Virtuality

Plot synopsis:
The story is set aboard the Phaeton, Earth's first starship, on a ten-year journey to explore a distant planetary system. In order to help the 12 members of the crew endure the long mission, a system of virtual reality modules is installed aboard the starship. These modules allow the crew to assume various identities and enjoy a variety of adventures, until a flaw is discovered in the system.The ship is 6 months into its journey and on the cusp of a "go or no go" decision. They are about to make a 'slingshot' move around Neptune and, depending on the course they choose, it will either turn them around and send them back to Earth, or slingshot them out of the solar system, on their way to explore for possible habitable planets and life around the nearby star, Epsilon Eridani.*** SPOILERS !!! SPOILERS !!! SPOILERS !!! ***It is at this point that problems suddenly begin to crop up. There is an unknown problem in the hydroponics section and food production, and production of oxygen and removal of carbon dioxide are off a few percent. The ship's doctor is diagnosed with a debilitating, progressive and potentially serious disease, which could render him incapable of taking care of the crew. The captain and chief hydroponics officer are engaging in a 'virtual sexual affair' through the virtual reality module, under the very nose of her husband, the ship's chief psych officer. However, it is this psych officer who also wrote the virtuality program and he may know more than he lets on. Various other problems and personality conflicts are starting to crop up, and the captain himself may be going crazy. On top of all of this, the master computer program which controls the whole ship seems to be listening in to everyone and everything that happens on the ship and among the crew, and it is starting to act a bit erratically and possibly has become inimical to the crew, or at the least might be malfunctioning. (Shades of HAL from "2001")The movie opens with the captain engaging in one of his favorite modules, a civil war simulation. The 'battle' in the simulation goes badly, so the captain, who commands a unit in the simulation, freezes the program and asks the computer what happened and why he isn't succeeding in the battle. The computer begins to explain why the captain has failed in this simulation, when, suddenly, one of the supposedly computer generated, simulated characters, walks out of the background, calls the captain by his real name (Frank) and says that the captain isn't fooling anyone, least of all, himself. The simulation character then shoots the captain. Since this is a virtual reality simulation, the captain is not injured, at least physically, but there may be signs of potential problems developing in his mind.This same simulation character starts to crop up in other shipmate's modules and virtual realities. In one of them, he is a doctor taking care of a crew member. In another, the virtual reality character pushes the real ship's doctor off a cliff. The 'simulation' character rapes one crew member in her module, tries to drown another, and shoots the captain and his lover while they are engaging in one of their virtual reality trysts.With all of these problems cropping up, it would seem to be an obvious decision that the mission should be aborted, but it isn't that simple. Since they left Earth, it has suddenly become clear that Earth itself will very soon be facing massive ecological collapse and possibly become completely uninhabitable. Humanity MUST find another place to live. So, though there are clear risks, the risks may be preferable to aborting the mission. In addition, the captain, who is starting to behave more erratically, seems determined to push on, because he likes what he has seen in the actions and activities of the virtual reality system and he wants to make sure it continues to function and that the ship continues its journey. The crew decides to support this, even though some crew members suspect that the people who sent them out may be lieing to them, that things might not be that bad on Earth, and they might have been told about the ecological catastrophe in order to force them to continue the mission.The 'Go' decision is made and the ship enters the trajectory which will send it towards another star. Having made this choice, there is no chance to change the decision. They literally must continue the journey to its end, then hope to return in 9 1/2 years. They no longer have any other option.. But additional problems begin to crop up on the ship.There is a glitch with the antenna which allows them to communicate with earth. The chief engineer of the ship shuts it down and retracts it to effect repairs, but when he tries to redeploy the antenna, the computer says it cannot do so. It simply isn't functioning. Someone on the crew must engage in a spacewalk outside the ship to effect repairs manually. The captain and two other crew members go to the airlock and prepare to leave the ship. While getting equipment, the captain is left by himself, in the airlock, suited, but without his helmet. The inner