Gamer is a 2009 American science fiction action film written and directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor. The film stars Gerard Butler as a participant in an online game in which participants can control human beings as players, and Logan Lerman as the player who controls him. Alongside Butler and Lerman, it also stars Michael C. Hall, Ludacris, Amber Valletta, Terry Crews, Alison Lohman, John Leguizamo, Sam Witwer and Zoë Bell. Gamer was released in North America on September 4, 2009, receiving generally negative reviews from critics and grossed $43 million worldwide against a production budget of $50 million. Plot In 2034, computer programmer Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall) invents self-replicating nanites that replace brain tissue and allow humans to control other humans' actions and see through their eyes. The first application of Castle's "Nanex" technology is a virtual community life simulation game, Society, which allows gamers to manipulate live actors as their avatars. Society becomes a worldwide sensation, making Castle the richest man in the world. He then creates Slayers, a first-person shooter where the "characters" are death-row prisoners using real weapons in specially created arenas. Unlike Society actors, Slayers participants are not paid; instead, they volunteer in exchange for the promise that any Slayer who survives 30 matches will earn his freedom (though no one ever has). John "Kable" Tillman (Butler) is the crowd's favorite, having survived a record 27 matches (no inmate before him has managed to last more than ten). He is exclusively controlled by Simon (Lerman), a seventeen-year-old superstar gamer from a wealthy family. An activist organization called the "Humanz" hacks a talk-show interview with Castle and claims that his technology will one day be used to control people against their will. The Humanz also disrupt Society play, but Castle sees both these actions as trivial. However, Castle feels threatened by Kable's winning streak, and introduces a new inmate into Slayers, Hackman (Crews), specifically to kill Kable. Unknown to anyone else, Hackman will not be controlled by a player, and thus not be handicapped by the "ping" that causes a small but dangerous delay between the player's command and the Slayer's action. Kable/Tillman's wife, Angie (Valletta), works as a Society character, but in spite of her earnings, she is refused custody of their daughter Delia, who has been placed with a wealthy family. The Humanz contact Kable and Simon separately, warning them that Castle