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Best Virtual reality Movies

Ranked by how strongly each film carries the visual signature of virtual reality cinema — measured across 1,158 indexed frames from 15 films, against a 408,752-frame catalogue baseline. Not by box office, and not by vote.

Virtual reality films over-index on robot, sunglasses and helmet — the objects that make the genre recognisable before a line is spoken.

  1. 1

    Ready Player One (2018)

    Steven SpielbergDP Janusz KamińskiIMDb 7.4TMDB 7.6See in full on FrameThrower →

    In the year 2045, the real world is a harsh place. The only time Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) truly feels alive is when he escapes to the OASIS, an immersive virtual universe where most of humanity spends their days. In the OASIS, you can go anywhere, do anything, be anyone--the only limits are your own imagination. The OASIS was created by the brilliant and eccentric James Halliday (Mark Rylance), who left his immense fortune and total control of the Oasis to the winner of a three-part contest he designed to find a worthy heir. When Wade conquers the first challenge of the reality-bending treasure hunt, he and his friends--The High Five--are hurled into a fantastical universe of discovery and danger to save the OASIS.

  2. 2

    The Matrix Revolutions (2003)

    Lana Wachowski, Lilly WachowskiDP Bill PopeIMDb 6.7TMDB 6.7See in full on FrameThrower →

    Neo finds himself trapped between the Matrix and the Real World. Meanwhile, Zion is preparing for the oncoming war with the machines with very little chances of survival. Neo's associates set out to free him from The Merovingian since it's believed that he is the One who will end the war between humans and the machines. What they do not know is that there is a threat from a third party, someone who has plans to destroy both worlds.

  3. 3

    Tron (1982)

    Steven LisbergerDP Bruce LoganIMDb 6.7TMDB 6.6See in full on FrameThrower →

    Hacker/arcade owner Kevin Flynn is digitally broken down into a data stream by a villainous software pirate known as Master Control and reconstituted into the internal, 3-D graphical world of computers. It is there, in the ultimate blazingly colorful, geometrically intense landscapes of cyberspace, that Flynn joins forces with Tron to outmaneuver the Master Control Program that holds them captive in the equivalent of a gigantic, infinitely challenging computer game.

  4. 4

    Source Code (2011)

    Duncan JonesDP Don BurgessIMDb 7.5TMDB 7.3See in full on FrameThrower →

    Army Captain Colter Stevens finds himself working on a special program where his consciousness can be inserted into another human being. The only catch is can only be there for 8 minutes at any given time. That morning, a bomb exploded on a commuter train just outside Chicago. He occupies the body of teacher going to work on that train and is confused as to what he is doing or why he is there as his last memory is of flying his helicopter on a combat mission in Afghanistan. Those in charge of the program explain to him that there is a bomb on the train, and that he must locate it. More importantly, he must identify the bomber as another bombing is expected later that day. He is also told however that he cannot change the past and can only gather information. As he develops a liking for his traveling companion Christina, he sets out to test that theory.

  5. 5

    The Zero Theorem (2013)

    Terry GilliamDP Nicola PecoriniIMDb 6.0TMDB 6.1See in full on FrameThrower →

    A hugely talented but socially isolated computer operator is tasked by Management to prove the Zero Theorem: that the universe ends as nothing, rendering life meaningless. But meaning is what he already craves.

  6. 6

    Strange Days (1995)

    Kathryn BigelowDP Matthew F. LeonettiIMDb 7.2TMDB 7.0See in full on FrameThrower →

    In 1999, Los Angeles is racial war zone with the army and LSPD and SWAT officers fighting Afro-American people. The former cop Lenny Nero is a dealer of illegal recording in CDs that gives the memories and sensations of the recorder to the user. He buys the recordings from the supplier Tick; he misses his former mistress Faith, who was a hooker and now is a singer; his best friend is the private eye Max Peltier and the limousine driver Lornette 'Mace' Mason, who has unrequited love for him. Two days before the turn of the century, the black rapper Jeriko One is murdered. The hooker Iris seeks Lenny out but there is an incident and they do not talk to each other. However she drops a recording into Lenny's car while he unsuccessfully tries to meet Faith at a night-club. However her boyfriend Philo Gant does not let them talk. When Lenny learns that Iris was sadistically raped and killed, he gets involved in a sick scheme and discovers dirty hidden secrets.