door to the airlock closes by itself, mysteriously, and the outer door begins to open. The computer says that it isn't in control of this, and can do nothing to stop it. From another control center in the ship, the chief engineer is able to prevent the outer door from opening completely, but the captain is left depressurized. Though they find a way to go in and try to save him, he dies from the exposure to space and vacuum.An inquiry is performed to determine the cause of the incident, and a 'short circuit' is found in the control mechanism for the airlock doors, so it appears to be an accident. Most crew members accept this, but the new 'acting' captain doesn't believe it. He says that it was no accident and someone on the crew has committed murder. Since he doesn't know who, he knows now that he can trust no one. Of course, one possible suspect might be the ship's psych officer. We see him reviewing tape of the last few moments of the captain's life, where the captain can be seen declaring his love for the psych officer's wife. Or it may be the computer, which might be managing the virtual reality program and causing other malfunctions on the ship for unknown reasons.The movie ends, rather abruptly, with the chief hydroponics officer finding the captain's virtual reality goggles, and one of his toy soldiers, sitting on a table. She enters her old lover's virtual reality module. There she sees a character, commanding troops, who looks like the dead captain. she goes up to him and he breaks character and calls her by her real name. He tells her that none of this is real and that, to find out the truth, she will need to "follow him down the rabbit hole." (Shades of the "Matrix") We also see the dead captain in what appears to be a previously taped interview, where he says, "If I kill a character in a video game, am I guilty of murder? I don't think so."The credits roll and we are left to Ponder what it all means. Is their whole journey, or significant parts of it really just a virtual reality simulation, and is the captain actually alive somewhere? Did he somehow find a way to move himself into the virtual reality program, and has he 'deleted' his body? Has the computer, or someone using the virtual reality probram taken control of a simulation of the captain, to have him say this? Ultimately, we are not sure what is going on.This movie was originally written as a pilot episode for a TV series, and undoubtedly, more of these questions might eventualy have been answered, but the TV series was never purchased, so the movie must stand alone.

Tags: suspenseful, murder

Review:
The pilot seemed like an interesting beginning to a potentially more complicated series.
The problem with a science fiction movie/show based off human drama, is that on a mission of earth shattering importance, the crew are almost entirely antagonistic whiny incompetents, who have no business being responsible for a trillion dollar spaceship.
Virtuality is the pilot of yet another "Long voyage into space" series.
I am for affirmative action and reasonable accommodation as much as the next guy, but a space ship on a twelve year mission is not the place for a paraplegic.
It's a series and I think it left us exactly in the right place.I was quite happy to see the entire two-hour PILOT despite the annoyance of commercials (love my DVDs).
Good riddance to warp drive.I thought it one of the better efforts for straight-up SciFi on television.I was bugged throughout trying to place the Commander, so came over here to IMDb to look it up.
There is a quirk in the virtual reality simulation system of a long duration space craft which seems to be attacking the crew.
There is a lot of time developing the characters and scene setting but the story arc is utterly incomplete.
I think some of the other reviews have mentioned that this was supposed to act as a pilot for a TV series that never got picked up and it really feels that way because nothing gets resolved.
This TV movie or plot if it ever continues has a special touch to it that makes it really enjoyable and i have to say i really got stuck with it after watching a while.Even though it may become an enjoyable series it still has it's flaws I'm afraid, this whole reality show thing they're trying to put in does not make any sense to me, kind of lowers the quality etc, and then we have the "The whole world is going to end" thing, we've all seen it to many times and it does not necessarily make a show more exciting, could have the opposite effect in fact.If this actually continues as a series i'd for one want to see some changes for the better, at least i would hope that they could just remove this reality show thing because it makes me think of all the stupid reality shows out there which makes me want to puke a 100 times over, i think that reality shows should stick to reality shows, the same with fiction shows and not trying to put these together because the outcome would be obvious.Anyhow, overall it was pretty decent, the sci-fi feeling about it made it to be worth watching, the ending here did its part and i hope for a following series.
