The film was nearly scuttled by Natalie Wood's death during a production break in November 1981. By this time, Wood had already completed all of her major scenes, but due to mounting financial problems, MGM took Wood's death as an opportunity to shut down the already troubled production. "When she died," said Trumbull, "all the sets were locked and frozen on all the stages. No one could get in or out without special permission while all the negotiations took place."
~wikipedia

The virtual reality concept of the film, a gamer experiences the recorded experiences of someone else, is now a more common movie theme, Strange Days, eXistenz even perhaps Matrix mined (mind?) similar themes. To give the viewer the same sensation, director Douglas Trumball intercut early IMAX type film into the regular 35mm footage and used sensurround sound to give it a bit more oomph. Quite impressive. The plot featuring your usual evil govt. plotting is somewhat of a letdown, not to mention the depiction of the afterlife with flapping origami angels whizzing around.

In the ensuing chaos, Trumball vowed to himself never to make another film again and has more-or-less kept his word, which ranks as another of those great losses to cinema.

Vidcaps from the original non-anamorphic DVD.