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The Game

Nicholas Van Orton is an investment banker in San Francisco. He is very successful and wealthy, but also cold and condescending, as well as lonely and reclusive. He remains haunted by the death of his father, who committed suicide on his 48th birthday by jumping off the roof of the family mansion. Therefore, Nicholas is feeling grim on his 48th birthday.

On the day, he is surprisingly visited by his estranged younger brother, Conrad, who gifts him an unusual present—a voucher for a "game" offered by Consumer Recreation Services (CRS). Though skeptical, Nicholas cannot help but be interested and he goes to the CRS office to apply; the time-consuming psychological and physical examinations required irritate him. He is later informed that his application has been rejected. This angers him.

Nicholas returns home one evening to find a wooden clown in his driveway, which he drags inside. While watching the Cable Financial Network (CFN), the anchor begins talking to Nicholas through his TV screen. The anchor tells Nicholas that he is being watched by a tiny camera in the clown's head and provides him with the telephone number for a CRS 24-hour emergency hotline. He warns Nicholas not to call the hotline asking about the object of the game, as "figuring that out is the object of the game." More bizarre events continue; Nicholas initially thinks CRS is simply staging elaborate pranks, but he comes to believe it is real when his business, reputation, and safety are endangered. He meets a waitress, Christine, who also becomes involved.

A panic-stricken Conrad visits Nicholas and apologizes, claiming CRS has attacked him. An argument breaks out between the two brothers, resulting in Conrad running away—leaving Nicholas on his own. Nicholas gets into a taxi; after locking the doors, the driver jumps out before the car crashes into San Francisco Bay. Nicholas manages to escape the sinking car, using a tool mysteriously left for him a day before. He reaches the surface and contacts police, but they find the CRS office abandoned.

With no one else to turn to, Nicholas finds Christine's home and discovers she is a CRS employee. When she tells him they are being watched, Nicholas attacks a nearby camera, and armed CRS personnel swarm the house. When they fire at the two of them, they flee to a Van Orton home outside of the city. Christine has told Nicholas that CRS has drained his bank accounts by guessing his passwords using the psychological tests he completed, but a call to his lawyer suggests the money remains intact. Nicholas then begins to feel dizzy and realizes Christine has drugged him. As he loses consciousness, she admits she is part of the scam and says he made a fatal mistake in giving his card security code over the phone.

Nicholas wakes entombed alive in a Mexican cemetery. He sells his watch (a gift from his mother) to return to San Francisco, only to find his mansion foreclosed and most of his possessions removed. He contacts the hotel where Conrad was staying, and is told his brother has been committed to a mental institution following a nervous breakdown. Nicholas retrieves a hidden gun and finds his ex-wife to ask for help. While apologizing to her for his emotional neglectfulness, he learns that Jim Feingold, the CRS employee who conducted his tests, is an actor working in television advertisements. He finds Jim and forces him to find the real CRS office, finds Christine there and takes her hostage, demanding to be taken to the head of CRS.

Pursued by CRS guards, Nicholas takes Christine to the roof. Christine, realizing Nicholas's gun is not a prop, frantically tells him it is only a game; his finances are intact, and his family and friends are waiting on the other side of the door. He refuses to believe her, and Nicholas shoots the first person to emerge—Conrad, bearing a bottle of champagne. Devastated, Nicholas tries to commit suicide by leaping off the roof, but lands on a giant air cushion in a banquet hall. He is greeted by Conrad and the rest of the actors from the game, revealing that the gun was a prop. Everything had been staged by Conrad for Nicholas's birthday present.

After a birthday party with friends, Christine (whose real name is Claire) declines Nicholas's offer of a date because she has another job lined up in Australia. She instead suggests they have coffee together at the airport, ending the final scene with Nicholas looking half-tempted, half-cautious.