"eXistenZ." "Written like this." "One word." "Small "e." Capital "X."" "Capital "Z."" "eXistenZ." "It's new." "It's from Antenna Research." "And it's here." "Right now." "We encourage consumer loyalty, and we want you to help with our product testing." "We're a team." "Antenna and you." "Those of you who've come to our seminars before will know that I normally lead the groups through our new games." "But tonight it won't be me." "No." "For our test launch of eXistenZ, by Antenna we've brought you a seminar leader who's special." "Yes, it is." "The world's greatest game designer is here in person, to lead you, our first test enclave through her newest creation, eXistenZ, by Antenna." "I give you the game-pod goddess herself Allegra Geller." "Allegra!" "Allegra!" "The world of games is in a kind of a trance." "People are programmed to accept so little." "But the possibilities are so great." "eXistenZ is not just a game." "It's an entirely new game system." "And it involves a whole lot of new toys which you're gonna be the first to try out." "We have 12 prototype MetaFlesh Game-Pods." "That means that for our first-wave test enclave, we need 12 volunteers who will port into these slave units with the game-pod goddess herself." "Hold it." "Not so fast." "Right." "Did I miss the port-in?" "Just the first wave." "You can be part of the second." "You and the guy at the back." "You, sir." "This lady here." "Just come up." "Thank you." "Noel Dichter?" "Yes." "I have to scan you." "Weapons check?" "More for recording devices." "Lot of money invested in these games, Noel." "Assistants will help you to port your pod into your bio-ports using Antenna Research's new..." "What's in this case?" "I brought my game-pod." "Original Marway tissue architecture." "I know it's kind of obsolete." "I couldn't afford the Antenna 15 upgrade." "I figured out this method" "You won't need it tonight." "Everything's provided for." "How are you doing?" "You think two hours, tops?" "Well, two, three hours." "So you're saying three hours?" "Okay." "Everything's in order." "Are you ready, Allegra?" "Sure." "This is my favourite part." "Take it away." "All right." "I'm ready to download eXistenZ, by Antenna Research, into all of you." "Now, I'm warning you, it's going to be a wild ride." "But don't panic." "No matter what happens, okay?" "I'll see you back here in no time at all." "She seems to be very shy." "Never occurred to me that a big star would be shy." "She spends most of her time alone in a room, designing her games." "She'd like it best if she never had to show them." "Death to the demoness Allegra Geller!" "Death to Antenna Research!" "Get her out of here." "Save her!" "There might be more of them." "Go on!" " Me?" "Take her?" " We have enemies in our own house." "Trust no one." "Trust no one!" "Miss Geller, you're coming with me." "I'm responsible for you." "You're supposed to come with me." "Well, what are we gonna do out here?" "Do you know your way around?" "Do you know any country people?" "Not country people." "Games people." "Countryside's full of games-development people, project coordinators little factories." "So you know your way." "We can hide out." "Maybe." "It seems like I have some enemies I didn't know I had." "" Death to Allegra Geller."" "How would you like to hear someone scream " Death to Ted Pikul"?" "How'd you know my name?" "You're labelled." "What's that?" "My pink-fone." "Ted Pikul." "What hap" "What?" "What did you do that for?" " That was our lifeline to civilization." " That was a range-finder." "As long as you have that, they know where we are." " You mean head office?" " Anybody." "Pikul, why don't you have a gun?" "What?" "You're not armed." "They told me you're my security, but you have no weaponry." "Who told you that?" "I'm a marketing trainee." "Fucking hell." "I'm marked for death, and they send me on the road with a PR nerd." "" Marked for death."" "" Marked for death." Oh, Jesus." "Don't sweat it, Pikul." "Don't sweat it." "I'm gonna handle it." "And right now we need to stop." "We do?" "Why?" "So we can have an intimate moment together." "If you're gonna do it, do it." "Did somebody bite you?" "What?" "What I just dug out of you." "It's a tooth." "A human tooth." "Let me see that weirdo pistol." "The bullets are human teeth." "This one's got a cavity." "That thing was designed to get past any kind of metal or synthetics detector." "It's all flesh and bone." "I suppose the smaller