If future episodes are going to be like the pilot, 30 minutes of material stretched to 2 hours, then this is going to be one bumpy ride.
Plus, anytime our astronauts are together, they all talk at once, and yell, too.Still, the virtual reality side of things could be interesting, plus the mystery of who's doing what to whom.
Do we have another HAL9000 here, a saboteur, or is mission control the bad guy?Another down side is I've gone two hours into this without liking any of the characters.
On board, things start to go wrong and yet they cannot turn back."Virtuality" seems good on paper.
So that's why the show was left in a cliffhanger.FOX doesn't have a lot of confidence in this show, and I can't blame them for it; better to let it die quickly than to have a sci-fi fan base disappointed when it inevitably gets canceled in mid-season.
The virtual reality special effects seemed like bad CGI greenscreen, but perhaps that was on purpose, so that you'd know you're in a virtual reality setting.
They did research their interstellar propulsion mechanisms well, and it looked like nuclear propulsion drives as described in various science fiction novels in the past.I didn't think the idea behind the story was bad though.
When I found out it was a made for TV movie, and the pilot to a TV series, it made a lot more sense.
All in all, I could have found something better to do with my time than watch this movie..
Covering virtual reality, space travel and reality television in a single pilot episode was a challenge and I think they successfully achieved it.
However even if the few clips I saw convinced me it would be great I was a little worry about the way the writers would deal with reality elements.Their work is both inspiring and very smart because I find reality shows far too dramatic and not real enough.
Hopefully there're also good productions like Project Runway that blend ideas very nicely.
If you appreciate the genre and are a science howl then you'll definitely dig the few outdoor scenes, the ship design, its interior It should also remind you of your favorite space opera film.
It's supposed to be a key solution to the mission success but of course events didn't occur as expected and the virtual scenes were so disturbing, well directed and written that they actually reminded me of cult films like Event Horizon and The Lawnmower Man. The team behind Virtuality is so talented and has so many twisted ideas that they brought many refreshing and interesting elements to a topic that has already been well covered by others.All these great things made me a fan of the show even if the FOX decided not to pick it up.
If you're accustomed to such artistic creations you shouldn't be surprised and only enjoy it for what it is, one of the best space pilot ever aired.
I could find no hint of that, neither in the program ending nor program listings nor even here at IMDb. Mercifully this was all there is of it, it seems.I find it unbelievable that Fox would have the audacity to air this: Fox is the same network that first abused and disrespected and then canceled a far better science fiction series, "Firefly".
Peter Berg, I think, should focus on acting, and Fox should stick with the horrid reality shows and repulsive animated vulgarity that pays the bills..
The idea of a reality TV show format regarding a intersellar trip to the stars was fascinating as a sci-fi made for television movie.
However, the premise in actuality was less than stellar and built on so many obviously fake assumptions that it couldn't really be pulled off without a brilliant script, direction, acting, and perhaps being made into a television series instead of a less than two-hour movie format.
But having to watch actors pretending to be real in a fictional movie was stretching matters, especially with the premise of heightened corporate driven ratings faking and dramatically driving such a perilous mega-trip to the stars (almost too unbelievable to accept).
This Silent Running (1972), Virtuosity (1995), The Truman Show (1998), Logan's Run (1976) amalgamation was too packed with ideas with too many characters (which was dealt with M.A.S.H television episodes fake-live interview format scenes as effectively as could have been expected).
This television movie wasn't without its exciting premise, its nice special effects and adherence to some strong scientific elements of space travel, and nice psychological atmospherics (like Sphere (1998) and Event Horizon (1997)).
I just got around to seeing this, in 2015, since I rarely watch TV, so at first I thought it was a crazy movie with even crazier ending.
Even with the character issues, I would have liked to have seen at least one season, although if it had been picked up in 2009, we might not have had Nikolaj Coaster-Waldau (the Commander) on Game of Thrones (Jamie Lannister).
