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The Call Up (2016) poster

2016 · adventure · action · sci-fi

The Call Up

Directed by Charles Barker1h 30m2016

When a group of elite online gamers each receive a mysterious invitation to trial a state-of-the-art virtual reality video game, it’s a dream come true and impossible to resist. Arriving at the test site, the group step into hi-tech gear and prepare for a revolutionary, next-level gaming experience that brings modern warfare to life with frightening realism. At first it’s a unique and exhilarating experience. But what starts out like a dream encounter with cutting edge technology quickly takes a turn for the sinister. Once the group are attacked by enemy combatants, they soon realize this is no game after all. Make a mistake here and you pay with your life. Now these masters of the shoot ‘em up will have to fight for survival within a game gone bad, but this time it’s for real.

Our read: The Call Up (2016) reads as a sombre, breathless, inventive adventure · action · sci-fi entry — measured in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, cold in temperature, ambivalent in outlook.

Movie DNA

Sombre, breathless, measured adventure / action, inventive in texture. Ambivalent, mid-stakes, cold.

ElsewhereIMDb4.94k
  • sombre
  • kinetic
  • intense
  • cold
Game · before you press play

Watching The Call Up tonight? Spin for your lens.

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Everyone on the couch gets one craft to watch for. Spin the wheel to get yours. Sound on: the narrator reads your mission.

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Where the cast leads
DNA · twelve axes

How The Call Up feels to watch.

Each axis is scored by hand, not from votes or genre averages. The bar uses the film's own colours.

MoodHeavy ↔ Cosy
PacingSlow-burn ↔ Kinetic
IntensityGentle ↔ Extreme
WeirdnessConventional ↔ Surreal
HopeNihilistic ↔ Redemptive
StakesIntimate ↔ Epic
HumourNone ↔ Broad
RealityGrounded ↔ Fantastical
DensitySparse ↔ Twisty
WarmthCold ↔ Tender
AuteurTransparent ↔ Signature
Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

“You want gamers trapped in deadly VR war simulation fighting for real.”

ends bittersweetyou’ll be fine aftergrabs you earlygrips by minute 8attention 3/5breezes by
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around
Heads-upgraphic violencedrug use

Skip it tonight — You want thoughtful sci-fi or hate video game movie tropes.

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