Paranoia 1.0

Paranoia 1.0
(One Point O)

theatrical poster
Directed by Jeff Renfroe
Marteinn Thorsson
Produced by Chris Sievernich
R.D. Robb
Kyle Gates
Thomas Mai
Written by Jeff Renfroe
Marteinn Thorsson
Starring Jeremy Sisto
Deborah Kara Unger
Bruce Payne
Music by Terry Huud
Cinematography Christopher Soos
Edited by Daniel Sadler
Troy Takaki
Distributed by Armada Pictures International
Release dates
Running time
 92 minutes
Country United States
Romania
Iceland
Language English

Paranoia: 1.0 (originally One Point O, also known as 1.0, One Point Zero, Version 1.0, and Virus 1.0) is a 2004 cyberpunk science fiction film written and directed by Jeff Renfroe and Marteinn Thorsson. The film is a Kafkaesque nightmare in which a young computer programmer is an unwitting guinea pig in a corporate experiment to test a new advertising scheme.[1] The film stars Jeremy Sisto and Deborah Unger and features Lance Henriksen, Eugene Byrd, Bruce Payne and Udo Kier.

Plot

When network engineer Simon J. (Jeremy Sisto) begins finding empty plain brown paper packages in his apartment, he goes to great length to try and secure his boundaries, but the packages keep appearing. Simon attempts to find out who is leaving the packages, and his investigation exposes him to his eccentric neighbors, an artificial intelligence robot head, created by Derrick (Udo Kier) who occupies an apartment across the hall from Simon, a virtual reality sex-game, created by the Neighbour (Bruce Payne) who occupies the apartment next to Simon's, and the possibility of a corporate conspiracy. At the same time Simon, who works in IT, is under pressure to complete a programming project and develops a romantic relationship with another of the apartment blocks residents, Trish (Deborah Kara Unger).

With security cameras watching him constantly, Simon begins to lose his grip on reality, and develops an inexplicable craving for Nature Fresh brand milk.[1] Simon becomes increasingly puzzled as murders begin happening in the building. Simon eventually finds out that everyone else is receiving packages too but were keeping quiet. These people also got addicted to consuming other products like fresh juice, cola 500 and farm fresh meat. One of Simon's friends, a courier named Nile (Eugene Byrd), tells Simon about a corporate experiment to ‘infuse’ Nanomites into people's brains to make them addicted to certain products. He first dismisses it as a lie but eventually understands that it is indeed what is happening.

Cast

Production

Paranoia 1.0 was an international co-production, and was shot entirely in Bucharest, Romania. It premiered in competition at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival under its original title (One Point O).

The programming code seen in the film is from Viralator 0.9.[2]

Awards and honors

2004
Sundance Film Festival (Park City, Utah, USA)
Grand Jury Prize, Dramatic Category; Nominated: Jeff Renfroe, Marteinn Thorsson.
Catalonian International Film Festival (Sitges, Spain)
Nominated Best Film; Recipients: Marteinn Thorsson, Jeff Renfroe.
Fant-Asia Film Festival (Montreal, Canada)
AQCC Award-Mention: Jeff Renfroe, Marteinn Thorsson; Best International Film (Jury Prize): Jeff Renfroe, Marteinn Thorsson; Most Ground-Breaking Film (Jury Prize): Jeff Renfroe, Marteinn Thorsson.
2005
Edda Awards (Iceland)
Edda Award Category: Best Picture (nominated); Best Production Design: Eggert Ketilsson (nominated); Best Sound or Music: Bradley L. North, Byron Wilson, Ann Scibelli (nominated); Director of the Year: Marteinn Thorsson, Jeff Renfroe (nominated).
Málaga International Week of Fantastic Cinema (Spain)
Best Actress: Deborah Kara Unger; Best Film: Jeff Renfroe, Marteinn Thorsson; Youth Jury Award (Best Feature Film): Jeff Renfroe, Marteinn Thorsson.
2007
In 2007, the film was listed as one of the “Top 50 Dystopian Movies of All Time” by Snarkerati, a popular movie web-magazine.

External links

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Paranoia 1.0 at the Internet Movie Database
  2. ↑ http://viralator.sourceforge.net/