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Virtuosity

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Virtuosity is a 1995 science fiction movie telling the story of a virtual villain's successful attempt to escape into the "real world". SID 6.7, the villain program portrayed by Russell Crowe, is eventually transplanted into an android body and escapes.

Plot

Tagline: Justice needs a new program

He's a composite of some 200 personalities, each and every one a notorious killer. He's Sid 6.7, a virtual reality creation designed to put L.A. police officers to the test. But Sid isn't playing games anymore. He's escaped the bounds of cyberspace. And if you think he's unconquerable in the world of bits and bytes, wait till you see what Sid has in store for a world of flesh and blood. Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe square off on opposite sides of the law and on both sides of reality in this thunderous cyber-age thriller from the director of The Lawnmower Man. Crowe (L.A. Confidential) plays Sid: Sadistic, Intelligent, Dangerous - and able to take a licking and keep on kicking because he can regenerate his silicon-based body parts. Washington portrays Parker Barnes, a Los Angeles cop who once took the law into his own hands... and now carries the fate of the city in them. It's his job to shut Sid down. But how do you stop the virtually unstoppable?

Character Bios

SID 6.7

SID 6.7 is an entity created by Dr. Darryl Lindenmeyer of LETAC (Law Enforcement Technology Advancement Center) as an antagonist for police officers in virtual reality simulations. He is composed of 183 personalities, consisting of serial killers, terrorists, and tyrants. While SID has his own personality and behavior, he also gains the personality, behavior, and other traits of these 183 personalities which emerge through SID in the same fashion as a person afflicted with multiple-personality disorder. He was progammed using genetic algorithm, enabling SID to improve his own programming in the sense to heighten reaction times, sort out glitches, and to make logical decisions.

Later utilizing program designs by Clyde Reily at LETAC, SID was given a nanotech body (referred to as a "nanotech synthetic organism") allowing him to fuction outside the confines of virtual reality. The nano cells were programmed to use glass to regenerate damage. This would also indicate how the body was able to have the energy to function at all. In an ironic twist of fate, SID's body was killed by falling through a multi-tiered glass ceiling. The character module, the housing unit for SID's "mind", was taken from the body by Parker Barnes and thrown from the skyscraper into the streets below.

In the novel by Terry Bisson, published by Pocket Books, the ending to the doesn't have Parker Barnes throw SID's module into the streets from the tower, but instead - at that moment - he has a better idea. Beginning the next chapter, you read of a group of boys playing a arcade game similiar to Wild Gunman against a weary SID, where SID loses again, and again, and again to a bunch of young boys. It is unknown whether this ending was purely creative freedom from the author or was a previous revision of the script that Bisson had used at the time of creating the novel.

Many fans believe there lies a backup to SID at Lindemeyer's apartment, due to Madison Carter and Parker Barnes gathering much of their research on SID from Lindenmeyer's computer.


Cast

Cast (in credits order) verified as complete

  • Denzel Washington - Lt. Parker Barnes
  • Kelly Lynch - Dr. Madison Carter
  • Russell Crowe - SID 6.7
  • Stephen Spinella - Dr. Darrel Lindenmeyer
  • William Forsythe - William Cochran
  • Louise Fletcher - Commissioner Elizabeth Deane
  • William Fichtner - William Wallace
  • Costas Mandylor - John Donovan
  • Kevin J. O'Connor - Clyde Reilly
  • Kaley Cuoco - Karin
  • Christopher Murray - Matthew Grimes
  • Heidi Schanz - Sheila 3.2
  • Traci Lords - Media Zone singer
  • Gordon Jennison Noice - Big Red
  • Mari Morrow - Linda Barnes
  • Miracle Vincent - Christine Barnes
  • Mara Duronslet - Beautiful woman at Olympic Stadium
  • Michael Buffer - Emcee
  • Karen Annarino - 'IS' TV reporter
  • Miguel Nájera - Rafael Debaca
  • Danny Goldring - John Symes
  • Randall Fontana - Ed
  • Allen Scotti - Surgeon
  • Dwayne Chattman - Stripped man in Media Zone
  • Ed Marques - Blonde punk in Media Zone
  • Cheryl Lawson - Pretty Woman in Media Zone
  • Kevin Loreque - Animatronic Bartender
  • Eiko Nijo - Geisha Hostess
  • Gaura Vani Buchwald - Burly Man in Video Store
  • Rolando Molina - Salesman in Video Store
  • Gary Anthony Sturgis - Officer at Video Store
  • Monica Allison - Woman on Train
  • Susan Mohun - Bystander
  • David Asman - Metrolink Cop
  • Anthony C. Hall - Locator Technician
  • Amy Smallman - Aide in Cochran's Office
  • Ahmed Ahmed - Cameraman
  • Marva Hicks - Onscreen Talent
  • Juan A. Riojas - Metromedia Cop
  • Steven R. Barnett - Metromedia Cop
  • John Walcutt - SWAT Captain
  • Michael B. Silver - Undercover Cop
  • Jordan Marder - Prison Transport Guard
  • Brogan Young - Monitor Prison Guard
  • Laura Leigh Hughes - Suburban Reporter
  • Dustin Nguyen - Suburban Reporter
  • Anthony Winters - Male Newscaster (as Toni Winters)
  • Virginia Watson - Anchorwoman
  • Beverly Cohen - Tabloid TV Host
  • Margot Hope - Paula
  • Una Damon - Woman with Video Camera
  • Mila Chagall - Woman with Video Camera (as Mary Rachel Foot)
  • Jennifer Greenhut - Screaming Woman
  • Lesa Noelle - Screaming Woman
  • Michelle Smith - Screaming Woman
  • Brit Thompson - Screaming Woman
  • Alanna Ubach - Eila (scenes deleted)
  • Kevin La Presle - Paramedic
  • Daniel Anderson - Police Detective
  • Eric Bernt - Building Supervisor
  • Rob Gomes - SWAT member
  • Michael Tamburro - Helicopter Pilot
  • Frank Welker - Special Vocal Effects (voice)
  • Anthony Backman - Metrolink Patron (uncredited)
  • Johnny Kim - Lab Tech (uncredited)
  • Ken Shamrock - Ultimate Fighter (uncredited)
  • Rogan Wilde - TV News Producer (uncredited)


Movie Details

  • Release Date: August 4, 1995
  • Rating: R
  • Running Time: 106 minutes


Trivia

  • While SID 6.7's version history, as far as the storyline is concerned, IS an actual accention of additions and improvements on the program, the reason why Eric Bernt, the screenwriter for Virtuosity, chose to have Virtuosity take place at the time of SID's 6th version number, .70% redesigned for the next version number - is to have SID stand to represent evil. Version 6.7 is 6.66 rounded up.
  • It has been noted by fan, Nathan Fairchild, that in Virtuosity, the villain, SID 6.7, escapes from the confines of virtual reality into the real world for more power, and in director Brett Leonard's previous film, The Lawnmower Man, this is the opposite of what the villain, Jobe, did. Jobe escapes the confines of the real world to have greater power in the virtual world (the internet, virtual reality).


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