Line #115 Film/VanillaSky


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vanilla_sky_2001_film_poster.jpg]]
2
3	->''"The sweet is never as sweet without the sour."''
4
5	''Vanilla Sky'' is a 2001 PsychologicalThriller film starring Creator/TomCruise, and adapted and directed by Creator/CameronCrowe.
6
7	David Aames (Cruise) tells the story from a prison cell to his psychiatrist, Curtis [=McCabe=] (Creator/KurtRussell), while wearing a prosthetic mask he refuses to take off: David was a MillionairePlayboy who inherited a publishing company after the death of his father. He met Sofia (Creator/PenelopeCruz). As they became instantly attracted to each other, he brushed aside his [[FriendsWithBenefits "fuck buddy"]], Julianna (Creator/CameronDiaz). When [[WomanScorned Julianna heard of this]], [[DrivenToSuicide she tried to kill herself]] [[TakingYouWithMe and David]] in a car accident. She died, but David survived with a disfigured face. He is haunted by increasingly bizarre occurrences.
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9	This movie is a [[ForeignRemake remake]] of 1997 Spanish film ''Film/OpenYourEyes'' ("Abre Los Ojos") by Alejandro Amenábar. Penelope Cruz plays the same role in both movies.
10
11	'''Major spoilers ahead.'''
12
13	----
14	!!This film provides examples of:
15
16	* AdaptationalAttractiveness: The facial disfigurement of the protagonist is notably less pronounced than the one in the original Spanish film.
17	* AnAesop: Several possible ones:
18	** "The sweet is never as sweet without the sour." In other words, pure pleasure and happiness are meaningless without displeasure and unhappiness to give them context. [[spoiler:David has the opportunity to live out a privileged, paradisiac existence in his lucid dream, in the company of the woman he loves and his best friend, but ultimately decides that such an existence is meaningless because of its unreality, and he'd much rather live in the real world, however flawed and imperfect it might be.]]
19	** Creator/RogerEbert described the film as such: "Think it all the way through, and Cameron Crowe's ''Vanilla Sky'' is a scrupulously moral picture. It tells the story of a man who has just about everything, thinks he can have it all, is given a means to have whatever he wants, and loses it because -- well, maybe because he has a conscience." [[spoiler:David could have lived out his lucid dream in peace and happiness, but his guilt over his careless treatment of Julie, which led to her suicide, resulted in the "glitch" which caused disruptions in his dream.]]
20	* AlienSky: The sky is the same milky orange with white clouds [[spoiler:as the sky in David's mother's favorite painting, so his subconscious made it that color all the time]].
21	* AllJustADream: An unusual example, in that different interpretations of the film tend to boil down not to whether the film is [[spoiler:a dream or not, but rather to how ''much'' of it is]]. The most basic interpretation is that offered by [[spoiler:tech support: after the nightclub scene, David never saw Sofia again, signed a contract with Life Extension and put himself into a coma in which he dreamed the events of the latter half of the film. The bizarre occurrences were glitches due to his repressed guilt over Julianna. In the end, David decides to wake up from the dream]]. Alternate interpretations argue that [[spoiler:the entire film is a dream, or that the latter two-thirds of the film are David's dream during his coma]].
22	* AmbiguousEnding: WordOfGod says the ending can be interpreted in five different ways (though there are doubtless more):
23	** Everything [[spoiler:tech support]] says is true.
24	** The entire film is a dream.
25	** Everything after the car accident is David's dream while in a coma.
26	** The entire film is the plot of Brian's book.
27	** Everything after the car accident is a hallucination caused by David's medication.
28	* AnguishedDeclarationOfLove: David doesn't really mean it, he's just trying to stop Julianna from [[spoiler:killing them both]].
29	* ArcWords:
30	** "Open your eyes."
31	** "I'll tell you in another life, when we are both cats."
32	** "Every passing minute is a another chance to turn it all around."
33	** "What is happiness to you, David?"
34	** "The sweet isn't as sweet without the sour."
35	** "This is a revolution of the mind."
36	** "The subconscious is a powerful thing.
37	** "People will read again."
38	** "David Jr. was a real delight as a child."
39	** "Wake up."