calibre pistols would have to fire baby teeth." "The tooth fairy could go into the arms business." "Where were you just now?" "I was wandering through eXistenZ." "The new system, I mean." "I like it in there." "Of course, without another player you're only a tourist." "It's frustrating." "Why won't you let me contact Antenna?" "They've gotta be going crazy wondering what's happened to you." "I mean, it's not like we've done something wrong." "We just ran because we didn't know how many of them there were, right?" "We owe it to Antenna to let them know you're all right and to get them to send somebody to help you who knows what he's doing." "Besides, I can't..." "I can't just keep doing this, whatever it is you know, forever." "Not having any idea when it's going" "What are you doing?" "Where's your bio-port?" "Don't tell me you've never been fitted." "I can't believe it." "I was never fitted." "What do you care?" "You wanna get into the biz, and you've never played my games?" "You've never played any game?" "Look." "I've been dying to play your games but I have this phobia about having my body penetrated surgically." "You know what I mean." "No, I'm not sure that I do." "Getting a bio-port fitted." "I don't know." "I can't do it." "It's too freaky." "Makes my skin crawl." "They just pop your spine with a little hydro-gun." "They shoot the port plug into it." "It's like getting your ears pierced." "With only an infinitesimal chance of permanent spinal paralysis." " I've read all about it." " It's your chosen profession." "Besides, once you're ported there's no end to the games you can play." "You can't seriously wanna play games now." "Not here." "Not while we're being hunted down by crazy people." "My baby here took a huge hit in the church, Pikul." "One of those UmbyCords got ripped out of her." "Ripped out of her." "Just as the game architecture was being downloaded from her to the slave pods." "That's a very vulnerable time for her." "She could be crying out for help right here right now." "The only way I can tell if the game's not been contaminated the pod is not about to be crippled for life because of my negligence is to play eXistenZ with somebody friendly." "Are you friendly?" "Or are you not?" "Sure." "Let's do it." "Let's do it now." "Let me see." "To get an illegal unregistered bio-port installed at about midnight we just drive up to your local country gas station, right?" "Anything else I can do for you?" "Well, Gas you could check your bio-port plugs." "The what?" "Spark plugs?" "You heard me." "My friend here has a bio-port problem." "A bio-port." "Now that's a sort of hole in your spine, isn't it?" "Lots of assholes around here, but that's generally it." "I don't know why you'd be talking to me about that, lady." "Sure you do." "Allegra Geller." "You've changed my life." "What was your life like before?" "Before?" "Before it was changed by Allegra Geller." "I operated a gas station." "You still operate a gas station." "Only on the most pathetic level of reality." "Geller's work liberated me." "Liberated?" "Did you ever play her game ArtGod?" "One word." "Capital "A." Capital "G."" "I don't have a bio-port." ""Thou, the player of the game, art God." Very spiritual." "Funny too." "God, the artist, the mechanic." "Funny." "Here we go." "Those are sterilized aren't they?" "Not to worry." "You could fire in a bio-port in a slaughterhouse and never generate an infection." "Then why the clean overalls?" "It's a mental thing." "Helps me focus." "The one thing you don't wanna do is miss with the stud-finder." "Oh, God." "God?" "The mechanic." "Step into my office." "See?" "That didn't hurt, did it?" "I didn't expect that to hurt." "I expect the next part to hurt." "That's what I expect to hurt." "I haven't crippled anyone yet." "How many have you done?" "Three." "Well, you'll be my third." "Easy." " What was going on, Gas?" " Hell he's acting like I'm attacking him." "People usually pay me to do this." "Yeah?" "All two of them!" "As you can see I've decided not to have a bio-port installed." "This is it, you see." "This is the cage of your own making which keeps you trapped and pacing about in the smallest space forever." "Break out of your cage, Pikul." "Break out now." "The swelling doesn't last for long." "Tomorrow you won't even notice it." "I love it." "Great." "What's going on?" "I can't move my legs!" "The procedure comes with its own epidural." "Just like when you have a