The World According To The Archer
The thirteenth floor is the thirteenth level above ground level in some buildings (and the twelfth above ground in some buildings in the US,) but is often numbered 14 instead of 13 to appease the superstitious.[1]
The late twentieth century film, The Thriteenth Floor, deals with a contemporary building in a parallel (virtual) Los Angeles whose twelfth floor above ground is uncompromisingly numbered 13. The contents of this floor include a large mainframe which simulates another parallel (virtual) Los Angeles in an earlier time period (the early twentieth century.) The film deals with the simulated people of each simulation becoming aware of those in the greater "reality" in the level above theirs. Therefore the film continues the level metaphor beyond the (virtual) Los Angeles building in which much of the film takes place into the literality of the film's narrative.
The film suffers from a few flaws, but one flaw outside of its control was its temporal proximity to the release of The Matrix, another film which deals with just a single virtuality. The Thirteenth Floor explores (to a moderate, but satisfying, depth) some very important issues which The Matrix and it sequels did not. But while it was not as satisfying as that film (though it is perhaps a match for its third sequel,) it perhaps leaves us with more food for thought about whether there is any ultimate reality at all. You should also consider watching Dark City for more on the subject of our concept of reality without the need to introduce computer-generated virtualities.[2] n
[1] Of course that doesn't change the fact that the floor is, in point of fact, the thirteenth, but you can't reason with the superstitious, almost by definition. For more on [the] absurdity [of floor numbers], I suggest the brilliant Spike Jonze film Being John Malkovich.
[2] Dark City is arguably better than even The Matrix. In this author's opinion, computer-generated virtualities are a bit cliched in the cinema of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
Last updated: Thursday 29th September 2022