8 Action Movies That Look & Feel Like Video Game

Summary

• Movies that embrace gaming elements can create a unique and immersive experience for viewers.
• Action films like The Raid and Edge of Tomorrow show the influence of video games on cinema.
• Films like Crank and John Wick adapt video game-like intensity and storytelling for the big screen.

While there have been plenty of video game movie adaptations over the years, often a movie that looks and feels like a video game without being based on one can work a lot better. This was because movies that took influence from gaming without being burdened by the expectations set by a previously established work had the freedom to embrace what they were and create something special. Many action movies could learn a lot from video games’ intensity and immersive nature, and some movies have fully embraced these lessons.

From the extraordinary kill counts seen in movies such as The Raid to the try-and-die mentality of sci-fi films like Edge of Tomorrow, video games have been a major influence on filmmaking throughout the 21st century. As action movies embraced slow-moving stealth and top-down filming techniques, it’s easy to see that directors and writers have channeled the looks and feelings of video games into their work. This shift in action movie aesthetics toward a style more aligned with gaming showcased that the gaming industry has an incredible influence on cinema, and its popularity as a medium grew over the years.

8 The Raid (2011)

The Raid had endlessly respawning enemies like in a video game

The Indonesian action thriller The Raid was an intense film-viewing experience akin to playing through a super difficult video game as the player was forced to take down an endless onslaught of enemies. With one cop named Rama (Iko Uwais) tasked with fighting an apartment complex full of criminals ruled over by ruthless crime boss Tama Riyandi (Ray Sahetapy), The Raid was an immersive feat of consistently respawning enemies that would never end until the mission was complete. This basic structure gave The Raid the feeling of a video game.

The similarities between The Raid and video games have been pointed out by critics before, and the director and writer Garth Evans said on the movie’s commentary track that he took the comparison as a “huge compliment.” With a beat-em-style style and an incredibly immersive story, The Raid took advantage of what was best about video game adaptations without being burdened to recreate an existing game. This effective video game style was carried forward into the equally impressive sequel, The Raid 2.

7 Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

Edge of Tomorrow’s try-and-die mentality brought to mind video games

The sci-fi action film Edge of Tomorrow has often been compared to Groundhog Dog due to its storyline of Major William Cage (Tom Cruise) being caught in a time loop until he found a way to defeat alien invaders. While this was an interesting comparison, it also brought to mind the nature of video games, where players must die and try again until they succeed. As Major Cage learned lessons from each defeat, this was similar to how a player gradually figured out how to get past a difficult mission.

Through the narrative itself, Edge of Tomorrow captured the essence of the video game-playing experience and applied it to the world of action filmmaking. As the true threat of the agile alien race known as Mimics was unveiled through Cage’s multiple deaths, viewers became simultaneously enthralled and frustrated as he sought to try multiple tactics to emerge victorious. Once the time loop was finally broken, audiences breathed a sigh of relief, similar to how it felt when a gamer got past a level that they had continually died on.

6 The Matrix (1999)

The Matrix took influence from video games and even referenced them in later installments

The main characters of video games often act as stand-ins for the players themselves, and The Matrix used tropes like this incredibly well to deliver a movie that had the look and feel of a video game. Neo, as a protagonist, was an empty vessel looking for meaning, while the Agents all looked alike in the same way the core characteristics of video game villains were repeated within games. These were just some examples of video game tropes littered throughout The Matrix.

From an empty subway showdown that mimicked the characteristics of a final boss fight to “Bullet Time” which felt directly out of a video game, The Matrix blended cinematic spectacle with gaming sensibilities. This connection became even more relevant considering the theory that The Matrix trilogy was a video game in Resurrections, the fourth highly self-referential film in the series. This development brought Neo back from the dead as Thomas Anderson, the creator of a video game called The Matrix, which gave extra credence to its sci-fi video game credentials.

