Initially going into this movie, I thought the trailer made it look like a lower budget version of 2001: A Space Odyssey, but I was wonderfully surprised at the depth it had. Those who watch sci-fi purely for action and explosions might find this movie a bit boring because it's not meant to be a Michael Bay movie--it actually makes you pay attention, think, understand, and I love that about it. The emotion conveyed by the robot despite being a robot, the "Inception" like style of prison interrogation, the twists and turns as the story unfolds, all make for a riveting plot that had me constantly questioning what was real and what was only inside Frank's mind. I started by only "renting" it through Amazon because I wasn't sure if I would like it, but I will definitely be making it a part of my permanent collection.

Best movie I've seen in years! But in reading through all the comments, can hardly believe no one else seems to have interpreted it the way I did, so SPOILER ALERT!

I believe Howard really did let Frank go, only the ending scene at the diner did not take place shortly after his escape, but rather, many years later. When, like his father, Frank himself had become a dying old man, hooked up on life support.

Frank's greatest fear was dying the way his father had. He feared life support more than he feared death - until he realized it didn't have to be that way. So he had retrieved Howard along with the neurotransmitter machine and had made arrangements in the event he was ever placed on life support.

After Frank's first escape failed, he realized that in sharing his plan with Gabby, in reality, he had shared it with Howard. Gabby was not a manifestation of his own mind as he initially thought; Howard was Gabby. Howard/Gabby didn't just view him as a "friend" either. They had become a couple, engaged in intimate, romantic relationship. As Frank made his escape from the chamber, Howard projected a final illusion of himself as Gabby, abandoned in the chamber, lonely and forlorn. At the console, he asked Frank, "What do WE do now?" along with asking whether he was coming back. As Gabby, s/he had begged Frank to promise and "come find me" after he got out. Gabby didn't mean some unknown Barista, but wanted him to find HER, Howard/Gabby, the AI program, capable of learning, evolving, developing feelings, and genuinely loved him.

Howard was programmed to keep Frank alive and confined in the chamber until he was "processed". So Frank completed his processing by confessing, enabling Howard to release him. Oh, and that "key"? That was the key Frank used to turn off his father's life support system. Had nothing to do with the resistance.

In the final scene Frank retrieves the key, and throws it out indicating his desire to stay on life support. He tells Gabby "I know", indicating he knows where he is, what "she" is, and granting his consent. In telling Frank, "Gabby doesn't even work here anymore", Madeline is declaring her independence from her old programming. She is no longer the old Howard/Gabby, but is her own person, giving their relationship and life together a fresh start.

Of course, that's just my interpretation.

This is a deep trip. If you love mainstream big budget movies... Do yourself a favor and stay with what's working for you & don't join the people who think this is a bad movie simply because it is a low budget sci-fi project. Applaud and support the fact that an independent project made it or admit you haven't got a clue of what it takes to get a movie made. Christopher Soren Kelly does a fantastic job and the acting is very good in this project. Travis Milloy has credits as "The Writer, The Director and he's a Producer..." that tells me A LOT about what kind of skin he has in the game for his movie.

I was very impressed by the creativity of this movie. Yes, it's a man incarcerated. He's ISOLATED and a computer-automated system that has been programmed with the directive "keep him alive" - this automation is all the main character "Frank Lerner" has for company as he slowly finds a way to get out of his bleak circumstance.

It is intense. (because it has a air of claustrophobia to it.)
It is repetitive. (He must find his way through a reoccurring dream or vision in order to unravel the mystery of how he became incarcerated.)
It's annoying. (HOWARD is an emotionless ass-hat whose limitations are very convenient... but THAT is precisely the point.)
It's mind-expanding. If you allow yourself to be drawn into "what if this happened to you... Seriously! What would you do?"
It becomes very poetic. (He falls in love inside his repetitive memory.)
It ends beautifully...

Don't watch this unless you can take it to the end because you will totally miss the point (and the beauty built into the story) if you can't take the mind-bending ride of an independent feature. I'm not affiliated with this production in any way at all, but I know a lot about what it take to get a movie made. I love story structure, so I'll watch almost anything independently made, but if a movie doesn't wrap it's self up at the end... I'd tell you.

The constraints of making any movie are huge under the best of circumstances, but for an independent project there is the added issue of getting the work seen AFTER it is completed. Then after getting it seen, you have the pressure of being able to sell it just to get some money back. By that I mean hopefully ALL of the initial investment, because those willing to invest in independent projects deserve to make a profit so they will invest in future projects. So don't 'hate' just because the movie seems slow or cheaply made - just admit that you don't know the difference between a studio project and a low budget indy-project.

Very, very well done. Great acting. I was really pulled in. It's a smart, multilayered story that works excedingly well on every level. The way the main set is used was very effective. I loved the ending and I am not a sentimental person. This one is going to be a classic. Orwell vs 2001. It would be interesting to run this on a continuous loop so people didn't know when it ended.....it would work.

I read the latest reviews prior to watching this and discounted the poor reviews as they were mostly saying how it droned on, etc. We're overloaded with fast cuts, entertainment with shiny objects over substance, and our attention span suffers for it. It's no one's fault. Progress, after all.