baby." "Kind of instant paralysis from the waist down." "That's why it didn't hurt you." "It'll wear off in no time." "I'm gonna go wash up." "You two make yourselves at home." "We don't have to wait for the swelling to go down." "You're gonna port into me while I'm paralysed?" "You wanted to play my game, didn't you?" "Yeah, I did." "I do, but" "Here?" "Now?" "It's an instant-on world, isn't it?" "What's that for?" "Feels cold." "New ports are sometimes a bit tight." "Wouldn't wanna hurt you." "How come bio-ports don't get infected?" "I mean they open right into your body." "Listen to what you're saying, Pikul." "Don't be ludicrous." "Don't you think you could call me Ted?" "Maybe afterwards." "Shit!" "Pikul!" "I can't believe it." "You blew my pod!" "You neural-surged." "What do you mean?" "I jacked you into my pod and you panicked." "It's totally fucked!" "This is a disaster." "I was nervous, but I didn't panic." "I was forced to trust you, and you panicked and you neural-surged and you blew my pod." "You can get a new pod." "Pikul." "In this pod is the only, the original version of eXistenZ." "An entire game system that cost 38 million to develop." "Not including prerelease marketing costs." "And I'm locked outside my own game." "I can't get me in or it out." "Are you serious?" "That's the only version that exists?" "It's the only one and it's stuck inside and it's your fault." "I've devoted five of my most passionate years to this strange little creature." "And I've never regretted it, Pikul." "I knew it was the only thing that could give my life any meaning." "Why is it my fault?" "I'm telling you, I didn't." "I did not neural-surge." "I didn't." "I didn't feel any surging." "It's not your fault." "It's my fault." "Oh, no, Gas." "Not you." "I wouldn't try to use that bio-port again." "Except maybe for a toaster or something." "What's going on?" "You're worth a lot of money if you're dead." "What are you talking about?" "You know what I'm talking about." "It's all over the countryside." "Five million dollars for her dead body." "No questions asked." "But she changed your life." "Yeah." "Now I'm gonna change hers." "Why did you install a bad port into me?" "There's a bonus for killing Allegra Geller's latest game, or whatever it is." "I think I just did that, didn't I?" "But can you kill me, Gas?" "Can you kill a person?" "Can you do that?" "Hide my body contact the crazies trust them to pay up?" "Hand over my now decaying, fucking grotesque corpse really expect them to hand over five mill cash?" "I mean, don't you ever go to the fucking movies?" "I like your script." "I wanna be in it." "Oh, God, I think he's dead." "He wanted to kill you." "That's two people in one day who wanted to actually kill you." "I've never been more popular." "Allegra, we need help." "You're right." "I've gotta get this pod fixed." "We're going skiing?" "Look at that huge bug." "It's got two heads." "It's not a bug. it's a mutated amphibian. it's a frog salamander-lizard thing." "Sign of the times." "What happens if somebody comes up here and really wants to ski?" "Nobody actually physically skis anymore." "You know that." "No, don't use that!" "And bring me the sterile wash." "My darling." "Allegra Geller." "I am so pleased and so astonished to see you here." "Kiri Vinokur my bodyguard, Ted Pikul." "Sterile wash." "I hear this ridiculous story about some fatwa against you." "The company are desperately trying to find you." "Is this really serious?" "Are you in danger?" "There have been a couple of attempts on my life." "This is unbearable." "The company must stop this." "They owe you every kind of protection." "I don't know if they can do anything." "It seems to be open season on me." "You're safe here." "I assure you." "I will contact Antenna right away and have them send some people over" "No, Kiri, don't." "Tell no one we're here." "I can't be sure that Antenna is completely safe for me." "I understand." "Yes." "You know you can hide out in one of the guest chalets as long as you like." "And I'll make sure you get fresh towels." "And make sure I don't lose everything I have in here." "You bet." "Take that." "Good." "Pull this back." "What did you port into?" "Pikul's bio-port." "That's what caused all the damage?" "It was a flawed installation." "My first." "Well it fried a lot of expensive neural webbing." "You see?" "Looks like an animal in there." "Feels like you're operating on somebody's pet dog." "I