The term metaverse is not new, having been around since the 1980s, but it was in 2021, with Facebook’s name change to Meta and its announcement of expansion and investment in the area, that the subject began to dominate many conversations circles. For those who, however, are still confused by this definition, some movies and series available on streaming can be great options to help explain the concept.
The Metaverse can be defined as a virtual experience, that is, an immersive and collective 3D space, in which human beings can have work, education, consumption and/or entertainment experiences. This immersion can take place in different ways and at different levels, but it intertwines our real life with virtual reality.
Even though they didn’t use that term, cinema, TV and streaming have looked over the metaverse countless times to create fictional productions that had their concept as a backdrop. Below you can see some of them, all available or original from platforms, which explore and imagine different possibilities of virtual realities.
Series to understand the metaverse
1. Kiss me First [Netflix]
British production based on a book of the same name, Kiss me First was created by Bryan Elsley, the name behind another very successful teen series: Skins. In the plot, Leila is a teenager mourning the death of her mother who finds comfort in the virtual reality game Azana. One day, she meets Tess, a gamer who introduces her to the secret area of the game “Red Pill” and makes her approach a group of young people who start to have an impact on her real life.
- Creator: Bryan Elsley
- Year: 2018
- Episodes: 6 (1 season)
- Cast: Tallulah Haddon, Simona Brown
- Link na Netflix
2. Black Mirror [Netflix]
The fourth episode of the third season of Black Mirror, an anthology series on Netflix, San Junipero follows two young women of opposite personalities who meet in a nightclub and go on to have encounters and disagreements in different decades and locations. All this is because they are in San Junipero, a virtual reality where the elderly or even the deceased can upload their consciousness and attend as if they were in their young bodies.
- Creator: Charlie Brooker
- Year: 2016
- Cast: Jimmi Simpson, Douglas Hodge
- Link na Netflix
3. Psycho-Pass [Netflix]
Anime that gave rise to other media products, such as manga, a movie and a video game, Psycho-Pass is from the Production IG studio Set in a futuristic and technological Japan, the anime takes place in a society controlled by a digital system that measures the biometrics of the population’s brains. This system is able to calculate a person’s criminal coefficient – that is, their criminality potential – and, based on that, hunt down all those who have a result above 100, even if the person is not a criminal.
- Creators: Naoyoshi Shiotani and Katsuyuki Motohiro
- Year: 2012
- Episodes: 33 (2 seasons)
- Link na Netflix
4. Serial Experiments Lain [Funimation]
Another fundamental anime in this list of films and series to understand the metaverse – even if it is set in a practically pre-internet time – is the title Serial Experiments Lain. Available on Funimation, the anime centres around teenager Lain, a girl who receives an email from a schoolmate who has committed suicide. In the text, the girl says that, in fact, she just abandoned her physical form to enter Wired, a virtual reality similar to the internet, but which works as a communication network for people’s unconscious. A revelation that plunges Lain into this new world herself.
- Directed by: Ryūtarō Nakamura
- Year: 1998
- Episodes: 13 (1 season)
- Link on Funimation
5. Upload [Prime Video]
Prime Video‘s original comedy Upload has already been renewed for a second season. Set in 2035, the series is set in a high-tech future where upon dying people can upload their consciousness to a digital paradise. Nathan, a young man who dies prematurely, turns into one of these avatars, but he has to deal with his obsessive human girlfriend who still has powers over him and his living customer service representative, who falls in love with the boy.
- Creation: Greg Daniels
- Year: 2020
- Episodes: 10 (1 season)
- List: Robbie Amell and Andy Allo
- Link on Prime Video
6. Westworld [HBO Max]
2018 Emmy winner for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (Thandie Newton), Westworld has already been renewed for a fourth season. The production takes place in a futuristic theme park that simulates the Wild West and is inhabited by androids whose memories are erased at the end of each day. Frequented by the wealthy, the park has no laws, allowing paying visitors to do whatever they want. That is until a glitch in the system causes the machines to become aware of their reality.
- Creation: Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy
- Year: 2016
- Episodes: 28 (3 seasons)
- Cast: Evan Rachel Wood, Thandie Newton and Jeffrey Wright
- Link on HBO Max
Movies to understand the metaverse
7. Matrix [HBO Max]
One of the most important films in cinema regarding the use of special effects (and also when it comes to metaverse), The Matrix has two direct sequels, in addition to the fourth film in 2021. In its history, we meet Neo, a computer programmer who discovers that humanity is inhabiting a simulated reality, the Matrix, while their bodies are used as a power source for a world dominated by machines. Touted as the messiah who will free the human race, he embarks on an adventure to overthrow the system.
- Directed by: Lilly and Lana Wachowski
- Year: 1999
- Cast: Keanu Reeves e Laurence Fishburne
- Link on HBO Max
8. Player #1 [HBO Max]
Based on a book of the same name by Ernest Cline, Player #1 is directed by Steven Spielberg. The film is set in 2045 when humanity finds refuge from its troubled life in the OASIS, a virtual reality game. In the game, players do everything to find the easter egg left by its creator – and which grants ownership of the game to whoever finds it – until young Wade finds the first clue of the hunt and, in real life, becomes a target. of a large corporation.
- Directed by: Steven Spielberg
- Year: 2018
- Cast: Tye Sheridan and Olivia Cooke
- Link on HBO Max
9. 13º Andar [HBO Max]
Released in theatres a few months after The Matrix, 13th Floor is a title that could not be missing from a list of movies and series that talk about the metaverse. The feature film follows in the footsteps of an inventor of a virtual reality program who is murdered and leaves his entire inheritance to his company’s top employee. Accused of the crime, the man tries to prove his innocence by discovering the real culprit of the murder, which leads him to enter the simulation created by the businessman and start his own investigation.
- Directed by: Josef Rusnak
- Year: 1999
- Cast: Craig Bierko, Gretchen Mol
- Link na HBO Max
10. Tron: An Electronic Odyssey [Disney+]
Disney’s very successful film in the ’80s, Tron: An Electronic Odyssey mixes adventure and science fiction in its plot. In the story, a software engineer who is developing his own video game has his projects stolen by another employee of the company he works for. Fired, he tries to access the company’s computers to prove the theft but ends up getting involved in an adventure in the digital world when he comes across a protection program created by his rival.
- Directed by: Steven Lisberger
- Year: 1982
- Cast: Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner
- Link on Disney+
And you, remember other movies and series available on streaming that have plots built on the concept of the metaverse? Share these titles with us!