If you are in the shiny object category of viewer, needing the fast cuts and special effects to feel entertained, you won't like this movie. It's an Indy, but an exceptional one. Well made, well acted. I've seen much worse studio productions. Personally, I enjoyed it. I like exploding space stations and dynamic action chases as much as the next person, but, I also like a story. This one is told through interspersed cut's between related places and things, and intertwine's some symbolism here and there to aid in the telling, so I'd imagine if you don't follow such things well, you also won't enjoy this movie. If you are into story, and piecing things together, I suspect you will enjoy it. I didn't find it circuitous at all.Everything is minimal because it's indy, but it's not cheesy or amateurish by any means. They make full use of the scenes, and production values they have, and it works. So, to summarize, into shiny objects, fast cuts, lots of action?... you won't like it, wait till it's free, and then give it a shot if you want. Into story, don't mind having to do a little work to think through things and symbols, likely you will enjoy this. I did.

My after-thought is now my preface: I don't think I wrote any spoilers. I hope it was worthwhile to read this review

After 38 minutes, I may have to give up. The premise is interesting, but the the movie is morbidly boring. It is slow-paced with insipid dialog. I may watch a few more minutes, but the dialog and plot are lackluster. it's hard to believe so many studios spend so much money to produce so much crap.

48 minute update: it has changed. It is more boring.
63 minute update: plot almost thickens and boring is getting tedious.
76 minute update: there is finally some action and it is so unusual it is confusing.
82 minute update: surprise - the action took it nowhere.
90 minute update: it got better. Was it worth waiting for?
99 minute update: it ended okay, but I wish I had those minutes back..
The last 3 minutes are credits - who cares?

I don't understand why people are failing to grasp the ending or what was happening. It was banging you over the head with it throughout the length of the movie. *SPOILERS AHEAD*

Frank wakes up in this room, no memory of how he got there, he has these random flashbacks that honestly he can't really trust as something that actually happened. He's trapped in this room and can't escape. His only companionship is Howard, the AI. Everything is taken care of for Frank. If he needs to go to the bathroom, it's there. If he needs some music, it's there. Everything except leaving. So what's going on? Frank is on life support and is near death. That's it. That's the movie. The whole thing is an allegory for someone being on life support and how it's cruel and inhumane. Just look at all the clues:

1. Howard says he is an LSO, later we learn this means "Life Support Operator". If that isn't hitting you over the head hard enough...
2. Howard says it's main mission is to keep Frank alive. Literally... it's keeping him alive via life support.
3. The food is all liquid. It's because it's intravenous feeding or a feeding tube. Since the only thing your body can "eat" when on life support is liquids.
4. Frank even talks about his "father" being on life support and how "some things shouldn't be computerized" and is essentially telling the audience "life support = bad"
5. The scenes with Gabby/Madeline are most likely his wife/daughter visiting him in the hospital and also a combination of his dreams.
6. The gas filling the room to calm him? Anesthesia gas.
7. The little robot trying to shoot him? Shots of sedative.
8. The machine that puts him in dreams? Probably just some scanner/MRI/gadget that's in the hospital room
9. His "escape"? It's his own mind/body trying to shut down and die.
10. When he escapes the second time you can see Gabby is distraught and is saying "don't go" and is acting exactly the way someone would be acting if their loved one was dying on life support.

Also some other things... there's no concept of time. He doesn't know when it's day or night. He doesn't know if he's "awake" or dreaming most of the time. He goes through various stages of facial hair/no facial hair. How is he shaving? They wouldn't give him a razor blade if it was a prison trying to keep him safe. I doubt a robot is coming in and shaving his face when he's knocked out.

I'm sure there is plenty more I missed. But anyway... as for my review and why I gave it 2 stars. See here's the thing.. the concept is really interesting and there's a million ways to go with it. The problem is the way they went with it was kind of boring and the conclusion was weak. At the starting point of the film my mind was racing with what could really be going on. Is he part of an experiment? Is he a robot? Is he abducted in an alien craft and they are studying him? Is he actually on a huge space craft on a journey for humans to find a new planet and they chose him for a mission? Is it just some guy who gets kicks locking up people and torturing them mentally? For a moment I thought maybe "Howard" was actually just a guy pretending to be a robot, because that would have been psychotic. But instead it's just a life support machine.

The ending was a downer. I was hoping they would cut to Frank dying in a hospital bed but instead they sort of gave a little wink to his "father" laying there for a moment but it wasn't the sort of reveal I was hoping for. Once I knew what the story was doing I was hoping Frank would "escape" only for it to cut to a life support machine flatlining and Frank is there laying dead in a hospital bed hooked up to tons of machines. That would have at least been better than the flimsy "happy" ending of Frank relaxing in the diner with the "is it Howard" camera looking down. It's pretty clear Frank didn't escape and he's just stuck on life support for an indefinite period of time. Only now the AI has found a way to keep Frank happy/sane while doing it.

Brilliant movie. Great actors, and the plot was simply wonderful. Do yourself a favor and give this movie a viewing.

SPOILERS: At the end of this movie, I had to really think for a while. What was the significance of the main-characters father being on life support? His several successful escape-attempts, all proved to be simulations engineered by the interrogation simulation-generator.... yet the final one, so identical to the others, was real? It became clear after a while: The authorities wanted to know the location of the usb drive that contained the society-destroying virus. Either the main character was already dead and his experiences were created in the life-supported brain of this dead man, or he was in a coma and the interrogation-simulator was generating the experiences. Nothing whatsoever actually happened, and the last day he kept re-living was being replayed so that said authorities could make him give up the location of the USB drive.

Quite a brilliant plot. Made me think, for quite a while, what really just happened.