told you, Landry, we have become glorified veterinarians." "Put a little in there, please." "The eXistenZ game-pod is basically an animal, Mr. Pikul." "It's grown from fertilized amphibian eggs stuffed with synthetic DNA." "Only Antenna has this." "Wow." "Where do the batteries go?" "Very funny." "He's not kidding." "He's a total PR nerd. it ports into you." "You're the power source." "Your body, your nervous system, your metabolism, your energy." "You get tired, rundown, it won't run properly." "Iandry here will finish up the pod work." "Now, let's get that nasty bio-port out, put a nice fresh one in." "It hurts." "I think it's infected." "No, it's not infected." "It's just excited." "It wants action." "I really don't think I want action." "Me, I mean." "The bearer of the excited bio-port." "My baby has now taken three major hits." "One in the church one in the gas station and one on the operating table." "The only way I can tell if everything's okay is to play eXistenZ with somebody friendly." "Are you friendly or are you not?" "You're telling me this thing will run off my body's energy?" "That's how they work." "See?" "You're humming along already." "EXistenZ." "Only from Antenna." "Here we go." "You've got a bit of an unfair advantage." "How can I possibly compete with the designer of the system?" "Well, you could beat the guy that invented poker, couldn't you?" " You want that one?" " Yeah, that one." " Are you sure you want that one?" " Yes." " I wouldn't recommend it." " Why not?" "The graphics on this one are better." "There's no comparison." " This is the one you want." " That one?" "That was beautiful." "I feel just like me." "Is that kind of transition normal?" "That kind of smooth interlacing from place to place?" "Depends on the style of the game." "You can get jagged brutal cuts, slow fades shimmering little morphs." "This is amazing." "I had no idea." "Look at this." "Games I've never heard of." "Wait a minute." "That reminds me." "What precisely is the goal of the game that we're playing now?" "You have to play the game to find out why you're playing the game." "It's the future, Pikul." "You'll see how natural it feels." "Look at this." "Can this be the future too?" "Ever see anything like this before?" "These are delicate." "You got to be careful." "Yes, I can imagine." "Cortical Systematics is the latest and the hottest." "Not just a new game but a new system." "Will it work with an industry standard bio-port?" "I'm D'Arcy Nader." "Welcome to D'Arcy Nader's Game Emporium." "Is there anything I can be helping you with?" "We're just looking." "I have what you're looking for." "Who sent you?" "It's none of your business who sent us." "We're here." "That's all that matters." "God." "What happened?" "I didn't mean to say that." "Your character said it." "It's a kind of schizophrenic feeling, isn't it?" "You'll get used to it." "There are things that have to be said to advance the plot." "Those things get said whether you wanna say them or not." "Don't fight it." "Just go with it." "But should you be saying this in front of him?" "Look at him." " What's he doing?" " He's gone into a game loop." "He won't come out of it until you give him a proper line of game dialogue." "This is tricky." "Start by repeating your last line." "Include his name so he knows you're talking to him." "We're here, D'Arcy Nader and that's all that matters." "Yes, you're right." "That is all that matters." "Now, you said you have what we want." "We're waiting." "You're going to need these micro-pods to download your new identities." "I assume that you both have had these industry standard bio-ports that you mentioned installed." "Yes, of course, we both have bio-ports." "We do, don't we?" "I assumed we did." "In the game, we might not." "We better check." "Yeah, it's there." "Looks a little different, but it's there." "Yeah, I see what you mean." "Yes, we both have bio-ports." "Good." "Port in." "And this will tell you all you need to know for now." "I'm going to leave, while you two finish up here because it wouldn't be good for us all to be seen together." "I assume that Nader is our entry point into the game." "Yeah, kind of disappointing." "Nader?" "He's not a very well-drawn character." "His dialogue was just so-so." "His accent..." "The pods are so small they plug directly into the bio-port." "Oh, God." "What happened?" "The whole pod just disappeared into your back." "It disappeared into my back?" "It's