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eXistenZ follows virtual reality video game designer Allegra Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh), whose new project is sabotaged by activists. Before becoming a filmmaker, director David Cronenberg studied organic chemistry and cell biology, and this resonates in his approach to themes, props, and makeup: players interact with a fleshy controller that connects to their bodies via umbilical-like power cords. Cronenberg’s fifteenth feature considers cyberpunk concepts like biohacking, wearable technologies, body modification, and transhumanism not through mechanical devices but via common organic material, setting the film in dialogue with similar Y2K-era works of cyberpunk cinema like The Matrix (1999).

Special thanks to Telefilm Canada for program support.

Academy Museum film programming generously funded by the Richard Roth Foundation.

1999 | 97 min | UK/France/Canada | Color | English | Rated R | DCP

DIRECTED/WRITTEN BY: David Cronenberg

WITH: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jude Law, Ian Holm, Willem Dafoe