Levels 2024

Set in a futuristic world, Joe, Peter Mooney, a bookstore owner, finds the love of his life in Ash, Cara Gee, whose background remains a mystery. Alongside them, Oliver, David Hewlett, is the elderly local newsstand owner Joe trusts. One day, Ash seems poised to share something significant, but a mysterious figure nonchalantly walks up to her and shoots her dead. The brutal act shatters Joe, and grief slowly gnaws away at him, pushing him toward a crippling depression. Oliver steps in to help, but Joe builds an emotional barrier that he isn’t sure anyone can break.

Ash’s absence drives Joe toward the edge; he attempts to take his own life, only to find that something—an unseen force—keeps him from succeeding. Then, startlingly, Joe begins receiving texts from Ash. In a pre-recorded message, she reveals that a package was delivered to his bookstore and that he must retrieve it for reasons still unknown. As Joe goes after the package, he is chased by a group of strange operatives and manages to neutralize them with abilities that feel almost inhuman, reminiscent of Neo’s powers from a famous sci‑fi saga. He returns to his apartment to find Ash communicating with him in real time, a revelation that completely unsettles his sense of reality.

Ash explains that humanity has advanced far in technology, giving rise to a lifelike virtual reality called the Digital Universe, populated by billions of simulacrums who share traits with real people. This world was built by Anthony Hunter, a brilliant software engineer at Sentec, who used machine learning, ultra-realistic rendering, and behavioral modeling to craft a sandbox where endless simulations could be run to anticipate future problems and crises. Hunter’s efforts attracted corporate support, and he rose to CEO of Sentec, but the ethical implications of exploiting simulacrums drew legal and moral scrutiny. To avoid accountability, Hunter went undercover with his Digital Universe operations. Ash, a tech-minded figure herself, created a virtual persona to infiltrate Hunter’s DU and fell in love with Joe, a simulacrum. Joe’s reality begins to fracture as he wonders whether his feelings for Ash are genuine or merely programmed.

Ash explains that Hunter killed her virtual persona after learning of her attempt to expose him. The package Joe retrieved contains confidential data needed to bring Hunter to justice by exposing the truth outside the DU, which is why Hunter sent operatives to capture him. Joe then realizes that Hunter’s mentor is Oliver—the very bookstand owner who has been guiding and protecting Joe. Oliver’s influence over Hunter’s DU provides a lifeline that lets him save Joe at crucial moments, and Ash asks Joe to seek Oliver’s help to obtain a gateway back into the DU. Ash’s access had been terminated once her virtual presence was detected and killed, complicating her mission to expose Hunter.

Hunter sends his operatives into the real world to seize Ash, who seeks Oliver’s aid to escape. Oliver and Ash understand the plight of the simulacrums and treat them as real beings, not mere programs. Oliver recognizes that Ash is truly in love with Joe, which motivates him to help them reunite inside the DU. Yet Joe remains haunted by the doubt that his emotions were ever entirely his own. With Oliver’s help, Joe and Ash’s virtual self are briefly united again, but the moment is tinged with the fear that their feelings exist only within a controlled simulation. Hunter detects Ash’s return and grows suspicious of Oliver’s interference.

Oliver pulls Ash out of the system to safeguard them and explains what Joe must do next. The data Ash wants uploaded into the world is a DU backup Oliver created to free them from Hunter’s control and end the cycle of manipulation. Ash’s goal is to save the simulacrums and be with Joe, but Hunter insists on preserving a semblance of reality—if the system’s laws are bent too far, usable data could be corrupted.

The conflict erupts as Hunter abducts Ash, kills Oliver in both the real and virtual realms, and stops Joe from uploading the data. Yet Joe, against overwhelming odds, breaks free and destroys Hunter’s virtual persona. In the real world, Hunter destroys the DU itself, and as Joe’s and Ash’s worlds crumble, Joe prepares to bid farewell to a captive Ash. The climax reveals a staggering truth: Hunter and his world may be merely lower levels of a vast simulated hierarchy, and Oliver—the one who seemed to guide them all—might be the orchestrator of an even higher level. What Hunter and Ash believed was reality is, in fact, a smaller slice of a larger virtual spectrum, and the “real” world may be anchored in Oliver’s creation.

In the Levels’ ending, Oliver retires to his study, enjoying classical music, and then mysteriously disappears, suggesting he too exists only within a higher plane of simulation. The true creators—those of flesh and blood who built the entire virtual landscape—remain unseen. The film leaves a provocative question: perhaps humanity’s biological basis is secondary to the existence of infinite simulated layers. Yet for Joe and Ash, the final note is simple and profound: as long as they are together, the reality they share—whatever layer it rests in—feels real enough to matter.