2051: The Return Project

Set in the year 2051, the film tells the story of the first "replication" — the download of a complete human brain and neural network to digital storage. Dr. Richard Calbert, the world's leading pioneer of brain-computer interface and director of the Humanistic Artificial Intelligence Lab (HAIL), donates his own brain to the research project he spent his life building.

When Calbert "awakens" after death, he finds himself in a strange, unwelcome world to which he has difficulty adapting — despite having signed a "pre-mort" precluding any possibility of pulling the plug. His sole interlocutor is Dr. Gloria Dennison, his former protégé and successor, who communicates with him through voice emulation software.

The film contains elements of romance, lab intrigue, human struggle and philosophical questions about what it means to be human. A Shakespeare aficionado in life, Calbert takes comfort in the imaginary companionship of Hamlet. Replete with homage to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, the story builds to a dramatic resolution worthy of The Twilight Zone.