Computer Man: The Movie

Computer Man: The Movie is a fictional 2018 Philippine action-fantasy-science fiction-superhero film produced by IBC Films. It is based on the 1990 television series of the same title which starred Eric Quizon. Directed by Joel Lamangan, it is topbilled by Sam Y.G. in his very first leading role as the high-tech superhero Computer Man. Released on December 25, 2018, it was an official entry to the 2018 Metro Manila Film Festival.

Plot
In 1992, a UFO sighting was reported over the province of Laguna. Later, a small, unmanned craft, believed to be an alien probe, was discovered in the area. Kept hidden from the public, a secret scientific project studied the probe for two decades. Though they were somehow able to activate its onboard computer, it used an alien language that was practically impossible to decipher. It wasn’t until just a few years ago that a new process was developed, employing VR (virtual reality) technology to enable the human brain to interphase with the alien computer, allowing them to understand each other.

Six years later, a woman falls to her death from the top floor of the Empress Electronics building. The victim is identified as Maia Macanan, an employee of the video game manufacturing company, who was apparently exposed as a corporate spy. It is suggested that she had committed suicide over a guilty conscience, but her younger sister Marie suspects foul play.

The investigating officer, Earl Mercado, notes an earlier incident from a year before, when another Empress employee went on a killing spree in their offices before getting shot down by security. But Earl’s attempt to further investigate is frustrated by the company’s evasive CEO Trish Imperial. She wishes to downplay the incident so as not to affect the launch of their new product Virtuoso, a VR gaming system that beams the player’s consciousness directly into the MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) N-Quest.  As a parting gift, she gives Earl a free Virtuoso unit, which resembles the device used to communicate with the alien probe. He later gives it to his son Dash, who lives with his estranged wife Pia.

Prior to her death, Maia gave Marie instructions that if something bad happens to her, she is to hand a sealed envelope to her ex-boyfriend Mike Rodriguez, a vlogger and professional gamer. Both computer experts, Maia always felt that the happy-go-lucky Mike never used his skills to their full potential, wasting them instead on playing video games. She, on the other hand, would use hers as a hacktivist, working outside the law to expose corruption in society. Their opposing viewpoints would cause a rift between them, eventually leading them to break up.

Likewise, Mike’s aunt Medie also thinks her nephew should be doing something more productive with his life. Mike has to constantly remind her that they live in an age when people can actually make a living just from posting stupid videos and playing video games is considered as a legitimate sport. He receives the sealed envelope from Marie, who doesn’t like him very much. The envelope contains a floppy disk, along with instructions to purchase an old nineties model personal computer from Papang’s Used Appliance Shop. He sets up the PC in his room and pops in the disk, which contains an old school 2D platform game titled Computer Man. The object of the game is to run through a series of obstacles in order to get to the floating city, fight the monster Brainskull and save the captive princess. The game seems deceptively simple, but is actually pretty difficult. Mike manages to play it to the end, after which a spinning spiral shape fills the screen; it’s motions appearing to hypnotize him. It is followed by a bright flash of light that knocks him unconscious.

Mike wakes up hours later and realizes that he is almost late for his date with his current girlfriend, Irene. He goes out still feeling a bit disoriented and also somewhat paranoid; having the sneaking suspicion that he’s being watched. When he meets up with Irene, he starts to see some of the people roaming around them as having skull-like features and protruding spikes on their heads; and apparently, he is the only one who can see them as such. He freaks out, ruining the date and causing Irene to walk out on him.

Later, Mike is confronted by a group of the “spike-skulled” people. As they attack him, he hears a voice in his head that sounds like Maia’s, saying “Initiate: Defense Protocol.”  His brain is suddenly flooded with data, giving him knowledge of martial arts and gymnastics. He fights the “Spikeskulls,” almost as though his body was moving by itself, and somehow manages to defeat them.

Mike goes to Marie’s house to tell her about what happened to him. Outside, Hendrix, a hitman working for Trish, activates an EMP jammer that disrupts the electricity in the area and knocks out the surrounding CCTV cameras. The pulse briefly affects the now electrically sensitive Mike, giving him a slight headache. Hendrix aims a rocket launcher at the house, but it turns out Mike’s senses have become super-sharp. He pushes Marie down to the floor just as the rocket blasts through her window.

As it happens, Earl, who was on his way to question Marie, arrives to find Hendrix opening fire at her home. Earl is about to apprehend him, but the Terminator-like assassin pulls out a gun and perforates the police officer’s car with a hail of bullets. Earl manages to jump out in time, although he gets grazed in the arm. Before Hendrix gets to fire again, Mike leaps out and disarms him. Mike uses his newly discovered skills against Hendrix (who he also sees as a Spikeskull), but the hitman puts up more of a fight than his earlier opponents. Marie hits Hendrix with Mike’s car, momentarily knocking him out. Mike helps Earl to his car, takes over the wheel and drives off.

