History Film / TheThirteenthFloor

''The Thirteenth Floor'' is a 1999 science-fiction crime thriller starring Craig Bierko and Creator/VincentDOnofrio based on the 1964 novel ''Simulacron-3'' (also known as ''Counterfeit World''), by Daniel F. Galouye. It had been previously adapted on German television under the name ''World on a Wire'' (''Welt am Draht'').

* FantasticAesop: Type II. (Sufficiently developed) computer game characters are indistinguishable from humans (and vice versa), so cybersex and shoot-them-ups are morally wrong.

* KissMeImVirtual: Fuller turns out to have been visiting the 1930's so he can have sex with showgirls (he would have been a teenager in the 1930's, so this fetish is understandable). Goes into WhatMeasureIsANonHuman territory because the character he takes over has marital problems when he comes home with no memory and smelling from perfume.

* BaitAndSwitchGunshot: [[spoiler:Jane Fuller is running away from David), and finds herself in a wide open space with nowhere to go. David lifts his gun and she closes her eyes, ready for the worst. The camera stays on her, there is a bang and she shudders — but a second later she opens her eyes, and we see that her husband has been shot by Detective [=McBain=] instead]].

* DeadpanSnarker: [=McBain=]

* KissMeIAmVirtual: Fuller turns out to have been visiting the 1930's so he can have sex with showgirls (he would have been a teenager in the 1930's, so this fetish is understandable). Goes into WhatMeasureIsANonHuman territory because the character he takes over has marital problems when he comes home with no memory and smelling from perfume.

''The Thirteenth Floor'' is a 1999 science-fiction crime thriller based on the 1964 novel ''Simulacron-3'' (also known as ''Counterfeit World''), by Daniel F. Galouye. It had been previously adapted on German television under the name ''World on a Wire'' (''Welt am Draht'').

For years, Douglas Hall has been working with his friend and mentor, Hannon Fuller, to create a simulated world. Not merely a computer game, their simulation is a SmallSecludedWorld where the inhabitants don't know that they are simulated. They believe that their world is the real world of 1937, not just a simulation in a cluster of supercomputers at [[TitleDrop the thirteenth floor]] of some future skyscraper.

''The Thirteenth Floor'' is a 1999 science-fiction crime thriller based on the 1964 novel ''Simulacron-3'' (also known as ''Counterfeit World''), by Daniel F. Galouye.

* SpoilerCover: The poster spoils the major reveal of the film, namely that the main character and everyone he knows [[spoiler:are living InsideAComputerSystem.]]

* AnachronismStew: Fuller's alter ego mentions having been "in World War One". Nobody would have numbered it in 1937.
** It's intentional, as the 1937 is not a 100% real representation of how it was, but is a "recreation of 1937 from (Fuller's) youth." So, it's intentional as the programs are following what they've been programmed to, which would include mistakenly call the first world war "World War One" because they're created by post-WWII programmers.

* InsideAComputerSystem: Much of the plot takes place in the 1937 world. [[spoiler:The "real world" is also a computer simulation. Eventually the hero gets uploaded to "the real real world" — unless that world is ''also'' a computer simulation. Right before the credits, the scene is "switched off" with a CRT-like effect. Just a fancy animation, or a heavy hint? The ending is open to the viewer's interpretation.]]

''The Thirteenth Floor''is a 1999 science-fiction crime thriller based on the 1964 novel ''Simulacron-3'' (also known as ''Counterfeit World''), by Daniel F. Galouye.

* TheFutureIsNoir: As is the present, and the past. It's safe to say that this is one of the noir-iest movies ever made.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Grierson, loyal husband and very innocent in all the mess, is - from his perspective - [[spoiler:unceremoniously dumped at the table by the person who got him there, who then never returns. So Grierson is left in the middle of the place where his alter ego used to go to have sex with the girls and everyone knows him and what "he" does, but he doesn't know anyone - though he has faint memories of what his alter ego used to do.]] And while Hall is busy doing his things, the poor guy must be feeling like he's losing his mind.

!!This film provides exampels of:

* DeadpanSnarker: [=McBain=]

** It's intentional, as the 1937 is not a 100% real representation of how it was, but is a "recreation of 1937 from (Fuller's) youth." So, the aversion is that the programs are following what they've been programmed to, even mistakenly call the first world war "World War One."

** May be considered an Aversion of the trope, as the 1937 is not a real representation of how it was, but is a "recreation of 1937 from (Fuller's) youth." So, the aversion is that the programs are following what they've been programmed to, even mistakenly call the first world war "World War One."

* LawOfConservationOfDetail: In-film. Suspecting you're in a simulation? All you have to do is [[ScriptBreaking go somewhere the simulation doesn't assume you'd reasonably want to go]]. The places you live in are all rendered completely to avoid such accidents happening by chance, but animating and rendering the world way beyond what you're expected to experience is pointless and expensive. So the farther you go the least alive and moving the world becomes, until the simulation gives up entirely and shows an almost detail-free wireframe scenery.

* AnachronismStew: Fuller's alter ego mentions to have been "in World War One". Nobody would have numbered it in 1937.

** Happens when Ashton, a bartender from the 1937 simulation finds a letter that leads him to suspect his world is not real. He goes homicidal when he encounters one of the creators of the simulation.