Woman plugged into virtual reality - British movie or TV short?

Hi All,

I am new to this site. I would really appreciate your help. I am trying to find the title to a short British movie or TV short (it could be Australian) that I watched on TV, probably on CBC channel 9 out of Windsor, Canada back in the late 1970's when I was a kid. I lived in Michigan at the time. I want to watch it again, but I can't find it anywhere and I don't remember the title. Finding the title has been driving me crazy for years. I'm hoping beyond hope that someone can help.

As much as I can recall, it starts off about a woman who meets a man and they fall in love and they want to leave the city and live "outside". The city is actually in virtual reality, but the viewer doesn't know this right away. She really wants to leave the city and disconnect from this virtual reality world and she desperately tries to convince her boyfriend to join her. The powers that be (or perhaps a computer) finally let the two leave the city and they find the world outside is only desert. They try to survive for a short time outside, but can't make it. I think the boyfriend leave first, then finally she is convinced that the city is better than outside, so she returns.

[Spoiler alert]. There is a twist at the end. She never actually left. She has been connected to virtual reality the entire time, and the entire experience was just a virtual program used to change her mind to stay in this virtual reality world rather than to be unplugged. The viewer realizes this as she unplugs herself, leaves her bedroom, looks into another bedroom where someone else is plugged in (likely her mother). She then uses the bathroom. That's basically the ending. The viewer realizing that she had never been unplugged. Does anyone know the title to this movie or TV short? Thanks so much!

Maybe World On A Wire (1973)?


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_on_a_Wire

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I hope Rodent's answer helped you. Meanwhile, I'm in awe of the fact that a movie made in the 1970s nailed virtual reality so well!

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Yes, I very much want to see this film too!

I'm afraid World On A Wire (1973) is not the movie, but I will have to watch it in its entirety to be sure. Thanks for the suggestion though, I can't wait to see World On A Wire, it looks very interesting.

Any other suggestions?

From what I can remember of the movie I'm searching for, the desert scene shows the boyfriend and girlfriend trying to live it a small shack somewhat open to the outside, wind blowing. When they walk in the sand, it's arduous because the sand is deep. The shots are close up so you really can't see anything around the shack other than a sand dune in the background and dull sky.

The other scene I can picture is of the twenty-something girlfriend waking up on a dull and stark looking bed-like recliner or hospital bed. As she unplugs herself, she slowly gets up and walks into the hall. She is dressed in a dull grey, loose-fitting t-shirt and grey shorts. I don't think she was wearing a bra, but I digress. The walls of the apartment were grey and dull. The apartment reminded me of a flat in a high rise, but with no views to the outside, nothing on the walls, just dull and bland.

Thinking more about the scenes, it could have actually been filmed in the 1960's and from my description, probably in black and white (LOL). It had that 1960's British TV series look, maybe filmed a little after the British TV series The Avengers. It was somewhat of that style and I remember British accents. It was definitely a low budget project. Any suggestions would be appreciated and thanks again for your help!

Hmmmm, maybe if she was wearing a bra ....

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I feel like this has been asked for before. Maybe if you search this subforum you might find it.

There's a UK 50 minute TV play from 1966 titled 'The Machine Stops' that has some of the plot points you've described.

Read about it here:
imdb.com/title/tt0060643/?ref_=tt_urv