History Film / EXistenZ

** This was deliberate by someone in the production (I forget who, possibly the writer) who is Hungarian.

* 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 [[{{Scanners}} usually]] [[TheBrood plays]] in Cronenberg's films.

* OrganicTechnology: eXistenZ runs off of little flesh computers that plug into ports in your spine. [[spoiler: Interestingly, transCendenZ, unlike eXistenZ, runs off of conventional electronics.]] The gristle gun, built out of bones and teeth, also works like this.

* MindScrew

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

A 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?

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

* CreepyGasStationAttendant: Played by WillemDafoe.

* SchroedingersButterfly: How many levels of this virtual reality are there? And how do you know when you're in real life?

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

** [[spoiler: [=transCendenZ=]: "trans" is 'beyond' in Latin and "enden" is 'the end' in some Germanic languages.]]

* 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 ''{{Videodrome}}'', is that we shouldn't blindly accept any messages.

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

* OneSceneWonder - Creator/ChristopherEccleston is a 100% postmodern example of this trope

* CreepyGasStationAttendant

* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Willem Dafoe plays a gas station attendant, simply called "Gas"...
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: ...who works at Country Gas Station. Workers at Trout Farm eat lunch at Chinese Restaurant.

** More obviously, you can hear Jude Law's accent crack when he shouts. It's very obvious.

* PostCyberPunk

* SeriousBusiness: Darkly parodied. People are willing to kill each other over a video game. But, as Salman Rushdie could tell you, that's not so far off from the truth...
** [[spoiler: They weren't willing to kill over the video games itself, they were willing to kill each other over the effects of such reality-bending technology.]]

* OneSceneWonder - ChristopherEccleston is a 100% postmodern example of this trope

Described by some as the Canadian version of ''TheMatrix'', but involves more philosophy and less leather-clad ass-kicking.

** This was deliberate by someone in the production (I forget who, possibly the writer) who is Hungarian.

** [[spoiler: They weren't willing to kill over the video games itself, they were willing to kill each other over the effects of such reality-bending technology.]]

* CoitusEnsues: 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.

* 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: which also contained the parts for a ScaramangaSpecial bone gun.]]

* FakeNationality: Jude Law as a Canadian, ChristopherEccleston as a New Yorker, Ian Holm as a Hungarian, Don [=McKellar=] as... [[JustAStupidAccent a generically foreign man]], and Robert Silverman as an [[{{Oireland}} Oirishman]]. [[spoiler: In the final scene, they all speak in their natural accents]], prompting Holm's magnificent quote: [[spoiler: "My accent was so thick that I could hardly understand myself!"]]

* FakeNationality: Jude Law and ChristopherEccleston as Canadians, Ian Holm as a Hungarian, Don [=McKellar=] as... [[JustAStupidAccent a generically foreign man]], and Robert Silverman as an [[{{Oireland}} Oirishman]]. [[spoiler: In the final scene, they all speak in their natural accents]], prompting Holm's magnificent quote: [[spoiler: "My accent was so thick that I could hardly understand myself!"]]

The proper spelling is ''eXistenZ'', but the page title system doesn't currently allow this.

** Also, the whole theme of people fanatically trying to murder an artist is deliberately evocative of the life of SalmanRushdie, 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.

* FakeNationality: JudeLaw and ChristopherEccleston as Canadians, IanHolm as a Hungarian, Don [=McKellar=] as... [[JustAStupidAccent a generically foreign man]], and Robert Silverman as an [[{{Oireland}} Oirishman]]. [[spoiler: In the final scene, they all speak in their natural accents]], prompting Holm's magnificent quote: [[spoiler: "My accent was so thick that I could hardly understand myself!"]]

* SeriousBusiness: Darkly parodied. People are willing to kill each other over a video game. But, as SalmanRushdie could tell you, that's not so far off from the truth...

!!Tropes Appearing In This Film Are:

* OrganicTechnology: eXistenZ runs off of little flesh computers that plug into ports in your spine. Interestingly, transCendenZ, unlike eXistenZ, runs off of conventional electronics. The gristle gun, built out of bones and teeth, also works like this.

* PlatonicCave: Subverted: transCendenZ is just as fake as eXistenZ.

** They weren't willing to kill over the video games itself, they were willing to kill each other over the effects of such reality-bending technology.