Nemesis Game is a 2003 mystery-thriller film directed and written by Jesse Warn, starring Carly Pope, Ian McShane, Adrian Paul and Rena Owen.
Traumatized by her mother's death in a car crash, college student Sara Novak participates in a riddle game, scouring Toronto for spray-painted questions and discussing the puzzles with comic book store owner Vern. When Sara and Vern receive separate invitations to participate in a higher-stakes version of the game, they are thrilled. But after Sara's classmate Jeremy is killed, she suspects a dangerous connection between his death and her puzzle-solving.
Tropes
- 555: One of the riddles Sara solves involves using the first letters of each word on a note to work a phone number to dial. The first three words are 'just keepletters', so the first three numbers she dials are 555.
- Bikini Bar: Marie works in a bar where all of the waitresses wear Stripperific outfits. Sara refers to it as "a strip club", but it is not clear if it really is a strip club or if she is just being deliberately insulting.
- Chekhov's Gift: Jeff gives his daughter Sara a can of mace as a gag gift on her birthday. She later uses it on Dennis when she attacked by him in the parking garage.
- Dangerous Key Fumble: Sara drops her keys while attempting to unlock her car while be stalked by Dennis in the parking garage. She makes an attempt to pick them up, then realises Dennis will be on er before she can unlock the car and instead makes a bolt for the stairs.
- Downer Ending: At the end of the film, Sara is dead; murdered by Vern who has confessed to the crime and been arrested. Jeff is left desperately searching for answers, and the viewer is no wiser as to whether 'The Pattern' is real, or merely some elaborate insanity shared by those who get caught up in the game.
- How We Got Here: Opens with Jeff Novak questioning Emily Gray in a police interrogation room about an unspecified crime she is supposed to have committed. The film then flashes back and the words "Two Weeks Earlier" appear on the screen.
- The Meaning of Life: Legend says that anyone who solves the correct riddles will have revealed to them 'The Pattern': the secret that makes sense of all of the seemingly meaningless and unexplainable things. This attracts people seeking meaning into the game; such as Sara, who wants to know why she survived a car crash and her mother didn't.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Dennis, the customer in Vern's comic book shop, appears to be The Stoner and seems to be completely blown away by Vern's koan style riddles. He responds by coming up with an embarrassingly childish riddle of his own ("What's a ghost's favourite colour? Boo.") and then trying (and failing) to explain why it is actually deep. However, he is later revealed to be a player of the game himself, and as skilled at riddles as Sara and Vern.
- Parking Garage: Dennis confronts Sara as she is going to her car in a parking garage. He attacks her, knocks her to the ground and forces her to watch as he shoots himself.
- Significant Anagram: Emily Gray repeatedly uses the phrase 'I never sinned' during interviews. When Sara writes it down in capital letters and holds it up to a mirror, she realises it is 'Dennis Reveni' spelled backwards; which is the name of the boy Emily had tried to murder years earlier.
- Sinister Subway: One of the riddles left for Sara appears on the wall of the subway station and leads her to the dimly lit tunnels under the station. Here she is spooked by a menacing looking figure, who turns out to be the cleaner.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: After she is attacked by Dennis, Jeff is planning to take her home. However, he turns his head for a few seconds to speak to his partner Tom and when he turns back, Sara has vanished.
- The Stoner: Dennis, the customer in Vern's comic book shop, appears to constantly stoned and completely awed and overwhelmed by Vern's riddles. However, this turns out to be Obfuscating Stupidity.
- Title In: Opens with Jeff Novak questioning Emily Gray in a police interrogation room about an unspecified crime she is supposed to have committed. The film then flashes back and the words "Two Weeks Earlier" appear on the screen.
