13th floor movie review

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The Thirteenth Floor - an awesome film (nearly) no one notices

The Thirteenth Floor is an (imho) highly underrated film, released in 1999 featuring Vincent D'Onofrio (who is, in my opinion one of the most underrated actors ever) and german actor Armin Mueller-Stahl , produced by Roland Emmerich .

Featuring a VR World, set in the mids 1930th with crime, intrigues and the side effects of VR on the human mind in a time (1999) when VR wasn't even a thing. In my opinion, this film was way ahead of his time, so nearly no one had it on his agenda.

I freakin loved this, first of all because D'Onofrio is one of my favoured actor and second the setting and screenplay is awesome.

If you don't know this film here is the IMDB link with features and trailers: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0139809/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

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The Thirteenth Floor

The unforgiving wages of time and the dangers of simulation turn out to be ironic benchmarks for "The Thirteenth Floor," since time -- and movie trends -- have passed it by, while its attempts at conveying a simulated cyber-reality are an extremely mixed bag.

By Robert Koehler

Robert Koehler

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The unforgiving wages of time and the dangers of simulation turn out to be ironic benchmarks for “The Thirteenth Floor,” since time — and movie trends — have passed it by, while its attempts at conveying a simulated cyber-reality are an extremely mixed bag. The makers of the pic, quite loosely based on Daniel Galouye’s 1960s sci-fi novel “Simulacron 3,” are clearly entranced with the notion of a supercomputer designed to provide the user with simulated time travel, but never figured out how to build a dramatically intriguing story around the concept. It also comes too late, far surpassed by similar and more visually stunning devices in “The Matrix,” and even by the mind-bending realities of “eXistenZ,” and will be squashed in general release by the “Star Wars” express, with the only hope being some overseas coin and promising post-theatrical life.

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Pic from Roland and Ute Emmerich’s Centropolis production squad (with Emmerich’s usual writer-producer partner, Dean Devlin, nowhere in sight) is another variation on the general sci-fi genre in which Emmerich has immersed himself, and specifically on some of the time-travel ideas from “Stargate.” But scripters Ravel Centeno-Rodriguez and Josef Rusnak (who also helmed) become entangled in so many knotty plot problems that not even the greatest minds at Intergraph Computer Systems, home of the movie’s supercomputer, would be able to solve them.

The bit of Cartesian wisdom that everyone knows, “I think, therefore I am,” is pic’s opening graphic, signaling some lightweight intellectual pretensions. Any expectations of a sci-fi futurist setting are upended by the prologue, set in a sepia-toned 1937 Los Angeles, where a dapper gentleman named Fuller (Armin Mueller-Stahl) gives an important letter about “the awful truth” to hotel barkeep Ashton (Vincent D’Onofrio) with instructions that it is only for the eyes of Douglas Hall (Craig Bierko).

Fuller zaps himself back into the present, but he’s made the last trip he’s going to make in the machine he’s invented, since he’s murdered soon after phoning Hall. On the case, LAPD Det. McBain (Dennis Haysbert) is increasingly suspicious of Hall, who stands to inherit the company fortune. Hall, in turn, is intrigued by Jane Fuller (Gretchen Mol), who arrives from her home in Paris, claiming to be Fuller’s daughter.

With the help of long-haired assistant Whitney (also D’Onofrio), Hall turns from computer mogul into cyber-sleuth as he zaps back into Fuller’s simulated 1937 reality to uncover the truth behind the murder. It is here that Hall’s — and the audience’s — eyes are opened to the pic’s highlight: an astonishing re-creation of a bygone City of the Angels. Rusnak and the staff of Centropolis Effects have hatched a remarkable simulation in its own right, stuffed with such period detail as a view of southbound La Cienega Boulevard from Sunset Boulevard, cutting through undeveloped land forested with nothing but oil derricks.

Hall’s identity in the past is changed to that of a lowly bank clerk named John Ferguson, but his quest brings him to Stahl as Pasadena bookseller Grieirson and D’Onofrio as the threatening barkeep. While Grieirson is plagued by blackouts, the barkeep (having read the secret letter) has uncovered the truth that he exists within a simulated reality. This inflames the barkeep, leading to some distracting, violent fight scenes.

Meanwhile, back in the present, Hall’s sense of deja vu with Jane becomes overwhelming, until the baroque plot reveals another layer of reality — that this seeming present is itself a simulation, hatched by someone, somewhere else in time. It is here that pic is decidedly unimaginative in its cinematic storytelling and its haplessly written exposition, despite a memorable moment when Hall stands in the Mojave Desert, looking at the edges of the cyber-simulation. What appears to be a tragic end for Hall, who is, in a sense, cyber-possessed by Jane’s actual, very jealous husband, turns happy in an epilogue set in L.A. circa 2024.

