History Film / EXistenZ

** During a CoitusEnsues scene.

* CoitusEnsues: [[LampshadedTrope Lampshaded]]. The two main characters suddenly start making out for no apparent reason. Allegra tells Pikul to [[KissMeImVirtual 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.]]

* %%BioPunk

* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Willem Dafoe plays a gas station attendant, simply called "Gas."

* AlienLunch: A light snack of a [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke genetically engineered]] frog-like amphibian whose [[LegoGenetics body was designed]] as [[WalkingTransplant spare parts]] for [[OrganicTechnology the organic game-pods]] [[spoiler:and also contained the parts for a ScaramangaSpecial bone gun.]]

* DudeNotFunny: InUniverse. After Pikul assembles a new [[ScaramangaSpecial Gristle Gun]] from his AlienLunch, he jokingly points the weapon at Allegra and repeats the line used by an assassin who previously tried to kill her. She's not amused, and he apologizes.

* %%AndYouWereThere

* AllThereInTheManual: The most iconic object from the film, the pistol made out of bones and teeth, is not named in the film. Background material reveals it's actually called the "gristle gun".
* AndYouWereThere

*** The later is hardly a ''bilingual'', since the word "transcend" is already a portmanteau of two Latin words ("trans" + "scanners", meaning "to go beyond"). At best, the XtremeKoolLetterz put emphasis on the letters "end".
* BioPunk

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Indoors example; Allegra takes off her boots and socks everytime she links to the game, and in one occasion she strokes rather fetishistically Pikul's cord with her foot.

* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Willem Dafoe plays a gas station attendant, simply called "Gas".

* NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup

** To ''Literature/TheThreeStigmataOfPalmerEldritch'': the takeout Allegra and Ted eat early in the film is called "Perky Pat's".
** One of the eXistenZ games on the shelf is ''Hit By a Car'', which is a reference to Cronenberg's previous film ''Crash''

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture

* SpiritualSequel: To ''Film/{{Videodrome}}''. The opening scene of this movie bears a great resemblance to the end of the other one.

* PostCyberPunk: One of the major undercurrents of the film is that although the game world is unreal, bizarre, and often gross (much like horror films) it's not really dangerous to anyone in the real world, and censoring it is a bad idea. The real danger is ideological extremism.

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: The overarching plotline of a Realist hunt for Allegra's head was inspired by the controversy surrounding British-Indian novelist Salaman Rushdie's 1988 novel ''The Satanic Verses'', which saw violent outcry from conservative Muslims for perceived blasphemous content and resulted in Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini issuing a ''fatwa'' calling for Rushdie's murder, still in effect to this day[[note]]though the Iranian government has repeatedly flip-flopped on their support of the ''fatwa'' since 1998, they refuse to outright annul it on the basis that a ''fatwa'' can only be rescinded by the person who first ordered it-- Khomeini died just over three months after his declaration[[/note]]. Director David Cronenberg decided to use the ''fatwa'' as the main basis for the film after interviewing Rushdie in 1995, and directly alluded to his inspiration in the script with Vinokur outright calling the bounty on Allegra a ''fatwa''.

* InsideAComputerSystem: The film centers around a virtual reality gaming system that people entered, and in some cases you couldn't tell whether they were in a game or in reality.
* LivingBattery: The biological game device runs on the energy of the user, since it plugs directly into a "bioport" (sort of an extra anus artificially installed in the lower back). It's suggested that all gaming devices operate the same way.
* ItMakesSenseInContext: The movie is so weird, that several scenes would make no sense whatsoever to an uninformed viewer who started watching them out-of-context for the first time. Even if the viewer were to carefully watch the whole movie uninterrupted, all the events would ''barely'' follow a loose dreamlike internal logic; that is until the ending, which [[TheEndingChangesEverything explains]] most of the weird stuff seen throughout the movie but raises new questions.
* MindScrew: The film is Creator/PhilipKDick-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.

* NippleAndDimed: Done with ''video game controllers.''

-->'''Allegra:''' In this pod is the only, the original version of eXistenZ. An entire game system that cost 38 million to develop. Not including prerelease marketing costs. And I'm locked outside my own game.\\

''eXistenZ'' is a 1999 Creator/DavidCronenberg film starring Creator/JenniferJasonLeigh, Creator/JudeLaw, Creator/IanHolm, Creator/CallumKeithRennie, Don [=McKellar=], and Creator/ChristopherEccleston that combines BodyHorror with MindScrew and ExistentialHorror. 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?

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

* MakesSenseInTheContext: The movie is so weird, that several scenes would make no sense whatsoever to an uninformed viewer who started watching them out-of-context for the first time. Even if the viewer were to carefully watch the whole movie uninterrupted, all the events would ''barely'' follow a loose dreamlike internal logic; that is until the ending, which [[EndingChangesEverything explains]] most of the weird stuff seen throughout the movie but raises new questions.

* AlienLunch: A light snack of a [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke genetically engineered]] frog-like amphibian whose [[LegoGenetics body was designed]] as [[WalkingTransplant spare parts]] for [[OrganicTechnology the organic]] [[OrificeInvasion game]][[BodyHorror -pods]] [[spoiler:and also contained the parts for a ScaramangaSpecial bone gun.]]

* ShockingSwerve: [[invoked]]
** [[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.]]
** [[invoked]] In the epilogue: [[spoiler:After it turns out that eXistenZ doesn't exist and the whole movie actually was another VR game called "transCendenZ" that was being play-tested, Allegra and Pikul both act exactly like the rest of the fanatics that have appeared so far in the film, yank out pistols that they concealed beneath a flap of fake fur on the dog they brought with them, and blow away the transCendenZ developers. This is so out of left field and shocking InUniverse that an onlooker (as the film's final words) nervously asks them if the game is still going on.]]

