The Game (1997)

Most people think so. 74% of audiences gave it a thumbs up, by Google's archived audience score. Critics agree, scoring it 70%.

In honor of his birthday, San Francisco banker Nicholas Van Orton, a financial genius and a cold-hearted loner, receives an unusual present from his younger brother, Conrad: a gift certificate to play a unique kind of game. In nary a nanosecond, Nicholas finds himself consumed by a dangerous set of ever-changing rules, unable to distinguish where the charade ends and reality begins. Wikipedia ↗

The Game is a 1997 American mystery thriller directed by David Fincher. Michael Douglas stars as Nicholas Van Orton, a wealthy, emotionally closed San Francisco investment banker who receives an unusual birthday gift from his estranged brother Conrad, played by Sean Penn: enrollment in a mysterious, personalized experience provided by Consumer Recreation Services. What begins as a seemingly benign game of puzzles and odd encounters rapidly escalates into a nightmarish scenario that strips Nicholas of his wealth, sanity, and identity, leaving him unable to distinguish the game from reality — or to determine whether CRS is a legitimate entertainment company or a criminal organization destroying his life.

David Fincher created one of the most effective psychological thrillers of the 1990s, exploiting the audience's uncertainty alongside Nicholas's, building tension through the paranoid realization that every person and situation might be part of an elaborate performance. Michael Douglas's increasingly desperate, unraveling performance was a career highlight. The Game earned $109 million worldwide on a $50 million budget.