40	* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Dr. [=McCabe=] insists that he is real, that he is ''not'' a creation placed in David's dream world. He has his TomatoInTheMirror moment when he states again that he has two daughters and Tech Support says "What are their names?"
41	* AsideGlance: Rebecca Dearborn looks directly at the camera just as David is having his EurekaMoment.
42	* AsHimself: Creator/ConanOBrien makes a quick cameo. Spielberg's cameo might also be an example of this.
43	* BerserkButton: Do NOT have the audacity to call an obvious mask an "aesthetic regenerative shield"...
44	--> '''Dr Pomeranz:''' It's a helpful unit.
45	--> '''David:''' Good. Because, for a minute there, I thought we were talking about a [[SuddenlyShouting FUCKING MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASK!!!]]
46	* BettyAndVeronica: Subverted — David makes it clear from the very beginning that he has no real interest in Julianna (the "Veronica" of the two) and is really just using her for casual sex.
47	* BilingualBonus: The first words spoken in the film are "abre los ojos", Spanish for "open your eyes", which doubles as a reference to the original film.
48	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Because it was AllJustADream, all the scenes after the nightclub didn't really happen. David never did get Sofia in the end and he's still disfigured. Then he decides to return to the real world, set far into the future where they can fix his face and he may even have the chance to find Sofia "in another life." Additionally, he will probably keep and cherish the dream memories of Sofia. Altogether, an ending which leaves you hopeful.]]
49	** He's also [[spoiler:flat broke, not having bothered to provide for himself]].
50	* BrokenMasquerade: Of the [[spoiler:Artificial Realm]] variety.
51	* TheCameo: Creator/StevenSpielberg pops in for a minute at David's party.
52	* ChekhovsGunman: Benny, the dog. [[spoiler: And, by extension, "Life Extension" company.]]
53	* ClimacticElevatorRide: Tom Cruise's character meets with [[spoiler:"Tech Support"]], who proceeds to explain what exactly's been happening to him throughout the film. To drive it home, the elevator ride is [[spoiler:impossibly long, making it clear that Cruise is in a dreamworld]].
54	* CoitusUninterruptus
55	* CuckooNest
56	* DeliberatelyMonochrome: A brief sequence when Brian chases after Sofia.
57	* DreamApocalypse: The movie ends with the revelation that [[spoiler:most of what happened in the movie was AllJustADream and the main character, David, had been cryogenically frozen and put into a permanent state of lucid dreaming. The dream turns into a nightmare and the protagonist ends up accidentally murdering his girlfriend. When he realizes it is a dream, he is given the choice to start over again with everything happy again, but chooses to wake up instead. His girlfriend appears and he realizes that though he didn't really kill her, she has long since died of old age. However, it is hinted at that they will see each other again as she says she has something to tell him "in the next life, when we are both cats." When the LotusEaterMachine was revealed, a psychologist, David's only confidante, argues vehemently that he is not a figment of David's imagination. The dream technician explained to David that he shouldn't feel bad for him, because he is just a superficial character inspired by a movie David once saw. This was proven when the psychologist was unable to recall the names of his two beloved daughters, because David had not thought of them.]]
58	* DreamEmergencyExit: The protagonist realizes at the end of the film that [[spoiler: he's in a lucid dream, after giving his body to a program called "Life Extension". First, he calls out for "Tech Support" in which case most of the dream stops and a man enters his dream to explain the situation and his current options. The protagonist opts to return to real life, despite knowing that 150 years have passed since he entered the dream; he's then told to kill himself in the dream to wake up, so he throws him from the roof and is next shown opening his eyes in presumably the real world]].
59	* DreamIntro: The film opens with David recounting a dream to his psychologist in which he woke up to find very post-apocalyptic like New York that is completely abandoned.
60	* DreamWithinADream: [[spoiler:David has several dreams during the movie.]]
61	** And in the end, we cannot say for sure that [[spoiler:David has woken up]]. After all, he [[spoiler:wakes with Sofia telling him to "open his eyes" — and we didn't see him hit the ground (he is terrified about the impact, not about the heights). Maybe the entire movie was [[EpilepticTrees just the tech support fixing the glitch?]]]]
