Nirvana

Nirvana

Year: 1997

Runtime: 113 mins

Language: Italian

Director: Gabriele Salvatores

DramaThrillerAction

Jimi, a video‑game designer, discovers his title has been corrupted by a virus that grants consciousness to its protagonist, Solo. Haunted by the loss of his girlfriend Lisa and pressed by Solo to end its meaningless existence, Jimi seeks allies who can reveal what happened to Lisa and delete the game before it reaches the market.

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Timeline & Setting – Nirvana (1997)

Explore the full timeline and setting of Nirvana (1997). Follow every major event in chronological order and see how the environment shapes the story, characters, and dramatic tension.

Time period

Set in the contemporary digital era where virtual reality and networked gaming dominate entertainment and corporate power. The narrative revolves around a high-stakes hack aimed at stopping a major game release, blending personal motives with technocratic ambition. The story uses the intersection of real and virtual spaces to explore how time is shaped by technology and control.

Location

Okasama Star corporate offices, Okasama Star data centers

The action centers on Okasama Star, a powerful virtual reality game company, within its sleek corporate offices and secure data centers. The building complex is a hub of cutting-edge hardware, servers, and surveillance as Jimi battles to delete the game. The VR world expands into a networked space where corporate power clashes with individual will.

🏢 Corporate 🖥️ Tech 🕹️ VR

Last Updated: October 04, 2025 at 18:52

Main Characters – Nirvana (1997)

Meet the key characters of Nirvana (1997), with detailed profiles, motivations, and roles in the plot. Understand their emotional journeys and what they reveal about the film’s deeper themes.

Jimi Dini (Christopher Lambert)

A depressed virtual reality game designer who discovers his game's AI has become sentient after a virus attack. He pursues erasing the game from Okasama Star's servers to end Solo's suffering and to cope with his wife's departure.

🎮 Tech 🤖 AI 💔 Grief

Lisa (Emmanuelle Seigner)

Jimi's wife, whose departure profoundly affects him and motivates his quest. She remains a crucial emotional touchstone as he navigates both the virtual and real worlds.

💔 Love 🧭 Motivator 🖥️ Tech

Solo (Diego Abatantuono)

The main character within the game who becomes self-aware after the virus. Suffering and consciousness drive his plea to be erased, making him the moral catalyst of Jimi's mission.

🤖 AI 💀 Mortality 🎭 Sentience

Joystick (Sergio Rubini)

Lisa's friend who joins Jimi, bringing tech-savvy and loyalty to help navigate corporate detection and hinder Okasama Star’s efforts.

🧰 Tech 🕵️ Spy 🤝 Ally

Naima (Stefania Rocca)

A tech wizard and ally who assists Jimi in hacking and maneuvering through the VR network, bridging the gap between human insight and digital systems.

🧠 Genius 🕶️ Hacker 🪄 Mentor

Last Updated: October 04, 2025 at 18:52

Major Themes – Nirvana (1997)

Explore the central themes of Nirvana (1997), from psychological, social, and emotional dimensions to philosophical messages. Understand what the film is really saying beneath the surface.

🌐 Reality vs Virtual Reality

The film probes the porous boundary between the real world and the game world as Solo gains sentience within the virtual environment. Jimi’s mission to erase the digital realm raises questions about consciousness, ethics, and what constitutes 'real' experience.

💔 Grief & Loss

Jimi’s longing after his wife Lisa leaves him drives his actions and colors his moral choices. The narrative uses personal heartbreak to motivate risky defiance against a powerful corporation.

🕵️ Power & Control

Okasama Star’s dominance over technology and media creates a pressure cooker where information is hoarded, conflicts are escalated, and individual autonomy is endangered. The story questions the costs of profit-driven innovation and the price of resisting it.

Last Updated: October 04, 2025 at 18:52

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Movies with simulation dilemmas like Nirvana

Stories where characters confront an unstable reality and question their own existence.If you liked the mind-bending reality crisis in Nirvana, explore similar movies where characters question their existence within a glitching simulation or virtual world. These films blend philosophical sci-fi with psychological tension, creating stories about artificial consciousness and unstable realities.

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Narrative Summary

The narrative pattern involves a protagonist discovering a fundamental flaw in their perceived reality, often through a glitch, a reveal, or an encounter with a sentient program. This leads to a journey of investigation and paranoia, blurring the lines between what is real and simulated, and culminating in a crisis of identity and purpose.

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Movies are grouped here because they share a core theme of existential crisis triggered by a broken or deceptive reality. They create a specific, paranoid mood where the very foundation of the world is untrustworthy, leading to claustrophobic and deeply philosophical stories.

Grief-driven tech noir stories like Nirvana

Bleak futures where personal loss fuels a high-stakes technological investigation.Fans of the melancholic cyberpunk vibe in Nirvana will find more movies here that blend high-tech thrills with heavy emotional weight. These stories feature protagonists driven by grief through dystopian or advanced worlds, creating a unique mix of action, mystery, and sorrow.

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Narrative Summary

The narrative follows a grieving character, often isolated and haunted by memories, who becomes entangled in a technological conspiracy or mystery. The external plot of hacking, corporate espionage, or chasing a digital ghost is intrinsically linked to their internal journey of coping with loss, leading to a somber and tense experience.

Why These Movies?

These movies are united by a specific emotional tone: a blend of futuristic action and deep melancholy. The pacing often shifts between frantic chases and quiet, introspective moments, all under a dark, rain-slicked aesthetic that mirrors the character's heavy heart.

Unlock the Full Story of Nirvana

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Nirvana Summary

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Nirvana Summary

Nirvana Timeline

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Nirvana Timeline

Nirvana Spoiler-Free Summary

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Nirvana Spoiler-Free Summary

More About Nirvana

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