The Thirteenth Floor story
The Thirteenth Floor is a 1999 science fiction neo-noir film written and directed by Josef Rusnak, and produced by Roland Emmerich through his Centropolis Entertainment company. It is loosely based upon Simulacron-3 (1964), a novel by Daniel F. Galouye, and a remake of the German tv-film World on a Wire (1973).
12 total · 3 choice · 4 major · 5 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| speculative virtual reality | choice | The film follows Douglas Hall as he pieces together that the world of his experience is all just a big computer simulation. |
| the universe is a simulation | choice | The grand revelation of the film is that Douglas Hall was a simulated person in a simulated Los Angeles of the year 1999. This conclusion invites the viewer to ponder whether they themself might be a simulated person inside a giant simulated reality. |
| what if I found out I was a simulation | choice | The story built up to Douglas Hall discovering that he was a simulated person who was living in a virtual reality version of 1999 Los Angeles. The 1937 bartender Jerry Ashton had an existential crisis upon realizing that he was a simulated person living inside a simulated reality. |
| law enforcement | major | The LAPD detective Larry McBain was going around investigating the murder of the computer genius Hannon Fuller. |
| murder | major | One story line surrounded Douglas Hall being investigated for the murder of the computer genius Hannon Fuller. In the end, it turned out that someone from a higher reality had stabbed Fuller to death while downloaded into Douglas' body. |
| romantic love | major | Douglas Hall and Jane Fuller fell in love. In the end, Jane pulled him out of the 1999 Los Angeles simulated reality into her Los Angeles of 2024. |
| virtual person | major | The characters in the 1937 Los Angeles simulation became self-aware, and the bartender Jerry Ashton even came to realize that he was some sort of simulated person. In the end, it was revealed that all the people in 1999 Los Angeles were actually virtual people living in a simulated reality. It was left open as to whether the people of 2024 Los Angeles were flesh-and-blood people or were themselves virtual in nature. |
| father and daughter | minor | The story concluded with Jane exchanging some endearing words with her father. |
| husband and wife | minor | Jane's psychopathic husband David downloaded into Douglas and began attacking Jane. |
| romantic infidelity | minor | Jane's husband David was not happy upon downloading his consciousness into the body of the virtual person that Jane was in the middle of making passionate love to. |