennes， it’s a class act.

Avalon （2001）

Something of an oddity as a Polish-Japanese collaboration， Avalon is a bit of an art house flick and rather a beautiful one at that. Like all on this list， it’s set in future and one where the youth of the day are addicted to an illegal VR game that’s best described as a fully-immersive version of Call of Duty.

It’s filmed in a stylised sepia tint and with a haunting soundtrack to match scored by Kenji Kawai who also write the music for the Ring films as well as the Manga classic Ghost in the Shell. Don’t expect the plot to be too clear nor the pace of the action to be that quick， but the dark depiction of the virtual and consequent blurring of the lines is very nicely done.

World on a Wire / Welt Am Draht （1973）

For fans of 1970s sci-fi—think the colours and paranoia10 of A Clockwork Orange and The Andromeda Strain—then German virtual reality-focused Welt Am Draht， or World on a Wire， is the classic missing from your set.

It’s based on the same book as The Thirteenth Floor， so once again centres around the murder of the man who created a virtual world known as the Simulacron. While there’s no difference in the major plot lines， what makes this one worth watching all the same is the claustrophobic11 sense of conspiracy that only Cold War thinking could truly capture. The stern German acting is also rather fun.

Brainstorm （1983）

If the 70s was sci-fi paranoia， then the 80s was all about how the military was going to bend technology to its own， evil， warmongering12 ways. It’s that drive that plays the antagonist in Brainstorm as a benevolent scientist， played by Christopher Walken， invents a VR technology， not unlike that in Strange Days， which can record and playback the sensory and emotional feelings of one person to the audience of another.

What’s great about this depiction of the technology is， not only the insane amount of raw-looking， wired-up hardware involved but， most prophetically13 of all， the kinds of VR simulations that they use to wow the bosses. Just like Oculus today， it’s all driving cars， riding rollercoasters. It seems some things never change.

Ghost Machine （2009）

Don’t believe the lack of hype， Ghost Machine ain’t all that bad. It’s a top notch concept perhaps slightly ruined by the fact that the VR becomes a vehicle for the film’s real purpose as a slasher14. All the same， it’s one of the smoothest and most modern portrayals of a computer-generated immersive experience that you’ll see on screen.

Probably quite realistically， this advanced tech is the product and prized asset of the military and used to train their soldiers on battle manoeuvres. Of course， it gets pinched15 for a bit of weekend war gaming by some of the troops who decide to take a stroll through the virtual in a haunted prison. Whoops. Maybe not a must but enjoyably British.

對好莱坞编剧和导演来说，虚拟现实是对表现手法的馈赠，让他们得以突破物理定律的限定来推动情节发展，最棒的是，他们可以演绎现实世界中最难把握的题材。

幸运的是，多年来银幕上这样的科幻经典层出不穷，特别是1990年代。下面有几部最精彩的虚拟现实电影。

《割草者》（1992年）

首先，如果你还没有看过这部虚拟现实恐怖惊悚片，那么本片值得一看。《割草者》改编自史蒂芬·金的小说，主角乔布·史密斯在接受了科学家的疯狂药物治疗和电脑模拟体验（也就是虚拟现实）后，产生了通灵的超能力。这部电影的确情节古怪离奇，不过也很容易看出帕尔默·拉奇和其他人的灵感来源。

《黑镜》（2016年）

查理·布鲁克的反乌托邦独立单元剧《黑镜》第三季充满无尽想象力，其中有几集描写了虚拟现实的内容。一个小时长的电视电影剧集《圣朱尼佩洛》拍得美好动人而充满忧伤，只是观众看到结尾才恍然大悟，两个女孩相识的80年代派对之城原来是在虚拟世界里。

与此同时，在《游戏测试》这一集中，虚拟现实和混合现实（尤其是游戏）的未来变得更加邪恶可怕。其中，虚拟现实技术通过植入装置运行，根据每个人最恐惧的事物而生成游戏玩法。

《黑客帝国》（1999年）

《黑客帝国》可能是有史以来最精彩的虚拟现实电影。当时真的没人想到这是一部虚拟现实影片吗？没有，我们也没想到，可能是因为本片塑造了相当黑暗扭曲的虚拟世界。没有人意识到他们置身于这个世界，如果他们知道的话，没人会想待在里面，除非你碰巧遇到了一群带着彩色药丸的黑衣功夫高手，否则你注定要将具有生命力的真实自己消耗在为捕获者效力上。真是讨厌。

