100 Scariest Movie Moments: #44 The Game

The most truly shocking moment of The Game comes near the beginning, when Nicholas “Nicky” Van Orton (Michael Douglas) sits down to watch the news and hears a story about a Republican attempting to force small businesses to provide health insurance to their employees being blocked by Democrats... my, my the 90s were a different time.

I like this movie, but I don’t understand the people who believe it’s a masterpiece. The movie is fun, but it’s so unrealistic that I have trouble becoming immersed in it. The idea that it’s possible to subject numerous human beings to this type of “Game,” and not face numerous criminal charges and lawsuits is just outright silly.

The premise of the movie is that Nicky is a control freak whose father committed suicide on his 48^th birthday. Nicky’s 48^th birthday is coming up, and there’s an unspoken concern among his friends and family that he might follow in his father’s footsteps. He’s divorced, not well liked, and doesn’t really seem to have much fun.

So in light of this, Nicky’s brother Conrad (Sean Penn), gives him a “Game” for his birthday. Theoretically, this Game will serve to make his life “interesting,” but he can’t be told what it will consist of. Reluctantly, he agrees to undergo the initial screening for it.

The Game itself consists of an escalating series of events that begin as apparently random accidents, such as his briefcase failing to open, and eventually turn into an apparent conspiracy to destroy him. He nearly drowns in a cab and is left for dead in Mexico. Throughout the film he’s being followed and given conflicting information from various sources about where the Game ends and the real world begins. You pretty much have to accept that every single person in this entire film is in on the Game except him.

Early in the film, Nicky encounters a waitress named Christine (Deborah Kara Unger), who appears to have been caught in the crossfire between him and the Game's controllers. It’s eventually revealed that she’s a member of the organization, although as the movie goes on, her ranking in the organization keeps getting upgraded as the conspiracy grows. She initially seems to have been a one-time hire, then a low-level con artist. By the end, she seems to be one of the main orchestrators of the Game.

He eventually determines that the company running the Game, Consumer Recreation Services (CRS) is attempting to seize his assets and those of his company. How this works, and how they wouldn’t all be immediately arrested for such blatant theft, I don’t pretend to understand.

The problem with this film is really hammered home by the ending… It really was all a Game. It’s contrived enough that are CRS able to predict Nicky’s actions with such certainty that they can have an airbag waiting when he attempts to jump to his death. However, they can also be sure that he’ll be completely satisfied now that they’ve drugged, assaulted, and robbed him (...oh, but they’re going to give back the stuff they took, naturally...), and thus he won’t sue them.

I really think this movie would have worked better as an Indie film. It would have been far scarier to see a smaller conspiracy attempting to destroy a man’s life and take everything he owns. As it is though, I don’t for one second believe that such a company could ever do or get away with this sort of thing, or for that matter, even exist. And without that engagement, the movie never really scares me.

That said, the movie is worth seeing, but not as a horror movie. Instead, it’s a roller coaster. You’re more likely to find yourself laughing than screaming, but a good laugh is still worth the time.