Mike hears Maia’s voice again, giving him directions like a built-in GPS in his head, leading him to an isolated safe house. Mike, Maia and Earl go down to the basement where they find an elaborate computer lab. They are met there by the owner of Papang’s Used Appliance Shop, who reveals himself to be Dr. Gerardo Danib, one of the scientists who had been studying the alien probe. Six years ago, his team had succeeded in communicating with the probe computer’s AI (artificial intelligence), which introduced itself as Imperatrix. From it they learned that the probe had come from the planet Noikra. Ravaged by a deadly flesh-eating plague, its surviving inhabitants had uploaded their brain patterns into the probe and sent it into space to search for another world, eventually landing on Earth. Little did the scientists realize that the Noikrans had a sinister agenda; to take over the bodies of the Earth’s inhabitants and claim the world as their own.

The first to fall was one Patricia Real, an unassuming young intern who was possessed by Imperatrix itself. Systemically, the other members of the project were taken over by Noikran minds. Danib managed to escape, making his alien-controlled colleagues believe he had died in the attempt, and went into hiding. A few years later, Empress Electronics emerged as a cutting-edge video game development company. Danib took notice of them after recognizing their CEO Trish Imperial as Patricia/Imperatrix. He would join up with Maia, who had started her own investigation following the incident with the berserk employee.

Empress Electronics’ computer systems proved to be super-secure, forcing Maia to infiltrate the company and hack them from the inside. She learned that the berserk employee was a test subject for the Virtuoso gaming system that they planned to use to take over human bodies. An error in the transfer process had crossed the conflicting human and Noikran psyches, causing the subject to go on a rampage. Once the process was refined, their ultimate goal was to use the MMORPG N-Quest to simultaneously possess the bodies of millions of online players throughout the world.

Maia and Danib had created a counter-program, essentially a computer virus, which Maia was to personally upload into the Empress servers (which had been built around the Noikran probe) to corrupt their systems, preventing the corporation from carrying out their scheme. Failing that (which she did), Plan B was to send Mike a copy of the counter-program in the form of a game, which downloaded itself into his brain after playing it, essentially turning him into a human Trojan horse virus. Chosen for his game-playing skills, he is to play through N-Quest and release the counter-program into the epicenter of the game in order to shut it down. Earl has a hard time believing Danib’s alien conspiracy story, but if what he’s saying is true, then his son, who now has a Virtuoso unit care of Trish, is also in danger.

To prepare for his mission, Mike puts on a modified Virtuoso gear, transporting his consciousness to a VR training simulation. He is greeted by the counter-program AI, whose physical appearance is based on Maia herself, and is also the mystery voice that he had been hearing in his head. He decides to call her “Princess,” his nickname for Maia when they were still together. She gives him a tutorial on the various powers that his online avatar possesses. This includes the ability to access information from the Internet with his mind, which was how he suddenly developed special skills in the real world. He naughtily tests this by trying to access porn, but this only causes a firewall to form around him, inflicting him with burning, electrifying pain. It turns out that Maia had installed it to keep him from using his powers for immoral purposes. “She knows me so well,” he quips.

Mike breezes through the training simulation as though it were a game, approaching it in his usual cocky, joking manner. This upsets Marie, who snaps at him for not taking things seriously; her sister is dead, and her ex is enjoying himself playing superhero. He reasons that he’s only making the best of a bad situation, seeing as her sister had practically violated him by sticking a virus in his head and dragging him into an alien invasion plot. This only causes Marie to hate him even more. Thinking things over, Mike is reminded of a bad argument that he and Maia had about her vigilante hacker activities. She believed that she had a responsibility to use her skills for the greater good, even if it meant bending the rules. He accused her of having a hero complex, to which she replied that at least she’s not wasting time playing games pretending to be one.

On the day of N-Quest’s worldwide launch, Mike is among the scores of Virtuoso users entering the game. A VR reconstruction of the actual planet Noikra, it is basically a larger-than-life, realistic and more dangerous version of the Computer Man game. The players race through a perilous obstacle course in order to get to the floating domed city, while fighting powerful boss characters and a seemingly unending wave of Spikeskull warriors along the way. When players are defeated, the Spikeskulls absorb their virtual avatars, thereby taking control of their bodies in the real world as well.

As more players are converted, Mike is overwhelmed by the ever-multiplying number of opponents. He mutters that he’s going to need resbak (back-up), to which Princess’ voice responds, “Initiate: Resbak Protocol.”  She manifests in physical form to help Mike against the enemy—and proves herself to be a bad-ass fighter. In the midst of the battle, Mike sees Earl’s son, Dash, and saves him from being taken by a Spikeskull. He entrusts Princess with protecting Dash as he runs through the rest of the course on his own. He makes his way to the floating city, which suddenly starts shooting its laser cannons at him. His next opponent is the city itself.

As Mike fights in the game’s virtual world, Marie, Earl and Dr. Danib monitor his progress from the real world. Meanwhile, Hendrix has managed to track them down, arriving at the safe house with a group of thugs. Spotting them through a CCTV monitor, Earl leaves Danib and Marie in the basement control room and goes topside to face the intruders.

