Simulation & Reality-Shift Sci-Fi backdrop

Simulation & Reality-Shift Sci-Fi movies

Reality is questionable: virtual worlds, perception hacks, and reveals that reframe what is real.

Overview

A young woman and her fiancé are in search of the perfect starter home. After following a mysterious real estate agent to a new housing development, the couple finds themselves trapped in a maze of identical houses and forced to raise an otherworldly child.

Themes

"movie: vivarium. genres: science fiction, Thriller, Mystery, Horror, Science fiction, Thriller, Mystery, Horror main themes: baby, Suburbia, Suburb, Baby, Suburbia, Suburb full keywords list: baby, Suburbia, Suburb, Trapped, Body bag, Real estate agent, Questioning, Backrooms, Awestruck. concept analysis: the film explores themes of entrapment and the cyclical nature of life and death within a consumerist society. it serves as a haunting commentary on the pressures of parenthood and the loss of individuality in the face of societal expectations."

Available on

Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Video
Apple TV
Data provided by JustWatch.Availability may vary by region.

Overview

In a series of escalating encounters, former security guard David Dunn uses his supernatural abilities to track Kevin Wendell Crumb, a disturbed man who has twenty-four personalities. Meanwhile, the shadowy presence of Elijah Price emerges as an orchestrator who holds secrets critical to both men.

Themes

Institutional secrecy, Surveillance specialist manipulation, Psychiatric hospital control, Comic book shop context, Former security guard perspective, Twenty-four personalities dynamics

Available on

Amazon Video
Apple TV
HBO Max
Data provided by JustWatch.Availability may vary by region.

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch

3. Black Mirror: Bandersnatch

Science Fiction Mystery Drama Horror TV Movie
7.1
20181h 30min

Overview

In 1984, a young programmer begins to question reality as he adapts a dark fantasy novel into a video game. A mind-bending tale with multiple endings.

Themes

Free will under pressure, External manipulation of agency, Technology-driven control through choice, Work life conflict, Surveillance and monitoring, Perception shaped by simulation


Sorry to Bother You

4. Sorry to Bother You

Fantasy Science Fiction Comedy Satire Simulation & Reality-Shift Sci-Fi
6.9
20181h 52min

Overview

In an alternate present-day version of Oakland, black telemarketer Cassius Green discovers a magical key to professional success – which propels him into a macabre universe.

Themes

Class inequality, Power and control, Labor exploitation, Ambition vs ethics, Media spectacle, Racial dynamics

Available on

Apple TV
Google Play Movies
YouTube
Data provided by JustWatch.Availability may vary by region.

Overview

When the creator of a popular video game system dies, a virtual contest is created to compete for his fortune.

Themes

Corporate power vs individual agency, Control of virtual spaces, Nostalgia as escape, Identity and anonymity, Collaboration through competition, Community vs isolation

Available on

Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Video
Apple TV
Data provided by JustWatch.Availability may vary by region.

Overview

Two brothers return to the cult they fled from years ago to discover that the group's beliefs may be more sane than they once thought.

Themes

Childhood trauma legacy, Time manipulation ethics, Time loop repetition, Cult dynamics under pressure, Ascension framework, Video cassette mystery

Available on

Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Video
Apple TV
Data provided by JustWatch.Availability may vary by region.

Overview

The widow of a wise professor stumbles upon one of his inventions that's able to record and play a person's memory.

Themes

Memory technology consequences, Unintended mental deterioration, Responsibility for invention, Grief through invention, Ethics of memory recording, Memory as catalyst for guilt

Available on

Amazon Video
Apple TV
Google Play Movies
Data provided by JustWatch.Availability may vary by region.

Overview

Ren Amari is the driven inventor of a revolutionary new drug. OtherLife expands the brain's sense of time and creates virtual reality directly in the user's mind. With OtherLife, mere seconds in real life feel like hours or days of exciting adventures. As Ren and her colleagues race around the clock to launch OtherLife, the government muscles in to use the drugs as a radical solution to prison overcrowding. They will create virtual cells where criminals serve long sentences in just minutes of real time. When Ren resists, she finds herself an unwilling guinea pig trapped in a prison cell in her mind. She must escape before she descends into madness, and then regain control of OtherLife before others suffer the same fate.

Themes

Time manipulation ethics, Memory as reality, Corporate control of science, Confinement by technology, Overpopulation pressure, Government use of science

Available on

Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Video
Fandango At Home
Data provided by JustWatch.Availability may vary by region.

Overview

A woman discovers that severe catastrophic events are somehow connected to the mental breakdown from which she's suffering.

Themes

Pursuit of escape, Performative violence, Addiction and agency, Manipulation and self-worth, External catastrophe and personal collapse, Fragile friendships

Available on

Amazon Video
Apple TV
Google Play Movies
Data provided by JustWatch.Availability may vary by region.

The Discovery

10. The Discovery

Drama Romance Science Fiction Thriller Mystery
6.2
20171h 42min

Overview

In the near future, due to a breakthrough scientific discovery by Dr. Thomas Harbor, there is now definitive proof of an afterlife. While countless people have chosen suicide to reset their existence, others try to decide what it all means. Among them is Dr. Harbor's son Will, who has arrived at his father's isolated compound with a mysterious young woman named Isla. There, they discover the strange acolytes who help Dr. Harbor with his experiments.

Themes

Grief and memory, Investigative deception, Ethical risk of experimentation, Afterlife hypothesis, Mass suicide pressure, Memory as reality

Available on

Netflix
Netflix Standard with Ads
Data provided by JustWatch.Availability may vary by region.