After witnessing his girlfriend’s murder, a man risks everything — including reality itself — to discover that nothing is as it seems. A film by Adam Stern, starring Cara Gee, Peter Mooney, Aaron Abrams, Amanda Tapping, Jade Ma, Adam Hurtig, and David Hewlett.

Joe (Peter Mooney) first meets Ash (Cara Gee) while working at a bookshop. They are instantly drawn to each other, and when Ash invites him for coffee, Joe eagerly accepts. Their connection quickly blossoms into a romantic relationship.

Two months later, Joe wakes up in his apartment, where MEL, his digital assistant, reminds him that Ash’s assistant has sent an invitation for him to meet Ash at 9:30 a.m. at Old World Roasters. Joe confirms the meeting and asks MEL to send a note to Maxine (Sydney Sabiston) at the bookshop, telling her that he will be running late.

At the café, Ash appears unusually concerned as she tells Joe that she loves him and wants to reveal the truth about herself and him. She tries to explain that she’s not from the world he lives in, but instead speaks cryptically, saying only that she’s not from here. Before Ash can elaborate, she is interrupted by a mysterious man who pulls out a gun and shoots her in the head. Shocked and furious, Joe races after the man, who is just about to turn a corner. However, Joe is startled to find that it leads to a dead-end alley, and the man has already vanished without a trace.

Since Ash’s death, Joe sinks into depression and grief, locking himself in his apartment. After Oliver (David Hewlett), the newsstand owner near his building, stops by to check on him for the third time, Joe finally allows him to come up. However, Oliver’s visit does little to alleviate Joe’s distress.

That evening, Joe goes out to buy a pistol and a box of bullets, having decided to commit suicide in the hope of reuniting with Ash in the afterlife. However, he becomes puzzled when the gun fails to fire as he points it at his head and pulls the trigger. After several attempts with no result, Joe suspects the pistol is faulty and points it at the sofa, pulling the trigger again. To his shock, the gun fires instantly.

Realizing that the pistol won’t work on him, Joe fires it at the window, shattering the glass. As he approaches the broken window to jump out, he suddenly hears Ash’s voice calling his name. In his moment of distraction, Joe loses his balance and falls out of the window, only to find himself suspended in midair. Suddenly, he wakes up in his bed as if he has just had a nightmare.

Written and directed by Canadian filmmaker Adam Stern, LEVELS is an ambitious sci-fi thriller that includes a few unnecessary action sequences. While the premise is intriguing, the themes of AI becoming self-aware and living in a simulated world have been explored countless times, notably in THE MATRIX and FREE GUY.

Typically, these narratives operate on two levels: the real world and the simulation. However, LEVELS expands this concept to infinite levels, leaving viewers uncertain about which one is the true reality.

Peter Mooney and Cara Gee deliver believable performances, and I particularly enjoyed David Hewlett’s portrayal of Oliver. However, LEVELS ultimately falls short of its aspirations due to a limited budget that makes the CGI look unrealistic, as well as a screenplay filled with unnecessarily long explanatory dialogue — even the villain extensively explains his plan, which disrupts the narrative flow.

LEVELS received a limited theatrical release in Canada and the United States on 1 November 2024. The film was simultaneously made available on VOD on the same day.