Back in the online world, Mike creates a digital jet fighter to fly him to the city, evading its defenses and engaging enemy ships in an aerial battle. He breaks into the dome, where he fights more squadrons of Spikeskulls and a gigantic tentacled brain monster, a much larger, deadlier and more terrifying version of the Brainskull creature from Maia’s game. Overcoming these foes, he makes it to the center of the city where he finds a giant crystalline head crackling with electrical energy from within, the very focal point of N-Quest itself. His chest emblem lights up and releases the counter-program in the form of an energy blast, but it is deflected by the final boss; Trish/Imperatrix herself.

Meanwhile, in the real world, Earl takes down the gang of intruders in a shootout. It comes down between him and Hendrix, but they both run out of bullets and instead go at it with their fists. Hendrix turns out to be just as dangerous, perhaps even more so, in unarmed combat and beats Earl down to an inch of his life. Leaving him for dead, he heads for the basement, where he finds Danib and Marie. Danib tries to confront Hendrix, but the latter simply chokeslams the hapless scientist to the floor, instantly knocking him out. The hitman then sets his eyes on Marie.

As this is happening, Mike and Imperatrix are having their duel in the game. Imperatrix proves to be a formidable adversary, but Mike eventually finds an opening and momentarily overpowers her. He seems to be getting the upper hand when a large screen materializes between them, a video feed from the safe house showing Hendrix threatening to snap Marie’s neck. Mike is forced to stand down. Drawn to Mike’s power, Imperatrix kisses him in the mouth, through which she starts draining both his powers and his life energy. This also affects his body in the real world, which starts to break down into atoms. Amused by what’s happening, Hendrix is too distracted to notice a recovered Earl sneaking up on him. The officer hits him with a metal pipe, forcing him to let Marie go. As Earl beats Hendrix into unconsciousness, Marie implores Mike to keep fighting.

Mike accesses porn with his mind, activating the firewall, which engulfs both him and Imperatrix. Unable to withstand the pain, Imperatrix is forced to break away from Mike. Once he gets his strength back, Mike again blasts the crystal head. It explodes, causing the game world to fall apart. The possessed players are released back into their bodies, and the Spikeskulls are deleted. Imperatrix is caught in the explosion, destroying both her virtual avatar and her human host Trish.

Riding the shock waves of the explosion, Mike is cast adrift in cyberspace. As he floats away, Princess appears before him and then morphs into a pre-recorded image of the real Maia. She apologizes for involving him in the conflict and for the way things ended between them, but while she gave up on their relationship, she never gave up on him. She always knew he was capable of greater things; all he needed was to prove he could be a hero in real life, just as he is in a video game (although, ironically, he had to enter into a video game in order to do it). After a final kiss, Mike is returned to the real world.

In the aftermath, Empress Electronics shuts down operations, following the simultaneous malfunction of the Virtuoso units and the mysterious disappearance of their CEO. Evidence is uncovered of Maia’s murder. Hendrix is arrested, and the rest of the Spikeskulls appear to have scattered without their leader. Only Danib, Mike, Earl and Marie know of their existence as aliens, and decide to keep it a secret so as not to cause panic.

Danib goes back underground to track down the remaining Spikeskulls. Marie has vindicated her sister’s memory, while Earl tries to fix his broken family. As for Mike, his abilities seem to have been flushed out of his system along with the counter-program. Left with his own natural computer skills, he decides to honor Maia’s wishes to use them responsibly and joins up with the PNP Anti-Cybercrime Unit.

Mike calls up Irene to make peace with her; he apologizes and she decides to give him another chance. After making the call, he notices that his phone’s battery is running low. To his surprise, a brief surge of electricity arcs from his hand, instantly recharging his phone.

After-Credits Scene: Irene had just hung up on Mike when she receives another call. The voice on the other end addresses her as Captain Ernex. She smiles ominously as she looks at herself in the mirror, her reflection revealing her as a Spikeskull.

The screen cuts to black, followed by the words “CONTINUE? [Y/N]”

Main Cast

 * Sam Y.G. as Mike Rodriguez / Computer Man
 * Bianca King as Patricia Real / Trish Imperial / Imperatrix
 * Phoebe Walker as Maia Macanan / Princess Maia
 * Janina Vela as Marie Macanan
 * Mark Lapid as Earl Mercado
 * Eric Quizon as Papang / Dr. Gerardo Danib

Supporting Cast

 * Boom Labrusca as Hendrix
 * Helen Gamboa as Medie Rodriguez
 * Wendy Valdez as Pia Mercado
 * J.J. Quilantang as Dash Mercado
 * Wendy Tabusalla as Irene Cacho / Captain Ernex
 * Slick Rick as Sandro Obina
 * Tony Toni as Bobby Anastacio

Special Participation

 * Vivian Velez (voice) as Imperatrix AI
 * Jimmy Morato as News Anchorman
 * Maria Ozawa as Internet Porn Girl

Production
TBA

Reception
TBA