Date: 2052

Westworld is one of six advanced theme parks owned by the Delos corporation, set in a vast, open-world simulation of the American Old West. It functions like a live multiplayer role-playing game. It is designed to make guests feel powerful and unrestricted, allowing them to indulge in adventure, violence, romance, and sexual fantasies without real-world consequences. The park spans roughly 500 square miles and is located on a remote island somewhere off the U.S. coast

Westworld is populated by lifelike androids called hosts—indistinguishable from humans in appearance, biology, and behavior. Just like humans, they experience emotions and sensations like pain or pleasure. They respond to voice commands only from staff members (e.g., freeze all motor functions). Each host follows a pre-written narrative loop, some as short as a single day, while others are longer. If left alone, hosts repeat their script exactly. If a guest engages, the hosts will dynamically respond within their parameters. Even park animals are hosts

Hosts believe their lives are real and are programmed to ignore anything that suggests otherwise. They can form relationships, experience injury or "death," and are usually recalled for repair and a memory wipe at the end of their loop. They’re then reset to their starting point, unaware of past cycles. However, if a guest continues interacting with a host, the reset is delayed to preserve the guest’s experience

Guests—real humans—pay a base fee of $40,000 per day at the park and are given complete freedom, except for one rule: never harm another guest. Upon arrival, guests select Western-themed clothing and weapons from a curated wardrobe and disembark a train into Sweetwater, the park’s central town. The further they travel from Sweetwater, the more challenging and dangerous the storylines become

Westworld is designed to keep guests safe. Hosts are programmed never to injure humans, even in fights. Guns are modified to recognize humans; bullets bounce right off them, leaving minor bruises. The "Good Samaritan Reflex" makes hosts step in with superhuman speed if a guest is in danger, literally taking a knife for them if needed (e.g., stopping fights between guests). Just like in real life, accidents (e.g., falling from heights) can still occur, but lethal incidents are rare

Beneath the park lies a massive underground facility, where Delos staff monitor the entire system. This includes behavior labs, narrative control rooms, repair bays, and surveillance hubs. Staff access the park via hidden lifts and service entrances, ensuring the illusion remains unbroken

William: No one else sees it, this thing in me. Even I didn't see it at first. And then one day, it was there - a stain I never noticed before; a tiny flicker of darkness, invisible to everyone. And I could see nothing else, until finally I understood that the darkness wasn't something marred from something I've done; some incredible decision I've made - I was shedding my skin. The darkness was what was underneath.It was mine all along, and I decided how much of it I let into the world. I tried to do great, I was faithful, generous, kind... at least in this world, it has to count for something. I built a wall, and tried to protect you, and you mother. But you saw right through it, didn't you? You're the only one. And for that I am truly sorry. Because, everything you feel is true. I don't belong to you. Or this world. I belong to another world. I always have William: What is a person but a collection of choices? Where do those choices come from? Do I have a choice? William: I don't belong here, I belong in a pine box William: You know exactly what it is. It's the maze, the deepest level of this game. You're gonna help me find the entrance William: Winning doesn’t mean anything unless someone else loses William: Choices, Lawrence. You know, you tell yourself you’ve been at the mercy of mine because it spares you consideration of your own. Because if you did consider your choices, you’d be confronted with a truth you could not comprehend, that no choice you ever made was your own. You have always been a prisoner. What if I told you I’m here to set you free? William: This whole world is a story. I’ve read every page except the last one. I need to find out how it ends. I want to know what this all means William: You know what I wanted. I wanted the Hosts to stop playing by your rules, the game is not worth playin' if your opponent is programmed to lose. I wanted them to be free, free to fight back William: Don’t talk unless I ask you something William: Tell me something, sweetheart. Do you ever get tired of waking up and not knowing who you are William: This is the only place in the world, where you get to see people for who they really are and if you don't see the business in that, then you're not the businessman that I thought you were William: If you're looking for conversation, pick another cowboy William: Who said anything about you playing? You're livestock, scenery. I play. The others, they just come here to get their rocks off, shoot a couple Indians. But there's a deeper level to this game. You're gonna show me how to get there William: It's beautifully done, really. But you see the cracks after a while. That's why I like the basic emotions. You know what that means? It means when you're suffering, that's when you're most real William: You wanted me to play your game... I'm gonna play it to the bone William: Predictable. They always run for cover too late William: Good. Pain means you’re getting closer William: You're in my story. Walk the other and play hero somewhere else, before it ends badly for you William: I'm afraid I've got other plans tonight, Dolores. Have a pleasant evening William: I'm not gonna kill you. That’d be too easy. You don’t know what kind of man I am. But you’re about to find out William: I think Humanity is a thin layer of bacteria on a ball of mud hurling though the void. I think if there was a God, he would have given up on us long ago. He gave us a paradise and we used everything up. Dug up every ounce of energy and burned it. We consume and excrete, use and destroy, and we sit here on a neat little pile of ashes, having squeezed anything of value out of this planet, and we ask ourselves, "Why are we here?"