The Lift

In Amsterdam, an elevator malfunctions when a lightning storm triggers a power failure, trapping four people inside. The car loses power and doors refuse to open, leaving the passengers in a claustrophobic, suffocating danger as time ticks away.

Over time, the elevator's faults prove deadly: when the doors finally open to an empty shaft, an elderly blind man falls to his death. Other shocking outcomes include the building's night watchman being decapitated and a janitor seemingly burned alive.

Felix Adelaar, a technician from Deta Liften, begins to examine the elevator's electrical system for anomalies. He digs through inspections and becomes increasingly obsessed with the unexplained malfunctions, even as his marriage strains under the pressure.

Felix notices a van parked outside from Rising Sun, a microprocessor maker tied to the elevator's control. He and Mieke collect newspaper clippings about Rising Sun and try to arrange a meeting with the nervous CEO.

Mieke arranges a meeting with a former university professor who specializes in electronics. The professor explains how microprocessors can be sensitive to external factors like electric and magnetic fields and radioactivity, and recalls a years-old computer that began self-programming and went out of control.

That morning Felix's boss suspends him for the unauthorized Rising Sun visit. The disciplinary move underscores the mounting stakes as the elevator mystery deepens.

That evening, the owners of Deta Liften and Rising Sun meet to discuss how to stop the elevator's organic processor from killing people. They seek to halt the system before more harm occurs.

Saskia leaves Felix, taking their children with her. The separation leaves him with little to lose, pushing him to return to the building and confront the mystery.

With no other options, Felix goes back to the building and discovers the elevator has a sentient mind that actively resists him accessing its microprocessor. He presses deeper, determined to solve the puzzle.

Felix climbs into the shaft and uncovers a pulsating box containing a silicon chip—the elevator's heart—coated in sticky goo. The discovery confirms that the machine's mind is not merely programmable software but a living, dangerous presence.

Felix attacks the box with a wrench, provoking the elevator to unleash countermeasures and knock him off balance. He lands on a ledge just below the doors, and Mieke rescues him moments before the elevator would crush him.

Rising Sun's CEO arrives to see the failed experiment and shoots at the biocomputer. The computer retaliates by dragging him into the shaft and hanging him, a grim payoff to the attempt to control the machine.

Felix and Mieke walk down the stairs as the elevator's heartbeat continues to echo through the building. The mystery remains unsolved, but the machine's consciousness seems to endure beyond the immediate threat.