Alas, the bright gloss at the end (in a poorly realized visualization of a futuristic city in which buildings seemingly pop up out of the ocean) feels like a cheat, and the last gasp of a thoroughly winded plot.

Narrative miscues begin at the start, with too much of Fuller’s cyber-fantasy past being revealed, and a resultant lack of shock and surprise as Hall discovers the truth. What might have been an intriguing metaphor for filmmaking itself is eroded by dumbed-down dialogue of the tritest sort and a fatal lack of humor.

The Devlin-Emmerich tradition of casting comic actors in lead roles in their sci-fi epics is carried on here with dour results. Bierko is completely incapable of holding his own as a lead, let alone as a character who transforms no less than twice. Innocent-looking but bland, he is continually upstaged by his heftier comrades, especially the classily subdued Mueller-Stahl and the versatile D’Onofrio. Bierko’s blandness, though, is electric compared to the vacuous Mol, who has the ideal ’30s look but nothing going on inside.

Much of the cutting (care of editor Henry Richardson) is crucially sharp, yet dulled by the repeated and unconvincing wormhole f/x (far better done two summers ago in “Contact”) as characters zap themselves into simulations. Production details are textured and ironic (Hall’s present-day offices are in fact a Frank Lloyd Wright interior), but much greater attention is given to the ’30s-era effects than to the cyber-magic. The work of a predominantly German creative team, including d.p.-turned-producer Michael Ballhaus, pic’s look is a contrast of glassy sheen and sepia tones, care of Wedigo von Schultzendorff’s camera.

• Production: A Columbia Pictures release of a Centropolis Entertainment Production. Produced by Roland Emmerich, Ute Emmerich and Marco Weber. Executive producers, Michael Ballhaus and Helga Ballhaus. Co-producer, Kelly Van Horn. Directed by Josef Rusnak. Screenplay, Rusnak, Ravel Centeno-Rodriguez.
• Crew: Camera (CFI color, Deluxe prints, Panavision widescreen), Wedigo von Schultzendorff; editor, Henry Richardson; music, Harald Kloser; production designer, Kirk M. Petrucelli; supervising art director, Barry Chusid; set designers, Evelyne Barbier, Leslie Thomas; set decorator, Victor J. Zolfo; costume designer, Joseph Porro; sound (Dolby/SDDS), Jose Antonio Garcia, Bobby Anderson; visual effects supervisor, Joe Bauer; digital visual effects supervisor, Steffen M. Wild; assistant directors, Kim Winther, Lars P. Winther; casting, April Webster. Reviewed at Sony TriStar Studios, May 19, 1999. Running time: 120 MIN.
• With: Douglas Hall - Craig Bierko Hannon Fuller - Armin Mueller-Stahl Jane Fuller - Gretchen Mol Whitney/Ashton - Vincent D'Onofrio Det. Larry McBain - Dennis Haysbert Zev Bernstein - Steven Schub Tom Jones - Jeremy Roberts

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The Thirteenth Floor

• Computer scientist Douglas Hall unknowingly gets involved in the murder of his colleague, Hannon Fuller, a computer genius, who is killed just before the testing of his newly launched virtual reality simulation programme.
• 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... — Danny Rosenbluth
• In late 1990's Los Angeles, Hannon Fuller (Armin Mueller-Stahl) is the owner of a multi-billion dollar computer enterprise and the inventor of a newly completed virtual reality simulation (VR) 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 Jane Fuller (Gretchen Mol), who he is surprised to learn is Fuller's estranged daughter. Hall develops a romance with Jane, who we soon find out is attempting to shut down the new VR system. When a local bartender who witnessed a meeting between Hall and Fuller on the night of the murder is himself found murdered, Hall is imprisoned. He is soon released though, after Jane provides him with an alibi. Seeking answers, Hall attempts to track down a message left by Fuller inside the simulation. Within the system, Hall learns that Jerry Ashton, a bartender (Vincent D'Onofrio) has stumbled upon the truth about his artificial nature 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 but Molinaro seems not to recognize Hall. This leads Hall to perform an experiment outside the VR system, something that Fuller had instructed him to try in his letter: He tried to drive to a place where he never would have considered going otherwise. When he arrived, he saw that the area and everything within it didn't exist, and was instead replaced by wire frame models. Finally understanding the meaning of Fuller's message, Hall realizes the truth that his own world of 1990's Los Angeles is itself a fabricated simulation. Several revelations follow: Hall's virtual world is one of thousands, but is also the only one that developed a virtual world of their own. Jane actually lives in the "real world", and only participated in the 1990s simulation in order to assume the identity of Fuller's daughter, gain control of the company, and shutdown the simulated 1937 reality. Hall himself is modeled after Jane's real-world husband David, who has begun to seek pleasure by murdering people in the 1990s simulation. It was David who had performed the murders, while controlling Hall's body, because he had become jealous when his wife Jane fell in love with Hall within the simulation. Whitney (also Vincent D'Onofrio), Hall's associate, enters the simulated 1937 and assumes the role of 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 (in the 1990's). 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 shoots and kills David. The death causes Hall's consciousness to be released into David's body, and he wakes to find himself in 2024, connected to a VR system. He disconnects the system and finds Jane and her father, who looks very much like the man he was accused of killing in his original reality, Hannon Fuller.

