by Gene Michael Stover
created FIXME
updated Thursday, 2026 October 1
original at cybertiggyr.com/qom3t.html
Arcade is a film directed by Albert Pyun & released in 1993.
Here are some thoughts I had while watching it in 2026.
It's A Christmas Story guy! As a 20-something, he has some of the mannerisms he did as a little kid.
Seth Green is in it. I hope we get to see more of him. So far, not much.
An arcade called Dante's Inferno. That concept, or close to it, is a staple in Shadowrun. (watch for ads. Or read the rulebooks & lorebooks.)
Q!
The VR scenes they show while the game is in the arcade resemble some other film I've seen before, at least in style if not exactly what they are showing. What was it? Maybe I'll remember later.
From reading the synopsis, we know that the plan is to capture or trap people who play the VR game. Now they are giving out home versions. So this resembles the evil plan behind the game in Stay Alive (2006). Or, since Stay Alive came later, it resembles Arcade. And I guess Arcade's evil plan sort of resembles the evil plan from Haloween 3 ()... sort of. (Gotta be careful with this line of thinking because there are probably tons of stories about infiltrating the world with an evil device by sending one home with everyone.)
After Laurie vanishes... To save their friends, they gotta play the game. Again, reminds me of Stay Alive (2006).
Okay, so this is an actual, unexpected twist: Alex & Nick head to Vertigo/Tronics to figure out what's going on, one way or another. Alex begins to tell Difford the problem, but Nick cuts her off & effectively asks for cheats to help them get farther into the game. Kind of clever on Nick's part to see that accusing them up front would simply get them escorted out of the building. Also, if they do have cheats (& it looks like the programmer is going to spill a few), they can use that to beat the game.
Based on a cut, it looks like the programmer talked them for a long time, gave them details for each level.
As Alex & Nick are deciding where to play the game, plus some of what the programmer said, it sounds like the lethality isn't an evil corporate plan. It's a bug. I wonder whether that will prove true by the end of the film. I think I prefer evil corporate plans, though that would be more predictable.
They plan to play at Dante's Inferno, but isn't there just one installation there? So only one of them can play while the other waits? Oh! The one who isn't playing is guarding the meat, ready to slap the punch-out button. Okay, that's reasonable.
Or it's not so reasonable: Alex insists that they both play at the same time. Alex's rationale makes sense in context of her motivations, but I wonder if it's the most strategic decision. Then again, 2 cooperating players probably do have a better chance than one.
They are on VR skateboards?
I wonder why the movie's makers selected helmets & featureless bodysuits for within VR. The characters & their garb isn't CG, not subject to limitations of CG when the film was created, so they could wear anything. Seems that more colorful costumes could look better & wouldn't cost much more, & seems there's no need to cover the actors's mouths by the helmets.
I like the VR skeletal harpy. Kinda cool.
The man who used the punch-out button to save Nick: Is that the programmer? I think so, but I'm terrible with faces.
Stilts is a boatman on the VR Styx? I won't be surprised if he has a brief appearance at the end of the film, but that means we saw him briefly before they all saw the VR game, then saw him talking with Alex & Nick. The next time we saw him, he had been conscripted as a boatman on the VR River Styx. So he didn't have much of a part in the film. Damn.
One of us tells the truth. One tells lies... Ain't never heard that one before. Then again, one of the places we've all heard it is in games, so sure, why not in a game in a movie about a game.
Hey wait! Alex somehow knew which boatman always lies? That's not how the riddle of the 2 oracles works!
Sort of a light-cycle race. Kinda cool.
Alex wakes up, thinks she's not in the game. Sees her mom. Okay, so we viewers know she's still in the game, & to escape, she'll need to admit to herself that her mother is dead, maybe also that her mom's suicide wasn't her fault. Also, maybe seeing her mother alive can be the clue that tells her she's still in the game. Her admission that her mom is dead will be kind of too simple, but it does make a sense in a story-writing way, so that'll be cool.
Well, they didn't play the way I expected. Alex didn't admit that her mother is dead, not really. She wins with a free life. (Reverse reference to the end of Ready Player One.)
Alex's friends are okay.
Stilts (Seth Green) says they should send in the customer feedback forms. Okay, that's very in-character for a Seth Green character, which is cool, but it doesn't make up for giving him such a minor part in the film.
Thinking back to how Alex beat the game: So it makes sense, sure, but they made it clear that Alex's hang-up in life is that she blames herself for her mother's suicide. They made sure we knew that. Near the end, when Alex wakes up but we viewers know she's still in the game, is a setup for her to confront her mother's death (confront her guilt about it). When she saw her mother alive, it should have served as the clue that Alex needed to realize she was still in the game. There could have been a verbal confrontation in which Alex rejects the offered reality that her mother is alive. Related to that, Alex would realize that she isn't guilty for her mom's suicide, & that would have been the key to getting out of the game. Together, those two realizations would have shown that Alex finally accepts her mother's death, forgives herself, grows beyond the event, & can move on. But the film doesn't do that. Her VR mother threatens her, depriving Alex of making the realization on her own.
I don't believe that character growth is a necessary ingredient to a good story. (I know some people who do. Fuck their restricted ability to appreciate many types of story.) In this film, though, we viewers were slapped with Alex's guilt about her mom's suicide; they made sure we knew about it. So we were setup, & the film dropped that one.
The evil AI kid shows up outside of Alex's house. That wig looks inappropriate. Maybe it's more appropriate than normal hair. I dunno. Oh? Alex might still be in the game? Or maybe the evil AI escaped the game like it said it would do. Either way, it's the “it's not over” ending that's nearly obligatory to some kinds of horror films.
After the film... Enjoyable, though I am dissatisfied with the missed “Alex accepts her mom's suicide” setup & that Seth Green's character had such a small part.
I liked that our main character is a game-playing gal, every bit as good at games as the guys, & that she's not outrageously stylish; she's a little awkward (just a little). I notice that, when Alex & Nick were trying to find their friends (such as getting into Laurie's house), Alex was the one who took not-necessarily-legal action first.