4 Movies with the Most Epic Video Game Cameos

Ever since video games were first created in the mid-1950s, they have slowly and steadily risen in popularity. Today, it’s not uncommon for you to suddenly catch a scene of your favourite video game in the movie you are watching. But did you know that these appearances were common even back in the 80s?

Be it for comedic purposes, as an important plot device that draws parallels between the video game world and the movie world, or to show the characters passing their free time, video game cameos in movies have been popular even before video games gained popularity among common people.

Here’s a list of 5 movies with iconic video games scenes. Get ready for some epic cameos and juicy details about the movies they were featured in.

1. When Galaga Saved the World

Directed by John Badham with a screenplay by Walter F. Parks and Lawrence Lasker, WarGames (1983) is a techno-thriller that hit theatres in 1983. The movie follows the character of David Lightman (played by Matthew Broderick), a high school student who is also a genius hacker.

The video game in this movie comes in the form of a famous arcade scene where David’s face is reflected in the game he is playing: Galaga, popularly known as the greatest of all 80s arcade games. Later, when he mistakenly hacks into a supercomputer belonging to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), and needs to defeat the computer so as not to start a World War III, his skills playing Galaga come in handy. Pretty cool, right? In addition to this, the Galaga cameo also serves to tell us that David loves video games.

With several Oscar nominations and a BAFTA Award, the movie was a big hit when it came out. But the initial idea for the film was quite different. The seeds for this movie were planted in the head of co-writer Lawrence Lasker after he watched a documentary about Stephen Hawkings and was supposed to feature a wheelchair-bound genius character just like him. But the Stephen-Hawkings-like genius turned into a similar character who worked for NORAD- Dr. Stephen Falken. They even gave Dr. Falken the same first name!

Since the technology wasn’t so advanced in those days, the filmmakers actually had their doubts as to whether the story would be believable. Another interesting tidbit about the movie was that Matthew, the lead actor, was given a Galaga video arcade so that he could practice. They wanted to make it seem like he was technologically proficient.

2. When a Gaming Setup Turned Us Green with Envy

In 2005, Judd Apatow directed a romantic comedy movie, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, starring several now-famous actors like Steve Carrell (who plays Andy Stitzer) and Catherine Keener (who plays Trish Piedmont). Andy’s co-workers include Paul Rudd, Romany Malco, and Seth Rogen. Andy is a very introverted guy who loves video games and collectible action figurines and is—you guessed it—still a virgin at the age of 40. So, his coworkers set out to get him to date.

In this movie, the video game scene occurs when his coworkers (played by Seth and Paul) go to Andy’s apartment and give him company till his date shows up. The both of them are having a conversation while playing Mortal Kombat: Deception, one of the best survival games ever made. This scene even features two fatalities within the game! Fighting titles have always been at the forefront of casual gaming, having an impact throughout the entertainment industry, even having their own online slot interpretation, so it’s no wonder the writers went for this easy kill (pun intended).

But the thing that made everyone more excited than a cameo of their favorite video game was Andy’s gaming setup. He had built-in surround sound, and his chair even had controllers attached to the armrests! This was a pretty big deal in the early 2000s. But the movie did miss one tiny detail. In the scene, Andy’s coworkers are shown to be playing the game using N64 controllers, but Mortal Kombat: Deception was only released on PS2, Xbox, and GameCube. The N64 also hadn’t been in use for a long time by the time the movie started filming.

3. When You Need to Unwind in the Middle of a War

Featuring one of the last places you will expect to see a video game being played, The Hurt Locker (2008) is a war thriller movie directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by Mark Boal. The main cast includes Jeremy Renner (who plays the character of Staff Seargent Willian James), Anthony Mackie (who plays Seargent JT Sanborn), and Brian Geraghty (who plays Specialist Owen Eldridge).

The plot follows the story of a bomb disposal team amid the second year of the Iraq War, and is about a new Seargent (William James) who has his own way of doing things. As a result, he often clashes with his squad mates.

In one scene, Colonel John Cambridge (played by Christian Camargo) enters a room to counsel two squad members when they are shown playing Gears of War, a video game about war on an Xbox 360. One of the members playing includes Specialist Eldridge. It’s interesting that the filmmakers decided to insert a video game about war in a movie about war.

It becomes even more intriguing when you take into account the fact that the movie is set in 2004, yet the characters are playing a game that wasn’t released until 2006. Maybe it was supposed to be a symbolism of sorts. Perhaps Specialist Eldridge is playing the game because you can always start over in a video game, but in a real-life war, that is simply not possible.

The Hurt Locker received a lot of flak for its inaccurate portrayal of war, especially its bomb diffusion scenes. However, the movie did become quite popular and went on to win six Oscar awards, including the very first “Best Picture” award for a film directed by a woman.

4. When the Real World and the Reel World Collide

This video game scene is based on events from real life (bound to be one on this list). Released in 2018, Ready Player One is a sci-fi adventure movie set in a dystopian 2045 and is based on a novel of the same name by Ernest Cline. The movie was directed by the famous Steven Spielberg, with a screenplay by Zak Penn and Cline. The movie’s main protagonist is Tye Sheridan, who plays the character of teenager Wade Watts.

When the creator of a multiplayer virtual reality entertainment universe, OASIS, James Halliday, dies, he leaves a message. The ownership of OASIS will be granted to whoever finds the golden easter egg that’s behind a locked gate that can only be opened by completing three challenges. Wade clears the first two challenges and obtains the keys. The third challenge is where things get interesting.

The final challenge involves finding the hidden Easter egg in Halliday’s favourite game, Adventure for Atari 2600. This was the first console adventure game released in the world. But here’s the twist- the Easter egg hidden in Adventure is very real and exists in the real-world game.

The story behind it is very fascinating. When the video game was released in 1979, Atari refused to give credit to the game developers because they were worried that others would poach them. Unhappy with this outcome, game dev Warren Robinett programmed his name into the game inside a secret room. The secret room could only be opened using a secret key in a particular place. If a player was able to open that room, they would see the words “created by Warren Robinett.” This real-life Easter egg is what inspired Cline and the film-makers. Pretty cool, right?