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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

Ratings
United Kingdom:	15
United States:	R

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).

Contents 1 Plot 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Through the looking glass 1.3 The nature of reality 1.4 Epilogue 2 Response 3 See also 4 External links

The plot summary in this article or section is too long compared to the rest of the article. Please edit the article to focus on discussing the work rather than merely reiterating the plot.

In late 1990s Los Angeles, Hannon Fuller (Armin Mueller-Stahl) is the owner of a multi-billion dollar computer enterprise and the inventor of a newly completed, revolutionary virtual reality (VR) simulation of 1937 Los Angeles. When Fuller is murdered just as he begins premature testing of the system, his friend and protégé Douglas Hall (Craig Bierko) finds himself the primary suspect, and begins to doubt his own innocence.

Between questioning by LAPD Detective Larry McBain (Dennis Haysbert), Hall meets and is surprised to learn for the first time about Fuller's estranged daughter Jane (Gretchen Mol). Hall develops a romance with Jane, who has recently arrived from Paris to help her father shut down the new VR system. Meanwhile, Tom Jones (Jeremy Roberts) is a witness to Fuller's murder accuses Hall of the crime, and after a failed blackmail attempt, he is found murdered the following morning. Unable to account for his own whereabouts during the murder, Hall is imprisoned until Jane provides him with an alibi.

Seeking answers, Hall attempts to track down a message left by Fuller inside the simulated Los Angeles of 1937. To do so, Hall enters the virtual environment by transferring his consciousness into an independent, artificially intelligent virtual character called a "unit". The particular unit whom he inhabits is John Ferguson (also Bierko); Ferguson's design was based on Hall himself. Within the system, Hall learns that Jerry Ashton, a bartending unit based on coworker Jason Whitney (both Vincent D'Onofrio), has stumbled upon the truth of his artificiality by reading the message intended for Hall. Frightened and angry, Ashton attempts to kill Hall, who barely escapes the system in time.

Now unable to find Jane, Hall discovers her double, Natasha Molinaro (also Gretchen Mol). Working as a grocery store clerk, Molinaro seems not to recognize Hall. Finally understanding the meaning of Fuller's message, Hall uncovers the truth — his own world of 1990s Los Angeles is itself a fabricated simulation, meaning that he himself is an artificially intelligent "unit."

Several revelations follow: Hall's virtual world is one of thousands, but is also the only one in which the units have developed a virtual world of their own. Jane lives in 2024 Los Angeles, where these simulations were developed; her task in the 1990s simulation is to assume the identity of Fuller's daughter, gain control of the company, and destroy the simulated 1937. Hall himself is modeled after Jane's real-world husband David, who has begun to seek pleasure by murdering simulated units. It was David who set Hall up by killing Fuller and Jones, because he had become jealous when Jane fell in love with Hall instead, even before the two had ever met.

Unknowingly, Whitney enters the simulated 1937 and transfers his consciousness into Ashton, who has kidnapped Ferguson and bound him in the trunk of his vehicle. When Whitney is killed in an automobile accident, Ashton's consciousness is released into Whitney's body, and he is stunned to awake in 1990s Los Angeles. After Ashton kills a security guard, David (Bierko yet again) assumes control of Hall, kills Ashton, and attempts to rape and murder Jane. She is saved by Detective McBain, who kills David with his pistol.

The death causes Hall's consciousness to be released into David's body, and he wakes to find himself in 2024, connected to a much more streamlined VR system than the one he helped design. There he finds Jane and her father, looking very much like the unit designed after him, Hannon Fuller.

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.

• Simulated reality

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