Virtuality
The story is set aboard the Phaeton, Earth's first starship, on a ten-year journey to explore a distant planetary system. In order to help the 12 members of the crew endure the long mission, a system of virtual reality modules is installed aboard the starship. These modules allow the crew to assume various identities and enjoy a variety of adventures, until a flaw is discovered in the system.The ship is 6 months into its journey and on the cusp of a "go or no go" decision. They are about to make a 'slingshot' move around Neptune and, depending on the course they choose, it will either turn them around and send them back to Earth, or slingshot them out of the solar system, on their way to explore for possible habitable planets and life around the nearby star, Epsilon Eridani.*** SPOILERS !!! SPOILERS !!! SPOILERS !!! ***It is at this point that problems suddenly begin to crop up. There is an unknown problem in the hydroponics section and food production, and production of oxygen and removal of carbon dioxide are off a few percent. The ship's doctor is diagnosed with a debilitating, progressive and potentially serious disease, which could render him incapable of taking care of the crew. The captain and chief hydroponics officer are engaging in a 'virtual sexual affair' through the virtual reality module, under the very nose of her husband, the ship's chief psych officer. However, it is this psych officer who also wrote the virtuality program and he may know more than he lets on. Various other problems and personality conflicts are starting to crop up, and the captain himself may be going crazy. On top of all of this, the master computer program which controls the whole ship seems to be listening in to everyone and everything that happens on the ship and among the crew, and it is starting to act a bit erratically and possibly has become inimical to the crew, or at the least might be malfunctioning. (Shades of HAL from "2001")The movie opens with the captain engaging in one of his favorite modules, a civil war simulation. The 'battle' in the simulation goes badly, so the captain, who commands a unit in the simulation, freezes the program and asks the computer what happened and why he isn't succeeding in the battle. The computer begins to explain why the captain has failed in this simulation, when, suddenly, one of the supposedly computer generated, simulated characters, walks out of the background, calls the captain by his real name (Frank) and says that the captain isn't fooling anyone, least of all, himself. The simulation character then shoots the captain. Since this is a virtual reality simulation, the captain is not injured, at least physically, but there may be signs of potential problems developing in his mind.This same simulation character starts to crop up in other shipmate's modules and virtual realities. In one of them, he is a doctor taking care of a crew member. In another, the virtual reality character pushes the real ship's doctor off a cliff. The 'simulation' character rapes one crew member in her module, tries to drown another, and shoots the captain and his lover while they are engaging in one of their virtual reality trysts.With all of these problems cropping up, it would seem to be an obvious decision that the mission should be aborted, but it isn't that simple. Since they left Earth, it has suddenly become clear that Earth itself will very soon be facing massive ecological collapse and possibly become completely uninhabitable. Humanity MUST find another place to live. So, though there are clear risks, the risks may be preferable to aborting the mission. In addition, the captain, who is starting to behave more erratically, seems determined to push on, because he likes what he has seen in the actions and activities of the virtual reality system and he wants to make sure it continues to function and that the ship continues its journey. The crew decides to support this, even though some crew members suspect that the people who sent them out may be lieing to them, that things might not be that bad on Earth, and they might have been told about the ecological catastrophe in order to force them to continue the mission.The 'Go' decision is made and the ship enters the trajectory which will send it towards another star. Having made this choice, there is no chance to change the decision. They literally must continue the journey to its end, then hope to return in 9 1/2 years. They no longer have any other option.. But additional problems begin to crop up on the ship.There is a glitch with the antenna which allows them to communicate with earth. The chief engineer of the ship shuts it down and retracts it to effect repairs, but when he tries to redeploy the antenna, the computer says it cannot do so. It simply isn't functioning. Someone on the crew must engage in a spacewalk outside the ship to effect repairs manually. The captain and two other crew members go to the airlock and prepare to leave the ship. While getting equipment, the captain is left by himself, in the airlock, suited, but without his helmet. The inner door to the airlock closes by itself, mysteriously, and the outer door begins to open. The computer says that it isn't in control of this, and can do nothing to stop it. From another control center in the ship, the chief engineer is able to prevent the outer door from opening completely, but the captain is left depressurized. Though they find a way to go in and try to save him, he dies from the exposure to space and vacuum.An inquiry is performed to determine the cause of the incident, and a 'short circuit' is found in the control mechanism for the airlock doors, so it appears to be an accident. Most crew members accept this, but the new 'acting' captain doesn't believe it. He says that it was no accident and someone on the crew has committed murder. Since he doesn't know who, he knows now that he can trust no one. Of course, one possible suspect might be the ship's psych officer. We see him reviewing tape of the last few moments of the captain's life, where the captain can be seen declaring his love for the psych officer's wife. Or it may be the computer, which might be managing the virtual reality program and causing other malfunctions on the ship for unknown reasons.The movie ends, rather abruptly, with the chief hydroponics officer finding the captain's virtual reality goggles, and one of his toy soldiers, sitting on a table. She enters her old lover's virtual reality module. There she sees a character, commanding troops, who looks like the dead captain. she goes up to him and he breaks character and calls her by her real name. He tells her that none of this is real and that, to find out the truth, she will need to "follow him down the rabbit hole." (Shades of the "Matrix") We also see the dead captain in what appears to be a previously taped interview, where he says, "If I kill a character in a video game, am I guilty of murder? I don't think so."The credits roll and we are left to Ponder what it all means. Is their whole journey, or significant parts of it really just a virtual reality simulation, and is the captain actually alive somewhere? Did he somehow find a way to move himself into the virtual reality program, and has he 'deleted' his body? Has the computer, or someone using the virtual reality probram taken control of a simulation of the captain, to have him say this? Ultimately, we are not sure what is going on.This movie was originally written as a pilot episode for a TV series, and undoubtedly, more of these questions might eventualy have been answered, but the TV series was never purchased, so the movie must stand alone.
suspenseful, murder