History Film / Virtuosity

* {{Expy}}: SID 6.7 shares some traits with Horace Pinker from ''Film/{{Shocker}}''.

''Virtuosity'' is a [[TheNineties 1995]] science fiction film directed by Brett Leonard. The movie tells of a new virtual reality training program for cops. SID 6.7 (Aussie import Creator/RussellCrowe), the villain program in charge of the sim, is mothballed after causing a brain overload in one of the playtesters, but the lead scientist refuses to quit. In revenge, he transplants SID into an android body and sets him loose in Los Angeles.

* SlicesDicesAndMakesJulienneFries: Included in the 'parental advisory' which preceded SID's city-side broadcast.

* FamousFamousFictional: In addition to the real-world gangsters and dictators who inspired SID 6.7, there appear to be some fictional baddies, like Matthew Grimes, the anarchist who blew up Parker's family.

* ForgottenFallenFriend: [[spoiler:Billy is pretty much forgotten about by Parker after Lindenmeyer clubs him to death rather brutally.]]

''Virtuosity'' is a [[TheNineties 1995]] science fiction film directed by Brett Leonard. The movie tells of a new virtual reality training program for cops. SID 6.7 (Aussie import Creator/RussellCrowe), the villain program in charge of the sim, is mothballed after causing a brain overload in one of the playtesters, but the lead scientist refuses to quit. In revenge, he transplants SID into an android body and sets him loose in a major city.

Parker Barnes (Creator/DenzelWashington), an ex-cop and one of the surviving testers, is reinstated in order to stop SID before he embarrasses the hell out of everyone. SID was created as an amalgam of hundreds of real-life murderers, including UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler and UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein. But one of the ghost personalities in SID was also responsible for killing Barnes' wife, which adds spice to their deadly game.

The film was shot in and around Los Angeles, though the film's setting is not identified.

-->-- '''[[SmallNameBigEgo Sid 6.7]]'''

* ProductPlacement: Ends up at an UltimateFightingChampionship bout.

Parker Barnes (Creator/DenzelWashington), an ex-cop and one of the surviving testers, is reinstated in order to stop SID before he embarrasses the hell out of everyone. SID was created as an amalgam of hundreds of real-life murderers, including UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler and UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein. Apparently, all that evil smashed together results in...Creator/AdamLevine, pretty much. But one of the ghost personalities in SID was also responsible for killing Barnes' wife, which adds spice to their deadly game.

* {{Emoticon}}: Barnes locates SID in the training program through the clue left on the side of one building;
-->'''Parker''': ''draws :) on notepad'' Colon, parenthesis; smiley face.
** A fascinating instance of UnintentionalPeriodPiece in that Barnes has to explain the concept of emoticons to another person, as the producer assumed ItWillNeverCatchOn.
-->'''Parker''': People used to sign off their e-mail with that.

*** [[VillainHasAPoint He kind of has a point]]--nothing about him is programmed, everything is copied from human behavior, albeit that of psychotic criminals.

* YourMindMakesItReal: Not a straight example; the system is designed to train cops in combat situations, similar to the US Army's RealLife Force XXI program. The problem is that different people worked on different parts of the system and didn't understand how Lindenmeyer's maniacal AI could abuse it. [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything The Dev Team Thought of ALMOST Everything]]; they programmed in non-lethal simulations of being shot, bludgeoned and even ''bitten'', but when SID decided to try electrocuting someone, the poor chump's brain overloaded.

* {{Emoticon}}: Barnes locates SID in the training program through the clue left on the side of one building. "Semicolon, parenthesis: smiley face." This is an instance of UnintentionalPeriodPiece in that Barnes has to explain the concept of emoticons to another person.

'''''Virtuosity''''' is a [[TheNineties 1995]] science fiction film directed by Brett Leonard. The movie tells of a new virtual reality training program for cops. SID 6.7 (Aussie import Creator/RussellCrowe), the villain program in charge of the sim, is mothballed after causing a brain overload in one of the playtesters, but the lead scientist refuses to quit. In revenge, he transplants SID into an android body and sets him loose in a major city.

* MixAndMatchMan: SID 6.7 is created from the personalities of 183 criminals. [[[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking And an orchestra director.]]

->''"I'm a fifty terabyte, self-evolving, neural network, double backflip off the high platform. I'm not a swan dive."''

