Hi, Today I
am going to explain a science fiction
comedy-drama television series called “Upload”.
Spoilers ahead!
In the year 2033, the world has become entirely
digitalized. The most outrageous invention
is the virtual afterlife. It is a place
where people can stay after their death
and enjoy all the materialistic things that
they couldn’t have when they were alive.
When a person dies, his body is frozen and his
consciousness is uploaded to the afterlife of his
choice. He basically becomes like a character in
a video game but with consciousness and memories.
This way, one can live for eternity, talk to
his friends and family who are still alive,
and even meet them once they die and
are brought to the digital heaven.
This process of joining the
virtual afterlife is called
“Upload”. It is managed by a large corporation
that employs thousands of programmers to make
the afterlife as realistic as possible.
One of such employees is twenty-five-year-old
Nora. Her job is to guide new uploads through
heaven and help them settle in. She talks to them
via a program and can meet them as her virtual
self. Nora dreads her job but continues working
because it will give her an employee discount if
she ever wishes to be uploaded after her death.
Then, we are introduced to a 27-year-old
computer engineer Nathan. He is driving
his automatic car to a family dinner. The car
is installed with all the safety precautions
and is driving itself but Nathan wishes to race
down the street. He uses an illegal hard drive
and changes the settings to manual.
The speed causes a police drone to chase
after him but Nathan makes up an excuse
and gets out of the situation.
Upload Season 1 Watch Online
At home, he is with his family and his
wealthy girlfriend Ingrid. Nathan is not
in love with her because of her overly clingy and
protective personality. She doesn’t belong to his
world which is more family-oriented, unlike
hers who only care about money and fame.
Upon seeing Nathan dance with her niece, Ingrid
gets jealous and asks him to come with her. In
the following scene, they are in the back
of his car making love. Nathan stops at the
grocery store and drives back home later.
On the way, a strange automatic car malfunction
takes place. As a result, he crashes
into a truck and is heavily injured.
He is rushed to the hospital and told that he
can either be uploaded or die traditionally.
Ingrid arrives with a contract for his upload,
even though Nathan doesn’t want to spend the
entirety with her. In a moment of panic,
he signs the contract under Ingrid’s family
upload plan and is officially registered.
Following this, he is kept on an inclined
chair and decapitated. The next thing Nathan
hears is Nora’s voice. She has been assigned as
his guide. Nora asks him a series of questions to
ensure his senses are fine. She also creates his
avatar and gives him a slight hair lift.
Then, Nathan finally comes to his senses and
finds himself in a lavish room that will be his
for the rest of eternity. Nora tells him he is
in the Lakeview afterlife, one of the most
popular packages that their company offers.
Everything in this afterlife is designed
to match his preferences. For instance,
the building near the hotel is a bowling alley
for him but it is a church for someone else.
He can meet new people and make friends until his
family members die in the real world. The change
is too sudden for Nathan. When he starts crying,
Nora calms him down, telling him that everything
will be better tomorrow. She makes him go to
sleep and continues working with someone else.
The next morning, Nathan wakes up and finds out
that in-app purchases require money. He cannot
pay through his own account because he is here
on Ingrid’s family upload plan. This is when he
realizes that she has the power to do anything
she wants with him, and can even delete him.
Through his balcony, Nathan can see
the full view of the lake. He can even
change the seasons as per his wish.
After taking the view, he meets Ingrid’s
grandmother who is black and white
because the reference for her avatar
was taken from an old picture.
He also calls Ingrid and sees that
she is at a party enjoying herself. This
only makes Nathan miss his former self.
Before ending the call, she says that he cannot
run away from her now. The comment makes Nathan
feel strange but he dismisses the feeling.
Meanwhile, Nora is at home with her father.
He has a health condition that is bound
to kill him soon. Nora wants him to save
money for the upload program but he refuses
because he wants to be with his late wife,
who he thinks is in the actual heaven.
Back in the afterlife, Nathan goes to the
lobby for breakfast and is stunned by the meal
options they have. However, right at ten o’clock,
the food disappears, leaving him disappointed.
He then meets a fellow dead man named Luke.
The food is just a program designed to
look and taste like the real stuff. Nathan
is shocked that the company charges them for
it because it costs them nothing to make.
Luke introduces him to a flow
of current called the torrent.
It is a pathway between the real and the virtual
world which is extremely dangerous. Most people
who cannot get used to the virtual world
commit the unthinkable by jumping into it.
As a whole, Nathan likes some things about the
place, like the water pressure in the shower
and the fact that he can pee anywhere.
But he would still rather be alive than
in the supposed heaven. A man informs him
that there are thousands of people in the
resort right now but as per the program, they
can only see a common number. This causes
some glitches which mess with Nathan’s head.
Everywhere he goes, he is addressed as Mr. Brown,
and every staff member knows him. His hair is
also too spikey for his liking which makes him
lose his mind. Soon, Nathan becomes
frantic and thinks of ending it all.
He is making his way to the torrent
when Nora arrives and stops him.