working its way round my spinal cord?" "Don't panic. it's just a game." "Do you feel anything yet?" "No, I don't." "Not a thing." "I don't feel a thing." "Do you want me to do you?" "What the hell was that?" "That wasn't me." "It was my game character." "I wouldn't have done that." "Not here anyway." "Our characters are obviously supposed to jump on each other." "It's most probably a pathetically mechanical attempt to heighten the emotional tension of the next game sequence." "No use fighting it." "What about our new identities?" "Do you feel yours yet?" "They'll take care of themselves." "I'm very worried about my body." "Your what?" "Where are our real bodies?" "Are they all right?" "What if they're hungry?" "What if there's danger?" "They're just where we left them." "They're sitting quietly eyes closed." "It's just like meditating." "I feel really vulnerable." "Disembodied." "Don't sweat it." "All your senses are still operating." "You'll pop right out of the game if there's a problem." "Trying to remember who you are?" "Hey, it works!" "I must be Yevgeny Nourish." "And you are new to trout farm." "Yes, I'm..." "I'm very new." "Did you say "trout farm"?" "Yeah, trout farm." "You know, raising baby trout from eggs and releasing them in rivers." "Entire place used to be trout farm." "From outside, you would never guess it's now factory for making game-pods." "Seems like most everything used to be something else, yes?" "You're new, but you seem to know what you're doing." "It surprises me more than it surprises you." "You're new, but you seem to know what you're doing." "I've been trained by the very best." "So have I, my friend." "So have I." "Where are you planning to have lunch?" "I'm new here." "I have no plans for lunch." "May I suggest the Chinese restaurant in the forest?" "Everyone knows where it is." "Just ask." "Well, won't you be going there too?" "Unfortunately, I have other plans for lunch." "But I do suggest you order the special." "And don't take no for answer." "All right, I'll do that." "Iarry." "Yes?" "They need this in the back." "They asked for you." "I saw you make contact, Larry." "What did the guy on the assembly line say?" "Can you believe the game version of your pod?" "It's sick and so unconvincing!" "I mean, using mutated animal organs and nervous systems as game-pod parts is certainly feasible but everything's so dirty." "Absurd." "Grotesque." "I saw you make contact, Larry." "What did the guy on the assembly line say?" "He told me where to have lunch." "We have nice sea bass today." "Shall I bring it for everyone?" "We want the special." "Did you hear me, Chinese waiter?" "We want the special." "The special is for special occasions." "I cannot give you the special." "But this is a special occasion." "It's her birthday." "A birthday is a special occasion." "I will therefore bring the special for everybody." "I guess the special isn't very popular." "I guess not." "I wanna put the game on pause." "The game can be paused, can't it?" "I mean, all games can be paused, right?" "Yeah, sure." "But why?" "What's wrong?" "Aren't you dying to see what's so special about the special?" "I'm feeling a little disconnected from my real life." "I'm losing touch with the texture of it." "You know what I mean?" "I actually think there's an element of psychosis involved here." "This is a great sign." "Your nervous system is fully engaging with the game architecture." "EXistenZ is paused!" "Did I do that?" "I guess I did." "So how does it feel?" "What?" "Your real life." "The one you came back for." "It feels completely unreal." "You're stuck now, aren't you?" "You wanna go back to the Chinese restaurant because there's nothing happening here." "We're safe. it's boring." "It's worse than that." "I'm not sure..." "I'm not sure here where we are is real at all." "This feels like a game to me." "And you you're beginning to feel like a game character." "Definitely not." "Let's go back." "Special order for the birthday girl." "Hope you enjoy it very much." "Look, it's our two-headed friend." "Doesn't look too healthy." "I think I lost my appetite." "Oh, a shame." "Mutant reptiles and amphibians provide new and previously unimagined taste sensations." "Shall I clear all this away?" "We're happy." "Very good." "Enjoy." "Pikul, what are you doing?" "I don't know." "I find this disgusting, but I can't help myself." "Good." ""Good"?" "You think this is good?" "Yeah." "It's a genuine game