"Dreams Are My Speciality" Memorable Dream Sequences On Film (Part II)

n

nTitle: Bad Dreams (1988)

n

nDirector: Andrew Fleming

n

nSynopsis: In this film, a young girl is the only survivor ofna crazy religious cult called ‘Unity’. The religious leader of this cultnteaches his followers that death is but a door, that emptiness is good andnother such psychobabble. Well, one day he decides that he is going to burnnhimself alive and that he is taking all of his followers with him. He tellsnthem they will reunite in the proverbial ‘other side’. Cynthia decides shenwants nothing to do with this; she manages to escape just in time to escape thenburning flames that engulf the entire congregation! Unfortunately she also endsnup in a comma for thirteen years. But now she’s woken up. Is the nightmarenover? Or can Harris, the religious leader still exert some sort of power overnCynthia’s subconscious? This one is a bit similar to the Nightmare on Elm Street series (evenngoing as far as starring Jennifer Rubin from Dream Warriors) with a burnt upnvillain revisiting his victims in their dreams, but it’s got enough originalnelements to set it apart, and thematically speaking, it’s a bit more serious.

n

nStand Out Dream Sequence: Cynthia is riding an elevator whennsuddenly all the lights start flickering, and the elevator starts to go crazy! Suddenly,namongst the people in the elevator Cynthia sees Harris the crazy religious nut,nall burnt up and scarred!

n

nDream Talk: “Our love will never die!”

n

n

nTitle: Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (1985)

n

nDirector: Tim Burton

n

nSynopsis: Some one has stolen Pee Wee’s bicycle and in PeenWee’s life this is a major disaster. You see, this isnt just any old bike. Thisnbike has many tricks up its sleeve! So naturally, Pee Wee decides to go on anroad trip to try and find his special bike. Along the way he makes many newnfriends and acquaintances, he even gets a girlfriend! Will he ever find hisnbike? Is it hidden deep within the basement of the Alamonas Madame Ruby the crazy fortune teller suggested? Does the Alamoneven have a basement???

n

nStand Out Dream Sequence: There’s this disturbing dreamnsequence in which Pee Wee takes his bike to these bicycle doctors who arenapparently going to perform major surgery on Pee Wee’s bike, to fix it. Problemnis that suddenly the surgeons turn into these evil looking clowns that work fornthe devil! And they dip Pee Wee’s bike in a cauldron of fire!

n

nDream Talk:  Simone:n“Do you have any dreams Pee Wee?” Pee Wee: “Yeah, I’m all alone, I’m rolling anbig donut, and this snake wearing a vest…”

n

n

n Title: The Kid (1921)

n

nDirector: Charles Chaplin

n

nSynopsis: Charlie Chaplin as ‘The Tramp’ suddenly stumblesnupon this abandoned baby whom nobody seems to want, and so he takes him in. ThenTramp doesn’t have much, he is poor beyond belief, making a living fixing glassnwindows, but he takes the baby in anyways. It’s really endearing the waynChaplin cares for the baby even though it isn’t his! The baby soon grows upninto a kid, and in order to survive in this cruel world together they work up anscam: the kid breaks the windows, and then The Tramp miraculously shows up tonfix them. How long before the police catches on to their scam? How long beforenthe police realizes that The Tramp isn’t really the kids father?

n

nStand Out Dream Sequence: The Tramp and the kid are livingnthrough harsh times, they are really poor, but they are really happy. Still,nThe Tramp wishes he could give more to the kid, so he dreams up this sequencenin which every one is an angel (even the cops!) and The Tramp and the kid flynaround town happily, not a tear in sight!

n

n

nTitle: Akira Kurosawa’s Dream’s (1990)

n

nDirectors: Akira Kurosawa and Ishiro Honda

n

nSynopsis: This film is made up of various short films, eachnstory is different, they are not interconnected by anything except for the factnthat they are all dreams. Some dreams are beautiful, others are scary andnhorrifying, but all are amazing. All the dreams depicted in the film wherenwritten by Kurosawa, but some segments of the film where directed by IshironHonda, a director who is better known for having directed Gojira (1954) andnmany more films in the Godzilla franchise.  

n

nStand Out Dream Sequence: One dream sequence has a militaryncaptain meeting the ghosts of all the soldiers that died under his command. Onenmoment he is walking in front of a tunnel, and suddenly, from inside thendarkness of the tunnel all the ghost soldiers come out marching in unison!