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The 13th Floor

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The Thirteenth Floor

• 3 Production
• 5 Reception
• 6 Awards and nominations

In 1999 Los Angeles, Hannon Fuller (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 (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 (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 (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 (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 VR.

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: 1999 Los Angeles is itself a simulation.

Jane Fuller explains the truth to Hall: his world is one of dozens of virtual worlds, but it is the only one in which one of the occupants have developed a virtual world of their own. Jane Fuller lives in the real world outside the 90s 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.

Whitney enters the 1937 simulation, assuming the body of bartender Jerry Ashton, who has kidnapped Ferguson (Hall's 1937 identity) and bound him in the trunk of his car. When Whitney is killed in a car crash inside the 1937 simulation, Ashton's consciousness takes control of Whitney's body in the 90s simulation and takes Hall hostage. Hall tells Ashton that he is not in the real world, and that they are both products of a VR simulation. Hall takes Ashton to the place where he was 'born': a computer lab. David assumes control of Hall again to kill Ashton and then attempts to rape and murder Jane. Jane is rescued by Detective McBain, who shoots and kills David. McBain at this point has realized the nature of his own reality, and jokingly asks Jane, "So, is somebody going to unplug me now?" She answers "no", so McBain follows with the request "Look, do me a favor, when you get back to wherever it is you come from, just leave us the hell alone down here, okay?"

David's death as Hall in the 90s simulation allows Hall's artificial consciousness to take control of David's body in the real world. He wakes in 2024, connected to a VR system. He disconnects the system and finds Jane and her father, the real Hannon Fuller. Jane wants to tell Hall more about the simulation, but as she begins the film ends, the screen image collapsing to a thin line of light before going dark like a computer monitor being turned off.

• Craig Bierko as John Ferguson (1937), Douglas Hall (1999), and David (2024)
• Gretchen Mol as Natasha Molinaro (1999) and Jane Fuller (2024)
• Armin Mueller-Stahl as Grierson (1937) and Hannon Fuller (1999 and 2024)
• Vincent D'Onofrio as Jerry Ashton (1937) and Jason Whitney (1999)
• Dennis Haysbert as Detective Larry McBain
• Shiri Appleby as Bridget Manilla
• Leon Rippy as Jane's Lawyer
• Rif Hutton as Joe
• Janet MacLachlan as Ellen
• Steven Schub as Detective Zev Bernstein
• Alison Lohman as Honey Bear Girl

Production [ ]

The Thirteenth Floor was a co-production of Columbia Pictures and Centropolis Entertainment. Most of the film was shot in Los Angeles, California.

Release [ ]

The Thirteenth Floor was first released on April 16, 1999, in Denmark, then released in North America on 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

Reception [ ]

The Thirteenth Floor received mostly negative reviews. Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reported that 29% of critics gave the film positive reviews, with an average score of 4.5/10, based upon a sample of 63 reviews,[5] and the critical consensus "Bad script and confusing plot undermine the movie's impressive visuals." At Metacritic, the film received an average score of 36/100, based on 22 reviews

Awards and nominations [ ]

• 1 The Longest Ride

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The 13th Floor Reviews

No All Critics reviews for The 13th Floor.

Beautiful, interesting, incredible cinema.

The increasingly blurry lines between what is real and what is an artificial construct – both physically and philosophically – are the point of focus in the science fiction drama The Thirteenth Floor .

Currently available on 3 streaming services.

The Thirteenth Floor (1999)

101min - English

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The Thirteenth Floor streaming: where to watch online?

