The Master List of Movies About Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality
Replicas (2019)
Neuro-scientist William Foster (Keanu Reeves) is on the verge of successfully transferring human consciousness into a computer when his family is tragically killed in a car crash. Desperate to resurrect them, William recruits fellow scientist Ed Whittle (Thomas Middleditch) to help him secretly clone their bodies and create replicas. But he soon faces a 'Sophie's choice' when it turns out that they can only bring three of the four family members back to life.
Director Jeffrey Nachmanoff
Starring Keanu Reeves, Alice Eve, Thomas Middleditch
Ready Player One
From filmmaker Steven Spielberg comes the science fiction action-adventure “Ready Player One,” based on Ernest Cline’s bestseller of the same name, which has become a worldwide phenomenon.
Director Steven Spielberg
Starring Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Officer K (Ryan Gosling), a new blade runner for the Los Angeles Police Department, unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what's left of society into chaos. His discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a former blade runner who's been missing for 30 years.
Director Denis Villeneuve
Starring Harrison Ford, Ryan Gosling, Ana de Armas
Ghost In The Shell (2017)
In the near future, Major is the first of her kind: a human who is cyber-enhanced to be a perfect soldier devoted to stopping the world's most dangerous criminals. When terrorism reaches a new level that includes the ability to hack into people's minds and control them, Major is uniquely qualified to stop it. As she prepares to face a new enemy, Major discovers that her life was stolen instead of saved. Now, she will stop at nothing to recover her past while punishing those who did this to her.
Director Rupert Sanders
Starring Scarlett Johansson, Beat Takeshi Kitano, Michael Carmen Pitt
Creative Control (2016)
In near future, Brooklyn, an ad executive uses Augmented Reality glasses to conduct an affair with his best friend's girlfriend.
Director Benjamin Dickinson
Starring Benjamin Dickinson, Nora Zehetner, Dan Gill, Reggie Watts
The Congress (2014)
An aging actress (Robin Wright) agrees to be scanned using volumetric capture technology to preserve her digital likeness for a studio to use in any future films it likes.
Director Ari Folman
Starring Robin Wright, Harvey Keitel, Paul Giamatti, Jon Hamm
The Zero Theorem (2013)
in the near future, a computer hacker (Academy Award Winner Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained) is given a seemingly impossible mission by a shadowy, all-powerful corporation, From visionary director Terry Gilliam (12 Monkeys, Brazil).
Director Terry Gilliam
Starring Melanie Thierry, Christoph Waltz, Tilda Swinton
Total Recall (2012)
In need of a vacation from his ordinary life, factory worker Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell) visits Rekall, a company that can turn dreams into real memories. Thinking that memories of life as a superspy are just the ticket, Quaid undergoes the procedure -- but it goes horribly wrong. Suddenly, Quaid is a hunted man. He teams up with a rebel fighter (Jessica Biel) on a search to find the head of the underground resistance and take down the leader (Bryan Cranston) of the free world.
Director Len Wiseman
Starring Colin Farrell, Leigh Folsom, Brian Delaney, Bryan Cranston
Source Code (2011)
Helicopter pilot Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) is part of a top-secret military operation that enables him to experience the last few minutes in the life of Sean Fentress, a man who died in a commuter-train explosion. The purpose of Colter's mission is to learn the identity of the bomber and prevent a similar catastrophe. As Colter lives Sean's final moments, he becomes more certain that he can prevent the first tragedy from occurring -- as long as he doesn't run out of time.
Director Duncan Jones
Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Vera Farmiga, Michelle Monaghan
Tron: Legacy (2010)
Sam (Garrett Hedlund), the son of famous video-game developer Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), has been haunted for a long time by his father's mysterious disappearance. A strange signal draws Sam to Flynn's Arcade, and he is pulled into the same cyberworld in which his father, its creator, has been trapped for 20 years. With fearless warrior Quorra (Olivia Wilde), Kevin and Sam seek to escape from a universe that, while magnificent, is far more advanced and dangerous than Kevin had ever imagined.
