The film eXistenZ vividly portrays Platos hierarchical theme of reality through presenting false “realities” within what we presume is the main characters reality. They do this through the use of putting our main characters into a game, and then going into a game once more. This alone displays his depiction of the hierarchical theme of reality through having a world within a world within a world. This is furthered in that the conclusion in the movie leaves the audience unclear as to whether or not the main characters are actually in reality, or just another game.
The hierarchy is also described through the characters actions, costumes, and through the acting of some of the characters. As the main characters delve deeper into each game, their costumes become less conforming. For example, the female protagonists hair slowly becomes less straight and even, and it begins to curl more and more as they go deeper and deeper game after game. Their clothes slowly get dirtier and more revealing. This is evident in the main female protagonist as her clothes go from rather classy at the beginning and ends of the movie, to at some points rather radical with her in a tight short black skirt. Also, as they go deeper into the games their actions become more radical. This is evident in the main male protagonist committing sexual acts with the main female protagonist in non conventional ways as well as his blood lust increasing as the games go deeper. We can tell his actions are new from the game as he was evident in showing minimal sexual interest with her at the beginning of the movie, as well as being scared to hurt anyone, even when it was to save someones life. This displays Plato’s view of the distractions and the things that take us away from what is really reality.
The hierarchy in Existenz is furthered by each descent into the game getting more and more fleshy, bloody, and had further focus on sexual experimentation. This descent and hierarchy is put in place to resemble the radical actions people make as they “drift” away from the Forms put in place by Plato.
The game Trancendenz fits into Platos hierarchical theme as the “initial” step out of reality. In the film, it is seen as the initial step into the game world, into their distractions from reality. While this is the first thing that does literally take them from reality, I would assume Plato would argue the idea of the video games in general a step out of reality; the game itself just finishes the job. Plato’s argument for hierarchical reality was directed towards losing the Forms; getting too distracted my imitations in art and disctractions rather than reality itself. This is paralleled with the video game Trancendenz in Existenz.
This theme of distractions is furthered in the fact that they’re delving into video games, an area in which Plato would’ve assumed a distraction from reality, taking us away from the Forms and introducing us to his hierarchy of reality.
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BrandonC Blog 