LOS ANGELES — The hands may be the scariest part.

They are very much your own. You can feel them, wrap them around the joystick, make them move.

But they seem to be locked in the gloves of a pressure suit, struggling to control a bucking Martian rover, just inches in front of your darting eyes.

Such is the future of the movies, starting early next year.

In a major step toward the integration of blockbuster films with virtual reality techniques, 20th Century Fox and its internal Fox Innovation Lab are preparing for the commercial release of a so-called VR experience, using special headsets from Oculus and other devices. In the first half of 2016, it will take viewers deep inside the imperiled life of Mark Watney, an astronaut marooned on a dead red planet in “The Martian.”

Although thrilling, the experience can be unsettling for some.

“You feel anxiety and success, a series of emotions,” the filmmaker Robert Stromberg said in warning shortly before cuing up a preview of the adventure. In its final form, it is expected to last from 15 to 25 minutes, but its length will actually be elastic, as different viewers linger to look for details hidden among the interactive folds of the experience.