This is the first installment of Game/Culture, a new feature where we check out how games, gamers and gaming are portrayed in movies, TV and general pop culture. Some of these items are too brief to warrant their own installment, but others are movies we'll be returning to later down the line to discuss in more detail. So for now, consider this a taste of things to come...

Tron (1982)

What's the game? Tron, a fictional Virtual Reality world years before Neal Stevenson or William Gibson had started banging on about Virtual Reality. For reasons that remain unclear, Tron is the only place in which dangerous criminals can be apprehended. It's obvious to say this now, but the 80s really were a very strange time.

Who's the gamer? Kevin Flynn, played by a young Jeff Bridges: a hotshot software engineer who has the strange notion that maybe these "computerized games" might be worth looking into. His game-making business gets sidetracked when a colleague tries to use the lad's program for evil, prompting Flynn to take the obvious action: turn himself into a virtual vigilante and ride the varmint down.

And how realistic is that?? Spotting facepalm moments in Hollywood's depictions of computer programming is a treasured pastime for hackers. But Tron's depiction of gaming as a sinister wonderland takes the early lead: the movie may be a sci-fi spin on electronic gaming, but if anyone thought this was what videogames were actually like, they'd be disappointed when they got their Atari 2600 home.

WarGames (1983)

What's the game? Global thermonuclear war! Except it's not a game at all, and the folks that give an amusing voice to a computer and grant it the power to launch missiles around the world really should put a bigger "This Is Not Defcon" warning label on the title screen.

Who's the gamer? Fresh-faced Matthew Broderick, starring as supergeek David Lightman. Lightman is supposed to be a computer genius, capable of accessing and manipulating systems as sophisticated as the US Government can create... but the fact that he nearly annihilates the civilized world while trying to download the 1983 equivalent of Commander Keen gives the lie to that notion.

And how realistic is that?? In 1983, it seemed far-fetched but possible that a speccy kid could infiltrate the shadowy world of computer defense systems to endanger the free world. Years later, hackers like Kevin Mitnick would prove that while it might be plausible, the idea that he'd look anything like Matthew Broderick was simply ridiculous.

The Wizard (1989)

 

What's the game? Then-unreleased Super Mario Brothers 3, which was anticipated to be pretty much the biggest thing ever. The idea that you could make a movie about waiting for Mario 3 is one thing, but that movie's notion that the unveiling of the Nintendo Power Glove would be a similarly epochal event in the history of gaming proved not to pan out so well.

Who's the gamer? A developmentally-challenged kid who takes it into his head that he wants to become the world's greatest Super Mario Brothers 3 player, and will travel across the country to do it. The Wonder Years' Fred Savage decides to aid him in his quest: because if you can't get to being regular people, and you can't get across country, you can at least get to the end of World 8.

And how realistic is that?? Perfectly realistic: Super Mario 3 does exist, and it really is played by the mentally subnormal (and everyone else). The Wizard gets a lot of stick, but it is the only gamers-in-movies item so far that makes all that much sense.

Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)

What's the game? Missile Command, a game from 1980 about repelling an alien attack from the skies. Why a movie that traded on its tech-chic credentials chose to use a game from eleven years ago is anyone's guess. Of course, we're sure James Cameron had a good reason for what he was doing: he was, after all, making Terminator 2 at the time, so he was obviously thinking straight enough.

Who's the gamer? John Connor, future savior of the human race. The script makes explicitly clear that this is meant to signify John's future role: "he parries deftly as the enemy ICBMs deploy their MIRVs... the warheads stream down... it's more than he can deal with." This is one of those "foreshadowings" you read about.

And how realistic is that?? Well, kids certainly were skipping out of school to play arcade games in 1991. And LA certainly does have loads of malls, many of which are sure to have embarrassingly retrograde video arcades in them. But they could've at least gone with Robotron 2084, what with it has the exact same plot as the movie and all.

Toys (1992)

What's the game? An unspecified military sim that turns out to be a front for a military takeover of the toy industry, using army-themed games to train the next generation of child soldiers. The movie uses videogame violence as a metaphor for the Military-Industrial Complex's threat to childhood innocence: as was Robin Williams' forte in the early 1990s, Toys is one of those "allegories" you read about.

Above: one of those allegories you read about

Who's the gamer? In the movie's most nightmarish moment, Williams' lovable manchild wanders into a darkened room in which droves of children are being brainwashed by interactive entertainment: butchering digital enemies and lethally neutralizing unhelpful UN forces in a virtual warzone. For a fluffy Robin Williams movie about an issue nobody was really thinking about, it's pretty heavy-handed.