''Virtuosity'' is a 1995 science fiction film directed by Brett Leonard. The movie tells of a new virtual reality training program for cops. SID 6.7 (Aussie import Creator/RussellCrowe), the villain program in charge of the sim, is mothballed after causing a brain overload in one of the playtesters, but the lead scientist refuses to quit. In revenge, he transplants SID into an android body and sets him loose in a major city. Parker Barnes (Creator/DenzelWashington), an ex-cop and one of the surviving testers, is reinstated in order to stop SID before he embarrasses the hell out of everyone. SID was created as an amalgam of hundreds of real-life murderers, including Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein. Apparently, all that evil smashed together results in...Creator/AdamLevine, pretty much. But one of the ghost personalities in SID was also responsible for killing Barnes' wife, which adds spice to their deadly game.

* AppendageAssimilation: Sid can regrow blown off appendages with glass. It doesn't appear to be that pleasant for him.
* AxCrazy: Sid has 183 criminals in his mind, so that's the result.
* BadassInANiceSuit: From Al Capone and Mussolini, Sid inherited a taste for fine tailoring.
* BeardOfSorrow: Barnes has a beard and dreadlocks as a prisoner. He shaves them when he is reinstated to hunt Sid.
* BondOneLiner: The first test subject, Donovan, dies offscreen when Sid electrocutes him and stuffs his body in a sushi display case. "He's chilling out."
* BottomlessMagazines: Barnes manages to take 30+ shots at Sid in the night club without reloading his standard-issue service pistol ''once''.

* CondemnedContestant: Convicts are used to test the new (and inadvertently deadly) VR police training system. Barnes is an ex-cop who in a break from the norm is actually guilty of the crime he was imprisoned for.
* CompositeCharacter: 50 terabytes is a lot of freaking memory, even today. Lindenmeyer could never program SID by himself, so he "grew" him in a vat of criminal algorithms.

* {{Emoticon}}: Barnes locates Sid in the training program through the clue left on the side of one building. "Semicolon, parenthesis: smiley face." This is an instance of UnintentionalPeriodPiece in that Barnes has to explain the concept of emoticons to another person.
* EverythingIsOnline: How Sid seems to know so much about Parker, Madison, etc.
* FamousFamousFictional: In addition to the real-world gangsters and dictators who inspired SID 6.7, there appear to be some fictional baddies, like the anarchist who blew up Parker's family.

* GhostInTheMachine: As he makes small talk with Barnes, SID seems to suggest that bomber Matthew Grimes ranked low in the hierarchy of Lindenmeyer's data. (Carter explains that SID's mind is like a warzone, with 183 psychopaths wrestling for control at any given time.) However, seeing Barnes again causes the Grimes personality to have a greater degree of influence. Hence SID's last scheme: mother-daughter hostage team with a time bomb attached.
* GoneHorriblyRight: Sid 6.7 was intended to essentially be the ultimate criminal, the idea being that if cops could catch him in the simulation, catching any real life criminal would be easy. Unfortunately, Sid figures out how to first start killing people inside the simulation...and then escape into the real world.
* GroinAttack: Parker does this - twice - to the racist white inmate who tried to kill him when he got back from being a guinea pig.
* InsideAComputerSystem: Where the movie starts.
* JackTheRipoff: Sid 6.7's personality is an amalgamation of 200 notorious criminal personalities. So, when he gets a physical body, he starts murdering in the style of assorted killers (i.e. writing "death to the pigs" in blood like UsefulNotes/CharlesManson).
* KissMeIAmVirtual: Sheila 3.2, Virtual reality sex doll, Sole function is to deduce your psychosexual needs, and fulfill them. Lindenmeyer explains to Clyde: "Sheila 3.2 is collecting information from 136 aspects of your physiology. Your heart rate, pupil dilation, vocal intonation, syntax..." Lindenmeyer says [[PlatonicProstitution she's also very skilled at chess]].
* LargeHam: Russell Crowe had so much ''fuuuun'' with this movie. Given that his character is basically the robot Joker, it was probably the right way to play it.
* LovesTheSoundOfScreaming: Sid 6.7 uses a roomful of hostages at a dance club as a source of a variety of screams, which he then remixes with the club's equipment for his enjoyment.
* MagicCountdown: Double subverted with the last bomb...which countdowns normally, until Barnes tries anything...at which point it speeds up...desperate, Barnes uses wiring in his prosthetic arm to try and foul it up...which only makes it countdown faster...and then glitch up, "deactivating" the bomb.
* MindHive: Sid 6.7 is a virtual program who eventually gets downloaded into a self-regenerating android body. He's assembled out of the minds of dozens of psychopaths, murderers, and dictators, including the dead terrorist Matthew Grimes, the protagonist Barnes's previous nemesis. Grimes is repeatedly brought to the surface when Sid comes face to face with Barnes and influences Sid's desire to gain world notoriety.
* MixAndMatchMan: Sid 6.7 is created from the personalities of 183 criminals. And an orchestra director.
* MonstrousHumanoid: Sid 6.7 genesis. Then it's Russel Crowe.
* MurderDotCom: Sid takes over a TV studio and announces "Death TV", where the viewers get to vote by telephone on which member(s) of the studio audience he kills and how he does it.
-->'''Sid 6.7''': ''All you have to do, sweet viewers, is ask! So, what do you want? Strangulation? Mutilation? Cannibalism? Gunshots? Stabbings? I'll slice, I'll dice, I'll julienne! How about hanging... by the testicles?''
* {{Nanomachines}}: What Sid is made up of in the real world.
* NeckSnap: When one guy in the TV shop insists on watching the fighting tournament, Sid 6.7 twists his neck around.