n

n

nTitle: Pans Labyrinth (2006)

n

nDirector: Guillermo del Toro

n

nSynopsis: Ofelia is a little girl who lives among fascists.nHer new step father is a military leader in Franco’s fascist army, during thenfascist regime of the 1940’s in Spain!nShe hates her family life so she escapes into a dream world of her own creationnfilled with monsters, labyrinths and fairies. In this fantasy world she alsonmeets the Faun, a mythical creature who guides her through her dream world andngives her tasks and instructions she must carry out. This fantasy world helpsnher deal with the situations that pop up back in the real world where Ofelianhas decided to side with the rebels and help their cause. How will this affectnher relationship with her fascist step father?

n

nStand Out Dream Sequence: Ofelia dreams of a table fillednwith tons of food and delicious dishes but is instructed by the Faun not to eatna thing. At the end of the table, a hideous eye less monster sits, petrified,nlike a statue. Ofelia sees no danger, so she decides to take some of the foodnon the table. Unfortunately, as soon as she picks up some food, the eye lessnmonster awakens and quickly snatches up a fairy that was flying around and eatsnits head! The monsters hunger grows so it now begins to follow Ofelia; presumablynto eat her!   

n

nDream Talk:  “A longntime ago, in the underground realm, where there are no lies or pain, therenlived a Princess who dreamed of the human world. She dreamed of blue skies,nsoft breeze and sunshine”

n

n

nTitle: Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)

n

nDirector: David Lynch

n

nSynopsis: This is a difficult movie to summarize because thenstory is all sorts of crazy. But basically, this is the story of Laura Palmer,na really messed up girl who loves to do all sorts of crazy things. She snortsncoke like a madman; she likes to hang out in the darkest, seediest kinds ofnpubs with the strangest most sadomasochistic bastards! Why does she have such selfndestructive behavior? Is she hiding some sort of deep dark secret?

n

nStand Out Dream Sequence: Laura stares blankly at a picturenof a horse in her bed room wall, before we know it, as the camera zooms in onnthe picture, we enter Laura’s dream land. Laura dreams of this weird longnhaired dude called ‘Bob’ who sneaks into her room at night and tries to rapenher.

n

nDream Talk: “It was a dream! We live inside a dream!”

n

n

nTitle: Mirrormask (2005)

n

nDirector: Dave McKean

n

nSynopsis: Helenancan’t take the fact that her mother might soon die from a terminal illness, sonshe escapes into a dream world of her own creation to deal with this matter. Innthis dream world there are alternate versions of everything she knows from thenreal world: her boyfriend, her mother, her father, even her pets. Will she evernlearn to accept death as a part of life?

n

nStand Out Dream Sequence: Like The Wizard of Oz, PansnLabyrinth or Alice in Wonderland, the whole film is one big dream sequence.nVarious scenes stand out, but my favorite is the one where Helena gets turned into ‘Dark Helena’ by anseries of robots that come out of clocks. They dress her up in black garmentsnand make up as they sing a haunting alternate version of Burt Bacharach’sn“Close To You” 

n

nTitle: Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1992)

n

nDirector: James Cameron

n

nSynopsis: In the future, the computers became self consciousnand decided to blow humanity away with nuclear weapons. But a group of survivingnhuman rebels remain and continue to fight against the machines! One human leadsnthem: John Connor, the leader of the resistance! The robots have devised a waynto eliminate John Connor: by traveling back in time and killing him in hisnchildhood. They tried it in the first film and failed, so they try it in the sequelnjust in case. Various elements make this the best in the franchise: JamesnCameron was a seasoned veteran by the time he made this one, he had a biggernbudget for action and fx, and Arnoldnwas at the peak of his career. Stan Winston and Dennis Muren collaborated innbringing the terminators to life with amazing, ground breaking results. The outcomenof this convergence of talent? One of the biggest blockbusters of all time.

n

nStand Out Dream Sequence: Sarah Connor can only thinks aboutnthe dreaded Doomsday; the day when humanity is going to be blown to smithereensnby a nuclear holocaust. It’s not easy living with the knowledge of the exactnday in which humanity is going to be eradicated. Her nightmares are a thing ofnhorror! One of her nightmares begins with children playing in a park on the outnskirts of the city when suddenly, the sky lights up and a nuclear blast turnsnthem into ashes! We see how the blast burns Sarahs flesh clean off and turnsnher into a skeleton.  

n

nDream Talk: “You’re the one living in a fucking dreamnSilberman, because I know when it happens! It happens! ”

n

n

n Title: Donnie Darko (2001)

n

nDirector: Richard Kelly

n

nSynopsis: Donnie is one messed up teenager. He hasnexistential issues at a very young age. He questions the existence of god. Hensleepwalks at night and dreams of a man dressed in a green bunny suit thatnwarns him of the day when the world is going to end. Hell, I’d be messed upnhaving these kinds of dreams as well. Will Donnie ever find out what the bunnynis trying to tell him?

