the game

Director: david fincher

Actor: michael douglas,deborah kara unger,sean penn,james rebhorn

Data Published: Fri Sep 12 1997

Genres: Action,Drama,Mystery,Thriller

Key Words: suicide,surprise ending,game,hitchcockian,puzzlement

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119174/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Game_(1997_film)

Description: The Game is a movie starring Michael Douglas, Deborah Kara Unger, and Sean Penn. After a wealthy banker is given an opportunity to participate in a mysterious game, his life is turned upside down when he becomes unable to...

Plot: Nicholas Van Orton, a wealthy investment banker, is estranged from both his ex-wife and his younger brother, Conrad. He remains haunted from having seen his father commit suicide on the latter's 48th birthday. For Nicholas's own 48th birthday, Conrad presents Nicholas with an unusual gift—a voucher for a "game" offered by a company called Consumer Recreation Services (CRS). Conrad promises that it will change his brother's life. Nicholas has doubts about CRS, but he meets fellow bankers who enjoyed the game. He goes to CRS's offices to apply and is irritated by the lengthy and time-consuming series of psychological and physical examinations required. He is later informed that his application has been rejected. Soon Nicholas begins to believe that his business, reputation, finances, and safety are at risk. He encounters a waitress, Christine, who appears to have been endangered by the game. Nicholas contacts the police to investigate CRS, but they find the offices abandoned. Eventually, Conrad appears to Nicholas and apologizes, claiming that he, too, has come under attack by CRS. With no one else to turn to, Nicholas finds Christine's home. He soon discovers that she is a CRS employee and that her apartment was staged. Christine tells Nicholas that they are being watched. Nicholas attacks a camera, and armed CRS troops begin to swarm the house and fire upon them. Nicholas and Christine are forced to flee. Christine tells Nicholas that CRS has drained his financial accounts by using the psychological tests to guess his passwords. In a panic, Nicholas calls his bank and gives a verification code to check his account balance—zero. Just as he begins to trust Christine, he realizes she has drugged him. As he loses consciousness, she admits that she is actually part of the scam and that he made a fatal mistake by giving up his verification code. Nicholas wakes up to find himself entombed alive in a cemetery in Mexico. He sells his gold watch to escape. He returns to find his mansion foreclosed and most of his possessions removed. He retrieves a hidden gun and seeks the aid of his ex-wife. While talking with her and apologizing for his neglect and mistreatment, he discovers that Jim Feingold, the CRS employee who had conducted his psychological tests, is an actor working in television advertisements. Nicholas locates Feingold and forces him to find CRS's real office, whereupon he takes Christine hostage. Nicholas demands to be taken to the leader of CRS. Attacked by CRS troops, Nicholas takes Christine to the roof and bars the door behind them. The CRS troops begin cutting through the door. Christine realizes that Nicholas's gun is not a prop and is terrified. She frantically tells Nicholas that the conspiracy is a hoax, a fiction that is just part of the game, that his finances are intact, and that his family and friends are waiting on the other side of the door. He refuses to believe her. The door bursts open, and Nicholas shoots the first person to emerge—Conrad, bearing an open bottle of champagne. Devastated, Nicholas leaps off the roof, just as his late father did. Nicholas's life passes before his eyes as he falls. He smashes through a glass roof and lands on a giant air bag. Emergency medical technicians carefully remove him, and he finds himself in a ballroom full of his friends, family, and every figure involved in his Game; it had been just a game all along. Conrad is alive and well, and explains that he initiated the game to get his brother to embrace life and not to end up like their father. Nicholas bursts into tears, relaxes, and begins to enjoy the party once his shock has dissipated. When he sees that Christine has left the party, he follows her outside to her cab. He asks her to dinner, and she offers to share a coffee with him before her flight takes her to her next game assignment in Australia.