Visually, this film isn't just impressive, it's a tour de force. Proyas hasn't written this film for the passive viewer. To become involved in Dark City , thinking is mandatory. In the way Dark City tinkers with the boundaries of what's real and what isn't, it recalls The Game . Some viewers may also be reminded of Total Recall , although Proyas' film plunges deep into issues that the Schwarzenegger vehicle used as icing for an action-laden cake.
Dark City opens by immersing the audience in the midst of a fractured, nightmarish narrative.
The protagonist, who later learns that his name is John Murdoch, has amnesia. His only company in the grungy hotel suite is the nude body of a dead prostitute. He doesn't know. Schreber warns him to get out of the hotel immediately. Soon, without a clue about his identity, Murdoch is fleeing from corpse-like creatures with incredible mental powers.