  7. 7

    Videodrome (1983)

    David CronenbergDP Mark IrwinIMDb 7.2TMDB 7.3See in full on FrameThrower →

    Max Renn is the President of Channel 83 Civic-TV, a small television station on the UHF dial. He defends his programming of largely X-rated shows - which depict graphic sex and extreme violence - as a pure matter of economic survival as a small station. Behind closed doors in specific company, he would admit that he enjoys such programming, but as President will stay away from associated activities that may be dangerous for him in its purchase. His current girlfriend, radio personality Nicki Brand, who he met on a television talk show, is sexually aroused by light mutilation on her person, that despite or because her radio show is like an open air crisis hotline. On that same talk show, the other guest via video feed was Professor Brian O'Blivion - solely his stage name - who believes that television and video broadcasts will one day overtake the world as reality, which may make Max's programming in combination more dangerous. In Max's search for the next big thing in like programming already on Channel 83, Harlan, his pirater who scans satellite signals, illegally obtains a satellite feed of something called Videodrome, which depicts continual sexualized torture and murder with no storyline of which to speak. The background behind Videodrome is unknown, but believing it is that big thing for which he is looking, Max is determined to find the producers so that he can purchase it for his station. He is concerned for Nicki if she goes ahead against his warnings in wanting to appear on Videodrome, however it does not lessen his desire to purchase it. If Max in turn does not heed the warning of Masha, one of his long time show suppliers, based on what little she discovers about it, Max may discover that Videodrome is just the next but destructive step in O'Blivion's prognostication.

  8. 8

    The Cell (2000)

    Tarsem SinghDP Paul LauferIMDb 6.4TMDB 6.3See in full on FrameThrower →

    Catharine Deane is a psychotherapist who is part of a revolutionary new treatment which allows her mind to literally enter the mind of her patients. Her experience in this method takes an unexpected turn when an F.B.I. Agent comes to ask for a desperate favor. They had just tracked down a notorious serial killer, Carl Stargher, whose method of operation is to abduct women one at a time and place them in a secret area where they are kept for about forty hours until they are slowly drowned. Unfortunately, the killer has fallen into an irreversible coma which means he cannot confess where he has taken his latest victim before she dies. Now, Catherine Deane must race against time to explore the twisted mind of the killer to get the information she needs, but Stargher's damaged personality poses dangers that threaten to overwhelm her.

  9. 9

    Hackers (1995)

    Iain SoftleyDP Andrzej SekulaIMDb 6.2TMDB 6.4See in full on FrameThrower →

    A young boy is arrested by the U.S. Secret Service for writing a computer virus and is banned from using a computer until his 18th birthday. Years later, he and his new-found friends discover a plot to unleash a dangerous computer virus, but they must use their computer skills to find the evidence while being pursued by the Secret Service and the evil computer genius behind the virus.

  10. 10

    eXistenZ (1999)

    David CronenbergDP Peter SuschitzkyIMDb 6.8TMDB 6.8See in full on FrameThrower →

    Allegra Geller, the leading game designer in the world, is testing her new virtual reality game, eXistenZ with a focus group. As they begin, she is attacked by a fanatic assassin employing a bizarre organic gun. She flees with a young marketing trainee, Ted Pikul, who is suddenly assigned as her bodyguard. Unfortunately, her pod, an organic gaming device that contains the only copy of the eXistenZ game program, is damaged. To inspect it, she talks Ted into accepting a gameport in his own body so he can play the game with her. The events leading up to this, and the resulting game lead the pair on a strange adventure where reality and their actions are impossible to determine from either their own or the game's perspective.

What virtual reality films are made of

How much more often each element appears in a virtual reality frame than in an average frame from the catalogue. A ratio, not a share — robot is not in most frames, it is simply far more common here than anywhere else.

  • robot13.5×
  • sunglasses5.4×
  • helmet4.2×
  • debris3.6×
  • suit3.3×
  • smoke2.7×
  • clouds2.3×
  • tie1.8×

How virtual reality films are shot

Weaker signals than the objects above, and worth saying so: most dramatic genres skew dark and night-heavy, so these numbers separate virtual reality from the catalogue far more than they separate it from its neighbours.

  • 11%low anglevs 5% baseline
  • 28%dayvs 42% baseline
  • 28%widevs 20% baseline
  • 35%mediumvs 48% baseline
  • 33%naturalvs 43% baseline

Method

Every frame in the FrameThrower catalogue is tagged for shot size, lighting, time of day, camera angle, colour and the objects visible in it. This page aggregates those tags across 1,158 frames from 15 films carrying the virtual reality label, and compares each figure to the same measurement across the whole catalogue (408,752 frames). Films are ranked by how closely they match the theme’s over-indexed elements, weighted by how distinctive each element is; one film per series. Only films with at least 20 indexed frames and 500 TMDB votes are listed.

Machine-readable: /api/list/virtual-reality

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These are real movie frames, shown at reduced resolution. All rights remain with their respective owners; they appear here for study, commentary and education under fair-use principles. How these are meant to be used