n

nStand Out Dream Sequence: Again, this is one of those filmsnwhere we can argue that the whole film is one long dream sequence (or not?) butnone of my favorite scenes is the one where Donnie falls asleep in a movientheater while watching The Evil Dead and he ends up having a conversation withnFrank, the man wearing the bunny suit. Donnie asks the man: “Why do you wearnthat stupid bunny suit?” and the man asks Donnie: “Why are you wearing thatnstupid man suit?” Then, a black hole forms on the screen of the movie theater! 

n

nDream Talk: “28 Days, 6 Hours, 42 Minutes, 12 Seconds…thatnis when the world will end.”

n

n

nTitle: Aliens (1986)

n

nDirector: James Cameron

n

nSynopsis: Fifty years after the events of the first filmnRipley’s escape vessel has been found wondering aimlessly through space.nRipley’s been sleeping in cryogenic sleep all that time! Now the company wantsnher to go back to LV-426, a colony that’s stationed on the planet where Ripleynfirst encountered the aliens; apparently they’ve lost contact with the colony.nWhat could probably have gone wrong? Maybe the aliens ate everybody? This timenRipley is ready for these ‘acid for blood’ bastards! She’s got the corps withnher and some serious firepower! 

n

nStand Out Dream Sequence: Just before Ripley awakens fromnher fifty year old slumber, she has a dreadful dream in which something isnpushing out of her stomach! It stretches and stretches her skin, apparently annalien is about to burst out! We soon discover it’s not an alien, its Ripley’sncat!

n

nDream Talk: “Are we going to sleep all the way home? Can Indream?”

n

n

nTitle: Total Recall (1990)

n

nDirector: Paul Veerhoven

n

nSynopsis: Quaid lives a pretty normal life as a constructionnworker, he has a nice place, a beautiful wife, but he can only think about onenthing, going to mars! Since his wife doesn’t want to take the trip he goes to ancompany called Rekall. Supposedly, the company can sell you fake memories andnimplant them on to your brain, which you won’t be able to differentiate fromnreal life! Unfortunately, the company has a reputation for messing with peoplesnminds and giving them brain embolisms! But Quaid is so desperate to see marsnthat he doesn’t care, so he buys the ticket and takes the ride. But somethingngoes wrong, apparently Quaid isnt Quaid, he’s some douche bag called Houser! Thenprocess of messing with Quaid’s brain in order to implant the fake memories hasnawakened his real persona! And Houser wants his life back! This multi millionndollar sci-fi adventure was directed by Robocop (1987) director Paul Veerhoven.n  

n

nStand Out Dream Sequence: Since Quaid only thinks aboutngoing to Mars, when he sleeps, he dreams of walking on the surface of Mars withnhis wife. On this dream, he walks peacefully on Mars’s rocky surface, but henhas a misstep and begins to tumble down a mountain of red rock! When he reachesnthe bottom of the mountain he breaks his helmet with a rock and his face beginsnto swell up, his eyes bulge and it seems as if his whole head is about tonburst!  

n

nDream Talk: “Your dream began in the middle of the implantnprocedure and everything that followed, the chases, the trip to mars, the suitenat the Hilton was all part of your holiday and ego trip, you paid to be ansecret agent”

n

n

nTitle: Labyrinth (1986)

n

nDirector: Jim Henson

n

nSynopsis: Sarah is a young girl that takes most things innlife for granted. She hates her stepmother, she hates her baby step brothernToby, basically she hates her life. She wishes everything could be like in thenfantasy books she’s always reading. One day, when her baby brother was beingnparticularly cruel to her, she says the right magic words that make Jareth, ThenGoblin King and his goblins appear. They’ve come to take the baby away justnlike she asked. Of course, she really didn’t mean it, she was just ventingnsteam. But as Jareth tells her “what’s said is said”. Thankfullly, notneverything is bad news, The Goblin King gives Sarah a chance! All she has to donis reach the castle at the center of the labyrinth before the clock strikes 13,nor her baby brother becomes a gobbling forever! Such a pity… 

n

nStand Out Dream Sequence: The Goblin King is really secretlynin love with Sarah, so he gives her an apple that makes her fall asleep, sonthat they can meet in her dreams. Sarah ends up dreaming that she’s in anmasquerade ball, amongst the dancers is Jareth who whisks her away and dancesnwith her to the tune of David Bowies “As the World Falls Down”.

