关键词: 《头号玩家》, 《失控玩家》, 元宇宙, 赛博朋克, 异托邦

Abstract:

This paper attempts to re-examine the metaverse imagination and its limits in two classic American science fiction films. Ready Player One and Free Guy successfully present metaverse imaginings through their unique narrative techniques and visual effects. In terms of individuality, the metaverse imagination of Ready Player One is based on the environmental crisis of the Anthropocene, partly reflecting the acute social contradictions of capitalism in the cyberpunk context; Free Guy simplifies the environmental problems of the Anthropocene, using ideological ventriloquism to shape the myth of virtual reality, with the dichotomous cyberpunk resistance posture becoming merely an empty signifier. From a commonality perspective, both films consciously indicate and reflect on the symptoms of digital labor's "amusing ourselves to death" in the context of digital capitalism. Finally, both films present the myth of humanism as an imaginative solution to contradictions through the spectacle of "heterotopia" and a limited "return to reality". Based on this, the paper attempts to propose thoughts on how films should represent the "metaverse".

Key words: Ready Player One, Free Guy, Metaverse, Cyberpunk, Heterotopia