She explains that the new world might seem
unnatural at first but it is like any other
man-made thing when he gets used to it. She
asks him to give it a day or two and he agrees.
Nora even tells him her real name because he
had been addressing her as an Angel till now.
A while later, Nora gets off work. When
she is not around, her computer deletes
files from Nathan’s memories on its own.
At home, she meets her date on an app called the
nightly. They place cameras on each other’s chests
and say that they consent before making love. It
turns out that placing the camera before sex is
a compulsory protocol in today’s world. They can
even rate each other on the app afterward.
The following day, Nathan is assigned to pet
therapy because of what he tried to do yesterday.
He is paired with a golden retriever, but one that
actually talks. A therapist from the real world
is controlling the dog because it is only a medium
to make the patient feel better.
As a productive homework assignment,
Nathan is asked to write the names of five
people he meets today. In the meantime,
Nora comes to her boss with paperwork that says
her father is entitled to her employee discount.
But she is denied the discount because only
the employees with 4.6 ratings or above
can get it, but Nora has 4.59. The difference
is insignificant but her boss doesn’t care.
In the afterlife, Nathan calls Ingrid and finds
her in a spa getting stem cell injections and
vaginoplasty. She is getting ready for
his funeral tonight but is more excited
about the decorations than getting to see him.
Following the call, he goes looking for new people
to write about them in his diary. He meets a kid
named Dylan who died at the age of twelve and has
been there ever since. But the kid is too busy
fighting the game mode thugs to talk to him.
Next, he meets David Choak, the former owner
of the second largest privately owned company.
He is worth billions of dollars and is enjoying
a lavish afterlife. On being asked what he did
for work, Nathan reveals that he and his friend
Jamie were making an app that allowed people to
make their own afterlife where they can live
with their families. That way, they wouldn’t
have to pay a hefty sum to the current owners of
Lakeview for a bunch of unnecessary programs.
After listening to this, David casually says
that Nathan was murdered. Since he was about to
make a six billion dollar company go bankrupt,
he was probably murdered by the owners. Nathan
refuses to believe him and walks away.
Back on the earth, Nthan’s cousin detective
Fran is asked by Nathan’s family to investigate
his death. She finds Nathan’s car in a junkyard
which is still functioning. The car refuses to
acknowledge that it is damaged which means that
it has been tampered with. Fran notes
this and continues the investigation.
In the next scene, Nathan is with Nora telling
her that he cannot remember some parts of his
life like the name of the app he was developing.
This reminds Nora of the time she found a chunk of
his memory files missing. She promises to look
into it but gets busy with other clients.
Nora desperately needs a five-star rating
to get her success rate up but Dylan gives
her only three. Similarly, she gets no luck in
impressing the clients that day. Nathan notices
this and gives her several five stars. She tells
him everything that is bothering her and feels a
lot lighter afterward. Without them knowing, the
two are developing feelings for each other.
Upon reaching home, Nora looks for
the missing data from Nathan’s memory.
She cannot find them but is able to get her
hands on the memories that come right after
the deleted parts. Nathan and his friend Jamie
have just come out of a business meeting.
A man asks them if they have told someone
from the big companies about the idea.
Nathan says only his family and girlfriend know.
The entire interaction seems strange to Nora,
so she decides to save the clip for later.
The following week, a very important invention
is about to be tested. The scientists are trying
to download people from the afterlife to their
normal selves in the world. The first download
is about to be broadcasted internationally.
At the same time, Nathan is getting ready for his
funeral under Ingrid’s supervision. She makes him
wear clothes he is not comfortable wearing and
takes the entire control of his life. Nathan is
excited about the download feature because if it
is successful, he might get to his old form.
They watch the first test take place and are
shocked to see the test subject’s head explode.
The experiment is unsuccessful but Nathan still
has hope that he will return home one day.
Later that day, the funeral party starts
in LA, New York, and in the virtual world.
Nathan comes to the party with Luke. In
New York, Nora also visits his funeral.
Nathan had thought that it would be filled with
his friends and people he likes but instead,
none of them have come because of a game. He
is the most shocked about Jamie being absent.
His mother also reveals that the money they got
from his share of the company was not a lot.
The party doesn’t even seem to be for Nathan
as everyone socializes among themselves. When
he calls out Ingrid for the lame planning, they
get into an argument. She pulls out the big guns,
threatening to delete him altogether.
In the end, Nathan has to reluctantly
apologize. Nora watches all of this take place
and feels bad for him. Detective Fran is also at
the funeral. She finally gets to talk to Nathan
and asks him if he has any enemies. She also
discloses that his vitals were improving before
he was taken to be uploaded on the day he died.
Nathan knows Fran for being strange so
he doesn’t think much about the comment.
Later that night, Nora returns home and calls
the guy she saw in Nathan’s memory earlier. He
introduces himself as Josh but refuses to tell her
anything about the meeting he had with Nathan.
In the last scene, Nathan is in his bed
calling Jamie again but like always,
he doesn’t pick up. It is strange because they
used to be best friends before his death.
Thank You.
ALSO READ THIS: Simply Explaining Dunkirk Plot Analysis And Ending