'I saw you meet a man on the assembly line; what'd he say?'

Sure. But that doesn't explain why she said it TWICE. Like she was stuck in a computer loop.

Jude Law felt compelled to say things, and he said them - he didn't fight it. But he only said them once each.

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I agree with this line of reasoning. It was planted there to make us doubt. But why did she seem completely human the whole time and not robotic? Because the director did not want to make it totally obvious. You might think in that case that it's just sloppy writing but actually it makes a lot of sense.

If you have ever played a game before you will know there are varying degrees of artificial intelligence. A bartender that simply relays information will not need the same amount of crafting that say an enemy might, or especially a companion. A companion requires the highest level of sophistication because you spend all your time around them. However, they do occasionally glitch which is what might have happened here. Think back to all the characters that did not glitch, and there were quite a few. Nader, the glitchiest character was also a mere messenger non player character.

I just finished watching this movie and my first impression is that they were in the real world. But after considering it carefully, there are a couple problems with that theory. The aforementioned line, coupled with the fact that she acted like a robot for few moments there but then was back to normal. So, if they really were in the real world at the end, why did she glitch. There was no smirk and no indication she was just "messing with him". Not to mention, it's not really in her personality to do so.

The other thing I got to thinking about was the whole transCendeZ experience. If it drew from the characters own thoughts to form stories and ideas, then isn't it more similar to a dream than a game? That would certainly account for all the disjointed weirdness. But if that is the case, why would there be scripting at all? In my dreams character's do strange things but they do not glitch like robots. Of course there is a possibility that the person's inside unconsciously influenced the game knowing it was a game and so that's why the characters acted like game characters but that doesn't quite fit either.

Another plausible explanation is the one somebody mentioned already. Jude Law is playing this game by himself and JJL is his companion in the game. The game is a first look at virtual reality simulations. Still there are problems with this theory as well, like why the anti-game and anti-technology theme. Why would the objective be to kill game devs, isn't that a bit masochistic. Nouresh even said the game was disturbing and confusing, kind of as if to say, this game needs some work before it's ready for public consumption. That and the nod to there being anti-game sentiment among the test group participants. There really aren't any perfect answers that I can see, just a lot of interesting questions.

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But if she was real she wouldn't have asked twice.

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When Allegra gets stuck and repeats the line and freezes its a huge hint that she is just a written computer part in the program and not an actual live 'player'

Correct. 😁

When he first says a necessary line "We're here that's all that matters" he has to repeat it soon after to progress the game. She's just doing the same thing.

Wrong. He had to repeat it, but differently (that's the important part to notice) so that the program (Nader) would "hear" him. Nader didn't hear him the first time because Pikul didn't say it in a way he could understand it. Simple programs are only programmed to hear certain things, not figure things out for themselves. Pikul had to tweak the line to get the program to recognize the input. He didn't just mechanically repeat it over and over with a blank stare. He stopped to wonder in between the 2 line deliveries why it didn't work, what to change, and then changed a few things. He is human and thus acting human, not like a robot.

Allegra was acting like a robot in the scene we're discussing. She didn't think to change the line the second time she delivered it, to say it a different way to get Pikul to understand her. She mechanically repeated the line with NO CHANGE WHATSOEVER. That's your hint.

The reason Pikul had to repeat that line was because he hadn't said it the right way - either A) he had to include the program (Nader's) name, which he did the second time, to get the program to "acknowledge" the line and for it to respond + move on with the game, or B), like Allegra said, Pikul was just starting to feel/act like his "character" at that point so he had to repeat his first line to remember what should come afterward, or C) both. He repeated but changed his line.

That's the difference. In the trout factory scene, she didn't change her line at all. Her movements, dialogue AND facial expressions / body language were all exactly the same. Like a program.

Remember, he didn't say his character's first line 2x the same way. The second time, he both added the name of the program he was speaking to AND continued into another line he was supposed to say.

These are two important changes, showing he's a human learning to act within his character. He is not a computer program. She showed no such human-like characteristics, simply repeated her line because he (again) hadn't said his character's line the right way. When he said it again, he added her name, etc.

Just like he had to do with the other program, Nader, last time he didn't get the line right.

I don't know throughout the movie when else she is decidedly human or program, but in this scene, IMO, she's obviously a program. We were told in the scene with Nader (not long before this scene) that "if someone repeats their line mechanically, and you have to say the right line to get them to get on with it / respond, they're a program and need to hear it the right way." Humans don't need that exact input to be able to respond; they can deal with tiny differences. She is NOT human in this scene.

Ironic / funny / brilliant part is that she told him that.

If that didn't make sense (very simple idea I was trying to explain, somehow it came out all complicated) feel free to ask and I will try again. But she's definitely a program in this scene. 100%

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I'm inclined to think that this was neither an attempt at misdirection, nor an indication of her status as a program but rather a subtle moment designed to upset our acceptance of the nature of the characters.

I believe the whole point of the repeated line was indeed to raise the questions brought up in this thread but not to provide an answer to them. If we know the answer then we have definitive proof of what is real and what is not, which is contrary to the point of the movie. The film questions the nature of reality and the horrors of potential deception and uncertainty and this is just another neat example of Cronenberg's ability to draw us into the uncomfortable anxiety felt by the characters as they lose grip not only on reality but also the idea that reality is static and defined.

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