231 - Virtuosity

Your Stupid Minds

What if someone designed a computer program based on a hundred of the worst serial killers, assassins, despots, and also Emperor Hirohito for some reason, used silicon snake technology to make him real, and set him loose in Los Angeles? Also what if this terrifying being was Russell Crowe and you see his butt and he acts like the Joker the entire time? Those are the questions that 1995’s Virtuosity asks. Join us and special returning guest Sarah Long as we deep dive into this ‘90s cyberpunk classic.

Parker Barnes (Denzel Washington) is a former cop wrongfully imprisoned (he did kill two innocent people, but it was an accident and he looked cool while he was doing it) performing tests in a VR environment designed to train cops on what to do if a serial killer creates a hostage situation in a Japanese restaurant. The program kills Barnes’s virtual partner, and then the serial killer program, SID 6.7 (Crowe) is made real and escapes into reality. Though SID is made up of many baddies, the “dominant” personality is that of Matthew Grimes (Christopher Murray), a super terrorist who killed Barnes’s family. Therefore Barnes is the only person who can stop him, so they implant a tracking/kill device into his brain and set him on the hunt.

Barnes’s de facto partner is criminal psychologist Madison Carter (Kelly Lynch), a single mom with a precocious daughter Karin (Kaley Cuoco). I sure hope that kid doesn’t get kidnapped! Will Barnes stop the killer in time? Did he really shoot that woman on the train? Or was it the mass murderer holding her hostage? Why didn't they give that guy clothes before going on TV? And how do you say the name “Fichtner?” Is it like sphincter? All this and more in our latest episode!