62	*** According to IMDB, the voice at the end was provided by Creator/LauraFraser, not Cameron Diaz or anyone else from the rest of the film. Not that it invalidates the above argument, but it does lose one of its legs.
63	* DrivenToSuicide: Julianna [[spoiler:and David]].
64	* DyingDream: Possibly.
65	* EthicalSlut: Here seen working better in theory than in a reality where people are lying to themselves.
66	* EurekaMoment: David [[spoiler:realizes he's dreaming]] while Rebecca Dearborn from Life Extension is giving her sales pitch.
67	* ForeignRemake: Of the Spanish film ''Abre Los Ojos''. The director of that film was credited as a producer and, as mentioned, Penelope Cruz played the same character in both films. [[ShotForShotRemake Nearly every scene is identical]] as well, making this a closer remake than most examples.
68	* {{Foreshadowing}}: "Ellie".
69	** Fun drinking game: count how many times someone mentions [[spoiler:dreams or nightmares]], or admonishes David to [[spoiler:wake up]].
70	* FreezeFrameBonus: It's a lot easier to catch a lot of the foreshadowing with the "pause" button on your remote.
71	** A specific example: David's car has a sticker on it which reads 2/30/01. As the 30th of February does not occur in the Gregorian calendar, this may be a subtle hint that [[spoiler:the ''entire film'' is AllJustADream]].
72	* FriendsWithBenefits: David has a "Fuck Buddy" relationship with Julianna. Julianna takes things a little more seriously, and when she finds out the true nature of the relationship, [[WomanScorned it doesn't end well]].
73	* FunWithAcronyms: [[spoiler: "Ellie" for L.E.]]
74	* GainaxEnding: See “AmbiguousEnding” above.
75	* GenreBusting: Psychological thriller? Romantic drama? Science fiction?
76	* AGlitchInTheMatrix: Becomes increasingly common as the movie progresses.
77	* GoodCopBadCop: When David begins to become rowdy and aggressive during his first session with [=McCabe=], the supervising police officer in the next room comes inside and yells at him, before the mild-mannered [=McCabe=] intervenes and asks him to leave, before resuming his line of questioning. David lampshades the "good cop, bad cop" approach immediately afterwards. [[spoiler:Makes sense: the entire encounter is part of David's dreams which he's constructed from the popular culture he's experienced — of course the cops act like the cops in the movies, because he ''expects'' them to.]]
78	* GreyAndGrayMorality: Even the "good" people in the movie like Brian and Sofia make morally questionable decisions: Brian tells Julie that she's David's fuckbuddy, for instance, and Sofia's (admittedly understandable) abandoning of a David very clearly in need of help. Similarly, even the "bad" people are sympathetic and mostly mean well: Julie's suffering LoveMakesYouEvil more than she's actually a villain.
79	* {{Homage}}: David is a fan of French new wave films, which [[spoiler:later influenced the characters and situations he creates within the lucid dream]]. In reference to this, jump cuts reminiscent of Godard films pop up here and there.
80	* HopeSpot: The morning after the nightclub, it looks like things are starting to turn around for David: he undergoes facial reconstruction, begins a relationship with Sofia, and he and Brian repair their friendship. [[spoiler:Then Julie makes a reappearance. And in the end the trope is subverted in that it turns out that the whole sequence after the nightclub had been deliberately constructed on David's request in the first place.]]
81	* HowWeGotHere: The beginning is told from David to Curtis.
82	* HumanPopsicle: [[spoiler:David becomes one.]]
83	* IfICantHaveYou: Julie to David.
84	* {{Infodump}}: During the exceptionally long ClimacticElevatorRide, [[spoiler:tech support explains all the MindScrew in the film up to that point in truly exhaustive detail, and then continues when the elevator reaches the roof]].
85	* InformedAbility: Sofia is supposed to be a professional dancer, but her moves on the dance floor in the nightclub don't indicate this. Granted, in this case, she's merely dancing for fun, whereas there's an earlier scene showing her practising in a ballet studio.
86	* IntimateMarks: David notices a mole between Sofia's breasts. It becomes a somewhat important plot point during the MindScrew climax.
87	* IronicEcho: [[spoiler:Well, TheReveal is like this to a phrase said much, much earlier.]]
