Cypher

Cypher (2002) is Vincenzo Natali's sci-fi thriller, free to watch online on iFILM. Morgan Sullivan, a bored suburban nobody, signs on as a corporate spy and starts crisscrossing the country under a borrowed name.

The job sounds dull enough: secretly record rival speakers at industry conventions. Then come the migraines, a nagging ache at the base of his skull, dreams that bleed into waking life. A sharp stranger named Rita (Lucy Liu) tells him what he can't quite accept — DigiCorp hollows out its agents, wiping who they were and leaving obedient shells. Jeremy Northam plays Sullivan as a man slowly losing the thread of his own identity, and the film keeps you guessing which version of him is real.

Natali made this three years after his cult debut Cube, and the fingerprints are all there: cold geometric framing, paranoia thick as fog, big ideas squeezed from a tiny budget. If you like identity-bending puzzles in the vein of Memento or early Cronenberg, this one rewards close attention. Stream Cypher (2002) online on iFILM.