And how realistic is that?? Your blood may be boiling right now, as you consider a movie in which videogames are painted as kill-training for vulnerable minds. And, while yes, gaming is used as a rhetorical pawn in Toys' misguided fable, the argument is not without weight - which is why the issue deserves more sophisticated debate. But then, it's not like anyone saw the movie or anything.

Brainscan (1994)

What's the game? The titular Brainscan, an hallucinogenic gaming experiment in which users submit to hypnosis in order to customize the game to their own worst fears and most hated enemies. However, after they commit murders in-game, they find that correspondent crimes have been committed IRL. SPOILER: there's a connection.

Who's the gamer? It's only little Eddy Furlong again! While his antics in Terminator 2 served as clever (not clever) metaphor for his role in the movie, Furlong's character in this movie is a horror-obsessed loner who finds himself losing control of the distinction between violent game and depressing reality. The art, it imitates the life, etc.

And how realistic is that?? This is the closest gamer movies have to a stock plot: the best example might be the ton of thoroughly unintelligible brilliance that was David Cronenberg's eXistenZ. But while game obsession is a real thing, it's usually treated as a hamfisted metaphor: you're in trouble when cult 1990s sitcom Parker Lewis Can't Lose treats the syndrome with the closest thing to a realistic tone.

Swingers (1996)

What's the game? Genesis ice hockey game NHLPA '93, obsessively played by the eponymous nitelife-loving dudes. Their encyclopedic knowledge of the differences between the 93 and 94 versions of the game suggest that they have only ever owned one game, but that when they own another one, if will be the two-year-old update.

Who's the gamer? The twentysomething would-be rat-packers led by Trent (Vince Vaughn). Trent's main NHL buddy is the comically-named Sue, and the game is used as a none-too-subtle metaphor for the tensions in their friendship.

And how realistic is that?? The idea that a bunch of guys would run away to LA, taking only a Genesis and one game to remind them of home, is poignant and true. Though the whole "game violence as release valve for personal tensions" thing always rings a bit hollow: don't you find the most severe virtual violence is dealt on those you feel most comfortable around?

Stay Alive (2006)

What's the game? The eponymous Stay Alive itself, which looks to be some sort of fairly boilerplate Survival Horror affair in which players explore a haunted house, are killed, and then die in real life in shockingly (predictably) similar ways. So the game, y'see, it is in fact not helping them to Stay Alive at all! (This is half of the title's cleverness).

Who's the gamer? Most of the movie's cast have a go on Stay Alive at one time or another, and are summarily dispatched by infamous serial killer Elizabeth Bathory, who lives on in the game code. (Of course). So the game, y'see, it is helping her to Stay Alive! (This is the other half of the title's cleverness).

And how realistic is that?? Well, Elizabeth Bathory has been in all manner of video games that haven't killed people, so there's that. Mind you, those games inevitably trade on the bogus vampire mythology surrounding the character, as does Stay Alive. So (prepare to be shocked!) the idea that a 16th-century noblewoman performed black rituals to encode herself into a video game is not very realistic!

Grandma's Boy (2006)

What's the game? Demonik, a bedroom-coded action game put together by a game tester on his off hours. The game is what we film types call a macguffin: it's used mainly as a tool to divide friends and win success for the movie's main character. As it does these things quite well, we can assume it's probably better than the aborted Clive Barker game of the same name.

Who's the gamer? Alex, a sad schmuck who tests video games for a living and lives with his grandmother. Alex is torn between pursuing his pipe dream of developing a game that will lift him out of his rut, or contributing to his grandmother's pipe dream of making a fortune off Antiques Roadshow. This is one of those "juxtapositions" you read about.

And how realistic is that?? In 2006, it might be called nostalgic to cling to the notion that a dedicated dweeb could build the Next Big Thing in his grandma's bedroom. But with indie gaming enjoying a renaissance of late, the only thing wrong with Demonik is its crappy moniker.

Gamer (2009)

What's the game? Slayers and Society, the logical extensions of Battlefield and Second Life. "Logical," that is, if you think that Capture the Flag is one step away from mind-controlling convicted criminals and having young children force them to disembowel each other on primetime TV, or paying people minimum wage and making them rape strangers.

Who's the gamer? Simon (get it?), the champ of Slayers. The clean-cut, socially able lad's popularity earns him a dozen messages every time he logs onto the near-future equivalent of Myspace, many of them from girls desperate for him to deflower them. There's also a subplot about a Society player who looks like the Gluttony victim from Se7en, which may be a bit more believable.

And how realistic is that?? Gamer has a weird love/hate relationship with its titular target audience. Basically its position seems to be, "gamers are amoral freaks, unless they choose to stop playing, at which point they'll be rewarded with some hyperviolent action sequences." This is what happens when you greenlight a high-tech philosophical allegory from the guys what brung you Crank 2: High Voltage.