5 Ready Player One (2018)

Ready Player One’s virtual reality brought to mind modern video games

The future of video games will surely be heavily influenced by virtual reality, and nowhere else was this more effectively seen than in Steven Speilberg’s Ready Player One. As much as this sci-fi action film was littered with allusions and references to iconic cinema such as Back to the Future and Gozilla, it was also a love letter to video games and their potential to create immersive worlds. Through the OASIS, a virtual reality simulation within Ready Player One, this film recreated the look and feel of playing a video game.

OASIS stood for Ontologically Anthropocentric Sensory Immersive Simulation, a massively multiplayer online simulation in which the teenage boy Wade Watts competed to win. While Ready Player One’s storyline was influenced by gaming, it also recreated the immersive experience of video games through its spectacular visuals and incredible sense of adventure. With non-stop action, Ready Player One was a treat for film lovers and gamers alike.

4 One Shot (2021)

One Shot’s one-take style mimicked the immerse nature of a video game

One Shot was a British action thriller edited to appear as one single, continuous take, similar to the World War I drama 1917. This style of filmmaking worked incredibly well in the action movie realm, as it was an entirely immersive experience that made viewers feel like they were following Navy seal Jake Harris (Scott Adkins) through a mission gone awry. With a heightened immediacy, the one-take-style of One Shot gave the film the look and feel of an intense video game experience.

The stylistic choice to present One Shot as a continuous take brought to mind epic fight sequences in video games with endlessly respawning enemies that must be continuously faced. However, the style also captured the slow-moving stealth tactics needed to get through video game missions in series like Metal Gear Solid. As a perfect mix of well-executed filmmaking and the non-stop action of gaming, One Shot felt like it balanced these two experiences very well.

3 Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World paid homage to retro video games

Part of the charm of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World was how much unique identity and quirky additions director Edgar Wright infused into it. This was primarily influenced by the original graphic novel series by Brian Lee O’Malley, but it was also littered with homages and references to video games of the past, particularly from the classic retro arcade era. This mishmash of gaming and comic book aesthetics gave Scott Pilgrim vs. the World the look and feel of a classic video game.

But it was not just the style of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World that gave its video game credentials, as the storyline itself brought to mind the experience of leveling up and progression through a series of missions. As Scott was tasked with fighting Ramon’s seven evil exes, this gave the story a structure based on boss fights that increased in difficulty. By the end, when Scott faced Gideon and gained the “Power of Self-Respect,” it felt like Scott Pilgrim had come to the end of a long game that the viewers had been watching him play.

2 Crank (2006)

Crank captured the spirit of open world, extremely violent video games

No film has more perfectly captured how it felt to play the Grand Theft Auto series than Crank, starring Jason Statham. As a high-intensity action film that continually upped the stakes to extreme levels, Crank was like when a player went on a rogue rampage on GTA and kept playing until they were at the five-star wanted level, and it all came crashing down. As a film that reveled in its outrageous depravity, Crank was highly effective.

Just through its storyline alone, Crank mimicked the over-the-top nature of video games like GTA. Statham’s character, Chev Chelios, was a professional assassin injected with a poison that would kill him if his heart rate dropped. Considering this, Crank had not let the intensity die down for more than a second, as if it had, its protagonist would have been forced to lie down and die. As a no-nonsense, reckless, and outrageous film, Crank perfectly encapsulates the experience of free-roaming wildness in video games.

1 John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)

John Wick: Chapter 4 featured a top-down sequence taken directly from video games

The world of the John Wick franchise felt like it came straight out of a video game, as the former assassin, played by Keanu Reeves, was constantly surrounded by enemies of increasing difficulty. Much of the narrative was presented in blocks with minimal dialogue during action scenes, similar to how cut scenes were used in video games. Of course, John Wick’s seeming invincibility also made him feel like a video game protagonist, as he was shot, stabbed, and even fell from buildings and survived.

However, more so than any installment, John Wick: Chapter 4 featured the clearest video game inspiration due to the top-down overhead sequence within the film. In an interview with Slash Film, director Chad Stahelski explained that this sequence was inspired by The Hong Kong Massacre, a 2019 action game controlled entirely from a top-down perspective. As a franchise that continually took inspiration from video games, it was refreshing to see the John Wick series wear this influence on its sleeve in the fourth installment.

Sources: Slash Film