The Circle (2017)
Knowing is good. Knowing everything is better.
A young tech worker takes a job at a powerful Internet corporation, quickly rises up the company's ranks, and soon finds herself in a perilous situation concerning privacy, surveillance and freedom. She comes to learn that her decisions and actions will determine the future of humanity.
The Circle keeps every mind human — it fights its subject at zero distance. The story fights on E8/E11/E12 of the E0–E14 reality ladder, compressing surveillance, privacy, technology, power, control.
Same rung, same subject
Films fighting at the same level of reality, about the same things.
Impossible Things (2021)E11/E12 · rare rung · control, power
Southland Tales (2007)E11/E12 · rare rung · power, surveillance
Afraid (2024)E8 · control, privacy
Echelon Conspiracy (2009)E8 · control, power
Spaceballs (1987)E8/E11/E12 · rare rung · power, technology
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)E8/E11/E12 · rare rung · power, technologySame subject, different rung
The same preoccupations examined at another scale — one mind versus a nation.
Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971)E7/E10 · rare rung · power, technology
Stargate: The Ark of Truth (2008)E9/E13 · rare rung · power, technology
Wizards (1977)E9/E13 · rare rung · power, technology
Appleseed (2004)E9/E10 · control, power
The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996)E9/E10 · control, power
Iron Sky: The Coming Race (2019)E9/E10 · power, technologyAlso bends a rule of reality
Other films that change a standing rule of their world — ranked first by those bending it at the same rung.
Nerve (2016)alters at E10 · same rung · loose
Eagle Eye (2008)alters at E10 · same rung · loose
The Truman Show (1998)alters at E10 · same rung · rigorous
I, Robot (2004)alters at E10 · same rung · loose
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023)alters at E10 · same rung · rigorous
The Running Man (2025)alters at E10 · same rung · looseSame people
Shared director or cast.
