This is the way the world ends.

Set in the futuristic landscape of Los Angeles on July 4, 2008, as it stands on the brink of social, economic and environmental disaster. Boxer Santaros is an action star who's stricken with amnesia. His life intertwines with Krysta Now, an adult film star developing her own reality television project, and Ronald Taverner, a Hermosa Beach police officer who holds the key to a vast conspiracy.
Southland Tales keeps every mind human — it fights its subject at zero distance. The story fights on E10/E11/E12 of the E0–E14 reality ladder, compressing power, authority, surveillance, politics, technology.
Films fighting at the same level of reality, about the same things.
RoboCop (2014)E10/E11 · authority, power
RoboCop 2 (1990)E10/E11 · authority, power
Vice (2018)E10/E12 · rare rung · authority, politics
The Circle (2017)E11/E12 · rare rung · power, surveillance
Space Pirate Captain Harlock (2013)E11/E12 · rare rung · authority, power
Impossible Things (2021)E11/E12 · rare rung · power, surveillanceThe same preoccupations examined at another scale — one mind versus a nation.
The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)E9/E14 · rare rung · authority, technology
Atlas (2024)E8/E14 · rare rung · power, technology
The Core (2003)E8/E14 · rare rung · politics, technology
Dragon Ball Z: The History of Trunks (1993)E8/E14 · rare rung · power, technology
Doctor Who (1996)E8/E14 · rare rung · power, technology
Dragon Ball Z: The Return of Cooler (1992)E6/E8 · rare rung · power, technologyOther films that change a standing rule of their world — ranked first by those bending it at the same rung.
Watchmen (2009)alters at E0 · same rung · loose
Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby-Doo! Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog (2021)alters at E0 · same rung · loose
Avengers: Endgame (2019)alters at E0 · same rung · loose
Doctor Strange (2016)alters at E0 · same rung · rigorous
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)alters at E0 · same rung · loose
Terminator Genisys (2015)alters at E0 · same rung · loose