当然，一旦你理解了游戏的规则，知道最终如何把自己变成超级英雄，就能开始体会虚拟现实真正的乐趣。勺子其实并不存在。

《感官游戏》（1999年）

邪典经典《感官游戏》是一部纯粹的虚拟现实电影。本片情节围绕全世界最出色、最具沉浸感的虚拟现实游戏的发布而展开，这款游戏的设计师走进初次试玩的幸运玩家聚集的房间，开始了一段奇幻之旅。对于总走黑暗路线的大卫·柯南伯格来说，这也恰巧是个绝妙的迷幻主题，运用了他喜爱的乳胶肉体恐怖片的标志性手法。

本片对观众产生的效果是，随着情节在场景之间转换，给人如梦般的微妙体验，吸引你完全沉浸其中，开始自己的虚拟现实之旅。

《异次元骇客》（1999年）

如果不是时运不济与《黑客帝国》同时上映，《异次元骇客》可能会获得当年土星奖最佳科幻电影的殊荣。意外收获是贡献了这部关于虚拟现实的经典邪典影片，为那些了解的人所喜爱。

虚拟现实是这个故事的核心，开头却颇有侦探电影的意味。世界最先进的虚拟现实模拟器的拥有者和发明者是个富豪，他的死亡疑云密布，让该公司的继承人被诬陷为杀人凶手。随着主角进入电脑模拟的世界中探寻真相，情节变得越来越复杂，接下来的故事更是令人费解。

《末世纪暴潮》（1995年）

在《末世纪暴潮》中，虚拟现实是帮助解答有关体验他人视角的问题，可以通过别人的眼睛看到他们的生活。一位前警探改行成了未来感十足的数码毒贩，他交易的是记录在类似迷你碟片（还记得吗？）设备上的情感和体验。用户戴上设备，就能准确获得他人的所见所感。碟片里有兴奋、快乐、刺激，当然还有色情，供所有愿意游走在对错之间的灰色地带的人享受。

我们把这部影片列入最佳虚拟现实电影榜单的原因如下：1.表演非常到位;2.买卖交易的虚拟现实内容有非常逼真可信的地方。本片由詹姆斯·卡梅隆编剧，凯瑟琳·毕格罗导演，拉尔夫·费因斯主演，称得上大牌云集。

《阿瓦隆》（2001年）

作为波兰和日本合拍的电影，《阿瓦隆》的风格颇为怪异，有几分艺术电影的味道，而且充满美感。像这个榜单上的所有影片一样，《阿瓦隆》的背景设定在未来世界，那里的年轻人沉迷于一款非法的虚拟现实游戏，称其为完全身临实境的《使命召唤》再恰当不过。

本片采用别具风格的棕褐色调拍摄，令人难忘的原声配乐出自川井宪次之手，他还为《指环王》系列电影和日本经典动漫《攻壳机动队》谱过曲。不要期待看到过于清晰的情节，动作场面的节奏也不会那么快，但是对虚拟世界和随后模糊界限的黑暗描写处理得很好。

《世界旦夕之间》（1973年）

对于20世纪70年代科幻电影（你会想到《发条橙》与《人间大浩劫》的色彩和奇想）的影迷来说，这部以虚拟现实为主线的德国影片《世界旦夕之间》是你错过的经典之作。

本片与《异次元骇客》改编自同一本原著，所以故事再次围绕虚拟世界“三重模拟”的创造者被杀害而展开。尽管主要情节线索没有什么不同，这部影片仍有值得观看的地方，即只有冷战思维能够真正拍出那种阴谋带来的幽闭恐怖感。冷峻的德国表演风格也相当有趣。

《尖端大风暴》（1983年）

如果说70年代的电影充满科幻奇想，那么80年代的影片完全是在讲述军队如何利用科技为达成自己邪恶好战的目的而效力。正是这种创作动机塑造了《尖端大风暴》中的反抗者形象，克里斯托弗·沃肯饰演的友善科学家发明了一种虚拟现实技术（类似于《末世纪暴潮》中的设备），可以记录一个人的感官和情感感受，回放给其他人观看。

本片描述这项技术的精彩之处，不仅在于大量外观原始、连接电线的硬件，而且最具预见性的是，他们使用的虚拟现实模拟技术令人叹为观止。影片里的技术，开汽车和坐过山车，就如今天的Oculus一样先进。有些事情似乎永远没有改变。

《幽灵战队》（2009年）

不要相信热度不够，《幽灵战队》没有那么糟糕。也许是因为虚拟现实在片中被用作打造惊悚氛围的手段，才令这部电影的出色概念略微受损。无论如何，就你在大银幕上看到的计算机生成沉浸式体验而言，本片是描述最流畅、最具现代感的电影之一。

可能非常切合实際的是，这种先进技术用于训练士兵进行战斗演练，是军队的产物和宝贵资产。当然，几名士兵决定周末在闹鬼的监狱里进入虚拟世界玩战争模拟游戏，这个设定很吸引人。也许本片不是必看的电影佳作，却是一部引人入胜的英国片。