On the other hand, If you enjoy imagining what the writers intended for this series, have fun.If anyone wonders what I made of it, I supposed the mission itself was virtual.
When I think of shows like "Outcasts"(2010) - which probably had an even remotely interesting moment only every fourth episode and got an entire season to deliver more of this boredom, I just can't believe "Virtuality" didn't even get the chance of a first season!
The story is more than just believable - it's compelling and it sucked me in; the cast is awesome; the dialogues are well written; if you're a fan of "BSG" or "Caprica" you know what to expect in terms of acting, camera work and directing.
This one performed kind of a kick-start and got pulled off at top speed.Even though its just a pilot for a show that never got picked up - this pilot is definitely worth a look and can be considered a movie with an opened end.(Sorry if my English is not perfect, I'm German).
JMS said of the new Star Trek shows, 'IF you are in space, and you have to go to the Holodeck to have an adventure, you're missing the point." So Ronald Moore, a guy responsible for most of those insipid "Holodeck gone made" episodes on Star Trek brought us this steaming load about a reality TV space ship where people pass the time by going into virtual reality settings.Oh, yeah, and they call their ship the Phaethon.
I also think it would make a great 1 season 20 episode series.
This is a great idea, making a reality show out of a space journey.
The only movie to get the gravity part correct is 2001 A Space Odyssey and apparently studio execs don't have the money for that kind of integrity anymore (meaning, we don't wanna cut into our personal bonusses), even with faaaaaaar more viewers and more money spent on film-making.This is a great idea, especially the murderous villain in the virtual worlds etc.
All in all, a good setup, interesting potential story lines, great developments ahead.
The virtual part of the show gets a very nice perspective of the human mind, transforming somehow after your own fantasies, thoughts and memories and not only, it actually can control the ship.
I just watched this pilot and besides the nice special effects there is is thin storyline waiting to be unfolded.
His illicit virtual relationship with the ship's shrink's wife adds additional spice to the development of the series...assuming this becomes one.
More Psychological than SciFi. I thought that the characters were very well developed--though a cheesy plot, the story more or less centers itself around peer interaction.
I can see this story developing not just in space, but in all the various virtual reality modes that the crew tunes in to.
BSG had its moments that stretched into infinity, but overall the series was spectacular, so I'll give these guys enough rope to run with or hang themselves.The infiltrated VR system is a neat hook, the idea of a possible life-after-death in VR land, the problems of whom to believe and trust as cabin fever sets in, this is all fertile ground for plot (and thus character) development.
Plus, they took the entire pilot introducing you to a character who dies in the end.
Please don't extend it into a series, have mercy on the American viewer.--- SPOILER ALERT --- Either, as another reviewer here has suggested, the WHOLE THING is a simulation - and I think that's dumb, but I hope it's right, because otherwise this space voyage is doomed, as whoever chose this group of misfits and lunatics was an idiot.
Many series that have died have tried to stretch the interest of the viewer beyond the practical – in a series, wasting many episodes on mindless action outside the arc, here, in the pilot, wasting air time with over used old ideas or overused statements.The core of the idea is at the very end where, as a few commentators have brought out, the virtuality encompassing the ship itself, or whatever the deep secret that only the commander knew and wouldn't share (the "down the rabbit hole" is the allusion to it as well).
This seems to have been augmented by the vision of the evil virtual player being seen in MD garb toward the end – as well as the meta observation of not setting up how kill off the main character in a pilot when clearly he's the only one with leadership capabilities in the bunch.
This scenario fits well with the lack of credibility that the crew could have passed the tests for a 10 year mission.In any case, more substantial exploration of the above virtual set up would have given more of a tease and interest.
Obviously if you care enough to do both of those things, then it doesn't matter if you like it or not, just that you DID watch it.
It could be a good show, some characters are interesting, but the whole show is severely lacking in wit and originality.They made it clear enough that the whole thing is a simulation in itself and if you don't get it watching the pilot episode then you might want to continue watching it.
