Virtuosity
The near future: A virtual reality company is completing the development of a highly sophisticated training simulator designed to give police a taste of how to handle the dangers they might encounter in the field while tracking and apprehending criminals.
In order to perfect this state-of-the-art technology, prisoners are selected based on their skills and toughness and forced to serve as test subjects. Amongst the chosen inmates is Parker Barnes, an ex-cop serving time for circumventing the law and taking justice into his own hands. When one of the software's most lethal virtual criminals, SID 6.7—an amalgamation of vicious sadists and serial killers throughout history—figures out how to jump from the computer world into the real world through the use of nanotechnology, the company behind the program quickly attempts to cover up their malfeasance. As SID 6.7 runs amok on the streets of L.A., leaving a trail of bloody violence in his wake, the police reluctantly admit that they are powerless to stop him. Their final hope is to enlist the help of Barnes, the only man to defeat SID 6.7 in the virtual world, in order to put an end to his flesh-and-blood reign of terror before any more innocent lives are taken.
Produced during the height of tech-themed sci-fi and action films, Virtuosity remains one of the subgenre's most creative and thrill-packed examples. Elevated by director Brett Leonard’s (Lawnmower Man) highly stylized action and stunt sequences, this powerhouse blockbuster stars Oscar winners Denzel Washington (Training Day) and Russell Crowe (Gladiator) in one of his first (and most unhinged) American roles as the deranged SID 6.7. Further distinguished by Leonard’s then-groundbreaking integration of live-action film photography and cutting-edge digital effects, Virtuosity remains a cornerstone of 90s cyberpunk cinema.
