The Thirteenth Floor
Directed by	Josef Rusnak
Written by	Daniel F. Galouye (book) Josef Rusnak (screenplay) Ravel Centeno-Rodriguez (screenplay)
Starring	Craig Bierko Armin Mueller-Stahl Gretchen Mol Vincent D'Onofrio Dennis Haysbert
Cinematography	Wedigo von Schultzendorff
Editing by	Henry Richardson
Release date(s)	28 May 1999 2 September 1999
Running time	100 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$16,000,000 (estimated)
Gross revenue	Domestic $11,802,224
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Thirteenth Floor is a 1999 film directed by Josef Rusnak, produced by Roland Emmerich and starring Craig Bierko, Gretchen Mol, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Vincent D'Onofrio, and Dennis Haysbert. The film is loosely based on the novel Simulacron-3 by Daniel F. Galouye and the German mini-series Welt am Draht (World on Wires) by Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

In 2000, The Thirteenth Floor was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film (the award went to The Matrix).

Plot

Introduction

In The 13th Floor, there are three layers of reality:

• Los Angeles in 2024
• Los Angeles in the late 1990s
• Los Angeles in 1937

These worlds are not about time travel but exist parallel to each other. 2024 is reality, whereas 1990 and 1937 are simulations created by virtual reality machines. The inhabitants of the virtual world(s) are called "electronic identity units". A player in the simulation ("user") has the possibility of temporarily taking over a "unit" for role-playing by "downloading" his mind into the computer. During this period, the "electronic units", who do not know (yet) about superior levels, lose their memory, as the player overtakes their bodies. However, they do know that they suffer from amnesia as they are fully self-aware. "Users" have the ability to return to the real world by "re-transferring" their mind via computer, whereas "electronic units" normally cannot "upload" themselves to reality.

Through the Looking Glass

The majority of the film is set on in the 1990s, which, in fact is a simulation, but at the beginning of the film is suggested to be real. Computer specialist Hannon Fuller (Armin Mueller-Stahl) is murdered. The primary suspect, his successor Douglas Hall (Craig Bierko), is found without any memory of the evening, without any alibi, and with a blood-stained shirt. Despite the protest of his friend and co-worker Whitney (Vincent D'Onofrio), Hall downloads himself into Fuller's newly-designed virtual reality machine hoping to find the answer therein. To his surprise, he encounters the alter egos of both Fuller and Whitney. Before his death, Fuller would "download" himself to the Wilshire Grand Hotel in 1937 to act as a playboy. The 1937 Whitney (who has not yet been inhabited by him) is a well-dressed and charismatic bartender, Ashton.

The Nature of Reality

In 1937, Hall asks Ashton, the bartender, whether Fuller's alter ego left him a message, which the bartender denies. Immediately after, Ashton notices a memory loss in Hall's "unit", indicating Hall's disconnection from the computer, one level above.

On a second download of Hall, Whitney's alter ego (Ashton) now tries to kill him, telling him he had read Fuller's letter saying his world wasn't real. Ashton followed the instructions in the letter and rendered himself to the "end of the world", finding the limitations of 1937. He accuses Hall of "mind-fucking" and tries to drown him. Hall barely escapes Ashton's murderous attempt by an emergency disconnection from the computer, carried out by the "real" Whitney, who in contrast to his alter-ego, saves Douglas' life.

Douglas racked by remorse and responsibility for the "electronic units", then categorically declares to shut down the system. Whitney, upset that Douglas wants to shut down the system, tries to save it, by downloading himself into the system, where he is quickly killed in a car accident. His place is taken by Ashton, whose conscience automatically transfers back into Whitney's body at the moment of his death in 1937.

Hall is confronted with the dilemma of a disturbed "Whitney" taken over by Ashton's soul. Hall tells him, however, that this world (late 1990s) isn't real either, and that they are both manipulable "electronic units" in an even higher computer simulation, played after the same principle, on 2024. Ashton requests to see the server room for the simulation, considering Hall a god.

A Matrimonial Conflict

Meanwhile, in 2024, a violent matrimonial conflict has been ongoing between a player, David, and his wife, Jane. David downloads himself to 1990 in order to search for his wife, who had fallen in love with Hall. David (as Hall) shoots Ashton, just when Hall is about to reconcile with him. Psychopathic David (as Hall) also discovers his wife and attempts to rape her, in contrast to Hall's tender attitude towards her. When Jane escapes, David (as Hall) chases her, and he is shot down by the policeman who investigates into the Fuller case. Jane had called him to help, knowing when David was planning to enter 1990 and suspecting he planned to kill her there.

Awakening

As David's soul has died, his body is now to be taken by Hall, who uploads his mind from 1990 to 2024 (the future). He awakes with Jane in a beach house in Los Angeles in 2024. Both wear futuristic simulation devices on their heads, indicating the previous simulation. Finding themselves in a warm paradise-like environment, they step out of the house to greet a man who looks like Fuller. It is Jane's father, who welcomes them into the real world.

Responses to film

The plot parallels with well known existentialist themes as portrayed in The Matrix and eXistenZ all released the same year, and Dark City, a year before. The Thirteenth Floor received generally negative reviews, while The Matrix received far more attention.

See also

• Simulated reality

External links

• The Thirteenth Floor at the Internet Movie Database
• The Thirteenth Floor at Rotten Tomatoes

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