What is Metaverse? Metaverse means a three-dimensional virtual space created outside the real world. Through technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality, human beings establish another identity for social interaction, entertainment, production and consumption. One day in the future, people will be able to switch identities anytime and anywhere, travel freely between the physical world and the digital world, and study, work, and make friends in the metaverse composed of virtual space and time nodes. This virtual world built on the blockchain, the decentralized platform allows users to enjoy ownership and autonomy. Through an immersive experience, the virtual is closer to reality.
Concepts like the “metaverse” are not new in video games, anime, movies, and science fiction. The game industry, especially the experimental pioneers of the metaverse, player stand-ins, virtual treasures, currency recharge… are all rehearsing a parallel world; of course, the concept of the metaverse is far more than that. Fictional stories and sci-fi movies are often the forerunners of technological creativity. We can try to understand the meaning and phototype of the future metaverse lives from sci-fi movies.
Today, we are going to talk about 3 most famous metaverse moives, which tried to illustrate what the metaverse life will be like.
Released in 1999, The Matrix is an action film series published by Warner Bros. and directed by the Wachowskis. The movie tells the story of Neo, a young cyber hacker who discovers that the seemingly normal real world is actually controlled by a computer artificial intelligence system called “Matrix”, and people are like the animals he herds. Under the guidance of a mysterious girl Trinity, Neo met Morpheus, the leader of the hacker organization, and the three embarked on the story of the struggle against the matrix. In the movie, people become the energy source of the “Matrix”, everyone lives in a sealed jar, and everyone’s “avatar” works, lives, falls in love, and has children in the Matrix. Until Neo discovered the truth. Are the scenes in the movie very “metaverse”?
In 2009, the famous American director James Cameron’s classic sci-fi blockbuster Avatar was released, reaching the highest level of human filmmaking in one fell swoop. Avatar swept 9 Oscar awards, James Cameron won the best director, the movie won the best picture, and has long occupied the top box office in the global movie history. Avatar’s original meaning is “avatar”, the movie is named after it, the movie title means virtual avatar. Today, virtual identities used by players in computer games or chat rooms are also called Avatars. In the film, the male protagonist who lost the function of his legs, through the reality projection device, manipulates the genetically modified alien body (avatar), and has an extraordinary encounter on the distant planet of Pandora.
In 2018, Ready Player One directed by American director Steven Spielberg was regarded as the best metaverse movie. The real world in 2045 is a chaotic purgatory on the brink of collapse, and people pin their hopes on an “oasis”. In that world, people put on VR, put on game clothing with sensors, and can enter the virtual world of “Oasis”. People come to the “Oasis” because they can do all kinds of things, but they sink here for a different life. The “Oasis” in Ready Player One shows the complete form or vision of the Metaverse. This will be an all-encompassing virtual world that is infinitely close to the real world, which will substitute and even compete with the real world in all aspects. The plot of the Ready Player One movie is basically a manifestation of the concept of the metaverse. In the movie, if you are hit in the game, you will also feel pain through your clothes in real life. Ready Player One creates an equivalent economic system. That’s why companies like Facebook are scrambling to enter the Metaverse. The Metaverse emphasizes a common currency and production and consumption system, which can be exchanged with physical fiat currency. In this world, people can buy things they like, such as Marvel and other IP avatars or virtual objects, and they can also sponsor musicians or creators they admire; on the other hand, users can earn virtual currency through creation, competition, and labor, and swap it with real fiat currency.
Do you have any other metaverser movies in mind? Please leave a comment if some names pops out of your head.
