Movies with virtual reality or dreamscapes.
by dgranger | created - 17 Apr 2017 | updated - 04 May 2017 | PublicThese are movies that have a literal virtual reality world or a dream/dreamscape as major part of the plot. By that, I mean the person is in a dream world or a virtual reality world or seeing the world through the computer's eyes. Something more like a simulation.The ones that are borderline on the list are "Project X", "Surrogates", and "Toys" because a person is sitting a chair and being shown a film of a world on a screen in front of them and may or may not know that they are actually a controlling a drone. Which is the one you like the best despite the ratings? All the sequels to the movies on the list are included under the title of the first movie in the series except for remakes and "New Nightmare" (which is a type of alternate version of a sequel).
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1. Tron (1982)
PG | 96 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
A computer hacker is abducted into the digital world and forced to participate in gladiatorial games where his only chance of escape is with the help of a heroic security program.
Director: Steven Lisberger | Stars: Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, David Warner, Cindy Morgan
Votes: 130,014 | Gross: $33.00M
This includes the sequel Tron: Legacy (2010) (Ooops, the link may say "Tron" but I really mean "TRON: Legacy" (2010) (T:L). The link still brings you to the T:L page though.)
2. Dreamscape (1984)
PG-13 | 99 min | Action, Adventure, Horror
A man who can enter and manipulate people's dreams is recruited by a government agency to help cure the President of the United States of his nightmares about nuclear war but stumbles upon an assassination plot.
Director: Joseph Ruben | Stars: Dennis Quaid, Max von Sydow, Christopher Plummer, Eddie Albert
Votes: 18,288 | Gross: $11.48M
3. Brainstorm (1983)
PG | 106 min | Sci-Fi, Thriller
Researchers develop a system where they can jump into people's minds. But when people involved bring their personal problems into the equation, it becomes dangerous - perhaps deadly.
Director: Douglas Trumbull | Stars: Christopher Walken, Natalie Wood, Louise Fletcher, Cliff Robertson
Votes: 13,165 | Gross: $8.90M
4. Spellbound (1945)
Approved | 111 min | Film-Noir, Mystery, Romance
A psychiatrist protects the identity of an amnesia patient accused of murder while attempting to recover his memory.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Michael Chekhov, Leo G. Carroll
Votes: 52,492 | Gross: $7.00M
5. Disclosure (1994)
R | 128 min | Drama, Thriller
A computer specialist is sued for sexual harassment by a former lover turned boss who initiated the act forcefully, which threatens both his career and his personal life.
Director: Barry Levinson | Stars: Michael Douglas, Demi Moore, Donald Sutherland, Caroline Goodall
Votes: 54,653 | Gross: $83.02M
6. Spy Kids 3: Game Over (2003)
PG | 84 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
Carmen's caught in a virtual reality game designed by the Kids' new nemesis, the Toymaker. It's up to Juni to save his sister, and ultimately the world.
Director: Robert Rodriguez | Stars: Daryl Sabara, Alexa PenaVega, Antonio Banderas, Carla Gugino
Votes: 66,577 | Gross: $111.76M
7. Inception (2010)
PG-13 | 148 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
A thief who steals corporate secrets through the use of dream-sharing technology is given the inverse task of planting an idea into the mind of a C.E.O., but his tragic past may doom the project and his team to disaster.
Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elliot Page, Ken Watanabe
Votes: 2,563,342 | Gross: $292.58M
8. Wreck-It Ralph (2012)
PG | 101 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
A video game villain wants to be a hero and sets out to fulfill his dream, but his quest brings havoc to the whole arcade where he lives.
Director: Rich Moore | Stars: John C. Reilly, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch, Sarah Silverman
Votes: 460,840 | Gross: $189.42M
9. Flatliners (1990)
R | 115 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
Five medical students experiment with "near death" experiences, until the dark consequences of past tragedies begin to jeopardize their lives.
Director: Joel Schumacher | Stars: Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Bacon, Julia Roberts, William Baldwin
Votes: 93,894 | Gross: $61.49M
10. The Last Starfighter (1984)
PG | 100 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
High schooler Alex Rogan conquers the Starfighter video game, only to find out it was just a test, and is transported to another planet. He has been recruited to join a team of the best starfighters to defend their world from the attack.