** Sid does a version of this speech over the radio to Barnes and Dr. Carter while being chased.
-->'''Sid 6.7''': ''I've been thinking, Parker. We have so much in common psychologically. Wouldn't you agree, Dr Carter? We have such a history together. We'd make a great team. A dynamic duo. Who else touches the world with synthetic hands? Who else has been locked out of the real world and is now just learning to free? Who else do you know that's a multiple murderer... just like you?''
** He also tries to do a version of this speech to ''the entire human race.''
--->'''Sid 6.7''': ''What I am is not my fault. It's not even my choice. I came to be because of what YOU are. Face it folks, to kill is in your nature!''
*** He kind of has a point - nothing about him is programmed, everything is copied from human behavior, albeit that of psychotic criminals.
* NumberOfTheBeast: Sid 6.7's version number is supposedly an oblique reference to 666. It's 6.66 rounded to one decimal place.
* OneWingedAngel: Sid tries to do this near the end. Unfortunately for him, [[TransformationIsAFreeAction Transformation Is Not A Free Action]] after all.

* RealityWarper: When Sid 6.7 realizes he is back in VR, he screams "YOU'RE IN MY WORLD NOW!!!" and twists the building around in an attempt to kill Barnes.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: How Parker ended up in jail - [[spoiler:it's revealed in flashbacks that after Matthew Grimes killed Parker's family, Parker tracked Grimes down, slaughtering him and his henchmen. Unfortunately, Grimes was doing an interview with a two person news crew so that he could gloat over how cool he was, and after Parker got done killing the dirty bastard he killed the news team by accident, turning and firing on them thinking they were just more of Grimes mooks]].
* RobotGirl: Clyde's desire to turn Shelia 3.2 into this results in Sid getting an android body.
* ShapeshifterGuiltTrip: Sid is able to briefly shift his face and voice to look like Matthew Grimes, the terrorist who killed Parker Barnes' family. Sid explains that seeing Barnes brings Grimes, out of all 183 criminals, "oozing to the surface"
* ShoutOut: At one point, Sid says to someone, "[[TheSilenceOfTheLambs love the suit.]]"
* SiliconBasedLife: Sid's body. He uses glass to regenerate himself.
* SlicesDicesAndMakesJulienneFries: Included in the 'parental advisory' which preceded Sid's city-side broadcast.

* TooDumbToLive: Lindenmeyer, the creator of Sid 6.7, fools someone into introducing him into the real world. Guess who kills the sucker?
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Glass for Sid 6.7, which he uses to regenerate lost body parts. Goes to ridiculous extremes when he starts eating shards of broken windshield like Halloween candy.

* YourMindMakesItReal: Not a straight example - the system is designed to train cops in combat situations, similar to the US Army's RealLife Force XXI program. The problem is that different people worked on different parts of the system - and didn't understand how Lindenmeyer's maniacal AI could abuse it. [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything The Dev Team Thought of ALMOST Everything]] - they programmed in non-lethal simulations of being shot, bludgeoned and even ''bitten'' - but when Sid decided to try electrocuting someone, the poor chump's brain overloaded.
-->'''Sid 6.7''': ''Killing for real... It was a real rush.''
* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: Matthew Grimes was a domestic terrorist who zeroed in on Officer Barnes as a scapegoat for The Man.

* CompositeCharacter: 50 terrabytes is a lot of freaking memory, even today. Lindenmeyer could never program SID by himself, so he "grew" him in a vat of criminal algorithms.

* WillTheyOrWontThey

* GhostInTheMachine: As he makes small talk with Barnes, SID seems to suggest that bomber Matthew Grimes ranked low in the hierarchy of Lindenmeyer's data. (Carter explains that SID's mind is like a warzone, with 183 psychopaths wrestling for control at any given time.) However, seeing Barnes again causes the Grimes personality to "ooze" to the surface, granting him a degree of influence. Hence SID's last scheme: mother-daughter hostage team with a time bomb attached.