Director Joseph Kosinski
Starring Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde
Inception (2010)
Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a thief with the rare ability to enter people's dreams and steal their secrets from their subconscious. His skill has made him a hot commodity in the world of corporate espionage but has also cost him everything he loves. Cobb gets a chance at redemption when he is offered a seemingly impossible task: Plant an idea in someone's mind. If he succeeds, it will be a perfect crime, but a dangerous enemy anticipates Cobb's every move.
Director Christopher Nolan
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Gamer (2009)
Each week Kable (Gerard Butler), a death-row inmate, battles his fellow prisoners in a violent online game called "Slayers," his every move controlled by a young gamer's remote device. To the players, Kable and the other inmates are just simulated characters. But, to a resistance group that opposes the game's inventor, Kable is a critical component of their plan to end the inventor's form of high-tech slavery.
Director Neveldine & Taylor
Starring Gerard Butler, Michael C. Hall, Amber Valletta
The Island (2005)
In 2019, a mercenary (Djimon Hounsou) pursues two clones (Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson) who escaped from a research facility after learning their true fate.
Futuristic thriller about a contained, seemingly utopian facility in the mid-21st century. The residents hope to be chosen to go to the Island - the last uncontaminated place on Earth, but when one resident clone (Ewan McGregor) discovers that there are sinister forces at work, he and a female clone friend (Scarlett Johansson) make a daring escape.
Director Michael Bay
Starring Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson, Djimon Hounsou
Minority Report (2002)
Based on a story by famed science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, "Minority Report" is an action-detective thriller set in Washington D.C. in 2054, where police utilize a psychic technology to arrest and convict murderers before they commit their crime. Tom Cruise plays the head of this Precrime unit and is himself accused of the future murder of a man he hasn't even met.
Director Steven Spielberg
Starring Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton
The Cell (2000)
"The Cell" takes a shocking, riveting mind trip into the dark and dangerous corridors of a serial killer's psyche - a psyche that holds the key to saving the killer's final, trapped victim who remains alive. Making this journey into the recesses of a killer's nightmarish fantasy world is Catherine Deane, a psychologist who has been experimenting with a radical new therapy. Through a new transcendental science, Catherine can experience what is happening in another person's unconscious mind.
Director Tarsem Singh
Starring Jennifer Lopez, Vince Vaughn, Vincent D'Onofrio
The Thirteenth Floor (1999)
A man awakens to discover a bloody shirt in his house and his boss murdered the night before. Did he do it? Why can't he remember? "The Thirteenth Floor" is a sci-fi thriller that explores the ominous possibility of computer-simulated universes, where people only believe they are real.
Director Josef Rusnak
Starring Armin Mueller-Stahl, Craig Bierko, Gretchen Mol
eXistenZ (1999)
Video game designer Allegra Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh) has created a virtual reality game called eXistenZ. After a crazed fan attempts to kill her, Allegra goes on the run with Ted (Jude Law), a young businessman who falls into the role of bodyguard. In an attempt to save her game, Allegra implants into Ted's body the video game pod that carries a damaged copy of eXistenZ. Allegra and Ted engage in a series of experiences that blur the lines between fantasy and reality.
Director David Cronenberg
Starring Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jude Law, Willem Dafoe
The Matrix (1999)
Neo (Keanu Reeves) believes that Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), an elusive figure considered to be the most dangerous man alive, can answer his question -- What is the Matrix? Neo is contacted by Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), a beautiful stranger who leads him into an underworld where he meets Morpheus. They fight a brutal battle for their lives against a cadre of viciously intelligent secret agents. It is a truth that could cost Neo something more precious than his life.
Directors Lilly Wachowski, Lana Wachowski
Starring Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Laurence Fishburne
Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace (1996)
Jobe (Matt Frewer) exists as a malevolent consciousness in virtual reality and seeks to discover the technology to hack into all the world's computers. Jobe contacts Peter (Austin O'Brien), who had been a friend during his corporeal existence, to assist him, but the young man realizes Jobe's evil intent. Peter calls on Benjamin (Patrick Bergin), a brilliant computer engineer, to help thwart Jobe's scheme for world domination, and a battle rages throughout cyberspace and in the real world.
