Zenith
In the post-apocalyptic year 2044, the population has been genetically altered to live in a constant state of happiness, but without sorrow, happiness dissipates, leaving only a feeling of never-ending paresthesia. Only pain can make people feel alive.
Jack (Peter Scanavino), a young man and former neurosurgeon, is a peddler of substances that induce pain. A stranger knocks on Jack’s door and hands him a single video tape that Jack’s long lost father, Ed Alexander Crowley (Jason Robards III), left behind. It is the first in a series of 10 tapes in which Ed has documented his life and his pursuit of what he calls the “Grand Conspiracy,” a conspiracy that quite possibly could be the answer to what happened to Jack’s world.
Inspired by his father’s tape, Jack sets out on his own investigation. But in order to solve the whole puzzle, he must locate the remaining nine tapes. Jack begins to track down four more tapes, but the larger answer still eludes him.
Jack meets the provocative Lisa (Ana Asensio) in a strip club, and is struck by the fact that she is just as conflicted and lonely as he is. Through her, Jack encounters the possibility of real love. As Jack finds the remaining tapes, the lines between his interior and exterior world blur, leading him to question reality itself. Lisa and Jack decide to abandon the search for the tapes and leave the city.
Jack locates Ed’s last tape, and is suddenly faced with the same choice his father had to make forty years ago: to surrender his soul, or to remain true to himself, no matter the consequences. Jack's reality becomes the same reality as the final tape.
Jack is revealed to be an institutionalized patient (named Ed Crowley) with both epilepsy and a brain tumor, taking part in a clinical research trial in 2012, scribbling notes about Zenith while being monitored by a camera in his cell, wondering if this isn't another part of the conspiracy.
psychedelic, sci-fi