Hyperlink cinema

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Last edited March 11, 2026

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Hyperlink cinema is a style of filmmaking characterized by complex or multilinear narrative structures with multiple characters under one unifying theme.[1] In spite of the name, these films are not actual hypermedia and do not have actual hyperlinks, but are multilinear in a more metaphorical sense.

History

The term was coined by author Alissa Quart, who used the term in her review of the film Happy Endings (2005) for the film journal Film Comment in 2005.[2] Film critic Roger Ebert popularized the term when reviewing the film Syriana in 2005.[3]

In describing Happy Endings, Quart considers captions acting as footnotes and split screen as elements of hyperlink cinema and notes the influence of the World Wide Web and multitasking.[2] Playing with time and characters' personal history, plot twists, interwoven storylines between multiple characters, jumping between the beginning and end (flashback and flashforward) are also elements.[2] Ebert further described hyperlink cinema as films where the characters or action reside in separate stories, but a connection or influence between those disparate stories is slowly revealed to the audience; illustrated in Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu's films Amores perros (2000), 21 Grams (2003), and Babel (2006).[3][4]

Quart suggests that director Robert Altman created the structure for the genre and demonstrated its usefulness for combining interlocking stories in his films Nashville (1975) and Short Cuts (1993).[5] However, his work was predated by several films, including Satyajit Ray's Kanchenjunga (1962),[6] Federico Fellini's Amarcord (1973),[7] and Ritwik Ghatak's Titash Ekti Nadir Naam (1973),[8] all of which use a narrative structure based on multiple characters.

Quart also mentions the television series 24 and discusses Alan Rudolph's film Welcome to L.A. (1976) as an early prototype.[2] Crash (2004) is an example of the genre,[9] as are Steven Soderbergh's Traffic (2000), Fernando Meirelles's City of God (2002), Stephen Gaghan's Syriana (2005) and Rodrigo Garcia's Nine Lives (2005).

The style is also used in video games. French video game company Quantic Dream has produced games, such as Heavy Rain and Detroit: Become Human, with hyperlink cinema style storytelling, and the style has also influenced role-playing games such as Suikoden III (2001) and Octopath Traveler (2018).Template:Citation needed

Analysis

The hyperlink cinema narrative and story structure can be compared to social science's spatial analysis. As described by Edward Soja and Costis Hadjimichalis spatial analysis examines the "'horizontal experience' of human life, the spatial dimension of individual behavior and social relations, as opposed to the 'vertical experience' of history, tradition, and biography."[10] English critic John Berger notes for the novel that "it is scarcely any longer possible to tell a straight story sequentially unfolding in time" for "we are too aware of what is continually traversing the story line laterally."[10]

An academic analysis of hyperlink cinema appeared in the journal Critical Studies in Media Communication, and referred to the films as Global Network Films. Narine's study examines the films Traffic (2000), Amores perros (2000), 21 Grams (2003), Beyond Borders (2003), Crash (2004; released 2005), Syriana (2005), Babel (2006) and others, citing network theorist Manuel Castells and philosophers Michel Foucault and Slavoj Žižek. The study suggests that the films are network narratives that map the network society and the new connections citizens experience in the age of globalization.[11]

Alberto Toscano and Jeff Kinkle have argued that one popular form of hyperlink cinema constitutes a contemporary form of it-narrative, an 18th- and 19th-century genre of fiction written from the imagined perspective of objects as they move between owners and social environments.[12] In these films, they argue, "the narrative link is the characters' relation to the film's product of choice, whether it be guns, cocaine, oil, or Nile perch."[12]

