Vincent D’Onofrio: Reflects at his forgotten sci-fi movie ‘The Thirteenth Floor’
Key takeaways
- D’Onofrio played Jason Whitney, the guide who helped Douglas Hall, played by Craig Bierko, venture into the virtual world to track down a message left by Hannon Fuller, played by Armin Mueller-Stahl.
- Galouye’s 1964 novel Simulacron-3, and the concept had already reached screens in 1973 as the two-part German TV movie World on a Wire.
- The box office result also puts the film in the shadow of The Matrix, which arrived the same year and owned the bigger conversation around simulated reality.
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Add ARY News on Google AAResize Vincent D’Onofrio appeared in The Thirteenth Floor, and the 1999 release finished with $18.6 million at the box office on a $16 million budget, a narrow commercial win, but not a clean one for a science-fiction title trying to break through in a year when The Matrix reset audience expectations.
D’Onofrio played Jason Whitney, the guide who helped Douglas Hall, played by Craig Bierko, venture into the virtual world to track down a message left by Hannon Fuller, played by Armin Mueller-Stahl. The film sets that search inside 1999 Los Angeles and a simulation of 1937 Los Angeles, which gives it a period-and-tech premise that was already crowded by the time it reached theaters.
The Thirteenth Floor adapted Daniel F. Galouye’s 1964 novel Simulacron-3, and the concept had already reached screens in 1973 as the two-part German TV movie World on a Wire. That history left the 1999 version working against a familiar premise instead of introducing one, so the movie had to sell itself on execution rather than novelty.