History Film / EXistenZ

* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: ...who works at Country Gas Station. Within the game, workers at Trout Farm eat lunch at Chinese Restaurant.

* HollywoodGameDesign: The film depicts Allegra Geller as the world's premiere game designer of the eponymous game. Aside from egregious playing straight of NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup, none of her associates even seem to have the slightest idea what eXistenZ is actually about. [[spoiler:Justified, as none of the people playing transCendenZ are professional game designers.]]

** More obviously, you can hear Jude Law's accent crack when he shouts. It's very obvious. But... just wait until the end of the movie.

It is described by some as the Canadian version of ''Film/TheMatrix'', but it involves more philosophy and less leather-clad ass-kicking.

* AbnormalAmmo: One of the weapons featured in the movie is a bone gun that fires ''human teeth''--using chunks of jawbone as cartridges.

* ShockingSwerve: [[invoked]] In the climax, [[spoiler:the male protagonist is suddenly revealed as another secret agent who was sent to kill his female partner all along, even though this contradicts most of what's been shown of the character. A rare case where it's [[JustifiedTrope justified]], since it's soon revealed to be part of another layer of the VR game, and the programmed plot twists (extracted from the players' minds) were becoming increasingly random.]]

* DeathByGenreSavviness: "I like your script. I want to be in it."

* GenreSavvy: Allegra uses this to try to dissuade Gas from killing them.
* HollywoodDarkness: also used deliberately.

* BigGood: Christopher Eccleston.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/existenz_poster_1399.jpg]]

''eXistenZ'' is a Creator/DavidCronenberg film that combines BodyHorror with MindScrew. When you allow the PlatonicCave to mess with your emotional and mental state, how do you know who your friends really are? How do you know right from wrong, and whether ''you'' believe it... or just your character? What is real?

* ShoutOut: To ''[[Creator/PhilipKDick The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch]]'': the takeout Allegra and Ted eat early in the film is called "Perky Pat's".

* MindScrew: The film is Philip K Dick-like in the mind screw department. It features a VR game within a VR game within a VR game within a VR game, the characters openly question whether they're still in the game at every level (and for bonus points, compare real-life to VR), switch sides multiple times, and reference things that happened at other levels.

* CreepyGasStationAttendant: Played by Willem Dafoe.

* PlatonicCave: [[spoiler: Subverted: transCendenZ is just as fake as eXistenZ.]]

* ShockingSwerve: [[invoked]] In the climax, [[spoiler:the male protagonist is suddenly revealed as another secret agent who was sent to kill his female partner all along, even though this contradicts most of what's been shown of the character. It's soon revealed to be part of another layer of the VR game, and the programmed plot twists (extracted from the players' minds) were becoming increasingly random.]]

* BallisticBone: There's a toot-firing bio-gun.

* ShoutOut: To ''[[PhilipKDick The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch]]'': the takeout Allegra and Ted eat early in the film is called "Perky Pat's".

->''"[[SchrodingersButterfly Hey, tell me the truth... are we still in the game?]]"''

''eXistenZ'' is a Creator/DavidCronenberg film that combines BodyHorror with MindScrew. When you allow the PlatonicCave to mess with your emotional and mental state, how do you know who your friends really are? How do you know right from wrong, and whether ''you'' believe it...or just your character? What is real?

* RecursiveReality: This is the central point of ''Film/{{eXistenZ}}'' - the protagonists are confused about how many levels of virtual reality [[DreamWithinADream Game Within A Game]] there are, and what they're supposed to do to win. [[spoiler: And in the end, they ''still'' aren't sure if they're still in the game or not.]]

* [[spoiler: AllJustADream]], and possibly a [[spoiler: DreamWithinADream]].
** [[spoiler:[[OverlyLongGag Within A Dream]].]]

'''''eXistenZ''''' is a Creator/DavidCronenberg film that combines BodyHorror with MindScrew. When you allow the PlatonicCave to mess with your emotional and mental state, how do you know who your friends really are? How do you know right from wrong, and whether ''you'' believe it...or just your character? What is real?

* CoitusEnsues: [[LampshadedTrope Lampshaded]]. The two main characters suddenly start making out for no apparent reason. Allegra tells Pikul to [[KissMeIAmVirtual just go with it]], as it's just a scene written into the program in order to increase the emotional intensity between them.
** At the end it's revealed that [[spoiler: the two were actually in a relationship to begin with, although that might have been a cover story. And they might still be in the game.]]

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: the organic game pods are strangely phallic, and plug into a port on a person's lower back. After said ports are lubricated with saliva. The pods then must be touched like controllers, and the way the characters do this looks oddly erotic.

** DeathByGenreSavviness: "I like your script. I want to be in it."

* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Allegra comments that Robert Silverman's Irish accent is not very convincing, and that he's a generally bland character. This is in contrast to the excitable nutjobs he [[Film/{{Scanners}} usually]] [[Film/TheBrood plays]] in Cronenberg's films.

* TheGameNeverStopped: played with several times, with characters not knowing if they are still in the game. [[spoiler: Including in the ending.]]

* [[{{Prelap}} Postlap]]: When the scene jumps from the forced make-out to Trout Farm, breathy make-out sounds continue as a dead amphibian dangles from Pikul's hand.
* TheMole: [[spoiler: Oh, just about everybody.]]
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture

* XtremeKoolLetterz

** RealitySubtext: Cronenberg himself has had some pretty bad experiences with censorship, albeit not to this same level.

* BigGood: Christoper Eccleston.

''eXistenZ'' is a Creator/DavidCronenberg film that combines BodyHorror with MindScrew. When you allow the PlatonicCave to mess with your emotional and mental state, how do you know who your friends really are? How do you know right from wrong, and whether ''you'' believe it...or just your character? What is real?

'''''eXistenZ''''' is a Creator/DavidCronenberg film that combines BodyHorror with MindScrew. When you allow the PlatonicCave to mess with your emotional and mental state, how do you know who your friends really are? How do you know right from wrong, and whether ''you'' believe it...or just your character? What is real?

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: the organic game pods are strangely phallic, and plug into a port on a person's lower back. After said ports are lubricated with saliva.

* StrangelyArousing: the two main characters are in an advanced form of video game where their characters suddenly feel aroused and start making out; At first they are confused but quickly figure out that the game's script calls for their characters to start a love affair, so they just go with it to advance the plot, all the while talking on a meta-level about the significance of the whole thing and their situation.