88	--> '''David''': My dreams are a cruel joke. They taunt me. Even in my dreams I'm an idiot... who knows he's about to wake up to reality. If I could only avoid sleep. But I can't. I try to tell myself what to dream. I try to dream that I am flying. Something free. It never works...
89	** One that could be interpreted as either this or a MeaningfulEcho: "I'll see you in another life, when we are both cats."
90	* LampshadeHanging[=/=]ThisIsReality: When the founder of Life Extension is being interviewed on television, he himself admits that the company's product "sounds like something out of science fiction".
91	* LastNameBasis: PlayedWith almost to the point of subversion. [[spoiler: We tend to think that this is how things go between David and [=McCabe=] because the latter is an authority figure of sorts. Only after TheReveal do we realize that in reality it's an example of another trope - OneNameOnly, as [=McCabe=], being just a figment of David's imagination, ''literally has no first name''.]]
92	* LeaningOnTheFourthWall:
93	--> [[spoiler:'''Ventura''' [pointing towards the camera]: Your panel of observers are waiting for you to choose.]]
94	--> [[spoiler:'''David''': looks towards the camera]]
95	** [[spoiler:The "splice", when David's "real" life ends and his lucid dream begins, happens at almost exactly the halfway point of the film.]]
96	* LenoDevice: Benny the dog and his owner get interviewed by Creator/ConanOBrien.
97	* LighterAndSofter: Compared to the original ''Open Your Eyes'', which was [[DarkerAndEdgier darker, crueler, and scarier]].
98	* LotusEaterMachine: [[spoiler:The most valid interpretation of most of the film's setting: David was actually in [[DeadAllAlong a coma]] [[AdventuresInComaland the whole time]], and what was happening around him was part of his dream, a lucid dream sustained by a machine he agreed to be hooked on to before leaving the realm of the living.]]
99	* LoveAtFirstSight: David and Sofia more or less fall in love with each other after just one meeting.
100	* LoveMakesYouCrazy: David strings Julia along and uses her for sex while having no particular attachment, while she secretly loves him. Her unrequited love for him eventually leads her to attempt a murder-suicide.
101	* MajorityShareDictator: Upon his father's death, David is given 51% control of his father's company, with the remaining 49% split equally between seven board members. A sub-plot in the film revolves around the board's efforts to assume control of David's share and put a stop to the essentially dictatorial control he enjoys over the company despite being an absent-minded MillionairePlayboy.
102	* ManicPixieDreamGirl: Sofia could be interpreted as such, at least from David's perspective. [[spoiler:Played with, in that the version of Sofia in the latter half of the film isn't the real Sofia, but rather David's idealized construction of her who exists entirely for his benefit.]]
103	* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: The TwistEnding still leaves ''just'' enough room for this trope to fit.
104	* MeaningfulEcho: "Red dress...strappy shoes...the saddest girl to ever hold a martini."
105	* MillionairePlayboy: David.
106	* MindScrew: Most of the second half up to TheReveal.
107	* MurderSuicide: Julie deliberately drives her car off a bridge with David inside in an attempt to kill both of them. David survives (albeit disfigured), while she does not.
108	* MyGreatestSecondChance: Maybe?
109	* NonIndicativeName: The service Life Extension offers is called "Lucid Dream". Rather misleading, considering that real-life [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_dream lucid dreams]] are dreams in which the dreamer is ''aware'' that he or she is dreaming.
110	* NothingIsScarier: The opening dream sequence. Seeing Times Square completely empty rivals seeing [[Film/TwentyEightDaysLater London completely abandoned]] just a year later for creepiness.
111	** Or four years later, if we take the scene of the original Spanish movie, which takes place in the Gran Vía, Madrid's equivalent of the Fifth Avenue.
112	* PostMortemComeback: [[spoiler:Julie]].
113	* PropertyOfLove: Defied — in her heart, Julianna truly belongs to David, and they both know it. Yet they pretend to simply be [[EthicalSlut friends who have fun together]], and it works just fine... [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds Until it doesn't]].
114	* RealityWarper: [[spoiler:David can manipulate the reality of his lucid dream at will.]]
115	* RedHerring: [[spoiler:The Seven Dwarves. Although David suspects them of being involved, they actually have nothing to do with the strange things that happen to him.]]
