Plot

In a near future, a policewoman who still blames herself for a past tragedy accepts her loving wife's suggestion to take a vacation in a virtual simulation, but she soon realizes that this might be the real life and hers is a simulation.

Sarah (Anna Paquin) is a policewoman living in the future who shares headspace with George (Terrence Howard) a brilliant game designer, each pursuing violent killers whose plans could have shattering consequences. In a race against time, sharing a bond that no one else can see, they learn the very thing that connects them can also destroy them.—Channel 4

After a traumatic event that has left her with survivor's guilt, Sarah (Anna Paquin) accepts her wife's (Rachelle Lefevre) offer to test a new form of virtual reality that fulfills the customer's desires. Sarah experiences life as a widower named George (Terrence Howard), who seeks vengeance for the murder of his wife. Sarah and George, in their respective lives, increasingly resort to using virtual reality to escape their pain, blurring the lines over which life is the real one. Ultimately, Sarah chooses to live as George, convinced that her real life is too good to be true, and her neural pathways break down.

Sometime in a distant future, Sarah and Mario discuss a massacre of 15 fellow police officers that has affected them both deeply. At home, Sarah tells her wife Katie that she can't let it go. Katie presents her with a small device that offers a vacation in the form of "another life". Everyone's experience is different, based on the user's thoughts, dreams, and subconscious. Katie activates it and awakens in the other world as George Miller, a software company owner on a vigilante man with deadly enemies in the present day. He and his friend Chris are attacked by a group of thugs led by a psychopath named Colin. They shoot their way out. George cannot remember how to drive and seems to have difficulty remembering other details of his life. He is treated for injuries by Paula who helps him remember other specifics. Later, Chris tells him that the police found the bodies of Colin's thugs. George becomes inexplicably emotional, plagued by flashes of memory. Chris brings George a device to help him escape into a VR world and relax. He puts it on and awakes as Sarah again in the future. Sarah and Mario discuss her vacation. Sarah says it was like "remembering her life there." Food in the real world no longer tastes right. Information about the location of the people who massacred their fellow officers comes in on their handheld devices and Sarah feels that it happens too easily, as if her life is better than she deserves. Sarah and Mario arrive and the location reminds Sarah of the place where she was attacked by Colin on her vacation as George. Indeed, the man they are looking for in the future also turns out to be Colin, whom they overhear discussing a plan to burn down city hall. Mario leaves Sarah alone to go call the situation in and Sarah is knocked unconscious by an energy weapon. She awakes as George and is questioned by attorneys regarding his vigilante activities. The murder of his wife is mentioned in the conversation and he becomes violently ill. Paula treats him again, saying his memory centers have been affected by head trauma. George cannot remember his wife at all. Paula shows him a picture and it's Katie from the future life. He begins to remember her in both lives. Paula explains the experience as Déjà vu. She thinks his brain is having difficulty processing the difference between the Virtual Life and his real one. George thinks the other life feels more real, but is convinced by Paula to stay away from the VR to avoid brain injury. As soon as she leaves, he puts the VR device back on and wakes up in a hospital as Sarah with Katie and Mario looking down at her. Mario tells her the cop killers have been apprehended and she was in a coma. She and Katie sleep together, then talk about Sarah's vacation. Sarah opens up about Katie being in both worlds and how she's beginning to doubt her future life is real because she feels undeserving of such a perfect life, as if it's the fantasy of a man in the 21st century. Katie proposes wiping the memories from her implants. As Katie sleeps, Sarah enters the simulation again. George meets Chris in a cafe who tells him that Colin has left the country. George says he knows what's going on. He returns home and tells Paula that he is selling his software company. Paula has hidden the headset, but George demands it. She warns him that his cerebral cortex will be permanently damaged. George remembers that he and Paula were having an affair when Katie disappeared. Colin wanted the decryption software George developed to use against the NSA and kidnapped Katie and murdered her. George decides that he doesn't deserve the good life in the future and smashes the VR headset. Suddenly, Katie and Mario are with Sarah in a hospital bed where her neural pathways are shutting down. She chose the other life as the one she deserved, to be punished for her sins, both real and imagined.