** Also, the whole theme of people fanatically trying to murder an artist is deliberately evocative of the life of Salman Rushdie, who is friends with Cronenberg. It's quite likely that the character of Allegra Geller ([[spoiler:and later, Yevgeny Nourish]]) is a stand-in for Rushdie. The word "fatwa" is even used explicitly.

* AlienLunch: A light [[NauseaFuel snack]] of a [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke genetically engineered]] [[{{Squick}} frog-like amphibian]] whose [[LegoGenetics body was designed]] as [[WalkingTransplant spare parts]] for [[OrganicTechnology the organic]] [[OrificeInvasion game]][[BodyHorror -pods]] [[spoiler:and also contained the parts for a ScaramangaSpecial bone gun.]]

* PostCyberPunk: One of the major undercurrents of the film is that although the game world is unreal, bizarre, and often gross (much like [[RealitySubtext horror films]]) it's not really dangerous to anyone in the real world, and censoring it is a bad idea. The real danger is ideological extremism.

* 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.]]

* AccentRelapse: [[spoiler: Everybody.]]

* AlienLunch: A light [[NauseaFuel snack]] of a [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke genetically engineered]] [[{{Squick}} frog-like amphibian]] whose [[LegoGenetics body was designed]] as [[WalkingTransplant spare parts]] for [[OrganicTechnology the organic]] [[OrificeInvasion game]][[BodyHorror -pods]] [[spoiler: and also contained the parts for a ScaramangaSpecial bone gun.]]

** [[spoiler: [=transCendenZ=]: "trans" is 'beyond' in Latin and "enden" is 'to come to an end' in German.]]

* BodyguardCrush: Very subtly, the use of this trope is one of the first clues that [[spoiler: the movie started inside a game.]]

--> "Pikul, what are you doing?
--> "I don't know. I find this disgusting but I can't help myself."
--> "Good."
--> "Good? You think this is good?"
--> "Yeah. It's a genuine game urge. It's something your character was born to do. Don't fight it."
--> "I'm fighting it but it isn't doing me any good."

--> "Our characters are obviously supposed to jump on each other. It's probably a pathetically mechanical attempt to heighten the emotional tension of the next game sequence. No use fighting it."
* 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.]]

* DisobeyThisMessage: Played much more intelligently than most applications of this trope, in a sort of Brechtian sense. The final scene of the movie essentially [[spoiler: acknowledges that the whole thing is a work of fiction, and not objective truth.]] The real point of the film, much like ''Film/{{Videodrome}}'', is that we shouldn't blindly accept any messages.

** Also, the whole theme of people fanatically trying to murder an artist is deliberately evocative of the life of Salman Rushdie, who is friends with Cronenberg. It's quite likely that the character of Allegra Geller ([[spoiler: and later, Yevgeny Nourish]]) is a stand-in for Rushdie. The word "fatwa" is even used explicitly.
* DrivingADesk: used deliberately.

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

* TheMole: [[spoiler: Oh, just about everybody.]]

--> '''Allegra:''' In this pod is the only, the original version of eXistenZ. An entire game system that cost 38 million to develop. Not including prerelease marketing costs. And I'm locked outside my own game.
--> '''Pikul:''' [[LampshadeHanging Are you serious?]] That's the only version that exists?

** eXistenZ runs off of little flesh computers that plug into ports in your spine. [[spoiler: Interestingly, transCendenZ, unlike eXistenZ, runs off of conventional electronics.]]

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

* RecursiveReality: This is the central point of the film - 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.]]
* ScaramangaSpecial: [[spoiler: The pistol made of bones from the Chinese Restaurant meal, which happened to literally be the Special of the Day.]]

* 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.

* UnusualUserInterface: organic game pods that plug into bio-ports.

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

* BigGood: Christopher Eccleston's character.

* CreepyGasStationAttendant: A black marketeer is a gas station owner named... Gas. He tries to kill the main character for the bounty on her head, after installing a faulty bio-port in her companion. He's also Willem Dafoe, in a cameo. [[spoiler:When the whole movie turns out to be All Just a Videogame, the guy who played Gas bemoans his part in the game as clichéd.]]

''eXistenZ'' is a 1999 Creator/DavidCronenberg film that combines BodyHorror with MindScrew and ExistentialHorror. 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?

** [[invoked]] In the epilogue: [[spoiler:After it turns out that eXistenZ doesn't exists and the whole movie actually was another VR game called "transCendenZ" that was being play-tested, Allegra and Pikul both act exactly like the rest of the fanatics that have appeared so far in the film, yank out pistols that they concealed beneath a flap of fake fur on the dog they brought with them, and blow away the transCendenZ developers. This is so out of left field and shocking InUniverse that an onlooker (as the film's final words) nervously asks them if the game is still going on.]]

* 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.]]

* ThisIsReality: Inverted in the movie, which has several 'nested' realities thanks to people playing a virtual reality game that uses all of one's senses. Hence, the characters might be playing the game, then in the game start playing the game, then in that game start playing the game to further something in the 'earlier' level of the game. [[spoiler:When finally all the strangeness 'resolves' in TheReveal, the shock causes one minor character to comment, "Wait, we're still in the game, right?" So maybe this is not reality.]]

''eXistenZ'' is a 1999 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?

* 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.]]

** 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.

* ShoutOut: To ''Literature/TheThreeStigmataOfPalmerEldritch'': the takeout Allegra and Ted eat early in the film is called "Perky Pat's".