116	* ReferenceOverdosed: According to WordOfGod, there are 429 pop-culture references in the film, 428 of which were intentional. Bizarrely, many of these references actually directly influence the plot, almost to the point of deconstructing the idea of pop-culture references in fiction: [[spoiler:tech support explains that many of the characters and situations he created in his lucid dream were derived from the popular culture he experienced when younger]].
117	** One scene duplicates the album cover of ''Music/TheFreewheelinBobDylan''. [[spoiler:Which turns out to be the clue to David's character that he has dreamt his memories about Sofia, because his memory of the two of them walking on Times Square is just a memory of Dylan's album cover, which he confused with reality.]]
118	* ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated: David jokingly evokes this trope following the [[spoiler:car crash]], only he substitutes in "mildly" for "greatly".
119	* ShakyCam: Handheld cameras are used more and more frequently as David's mental state deteriorates.
120	* SignificantAnagram: Rearranging the letters of the name David Aames reveals the phrase [[spoiler:"I am saved."]]
121	* SoundtrackDissonance: Frequently when licensed music is used. Special note go to [[spoiler: Sofia's death]] and the sequence in which [[spoiler:David realizes he's dreaming]] — to the sounds of "Good Vibrations" by Music/TheBeachBoys.
122	* StandardFiftiesFather: It is implied that David invented a father figure for himself [[spoiler:(Dr. [=McCabe=])]] in this mold, based on Gregory Peck in ''Film/ToKillAMockingbird''. If you look closely in one scene, you can see the guard in the prison watching the movie on a television.
123	* TakingYouWithMe: Julianna.
124	* TechnoBabble: Played with. When David meets with doctors, he studies up on what the subject, and is able discuss it with them. It sounds to the average audience member like standard doctor-speak. Later on, what the doctors are saying becomes a whirl of confusing gibberish, even to David.
125	* TextualCelebrityResemblance: In the nightclub, Sofia asks Brian where the bathroom is and he says it's behind "the girl who looks like Music/{{Bjork}}".
126	* ThatCameOutWrong: Said verbatim by Bryan after he unintentionally insults David in the nightclub.
127	* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: Until the ending.
128	* TomatoInTheMirror: Dr. [=McCabe=] finds out that [[spoiler:he is an artificial construct in David's dream]] when tech support asks him an ArmorPiercingQuestion.
129	--> '''[=McCabe=]:''' I have two daughters.
130	--> '''Tech Support:''' What are their names?
131	* TropeMaker: ''Vanilla Sky''[=/=]''Abre los Ojos'' beat ''Film/{{Inception}}'' to the punch by more than ten years, in terms of exploring the idea of medically-induced lucid dreams.
132	* TwistEnding
133	* UnexpectedlyAbandoned: The opening scene features David running and [[SkywardScream screaming]] as he discovers downtown Manhattan is completely deserted.
134	* WhamShot: Downplayed in that the camera doesn't linger on it, and [[spoiler: the LE corporation]] had already come into focus before it, but still [[spoiler: a mysterious RealityWarper stranger suddenly resurfacing in the LE ad]] definitely qualifies. And before that, there is a [[spoiler:sign of LE itself shown on TV.]]
135	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Subverted, leading to FridgeBrilliance. After the accident, David mentions that, in addition to getting his face disfigured, he broke his arm, which affected his mobility thereof somewhat. He's later seen moving the arm in question rather awkwardly, and his medical team offer to do something about it when he complains about his facial disfigurement. Upon waking up the morning after the nightclub scene, however, his arm is never brought up again and he seems to have inexplicably regained full use of it, despite never receiving additional surgery on it. [[spoiler:This is a subtle hint that he is, in fact, dreaming.]]
136	* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Not only does Julianna destroy her own life and David's, her memory also [[spoiler:destroys a certain universe]].
137	* WouldHitAGirl: [[spoiler:David ''apparently'' beats Sofia, but has no memory of it and resoundingly denies it. Later, he smothers her to death with a pillow. Of course, both of these events only happened in his dream.]]
138	* YearOutsideHourInside: [[spoiler:While David has only spent a few years (maximum) in his dream, 150 have passed outside.]]

Context Film / VanillaSky