Notable examples

Films

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Video games

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 10 Movies Where Several Stories Interconnect - MovieWeb
  2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 Networked. Film Comment({Template:Date).
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Syriana. Reviews(December 9, 2005). Retrieved July 25, 2007.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Babel. Reviews(September 22, 2007). Retrieved February 8, 2008.
  5. ↑ Ebert, Roger (2006). Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2007. Andrews McMeel Publishing. p. 100. Template:ISBN
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Kanchenjungha.
  7. ↑ 7.00 7.01 7.02 7.03 7.04 7.05 7.06 7.07 7.08 7.09 20 Great Examples of Hyperlink Cinema Every Film Buff Must Watch. Taste of Cinema(September 4, 2015).
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Rows and Rows of Fences: Ritwik Ghatak on Cinema{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Ritwik Memorial & Trust Seagull Books(2000). ISBN 81-7046-178-2
  9. ↑ "Crossing Over" and Hyperlink Cinema, Willmore, Alison. IFC(February 23, 2009). Retrieved July 12, 2022.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Between Geographical Materialism and Spatial Fetishism: Some Observations on the Development of Marxist Spatial Analysis. Antipode({Template:Year).
  11. ↑ Global Trauma and the Cinematic Network Society. Critical Studies in Media Communication({Template:Year).
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Cartographies of the Absolute{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Zero Books(2015)
  13. ↑ Hyperlink Film. Flickchart.
  14. ↑ The Best Hyperlink Films of the 1930s. Flickchart.
  15. ↑ Indie: An American Film Culture{{#if:Newman|, Newman}. Columbia University Press(2011). ISBN 9780231513524
  16. ↑ The Best Hyperlink Films of the 1960s. Flickchart.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Bütün Filmleriyle Yilmaz Güney{{#if:Özguc|, Özguc}
  18. ↑ Ganadevata. Upperstall.com. Retrieved 2014-04-26.
  19. ↑ The Best Hyperlink Films of the 1980s. Flickchart.
  20. ↑ It's a Sad and Beautiful World: Music From the Films of Jim Jarmusch. A Perfect Prescription(March 15, 2016).
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 The Best Hyperlink Films of the 1990s. Flickchart.
  22. ↑ Before the Rain Film Review, Kipp, Jeremiah. Slant Magazine(August 12, 2008). Retrieved March 3, 2010.
  23. ↑ Exotica, Ebert, Roger(March 11, 2009).
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 Postmodern Hollywood: What's New in Film and why it Makes Us Feel So Strange{{#if:Booker|, Booker}. Greenwood Publishing Group.(2007). ISBN 978-0-275-99900-1
  25. ↑ How Quentin Tarantino Broke The Mold For Anthology Movies With Pulp Fiction|/Film
  26. ↑ 'Playing By Heart': In a Cocktail of Romance, Different Flavors of Love, Holden, Stephen. The New York Times(January 22, 1999). Retrieved March 3, 2010.
  27. ↑ Heavy Rotation: 'Run Lola Run' at 25. MUBI(10 June 2024). Retrieved 31 August 2025.
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 28.2 Top 10 Greatest Films of 'Hyperlink Cinema'. moviebabble.com(March 17, 2018).
  29. ↑ 29.00 29.01 29.02 29.03 29.04 29.05 29.06 29.07 29.08 29.09 29.10 29.11 Hyperlink Cinema and the Prevalence of Intertwining Stories. The Artifice(January 17, 2017).
  30. ↑ CODE INCONNU. Festival de Cannes.
  31. ↑ 31.0 31.1 31.2 Cape of Good Hope. Reviews(January 6, 2006). Retrieved February 8, 2008.
  32. ↑ Lantana. Reviews(January 18, 2002). Retrieved February 14, 2009.
  33. ↑ 11:14, an obscure gem of a movie (review), Cochran, Dechlan. D&CFilm(April 12, 2012).
  34. ↑ Fragmentation games: the return of the portmanteau film, Barber, Nicholas(March 17, 2015).
