One thing I've noticed in reading these writeups is that one of the major points of the movie has been overlooked. That is, that David Aames is cryonically frozen from the start of the movie.

At the start of the picture, a woman's voice wakes David up to a New York that is utterly devoid of people. He runs down the street in a panic, screams, and wakes up to another woman's voice, the voice of Julie Gianni.

The previous voice belongs to Sophia Serrano, Brian Shelby's date to David's party and David's obsession for the duration of the picture.

The only problem with this is that David has not met Sophia at the start of the picture. For her voice to be on his alarm clock, or even in his memory, would require that he have entered the Lucid Dream before the movie began.

Therefore, much like the inhabitants of Paradigm City, David Aames is stuck in an infinite loop. His demise and exit from the system at the end of the movie is not real. Life Extension is evil; they do not honor their end of the bargain.

This is further corroborated by the Tech Support guy looking at his watch while waiting for David to finish saying goodbye to Sophia. That simple gesture says volumes about the character and nature of the people caring for David's soul.

Tech support is evil.