By Robert Scucci
| Published
There’s nothing quite like a solid neo-noir sci-fi mind-bender, and 1990’s Megaville is the most Inception thing I’ve ever seen in my life. And I’ve seen Inception! Megaville wins some extra points, though, because it’s Billy Zane’s first lead role. That’s right, before he blew up with The Phantom and Titanic, he was all about that Blade Runner-style dystopian sci-fi grit, taking on an increasingly complicated mission that requires him to live between two worlds: the Hemisphere and the titular Megaville.
Megaville tells a story about assumed identities, a tyrannical government that has outlawed the media, and the resulting black market hanging in the balance as corrupt officials do as they please, all in the name of controlling the masses. It’s delivered through classic neo-noir beats in the context of a sci-fi film. It’s Billy Zane at his most frenetic and hungry, and he commits to the bit like a total pro.
The Hemisphere Vs Megaville
Megaville starts out in the Hemisphere, where media is outlawed and the government rules with an iron fist. Raymond Palinov (Billy Zane) is the captain of the Media Police, but here’s the problem: he’s addicted to the media he’s supposed to be confiscating, which clearly doesn’t go over well with his higher-ups who run the CKS, the Hemisphere’s governing body. To make matters worse, Raymond keeps “losing control” in the form of full-body seizures, complete with hallucinations, that only continue to escalate.
Despite his personal and professional issues, Raymond is summoned by CKS Director Mr. Duprell (Daniel J. Travanti) to handle a classified mission in Megaville involving a new consumer product known as Dream-A-Life (DAL), a virtual reality headset that allows users to live whatever kind of life they want but can’t attain in the physical world. The Hemisphere has made such devices legal, but thanks to a mysterious man named Mr. Newman (J.C. Quinn), they’re fair game over in Megaville, which is where Raymond will be put to use.
Raymond bears an uncanny resemblance to Mr. Newman’s only known contact in the Hemisphere, Jensen, and is put under by Dr. Vogel (Stefan Gierasch) under the guise of having his head problems fixed. Instead, Dr. Vogel implants Jensen’s memories into his skull, allowing him to navigate Megaville, find Jensen’s lover, Christine (Kristen Cloke), and piece together exactly where he needs to be to track down Mr. Newman. The implant also makes him incredibly unstable, which may have been the plan all along.
From this point forward, it’s unclear who Raymond is supposed to trust. He’s still his own person, but sometimes finds himself thinking like Jensen, and other times finds himself spazzing out as if his brain is being remotely accessed by the folks back in the Hemisphere. Raymond gets further lost in his own mind as he tries to navigate a mission that even his mother (Grace Zabriskie) encouraged him to take on. Between the voices in his head, the increasing hallucinations, and the DAL technology starting to influence his decision-making, Raymond is caught in the middle of a grand conspiracy with no clear escape route, to the point where he doesn’t even know who he is anymore.
A Gritty, Frenetic Brain Twister
By now, we’ve all seen similar plots play out, but Megaville holds its own as one of those weird sci-fi gems you may have overlooked. If you go in as a blank slate, the film has a lot going for it, even if some of its genre conventions can be found elsewhere. I can’t say with confidence that I’d feel the same way if anybody other than Billy Zane were the lead actor in this movie, however. His physicality and, at times, complete blankness hint at what’s to come in his career as he’s just starting to cut his teeth as a lead actor here. This doesn’t seem like an easy role to convincingly play, and he fully commits to the premise.
Megaville is one of those weird films that’s inherently cerebral but still easy to digest because every character archetype is familiar enough to wrap your head around. You have the evil government scientists and the conflicted agent trying to find inner peace, and along the way we learn how these shadow-government operations are handled. Despite its familiar beats, Megaville remains enthralling from start to finish because we’re allowed to focus on what’s happening in the moment instead of constantly wondering what everybody’s motives are.
This isn’t to say there aren’t surprise twists and turns along the way, but rather to illustrate how this vehicle is primed to kick it into fifth gear without leaving viewers in the dust. It’s clearly a low-budget effort with a then up-and-coming A-lister, but if anything, it serves as a solid proving ground for Billy Zane, who leans so hard into his conflicted character’s fractured mental state that he sells it better than just about anybody else who could have been cast in the role.
As of this writing, you can stream Megaville for free on Tubi.