  35. ↑ The 15 Best Glenn Close Movie Performances. Taste of Cinema(March 8, 2019).
  36. ↑ Film Review: Sin City, Page, Matt. Open Heaven Church(June 20, 2005). Retrieved January 8, 2011.
  37. ↑ The post-perspectival: Screens and time in David Lynch's Inland Empire(March 2012).
  38. ↑ Look Both Ways. Chicago Sun-Times(April 27, 2006). Retrieved July 12, 2022.
  39. ↑ The Celestial Prophecy : Living on The Edge of Heaven, Skinner, Marjorie. Portland Mercury(September 4, 2008). Retrieved September 5, 2008.
  40. ↑ Rendition, Gandert, Sean(October 18, 2007). Retrieved February 8, 2008.
  41. ↑ The Air I Breathe – Movie – Review. The New York Times(January 25, 2008). Retrieved May 13, 2008.
  42. ↑ Vantage Point, Chang, Justin. Variety(February 21, 2008). Retrieved January 3, 2011.
  43. ↑ Portland Film Fest Review: Ajami, Snider, Eric D.. Cinematical(February 16, 2010). Retrieved March 3, 2010.
  44. ↑ Powder Blue Review, Anderson, Melissa. Variety(May 8, 2009). Retrieved July 21, 2010.
  45. ↑ Watchmen: the 'unfilmable' on screen. The Daily Telegraph(February 25, 2009). Retrieved January 8, 2011.
  46. ↑ Watchmen Director's Cut Blu-ray Review, Perkis, Ed. CinemaBlend(May 17, 2016). Retrieved January 8, 2011.
  47. ↑ REVIEW: Hereafter. Marshall and the Movies(November 4, 2010).
  48. ↑ Answers to Nothing. Slant Magazine(December 2, 2011). Retrieved October 16, 2019.
  49. ↑ 'Traffic' to start this July.
  50. ↑ Steven Soderbergh's Contagion, Wickman, Forrest. Slate(September 9, 2011).
  51. ↑ 'Cloud Atlas' review: Baring your soul. San Francisco Chronicle(October 25, 2012). Retrieved June 8, 2013.
  52. ↑ Disconnect. Slant Magazine(April 7, 2013). Retrieved August 16, 2016.
  53. ↑ The Big Short review – life with the Wall Street sharks(January 24, 2016).
  54. ↑ 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' Review: It's Messy, and Glorious. NY Times(March 24, 2022).
  55. ↑ 'Bullet Train' Spoiler Free Review - ScrenHub Review - ScreenHub Entertainment(August 11, 2022).
  56. ↑ 'Sila Nerangalil Sila Manidhargal' Review:A heartwarming tale about regret, remorse and realisation. The Times of India.
  57. ↑ Exclusive! Kannada's First Hyper-Link Rom-Com, Chow Chow Bath, Completes 50 Days - Times Now
  58. ↑ Kenja Chethan Kumar on ‘Chow Chow Bath’: It is a hyperlink film - The Hindu
  59. ↑ Zach Cregger's 'Weapons' Brilliantly Dodged This Clichéd Cinematic Trap, Slankard, Jacob. Collider(2025-08-13). Retrieved 2026-03-11.
  60. ↑ Suikoden III in-depth review. IGN Boards(October 11, 2002). Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  61. ↑ Indigo Prophecy Review. GameSpot(September 21, 2005). Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  62. ↑ Interview: David Cage of Quantic Dream and Heavy Rain. Engadget(May 27, 2009). Retrieved November 4, 2020.
  63. ↑ Resident Evil 6 HD Remaster Review – Not Worth The Replay Value. gamingbolt.com(April 4, 2016). Retrieved January 26, 2021.
  64. ↑ Tips on how to save, or lose, all eight characters in Until Dawn. VentureBeat(August 31, 2015). Retrieved November 4, 2020.
  65. ↑ 'Octopath Traveler' tells eight stories, and they're all forgettable. Digital Trends(July 18, 2018).
  66. ↑ Detroit: Become Human Story and Ending Explained - Here's What Happened. NDTV Gadgets 360(May 28, 2018). Retrieved October 31, 2020.
  67. ↑ Prabandha Sangraha{{#if:Ray|, Ray}. Ananda Publishers(2015). ISBN 978-93-5040-553-6
  68. ↑ 68.0 68.1 20 Worst Hipster Movies of All Time. LA Weekly(July 17, 2014).
  69. ↑ Interview: Weight of the world(16 March 2008). Retrieved 8 March 2016.
  70. ↑ Narrative of Tagore's songs used in Tarun Majumdar's Alo (2003). Silhouette Magazine(2011-12-29). Retrieved 2020-08-02.

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