Several people have said they think it's odd/brave/lame/otherwise that the main character dies in the end and we'll never see him again.
Seems to me he will/would likely be a recurring character in the series, but only appear in the virtual world (as he did in the very end).
Of course, who knows with this plot if he's really really dead even...but even supposing he is gone i don't think he's gone from the show (again, if they even make a show out of it).Great little movie.
CGI special effects were minimal and well done, the movie/pilot stayed mainly with the initial character development...
I hope the series does not fall into the Star Trek VR trap of showing endless VR SCHLOCK like Virtual Nazi World and Virtual Roman Empire crap just to fill an hour of otherwise promising SciFi TV.I am happy to see that Lyle-the-Intern has found a suitably delicious villain to ooze his smarmy talents upon!The overall quality of the movie gets an 8-of-10...
We have the gay pair,the tough female Marine,a doctor with Parkinson's?-(What first-year med student missed that diagnosis while screening the crew?)-the commander who goes crazy and has Virtual Sex with the Psych-doc's wife, a paraplegic Second-Officer, the beautiful African bio-specialist who is hot for the Asian bio-specialist, the emotionally troubled engineer who talks to his dead son in VR,and the young female TV intern who is host to the Space-Based Reality Show that is beamed back to earth to entertain the masses, that may...
That might be interesting for a few of us (purists), but it SURELY WOULD NEVER MAKE IT ON FOX TV!So, enjoy this movie for what it is...
a well made SciFi Space Trip with a soap-opera-ready crew, an interesting plot twist, and Lyle-The-Intern in his ready-for-prime-time VR Villain debut.
Moore and directed by the sometimes great Peter Berg, Virtuality was made in 2009 as a potential series for the Fox Network.
For reasons that are unknown, Fox made the decision to not pick the show up for a series but still aired what was done as a pilot movie.
Having watched the DVD for the first time tonight, I was amazed at just how well thought out and realized the production was for a pilot.
The special effects, set design, and cinematography all looked as good, if not better, than most feature films released by major studios.
If I had to guess, the commentary on reality television probably alienated Fox, the network that has aired some of the most notorious reality shows of all time which led to the decision not to produce Virtuality as a series.
As it stands, Virtuality remains one of the best pilots of the past decade, a visually impressive and smart science fiction gem that will likely develop a small cult following one day.
Mission control knows this but are afraid that if they interrupt the experiment they'll damage the crew.It's not to say that this can't be a good series.
The only reason I even bothered to look it up was because the movie suddenly ended without any explanation and without ever having a story.
I looked it up to see if I could get some kind of explanation as to what it was I had wasted all this time watching.I usually like Sci-Fi's.
I had no idea this was a pilot for a series.
I love Sci-Fi but I certainly didn't buy a space movie to watch civil war scenes and bad rock star concerts or a crew of immature, airhead, boring video game junkies or listen to their nonsensical ego-babbling into the video camera.
The females all slurred their words together.I finally tried to watch it a second time a couple years later; using the fast forward to get past those maddening irritations while I kept hoping that something sci-fi was going to show itself at some point when the plot became clear.Watching an entire crew of narcissistic morons who condescend and cast disparagement upon everything their fellow crew members say or experience is an X gen nightmare.
Much of the show was more like watching a daily producers meeting behind the scenes at Fox. A network so bad, I deleted them from my TV menu 10 years ago.Even worse was the male crewmembers crass, insensitive, smarta$$ attitude toward 2 female crew members who had been viciously attacked during their virtual reality...
We were also forced to endure the psychological unfitness of this crew for space with their issues of dead children, lost pregnancies & doctors office visits; plus ego programs and how the male crew members actually got off on being killed in their virtual reality encounters which empowered them when off the VR system.
It was a VIDEO GAME series.This is the one rare time that FOX actually did the right thing by not picking up this series.