The Thirteenth Floor
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| The Thirteenth Floor | |
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| 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 | |
| Ratings | |
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| United Kingdom: | 15 |
| United States: | R |
The Thirteenth Floor is a 1999 film released to cinemas in Germany and the United States (as The 13th Floor). The film was directed by Josef Rusnak and rated R by the MPAA for language and violence. It is 100 minutes long and stars Craig Bierko, Gretchen Mol, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Vincent D'Onofrio, and Dennis Haysbert. Produced by Roland Emmerich, 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.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
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[edit] Introduction
To explain the complicated plot it seems necessary to anticipate the conclusion, by describing the concept of the world underlying the movie. In The 13th Floor, there are three layers of reality:
- Los Angeles in 2024 (for the sake of clarity, thereafter: level 0)
- Los Angeles in the late 1990s (thereafter: sublevel 1)
- Los Angeles in 1937 (thereafter: sublevel 2)
These worlds are not about time travel but exist parallel to each other. Level 0 is reality, whereas sublevels 1 and 2 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 right to return to the real world by "re-transferring" their mind via computer, whereas "electronic units" normally cannot "upload" themselves to reality.
[edit] Through the Looking Glass
The movie's exposition is set on sublevel 1 (late 1990's), 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. Respectable Fuller used to "download" himself to sublevel 2 (Wilshire Grand Hotel in 1937) to act as a playboy. Socially unskilled Whitney therein appears as a well-dressed and charismatic gay bartender.
[edit] The Nature of Reality
Within sublevel 2, 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 sublevel 2. 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 immediately is killed in a car accident. His place is taken by Ashton, who uses Whitney's dead body to upload himself to Hall's world.
Hall is confronted the dilemma of a disturbed "Whitney" taken over by Ashton's soul. Hall tells him, however, that this world ("sublevel 1", late 1990's) isn't real either, and that they are both manipulable "electronic units" in an even higher computer simulation, played after the same principle, on level 0. Ashton requests to see the server room for the simulation, considering Hall a god.
[edit] A Matrimonial Conflict
Meanwhile, on level 0, a violent matrimonial conflict is carried out between a player, David, and his wife, Jane. David downloads himself to sublevel 1 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.
[edit] Awakening
As David's soul has died, his body is now to be taken by Hall, who uploads his mind from sublevel 1 to level 0 (the future). He awakes with Jane at his side 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 in what (probably) is the real world.
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.
