Menno's Mind (Film)A goodhearted virtual reality programmer gets caught up in the conflict between antifascist rebels and a corrupt government official in a near future dystopia. PlotAn alleged terrorist, Jor Norwell, is found guilty by government committee of setting off an airport bomb despite his protest that it was set off by the government itself. His sentence is three consecutive "virtual executions," in which he is shot, electrocuted, and beheaded in a simulation delivered via a brain jack. The stress of the simulations cause him to die of cardiac arrest. Menno, a programmer for the government run VR center called The Resort, discusses the trial via video call with his coworker Simon. They argue about the fairness of the execution, continuing it later at the office. Mick Dourif, the head of the reblels, is hacking into the Resort via backdoors he left as a former employee. He notices a tremendous amount of data being uploaded to the Resort's servers and intends to investigate. He shares a tender moment with his second in command, Loria, but neither is comfortable being honest about how they feel toward each other. At work, Menno goes against protocol to help an elderly stroke victim use VR to meet his long lost love. Menno writes an experimental program to evade damaged synapses and succeeds in giving the man his wish. The government official in charge of national security, Medina, meets with his assistant about the rebels. They decide to go after Dourif and send two agents. Dourif repels them, but is mortally wounded in the process. Dourif sneaks into the Resort and finds Menno working in his office. At gunpoint, he makes Menno boot his work computer with a "super high density" disc. Dourif jacks himself into the VR system's brain jack and dies as Menno's work computer overheats. Dourif's body is found and Menno is suspected of terrorist collaboration. He is put under government surveillance after interrogation by Medina. Loria executes the government agents watching Menno and kidnaps him, insisting he explain what happened to Dourif. Menno proposes they investigate what Dourif did to his work machine. Sneaking back into the Resort, Menno and Loria realize that Dourif has uploaded his consciousness into the Resort's server farm. Loria wants to be able to interact with it, so she forces Menno to download Dourif's consciousness into his own via the brain jack. Menno writes a program to perform the download, which succeeds. He has access to all of Dourif's thoughts and emotions and realizes that Medina is planning to rig the upcoming presidential election by flooding visitors to the Resort with subliminal messaging about voting for him. Menno and the rebels agree to destroy the Resort's power supply on the day of the election to prevent the rigging. Medina is relieved of his duty by another government official who guesses at his corruption. Medina allies with a senator, but ends up killing both of his colleagues and stealing back his security clearance. Menno tries to convince Simon of the rebels' mission, but Simon doesn't believe him and calls security. Loria and Menno escape, later sneaking back in to plant bombs on the Resort's power stations. Medina realizes what the rebels are up to and sends a squad of soldiers to kill them. Medina's forces thwart the bombing, but Menno realizes he can prevent the election rigging with a computer virus powered by Dourif's mind. While hacking into the mainframe and re-uploading Dourif, Loria fights the soldiers and Medina himself. Medina mortally wounds Loria, but is killed by Simon after he realizes the rebels were correct all along. Menno succeeds in preventing the voter fraud and, as she is dying, uploads Loria into the Resort as well. Once virtualized, she and Dourif embrace and walk off into virtual reality together. Menno releases evidence of all of Medina's corruption and is cleared of all charges. Themes
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