Varun Patel
‘Upload‘ is an Amazon original that could prove to be the next comedy craze. The science-fiction satire might have a premise that would draw tons of comparisons to NBC’s ‘The Good Place,‘ but the show finds its own footing easily and presents a delightful modern-age sitcom. Robbie Amell leads the cast and plays the role of a young man named Nathan, who dies due to a peculiar car crash. ‘Upload’ is created by Greg Daniels, who is known for developing ‘The Office.’
Upload Plot Summary:
‘Upload’ is set in a speculative future where a person’s consciousness can be uploaded to a VR afterlife service after their death. However, such services are generally quite expensive and hence only available for those who can afford it. A young man named Nathan (Amell) is attempting to find funding for his startup, which would provide afterlife services for free.
However, he dies of a peculiar car crash. His wealthy and clingy girlfriend, Ingrid, uploads him to the most premium afterlife service known as Lakeview, even though Nathan might have a chance of surviving since she wants to keep him forever. Since she pays for Lakeview, she practically controls Nathan.
However, Nathan ends up falling in love with his afterlife assistant, an “angel” named Nora. However, Nathan cannot simply break up with Ingrid since she pays for his Lakeview “membership.” Apart from that, a block of Nathan’s memory becomes “faulty” after his death. It appears as if somebody purposely tinkered with his memory. Moreover, Nathan’s car crash also seems to have been staged by somebody.
In the final episode, Nathan gets his lost piece of memory back after the afterlife service gets a new update. He finds out that he had betrayed his friend and business partner by selling a copy of his afterlife service’s code to Ingrid’s father. He finds out that he had been the one at fault. Nora also sees this memory and gets upset since one of the reasons she had fallen in love with Nathan had been his commitment to do the right thing (make afterlife services free).
Moreover, Nathan transfers himself to the 2Gig section since he has broken up with Ingrid and cannot pay for the full Lakeview membership. He calls Nora and manages to save her from a man who breaks into her apartment to kill her. He saves her by hacking into an elevator and killing the man when he is inside it. However, he ends up using up his entire 2 GB quota and freezes.
Nora gets into a car with Byron, and they leave. Ingrid comes to Nathan’s room and adds one more GB to his account. She tells him that she “uploaded” herself into Lakeview for Nathan so that the two can spend the rest of eternity together. Shocked, Nathan shouts “what!?” and freezes since his 1 GB gets over too. The lights in the entire 2Gig section go off.
Upload Ending: What Happened to Nathan?
‘Upload’ ends on a cliffhanger, leaving viewers to wonder what exactly happens at the end. However, the ending does give the impression that the show could get rebooted for a second season. Hence, it is not really an open ending.
There are two possibilities for Nathan freezing at the end. The simplest possibility is that Nathan freezes because his one GB gets over because of thinking too hard. He is frozen when Ingrid visits him, having just listened to Nora say, “I love you” to him. Plus, Ingrid gives him the shock of his life by telling him that she uploaded herself to Lakeview for him (basically, she committed suicide so that she could be with Nathan). Perhaps, all of this turns out to be a lot to process for Nathan, causing him to use up the one GB in “thinking too hard.” He had been warned about that by another 2Gig resident before.
However, the above-explained theory cannot account for the lights in the 2Gig section going off. In the final episode, Nora’s father suggests that there might be someone more powerful than Ingrid’s father, who could be after Nathan. After all, Nathan was attempting to start an afterlife service for free, which would disrupt the extremely profitable industry. Perhaps, this powerful man uses his influence to shut off the power in the 2Gig room after finding out that the assassin he sent for Nora was killed.
Apart from that, many of you must also be wondering about Nora getting in the car with Byron. Does she choose him over Nathan? That is definitely not the case since it is evident that she does not love (or even like) Byron. In all probability, she is just using Byron to get to a safe place and evade the aforementioned powerful man who sent an assassin to kill her.
Read More: Best Sci-Fi Series on Netflix
