Plot

Truman Burbank began life by being the chosen one of six unwanted babies to be the star of a documentary of the first year of life of a child. But the program became so popular that it expanded into a continuously running reality television program. Contained within a completely artificial town called Seahaven, itself contained within a gigantic dome, the "Omni Camera Ecosphere" Truman grows up as the only person in the town unaware that he lives in an almost solipsistic constructed reality for the entertainment of those outside. Because they are actually actors, his friends and family fake their friendship with Truman and, in the case of his wife, bury their real feelings. In the case of his life-long best friend, Marlon has been on the show since he was 7 years old. The movie picks up on Day 10,909 of Truman's life. It starts in the style of a television program, with opening credits and interviews of three main characters: Christof (the program's creator), Meryl (Truman Burbank's wife), and Marlon (Truman's best friend). Throughout the film, footage of Truman is interspersed with scenes of people in the real world watching The Truman Channel. The movie depicts many instances of Truman's need for safety and security — his job as a life insurance agent, his fear of water and sailing, his avoidance of flying. However, throughout his life, Truman has also indicated a conflicting wish to explore the world, to travel, and to leave Seahaven. Attempts to keep him on the island (and thus unable to discover the truth of his TV-show existence) include the staged drowning death of his father, the use of an intimidating and threatening dog in his path while attempting to explore the island, and others' explicit discouragement of his wishes to be an explorer. Also, the general media consistently presents the good points of staying home. Despite the producers' wishes, Truman makes several choices that confound their efforts to control him and his world. He falls in love with an extra named Lauren, who reveals her name to be Sylvia and then is subsequently whisked away by the TV producers. Truman is told that she and her family are moving to Fiji, thus provoking a lifelong wish in Truman to travel to Fiji to find her. Encountering a man in the street whom he recognizes as his dead father, sets Truman off into an emotional crisis. He has a growing suspicion that he is the observed center of the world (which, in fact, he is). His friends and family focus their efforts to control his anxiety and questions about his life. Truman begins to piece events together that increasingly indicate that there is some kind of plot involving his entire life, though he cannot quite articulate it. He begins to suspect that "everyone's in on it." He notices that a travel agent has only anti-travel messages on its posters. He spots his wife crossing her fingers in a wedding photograph and notices that she constantly launches into impromptu praise of new household products, as though she is within a commercial. After an argument and a struggle, she declares, sobbing apparently to no one, that she, "How can anyone expect me to carry on under these conditions, it's not professional!" and leaves Truman (and the show). His friend Marlon, being coached by the TV producer through an earpiece, insists on his loyalty and honesty, claiming "you're the closest thing I have to a brother" and deceitfully, "the last thing I would ever do is lie to you." He then brings forward Truman's father in a moving reintroduction scene. A TV interview with the show's producer Christof reveals that Truman was in fact adopted at birth by the television corporation and raised in a constructed stage set built as the entire town in which he lives. He reveals that everyone Truman encounters - friends, family, acquaintances, and bystanders - are in fact actors employed by The Truman Show producers. Christof acknowledges that he has orchestrated Truman's entire life. Despite his wife leaving, he still intends for him to father a baby with a new love, through, "the first on-air conception." He states that the reason Truman has never discovered the truth is simple: "We accept the reality of the world with which we're presented." He declares arrogantly that Truman simply does not want to discover the truth; that he prefers his "prison cell" and will never leave. As if to prove this, back in the program, Truman appears to be back to normal. But while Truman pretends to be asleep, he sneaks away from his home by fooling the omnipresent video cameras and tries to escape Seahaven by sailing, despite his fear of the open sea. This causes the first programming disruption in the broadcasting of the show as Christof orders the cameras off, creating a large media stir in the real world. All of the cast members are called out for an emergency search to find Truman and to help the search, Christof orders the sun to rise three hours early and light the set. They discover Truman is escaping by boat, and immediately restore broadcasting of the show to a much larger audience drawn in by the programming disruption. Christof creates a major storm using the artificial weather controls to drive him back. Some of his co-workers protest that they can't kill Truman on live television, but Christof, convinced that he has complete control over Truman, says ominously, "He was born on live television, why can't he die on live television?." However, Truman survives the storm and continues to sail until he hits a wall painted like the sky, the physical edge of the show's enormous set. Truman follows the wall until he discovers a door labeled exit. He opens the door, but before he leaves Christof talks to him through a loudspeaker in a last effort to make him stay. He shows a god-like compassion for Truman, telling him that he's watched him all his life, "There is no more truth out there, than there is in the world I created for you," says Christof. After Christof is through talking to Truman, Truman says his famous (to his TV viewers) line, "In case I don't see ya... good afternoon, good evening, and good night!", bows, then walks out the door. Sylvia (the extra who played Lauren) rushes from her apartment, ostensibly to the studio to meet him for the first time. But in the real world, it is shown that maybe the show is just another TV show and isn't as important to people as Christof believed, as people just turn over to another channel.