The Thirteenth Floor – Review

Opening with a very ominous letter and some smooth jazz, an elderly man Fuller (Mueller-Stahl) with a very pretty younger woman in bed leaves some cash on the bedside table and leaves the hotel room and heads downstairs. Eventually he saunters into an exquisite dance hall to listen to the singer. The setting is approximately 1937, and people are out to have a good time swing dancing and partying.

At the bar he lights a cigarette and gets a drink, then offers the letter to the barkeep Jerry Ashton (D’Onofrio) to hold for one Douglas Hall. The barkeep responds that “it’s a walk in the park.” Once the man leaves, the barkeep quickly opens the letter and reads its contents. The elderly man drives home and gets into bed with his wife, who notes he has been smoking again.

Then… something happens, and the movie reveals its Sci-Fi nature, as well as adding a body count and mystery. The tale is a good balance of interesting ideas, even if nothing presented is all that novel. As the story progresses, the film has its crosshairs settling in on a main character Douglas Hall (Bierko) that gets sucked up into a world of technology, money, collusion and complication. Multiple characters and competing forces drive Hall through a strange tale.

While the budget was likely modest compared to many late 90s Sci-Fi thrillers, the movie is not constrained by this either in quality actors nor effects. The story is pretty good, which itself is based on a book. There are some good concepts which give a lot to ponder, and execution is good enough. I think potentially the movie was a bit ahead of its time, as it absolutely did not find critical praise, nor box office success. Despite being an overlooked non-hit, The Thirteenth Floor is fully worth your time if you like interesting and mysterious Sci-Fi ideas with solid execution.