n

nDream Talk: “I’ve brought you a gift. It’s a crystal,nnothing more. But if you turn it this way, it will show you your dreams”

n

n

nTitle: Invaders from Mars (1986)

n

nDirector: Tobe Hooper

n

nSynopsis: Aliens have landed in David Gardner’s ownnbackyard, but no one believes him! Slowly but surely the aliens are taking overnhis town! Can David convince the army to help him enter the alien spaceship andndestroy the invaders? This movie is really fun because it has that feeling ofnparanoia about it, I’m sure the original 1953 film was made to reflect America’snfear of being wiped out by a nuclear holocaust during the 50’s. Tobe Hooper’s 1986nremake has the same feeling of paranoia, that feeling that you just can’t trustnanyone because they’ve all turned into something else. Maybe it’s communismnthat’s taken over their minds? I kid, I kid. But seriously, this remake isnpretty fun stuff. It has awesome make up and monster effects from the one andnonly Stan Winston. It has a fun vibe going for it and retains that old schoolnsci-fi feel to it. It’s only draw back is the annoying kid they chose as thenlead actor, but if you can ignore that, you should have yourself a pretty goodntime. 

n

nStand Out Dream Sequence: David Gardener manages to enternthe Martians spaceship and encounters the Martians leader who looks like annexposed brain with a face!

n

n

nTitle: Altered States (1980)

n

nDirector: Ken Russell

n

nSynopsis: Dr. Eddie Jessup is doing experiments that explorenour genetic memory. His theory says that supposedly we have memories of ournancestors in our DNA and that all we need to explore those memories (which canngo as far back as the cavemen days!) is the help of mind altering drugs.nBasically he takes a heavy dose of hallucinogenic drugs and locks himselfninside of a sensory depravation chamber where his body floats on water in thendark. While in the sense depravation chamber, he tries to reconnect with hisnprevious lives. Is Dr. Jessup simply going nuts? Is he tripping on the drugs? Ornis there any validity to his research? I love this film because it gets reallynexistential. It explores those big questions and asks even bigger ones! A filmnthat explores such deep themes doesn’t surprise me coming from Paddy Chayevsky,none of my favorite screenwriters. Chayevsky was never afraid to ask big scarynquestions in his films, a true thinker!  

n

nStand Out Dream Sequence: This being a Ken Russell film,nwhat else can you expect but crazy messed up dream sequences? I can’t evennstart to explain the dream sequences on this film because they are surreal tonthe extreme, but I’ll leave it at this: you’ll see Jesus Christ with a goatnhead that has six eyes! How’s that for a whacked out dream sequence?

n

nDream Talk: “You saved me; you redeemed me from the pit. Inwas in it Emily. I was in that ultimate moment of terror that is the beginningnof life. It is nothing, simple, hideous nothing. The final truth of all thingsnis that there is no truth. Truth is transitory; it’s human life that is real”

n

n

nTitle: City of Lost Children (1995)

n

nDirector: Jean Pierre Jeunet, Marc Caro

n

nSynopsis: Krank is a scientist who cannot dream, so whatndoes he do? He steals dreams! From children no less! He gets a hold of thesenchildren through a religious cult composed entirely of Cyclops! In order tonbelong to this cult, you have to loose your own eye sight so that you can seenthe way the Cyclops see. Now the Cyclops have kidnapped Dunree, One’s babynbrother. One, the hero of this film, must begin a journey with his new friendnMiette to rescue Dunree from the clutches of the Cyclops and ultimately Kranknhimself. Krank wants Dunree and all of the children of the city for himself, sonhe can steal their dreams!

n

nStand Out Dream Sequence: The film opens with a child in anplay pen, it’s Christmas time and so the house is decorated with all sorts ofnChristmas ornaments. Suddenly, from the chimney Santa Claus appears! But this isn’tnthe merry old fat man, this Santa Claus is skinny and scary looking! Suddenly,nthe whole room is inundated with many more scary looking Santa Clauses! EvennSanta’s Reindeer show up to take a dump on the floor as the little baby in thenplay pen cries in horror!

n

nDream Talk: “Who stole the child’s dreams? Krank, in hisnevil schemes”

n

n

n Title: Phantasm (1979)

n

nDirector: Don Coscarelli

n

nSynopsis: A young boy named Mike looses his parents in annaccident and is having a hard time coping with death. He now lives with hisnolder brother, whom he worships. At the same time, Mike notices that thenundertaker at the local cemetery is one mysterious dude. He can lift coffins onnhis own! At the same time, corpses are disappearing from their graves! Did thenold man just swipe Mike’s parent’s bodies to use them for some ulterior motive?nJust what the hell is going on in Morningn Side Cemetery?n 

n

nStand Out Dream Sequence: Mike is sleeping on his bed,nslowly, the camera pans back and we see Mikes bed is actually in the middle ofna dark forest. Behind the bed, the mysterious ‘Tall Man’ watches over Mike asnhe sleeps. Suddenly, without a warning two zombies come out of the ground andngrab Mike as he screams uncontrollably! 

n

n