Director Farhad Mann
Starring Patrick Bergin, Matt Frewer, Austin O'Brien
Strange Days (1995)
Former policeman Lenny Nero (Ralph Fiennes) has moved into a more lucrative trade: the illegal sale of virtual reality-like recordings that allow users to experience the emotions and past experiences of others. While the bootlegs typically contain tawdry incidents, Nero is shocked when he receives one showing a murder. He enlists a friend, bodyguard Mace (Angela Bassett), to help find the killer -- and the two soon stumble upon a vast conspiracy involving the police force Nero once worked for.
Director Kathryn Bigelow
Starring Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, Juliette Lewis
Hackers (1995)
A teenage hacker finds himself framed for the theft of millions of dollars from a major corporation. Master hacker Dade Murphy, aka Zero Cool, aka Crash Override, has been banned from touching a keyboard for seven years after crashing over 1,500 Wall Street computers at the age of 11. Now keen to get back in front of a monitor, he finds himself in more trouble than ever.
Director Iain Softley
Starring Jonny Lee Miller, Angelina Jolie, Fisher Stevens
Virtuosity (1995)
A former cop who has been imprisoned for murdering the psychopath who killed his family, Parker Barnes (Denzel Washington) is recruited to test out a new virtual-reality program where the goal is to apprehend a computer-generated being called SID 6.7 (Russell Crowe), who has been modeled on hundreds of deranged criminals. When SID manages to escape into the real world, Barnes must capture or destroy him before the soulless entity can go on a killing spree.
Director Brett Leonard
Starring Denzel Washington, Kelly Lynch, Russell Crowe
Johnny Mnemonic (1995)
In this film based on the William Gibson story, Johnny (Keanu Reeves) is a data courier who has a secret stash of information implanted into his mind. However, the data will kill Johnny if he cannot retrieve it within 48 hours. Accompanied by physically enhanced bodyguard Jane (Dina Meyer), Johnny sets out to acquire the passwords he needs to save himself. Worse yet, he is hunted by gangster Shinji (Denis Akiyama) and businessman Takahashi (Takeshi), both of whom seek the data Johnny possesses.
Director Robert Longo
Starring Keanu Reeves, Dolph Lundgren, Takeshi
Disclosure (1995)
In this Michael Crichton adaptation, Tom Sanders (Michael Douglas) is a senior executive at a cutting-edge technology corporation on the verge of releasing an innovative new product. Sanders' boss, Bob Galvin (Donald Sutherland), is putting the final touches on a potentially lucrative merger and everything is in order for Tom until a vamp from his past, Meredith Johnson (Demi Moore), swoops in, stealing his impending promotion and then - doubling down - suing him for sexual harassment.
Director Barry Levinson
Starring Michael Douglas, Demi Moore, Donald Sutherland
Brainscan (1994)
Horror films and computer games fascinate teenager Michael (Edward Furlong), and a CD-ROM that portrays murder from the killer's point of view combines these interests. The first time Michael plays it, he kills a stranger and cuts off a foot, thinking the events take place in virtual reality. But the next day Michael finds a foot in his refrigerator, and cyber-ghoul Trickster (T. Ryder Smith) emerges from the program and forces him to keep playing -- and to continue committing violent crimes.
Director John Flynn
Starring Edward Furlong, Frank Langella, T. Rider-Smith
Demolition Man (1993)
With innocent victims caught in the crossfire in Los Angeles' intensifying war on crime, both cop John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone) and violent thug Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes) are sentenced to a state of frozen incarceration known as "CryoPrison." When Spartan is finally thawed 36 years later, it's 2032, and Los Angeles is now a pacifist utopia called San Angeles. But with Phoenix again on the loose, Spartan must team up with future cop Lenina (Sandra Bullock) to apprehend the killer.
