Production notes

A live-action film based on The Exit 8 video game was announced by Toho on 27 December 2024, with Genki Kawamuraset to write, produce and direct the film, starring Kazunari Ninomiya and Yamato Kochi as the "lost man" and "walking man", respectively. On 1 May 2025, it was announced that actress Nana Komatsu would be joining the cast. She was cast in a mysterious role with no official name or backstory revealed at the time. Filming took place from late 2024 to early 2025 in Tokyo, mainly in a set that was built as a replica of the original game's underground passage. Ninomiya was part of the production, credited with script cooperation. As a gamer himself, and knowing the game first hand, Ninomiya provided Kawamura with tips, which were useful in adapting a non-story game into a story. Ninomiya considered that in a production with many scenes featuring one person, filming would not progress smoothly if there were three directions to be taken from director, scriptwriter, and actor. In this particular production, costumes and setting remain the same, creating a loop. "That's why I felt it was necessary to organize things before filming so that there would be a single exit, and so when I was playing this role, I decided to get involved from the scriptwriting stage onwards," he said about his involvement.

Kawamura wrote in the novelization of the movie that he cut a scene before screening it at Cannes, because he thought that it was too scary to show. Among the parts of the scene that were cut (and reserved for a possible future "director's cut" version) are the backstory of "the Walking Man"; how "the Lost Man" could become a "Walking Man"; the reason for the photobooth and the pile of discarded items; a "Homeless Man". According to Polygon, who conducted an interview with Kawamura, the scene involves "the Lost Man" looking at the images from the photos in the dispenser, with the subject's face getting distorted after each set of photos dropped. The subject was him becoming a "Walking Man". Kawamura felt that making "the Lost Man" face the dreary reality of his repetitive, boring life was just as terrifying as facing supernatural terrors.

Released on 29 August 2025, Exit 8 had the highest three-day opening for a live-action film in Japan for the year. It sold 672,000 tickets and earned over ¥960 million (approximately US$6.46 million). It debuted at #2 for the weekend, behind Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle. The film has also had a solid opening run in international markets. It debuted as the #2 movie in Russia and Korea, as well as being in the top 10 in Turkey and Hong Kong. It has also been relatively successful in France. In South Korea, it debuted at #2 behind Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc which had a cumulative audience of 186,107. In the U.S., the film opened and remained for the first week of screening (April 10–16, 2026) on the 7th spot, continuing on the top 15 as of April 19. In Mexico, the film opened on April 22, reaching the 7th spot in its first weekend. According to the report, around 33,400 people saw it, with a gross income of 2.58 million MXN (around 148,000 USD) for the period.

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 91% of 176 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.2/10. The website's consensus reads: "An unsettling maze navigated with finesse by director Genki Kawamura, Exit 8 is a video game adaptation rendered with existential dread and stylistic sophistication." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 71 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. It was the highest-rated film based on a video game on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, overtaking Werewolves Within, until Zack Cregger's Resident Evil (2026) surpassed it. Jonathan Romney from Screen International wrote "A rare game-based movie that actually has the feel of a game, with confoundingly tricky rules, Exit 8 should achieve solid cult status beyond Japan". Clarence Tsui from South China Morning Post gave it 3 stars out of 5, stating that "Genki Kawamura has turned a simple premise – in which a player is made to run repeatedly down a short underground passage to search for a way out – into a psychological thriller exploring a man's guilt and redemption".

At the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, the film won an award for Best Poster Design. Additionally, the film received an eight-minute standing ovation during its premiere at the festival. The film also won Best Music for composers Yasutaka Nakata and Shouhei Amimori at the 58th Sitges Film Festival.