Two films from very different eras of Hollywood are landing on Paramount+ this June. One pairs two future Oscar winners in a strange sci-fi thriller from 1995. The other is a 1985 drama that many consider among the finest thrillers ever made.
Virtuosity arrives first. The film follows Parker Barnes, an ex-police officer in prison who gets pulled into a dangerous experiment involving SID 6.7, an artificial intelligence built from the personalities of dozens of serial killers. When SID escapes into an android body, Barnes is forced to track him down. Denzel Washington plays Barnes, and Russell Crowe plays SID 6.7. The film is directed by Brett Leonard.
The cast also includes Kelly Lynch, Stephen Spinella, William Forsythe, Louise Fletcher, and William Fichtner. According to Collider, the film leans into the specific anxieties of its era, when virtual reality and artificial intelligence were concepts that unsettled mainstream audiences in ways that feel different from today.
The second film, Witness, arrives alongside it on the platform. The 1985 movie follows a Philadelphia detective named John Book who is investigating the murder of a young Amish boy. When the case exposes corruption inside his own police department, Book goes into hiding with the boy and his mother inside an Amish community. The story builds from there as Book tries to balance his duty with protecting his new surroundings.
Harrison Ford plays John Book. The supporting cast includes Kelly McGillis as Rachel Lapp, Lukas Haas as Samuel Lapp, Danny Glover as McFee, Patti LuPone as Elaine, and Alexander Godunov as Daniel Hochleitner. The film runs 112 minutes.
Collider described Witness as one of the greatest thrillers ever made and placed Ford's performance in the film above his more widely recognized blockbuster work. The film came out the same year Ford was appearing in some of Hollywood's biggest franchises, making it easy to overlook at the time and in the decades since.
Both films are now available to stream on Paramount+.