Director Marco Brambilla
Starring Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, Sandra Bullock
Arcade (1993)
All the kids in town are dying to play the hot new video game ARCADE. Trouble is once you play the game you can kiss reality good-bye. Arcade has seven levels of excitement, adventure, and terror for its players. The game transports you to another world with its stunning graphics, thrilling sound effects, and virtual reality simulation. It is the ultimate experience in a video game. But excitement like this doesn't come cheaply - when you battle with ARCADE you're putting your life on the line. The kids have accepted the challenge and are absorbed into the game. Only Alex (Megan Ward) realizes that their mysterious disappearances are linked to ARCADE. She must battle the game, alone. Too bad she's never been very good at games...
Director Albert Pyun
Starring Megan Ward, Peter Billingsley, John de Lancie
The Lawnmower Man (1992)
A scientist obsessed with perfecting virtual reality software experiments on a slow-witted gardener-who ends up turning into a frightening superhuman being. The eccentric Dr. Lawrence Angelo (Pierce Brosnan) puts mentally disabled landscaper Jobe Smith (Jeff Fahey) on a regimen of experimental pills and computer-simulated training sequences in hopes of augmenting the man's intelligence. In time Jobe becomes noticeably brighter and also begins to fare much better with the opposite sex. But, as he develops psychic powers, he realizes that those around him have taken advantage of his simplicity his whole life, and he plots a bloody revenge.
Director Brett Leonard
Starring Pierce Brosnan, Jeff Fahey
Total Recall (1990)
Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a bored construction worker in the year 2084 who dreams of visiting the colonized Mars. He visits "Rekall," a company that plants false memories into people's brains, in order to experience the thrill of Mars without having to travel there. But something goes wrong during the procedure; Quaid discovers that his entire life is actually a false memory and that the people who implanted it in his head now want him dead.
Director Buzz Feitshans
Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin, Sharon Stone
Brainstorm (1983)
Researchers Michael Brace (Christopher Walken) and Lillian Reynolds (Louise Fletcher) develop a system that allows the recording and playback of a person's thoughts onto videotape. The project spins dangerously out of control when Brace and his colleagues begin using the technology to explore intense sexual and near-death experiences. When the military moves to hijack the project for their own nefarious purposes, Brace tries to outwit them with help from his estranged wife (Natalie Wood).
Director Douglas Trumbull
Starring Christopher Walken, Natalie Wood, Louise Fletcher
Videodrome (1983)
David Cronenberg's (Scanners) diabolical invader is a television show that seduces and controls its viewers. James Woods as a cable programmer looking for the ultimate in viewing thrills who becomes caught up in the horrific television reality. As the president of a trashy TV channel, Max Renn (James Woods) is desperate for new programming to attract viewers. When he happens upon "Videodrome," a TV show dedicated to gratuitous torture and punishment, Max sees a potential hit and broadcasts the show on his channel. However, after his girlfriend (Deborah Harry) auditions for the show and never returns, Max investigates the truth behind Videodrome and discovers that the graphic violence may not be as fake as he thought.
Director David Cronenberg
Starring James Woods, Sonja Smits, Deborah Harry
Tron (1982)
When talented computer engineer Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) finds out that Ed Dillinger (David Warner), an executive at his company, has been stealing his work, he tries to hack into the system. However, Flynn is transported into the digital world, where he has to face off against Dillinger's computerized likeness, Sark, and the imposing Master Control Program. Aided by Tron (Bruce Boxleitner) and Yori (Cindy Morgan), Flynn becomes a freedom fighter for the oppressed programs of the grid.
Director Steven Lisberger
Starring Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, David Warner
Did we miss any? What's your favorite?
Our goal is to build the ultimate list of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality movies.
Let us know in the comments below if we missed any gems. We will update this list regularly.
Stay Tuned: We are also working on a second list dedicated to Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality TV Shows and Short Films!