As I was watching the movie I was thinking similar to
@Onoes above, in that he is in
the matrix the whole time. The kids being "zombies" from some phone program was "stupid" but played into that fact. The end of the movie with the cat really made it click. He had, in the scene previous to the cat, stated that various different things always protect the house, including a horde of rats (which again, is nonsensical).
To modify Onoes's theory a bit, the people in the dinner might all be "players" in the matrix and their backstories are just their personalized games previous to entering the café (gaming lobby). With the only story from the "real world" possible being his mother.