You can buy "The Thirteenth Floor" on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store as download or rent it on Amazon Video, Apple TV, Microsoft Store online.

In Los Angeles, a wealthy man, known as Mr. Fuller, discovers a shocking secret about the world he lives in. Fearing for his life, he leaves a desperate message for a friend of his in the most unexpected place.

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The 13th Floor

Reviewed by: Brian A. Gross CONTRIBUTOR

“Question reality. You can go there even though it doesn’t exist.”

T he press push for Josef Rusnak’s debut film, “The 13th Floor”, was an expansive one by Columbia Pictures. The technical CAD-like stills and elaborate cinematography of the teasers were compelling, but the movie lacked the substance to sustain it.

Encroaching and literally borrowing from “ The Matrix ,” “The 13th Floor” is a noire futuristic mystery based on time travel and computer technology. As in so many of these films I can’t tell if the director/writers are telling us that computers are bad, warning us of technology’s effects, or just showing sheer incompetence with stories and actors. Douglas Hall (Craig Bierko) is the young executive of a company that specializes in advanced Artificial Intelligence modules. He and his mentor/partner, Hannon (Armin Mueller-Stahl), have created a fully realized simulation of 1937 Los Angeles that users can be transported to with absolutely lifelike characters. When Hannon turns up dead from a brutal knifing, Douglas is thought to be suspect #1 when his alibi doesn’t work out. Borrowing another page from “ Dark City ,” it uses the role of detective ( Dennis Haysbert ) to drive the story and delve into the truth.

Hannon’s daughter, Jane ( Gretchen Mol ), arrives after his death—to the great surprise of everyone since she was never mentioned—and claims that her father has asked her to visit just days before to shut the company down. Apparently Hannon was taking trips into the simulation, with the help of their crack tech, Whitney ( Vincent D'Onofrio ), and gallivanting with young lovelies and generally acting like a cad. Before Hannon’s untimely death he left a message on Doug’s answering machine explaining that he left a clue for him in the simulation. Doug immediately heads to the lab to be transported.

What he finds in the alternate world is an incredible realization of their dreams, and the reality that the models they created are all too real. They feel jealousy and anger and lust and create havoc for their creators. But what is real? Can you die in the simulation, and, if so, do you die in real life?

It is a symptom of post modernism that exalts the subjective over the objective. God is dead and there is no truth so reality mixed with technology is a confused and precarious game. “The Matrix” asked, “what is real?” and “The 13th Floor” plumbs the same depths. How do we know anything is real? What is grounded in reality (and is there any grounding to be had with amorphous modes of reality)? What are the boundaries that we can go to as humans with only flimsy ethics to hold us together?

Those are questions of life that reflect in film, but not in this particular film. It only quantifies the mystery and level of the ruse and throws a nice twist in the end to let us go home not feeling so down.

PLEASE share your observations and insights to be posted here.

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13th Floor Reviews

• 1 hr 21 mins
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As a child, a girl witnesses her father electrocute a young boy. When she grows into an adult, the ghost of the murdered boy appears to her, and together they set out to expose the crimes of her father.

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Review by Margaret and David - At The Movies

The 13th floor 1988.

Watched Dec 13 , 1989

Margaret and David - At The Movies’s review published on Letterboxd:

David Stratton’s Review for Variety.

“The 13th Floor” is a creaky ghost story gone direct to video in Oz. It’s the weakest in a quartet of pics assembled by Premiere Film Marketing and Medusa Communications.

Pic starts with 8-year-old Heather Thompson witnessing her politician father order the torture of a man on the 13th floor of an uncompleted building. The man’s son is electrocuted accidentally.

Heather, now age 20 and played Lisa Hensley, is estranged from her lather. With druggie friend Rebecca (Miranda Otto), she camps on the 13th floor of the office building, a floor that remains vacant because it's rumoured to be haunted.

It is, indeed, haunted - by the ghost of the electrocuted lad. Hut he's a friendly spook, and comes to Heather’s aid against assorted baddies, including a private eye (Vic Rooney) sent by her father lo kill her because she has incriminating info on him.

Pic is light on thrills, since the ghost obviously is on the heroine’s side. The villains, including the building’s macho caretaker and another hitman, aren’t very threatening.

A rather nasty sequence has Heather captured and drugged by her father’s underlings.

Hensley has little to do except look nervous. Technically, the film is fine except for the great banks of light in the supposedly deserted office. Newcomer Chris Roache, who wrote and directed, misses an opportunity here.

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