Director: Nick Castle | Stars: Lance Guest, Robert Preston, Kay E. Kuter, Dan Mason
Votes: 46,287 | Gross: $28.73M
The movie uses a video game as a part of its plot. Also this is the first film to have all of its special effects CGI except for explosions and makeup.
11. Virtuosity (1995)
R | 106 min | Action, Crime, Sci-Fi
When a virtual reality simulation created using the personalities of multiple serial killers manages to escape into the real world, an ex-cop is tasked with stopping its reign of terror.
Director: Brett Leonard | Stars: Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Kelly Lynch, Stephen Spinella
Votes: 32,594 | Gross: $24.05M
12. The Cell (2000)
R | 107 min | Crime, Horror, Sci-Fi
An F.B.I. Agent persuades a social worker, who is adept with a new experimental technology, to enter the mind of a comatose serial killer in order to learn where he has hidden his latest kidnap victim.
Director: Tarsem Singh | Stars: Jennifer Lopez, Vince Vaughn, Vincent D'Onofrio, Colton James
Votes: 109,603 | Gross: $61.33M
13. Total Recall (1990)
R | 113 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
When a man goes in to have virtual vacation memories of the planet Mars implanted in his mind, an unexpected and harrowing series of events forces him to go to the planet for real - or is he?
Director: Paul Verhoeven | Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sharon Stone, Michael Ironside, Rachel Ticotin
Votes: 356,286 | Gross: $119.39M
14. Total Recall (I) (2012)
PG-13 | 118 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
A factory worker, Douglas Quaid, begins to suspect that he is a spy after visiting Rekall - a company that provides its clients with implanted fake memories of a life they would like to have led - goes wrong and he finds himself on the run.
Director: Len Wiseman | Stars: Colin Farrell, Bokeem Woodbine, Bryan Cranston, Kate Beckinsale
Votes: 267,884 | Gross: $58.88M
15. Minority Report (2002)
PG-13 | 145 min | Action, Crime, Mystery
John works with the PreCrime police which stop crimes before they take place, with the help of three 'PreCogs' who can foresee crimes. Events ensue when John finds himself framed for a future murder.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton, Max von Sydow
Votes: 587,388 | Gross: $132.07M
16. Toys (1992)
PG-13 | 118 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
When Lieutenant General Leland Zevo (Sir Michael Gambon) inherits a toymaking company and begins making war toys, his employees band together to stop him before he ruins the name of Zevo Toys forever.
Director: Barry Levinson | Stars: Robin Williams, Michael Gambon, Joan Cusack, Robin Wright
Votes: 33,765 | Gross: $21.45M
Even though this entire movie is surrealistic, the virtual reality comes in when the general enters a video arcade and comes up with the idea of using video games to not only train kids as pilots but to use kids to pilot drones by tricking them into thinking it was just an innocent video game.
17. Surrogates (2009)
PG-13 | 89 min | Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Set in a futuristic world where humans live in isolation and interact through surrogate robots, a cop is forced to leave his home for the first time in years in order to investigate the murders of others' surrogates.
Director: Jonathan Mostow | Stars: Bruce Willis, Radha Mitchell, Ving Rhames, Rosamund Pike
Votes: 181,366 | Gross: $38.58M
18. Project X (1987)
PG | 108 min | Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi
An Air Force pilot joins a top secret military experiment involving chimps, but begins to suspect there might be something more to the mysterious "Project X".
Director: Jonathan Kaplan | Stars: Matthew Broderick, Helen Hunt, Willie, Okko
Votes: 12,941 | Gross: $18.53M
19. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
R | 91 min | Horror
Teenager Nancy Thompson must uncover the dark truth concealed by her parents after she and her friends become targets of the spirit of a serial killer with a bladed glove in their dreams, in which if they die, it kills them in real life.
