10 Sci-Fi Movie Clichés Everyone Secretly Loves
2. If You Die In A Virtual World, You Die In The Real World
Raising the stakes in something akin to playing a video game is tough to sell. Over the years, virtual reality worlds in movies have had to create legitimate threats so audiences feel concerned about the protagonists. Thankfully, the premise isn't used that often.
While we might roll our eyes when it does come about, it's still a welcome variable to add, and for the few flicks that have adopted it, they have been very well received.
The Matrix is the obvious film that springs to mind. The dangers of the Agents and what the heroes face inside the virtual world wouldn't be as threatening if once they are killed, they simply wake up and jack back in - like restarting the level in a video game.
The added stakes in the film that suggest a death in The Matrix causes death in the real world does make for one of the most tense sequences in the film.
But The Matrix isn't alone. Inception played with this premise too, albeit in a dream world, and while death isn't on the table, brain degeneration is. Perhaps the best example of it going the other way is Ready Player One - where characters do have to jolt back into the Oasis after dying.