urge." "It's something your character was born to do." "Don't fight it." "I'm fighting it." "But it isn't doing me any good." "Oh, my God." "This looks awfully familiar." "You sure this is okay?" "Yeah, it should be okay." "Do you have that bridge in real life?" "Absolutely not." "My teeth are perfect." "Death to the demoness Allegra Geller." "That's not funny." "Sorry." "But, you know I do feel the urge to kill someone here." "Who?" "I need to kill our waiter." "Well, that makes sense." "Waiter!" "Waiter!" "When he comes over, do it." "Don't hesitate." "But everything in the game is so realistic." "I don't think I really could." "You won't be able to stop yourself." "Enjoy it." "Free will is obviously not a big factor in this little world of ours." "It's like real life." "There's just enough to make it interesting." "He's too nice." "I won't do it." "What can I do to make your lunch more pleasant?" "I found this in my soup and I'm very upset." "It's all right." "Just a little misunderstanding over the check." "Pay no attention and enjoy your meal." "I feel a serious game urge to get out of here." "Through the kitchen." "That way." "Did you like the meal I prepared for you?" "It was very revealing." "It certainly was for me." "You both passed our little test with flying colours." " Why did the Chinese waiter have to die?" " A waiter hears many things spoken when people are relaxing and eating." "A waiter has many opportunities for betrayal." "He betrayed you?" "He betrayed us." "Us!" "Come." "This way." "Come." "These are the breeding pools." "Breeding pools." "Is this..." "Is this where you caught today's special?" "We originally were raising these mutant creatures for their nervous systems for game-pods." "But then we found they could be quite tasty." "So we opened the restaurant, and now that is our cover." "We are also raising them as components for undetectable and hypoallergenic weapons." "Right under the noses of our enemies." "And speaking of our enemies, it's important that you go back to work at Cortical Systematics." "We need to maintain as many agents there as possible." "It's owned by Cortical Systematics?" "Yeah." "Their corporate slogan should be:" "" Enemies of Reality."" "Someday soon, we will destroy trout farm and all game-pods inside." "We love you." "Now that you have proven to be true and trustworthy Realists." "We'll be in touch." "I'm looking for D'Arcy Nader." "Is he here?" "Hugo Carlaw, is D'Arcy Nader here?" "He's in the back." "You want him, there he is." "You shouldn't have killed the Chinese waiter." "Why not?" "He was your contact at the trout farm." "Damn good man." "His dog brought me this." "We were contacted by Yevgeny Nourish." "He knew who we were." "Nader told him that you were coming." "Nader was a mole for Cortical Systematics." "You're with the Realist Underground." "I was placed here to keep an eye on Nader." "If Nourish isn't our real contact, who is he?" "He's a double agent for Cortical Systematics." "He was working with Nader to subvert the Realist cause and doing it rather well." "He got you to assassinate your own contact." "But now you're gonna put a stop to him." "I don't wanna be here." "Come on, Pikul." "You've just got a bad case of first-time user anxiety." "I don't like it here." "I don't know what's going on." "We're both stumbling around together in this unformed world whose rules and objectives are largely unknown seemingly indecipherable or possibly nonexistent always on the verge of being killed by forces that we don't understand." "That sounds like my game, all right." "That sounds like a game that's not gonna be easy to market." "But it's a game everybody's already playing." "The cashier said it would be in a familiar place." "Is there such a thing here?" "My assembly bay." "Is that it over there?" "God, it's ugly even for a game-pod." "I have a terrible urge to port into it." "What about you?" "Sure." "Yeah." "Desperate to port into it." "All right." "Here we go." " You wanna give me a hand?" " You're not serious!" "That's a diseased pod." "You port into that" "Yes, exactly." "Help me." "How long does it take for the infection to take hold?" "No time at all." "Then you quietly port into the other pods and spread the infection to them." "Oh, God." "What's happening?" "Something's wrong." "I'm gonna unport you now." "Oh, God!" "Don't!" "That really hurts." "I'm gonna cut you free." "No!" "I'm afraid!" "Pikul I'm bleeding to death."