Director: Wes Craven | Stars: Heather Langenkamp, Johnny Depp, Robert Englund, John Saxon
Votes: 263,754 | Gross: $25.50M
20. New Nightmare (1994)
R | 112 min | Fantasy, Horror, Mystery
A demonic force has chosen Freddy Krueger as its portal to the real world. Can Heather Langenkamp play the part of Nancy one last time and trap the evil trying to enter our world?
Director: Wes Craven | Stars: Heather Langenkamp, Robert Englund, Jf Davis, Miko Hughes
Votes: 64,493 | Gross: $18.09M
21. A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
R | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Horror
The spectre of a disfigured man haunts the children of the parents who murdered him, stalking and killing them in their dreams.
Director: Samuel Bayer | Stars: Jackie Earle Haley, Rooney Mara, Kyle Gallner, Katie Cassidy
Votes: 107,963 | Gross: $63.08M
22. Soylent Green (1973)
PG | 97 min | Crime, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A nightmarish futuristic fantasy about the controlling power of big corporations and an innocent cop who stumbles on the truth.
Director: Richard Fleischer | Stars: Charlton Heston, Edward G. Robinson, Leigh Taylor-Young, Chuck Connors
Votes: 70,947 | Gross: $7.92M
The Edgar G. Robinson's death sequence. It was beautifully film and a high point to remember from the film
23. What Dreams May Come (1998)
PG-13 | 113 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Chris Nielsen dies in an accident, and enters Heaven. But when he discovers that his beloved wife Annie has killed herself out of grief over the loss, he embarks on an afterlife adventure to reunite with her.
Director: Vincent Ward | Stars: Robin Williams, Cuba Gooding Jr., Annabella Sciorra, Max von Sydow
Votes: 114,987 | Gross: $55.49M
24. The Matrix (1999)
R | 136 min | Action, Sci-Fi
When a beautiful stranger leads computer hacker Neo to a forbidding underworld, he discovers the shocking truth--the life he knows is the elaborate deception of an evil cyber-intelligence.
Directors: Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski | Stars: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving
Votes: 2,062,826 | Gross: $171.48M
This also includes The Matrix Reloaded (2003), and The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
25. Paprika (2006)
R | 90 min | Animation, Drama, Fantasy
When a machine that allows therapists to enter their patients' dreams is stolen, all hell breaks loose. Only a young female therapist, Paprika, can stop it.
Director: Satoshi Kon | Stars: Megumi Hayashibara, TĂ´ru Emori, Katsunosuke Hori, TĂ´ru Furuya
Votes: 97,321 | Gross: $0.88M
26. Strange Days (1995)
R | 145 min | Crime, Drama, Sci-Fi
A former cop turned street-hustler accidentally uncovers a conspiracy in Los Angeles in 1999.
Director: Kathryn Bigelow | Stars: Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, Juliette Lewis, Tom Sizemore
Votes: 78,798 | Gross: $7.92M
27. The Thirteenth Floor (1999)
R | 100 min | Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A computer scientist running a virtual reality simulation of 1937 becomes the primary suspect when his colleague and mentor is murdered.
Director: Josef Rusnak | Stars: Craig Bierko, Gretchen Mol, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Vincent D'Onofrio
Votes: 77,725 | Gross: $15.50M
28. eXistenZ (1999)
R | 97 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A game designer on the run from assassins must play her latest virtual reality creation with a marketing trainee to determine if the game has been damaged.
Director: David Cronenberg | Stars: Jude Law, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Ian Holm, Willem Dafoe
Votes: 107,731 | Gross: $2.84M
29. Juliet of the Spirits (1965)
Not Rated | 137 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Visions, memories, and mysticism all help a 40-something woman to find the strength to leave her cheating husband.
Director: Federico Fellini | Stars: Giulietta Masina, Sandra Milo, Mario Pisu, Valentina Cortese
Votes: 14,802 | Gross: $0.08M
30. Altered States (1980)
R | 102 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A psycho-physiologist experiments with drugs and a sensory-deprivation tank and has visions he believes are genetic memories.
Director: Ken Russell | Stars: William Hurt, Blair Brown, Bob Balaban, Charles Haid
Votes: 38,848 | Gross: $19.85M
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