Taglines: Question reality. You can go there even though it doesn’t exist.
The Thirteenth Floor movie storyline. Computer scientist Hannon Fuller has discovered something extremely important. He’s about to tell the discovery to his colleague, Douglas Hall, but knowing someone is after him, the old man leaves a letter in the computer generated parallel world his company has created (which looks like the 30’s with seemingly real people with real emotions).
Fuller is murdered in our real world the same night, and his colleague is suspected. Douglas discovers a bloody shirt in his bathroom and he cannot recall what he was doing the night Fuller was murdered. He logs into the system in order to find the letter, but has to confront the unexpected. The truth is harsher than he could ever imagine…
The Thirteenth Floor is a 1999 science fiction crime thriller film directed by Josef Rusnak and loosely based upon Simulacron-3 (1964), a novel by Daniel F. Galouye. The film stars Craig Bierko, Gretchen Mol, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Dennis Haysbert. In 2000, The Thirteenth Floor was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film, but lost to The Matrix.
The Thirteenth Floor was first released on April 16, 1999 in Denmark, then released in North America in May 28, 1999. It grossed $11.9 million in North America, and $18.5 million worldwide.[1] The Thirteenth Floor was released on DVD on October 5, 1999 and on Blu-ray on April 14, 2009.
About the Story
In late 1990s Los Angeles, Hannon Fuller (Armin Mueller-Stahl) owns a multibillion-dollar computer enterprise and is the inventor of a newly completed virtual reality (VR) simulation of 1937 Los Angeles, filled with simulated humans unaware they are computer programs. When Fuller is murdered just as he begins premature testing of the VR system, his friend and protégé, Douglas Hall (Craig Bierko), who is also the heir to the company, becomes the primary suspect. The evidence against him is so strong that Hall begins to doubt his own innocence.
Between interrogations by LAPD Detective Larry McBain (Dennis Haysbert), Hall meets Jane Fuller (Gretchen Mol), the estranged daughter of Hannon Fuller, who is busy with the shutdown of the new VR system. Hall then romances her. When a local bartender is murdered after he claims to have witnessed a meeting between Hall and Fuller on the night Fuller was murdered, Hall is arrested. He is released when Jane gives him an alibi.
With the assistance of his associate Whitney (Vincent D’Onofrio), Hall attempts to find a message that Fuller left for him inside the simulation. Entering the virtual reality, Hall becomes a bank clerk named John Ferguson. Fuller left the message with a bartender named Jerry Ashton (Vincent D’Onofrio), who read the message and discovered he is an artificial creation. Earlier, Ashton notices that Ferguson switched places with Hall in the men’s restroom of the hotel where Ashton works, and began to realize that something was wrong. Frightened and angry, Ashton tries to kill Hall. Hall barely survives to escape the virtual reality.
McBain informs Hall that Jane does not exist, as Fuller never had a daughter. Hall tracks her down only to discover her double, Natasha Molinaro, working as a grocery store clerk — but Molinaro does not recognize Hall. This leads Hall to perform an experiment outside the VR system, something that Fuller’s letter instructed him to try: drive to a place where he never would have considered going otherwise. He does so, and discovers a point beyond which the world becomes a crude wireframe model. Hall grasps the revelation behind Fuller’s message: 1990s Los Angeles is itself a simulation.
Jane Fuller explains to Hall the truth: his world is one of thousands of virtual worlds, but it is the only one in which one of the occupants has developed a virtual world of its own. Jane Fuller lives in the real world outside the 1990s simulation. After Fuller’s death, she entered the virtual version to assume the guise of Fuller’s daughter, gain control of the company, and shut down the simulated 1937 reality, a plan foiled by Hall being made the company heir. The virtual Hall is modeled after David, Jane’s real-world husband, though Jane has since fallen in love with Hall. David committed the murders via Hall’s body, being driven to increasingly jealous and psychopathic behavior from prolonged use of VR to live out his dark fantasies.
The Thirteenth Floor (1999)
Directed by: Josef Rusnak
Starring: Craig Bierko, Gretchen Mol, Vincent D’Onofrio, Dennis Haysbert, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Steven Schub, Jeremy Roberts, Janet MacLachlan, Venessia Valentino
Screenplay by: Josef Rusnak, Ravel Centeno-Rodriguez
Production Design by: Kirk M. Petruccelli
Cinematography by: Wedigo von Schultzendorff
Film Editing by: Henry Richardson
Costume Design by: Joseph A. Porro
Set Decoration by: Victor J. Zolfo
Art Direction by: Frank Bollinger, Barry Chusid
Music by: Harald Kloser
MPAA Rating: R for violence and language.
Distributed by: Columbia Pictures
Release Date: April 16, 1999 (Denmark), May 28, 1999 (United States), November 25, 1999 (Germany)
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