Dream Scenario is a 2023 American Black Comedy fantasy film written and directed by Kristoffer Borgli, distributed by A24 and stars Nicolas Cage as biology professor Paul Matthews who inexplicably finds himself appearing in the dreams of people all over the world. This discovery makes him famous worldwide, but soon has a negative impact on himself and his family.
Tropes
- Age-Gap Romance: Almost occurs between the 59-year-old Paul and the 27-year-old Molly.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Paul's daughters have problems at school when he becomes a figure in people's nightmares and are incredibly embarrassed when he posts a hysterical apology video on the Internet, as they know it will be seen as insincere.
- Amusing Injuries: Paul keeps suffering minor bumps and cuts to the head. These are rarely very serious, though they are obviously unpleasant for him, and they are mostly Played for Laughs until he is attacked in the diner.
- Bad Influencer:
- Trent initially seeks to make Paul into this, hoping to lean into his ubiquitous presence in people's dreams to grow his social media presence to sponsor products and perhaps even advertise to them while they dream. Paul rejects this, and the strategy is quickly abandoned when most people come to hate Paul; Trent then tries to pivot into getting Paul to appear on podcasts with Joe Rogan, Tucker Carlson, and other alt-right podcasters who thrive on negative press.
- Eventually, Trent's goal of advertising to people in their dreams is achieved by another company, who enlist young attractive influencers to invade people's dreams and hawk products (seemingly without the dreamer's consent).
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Paul wants nothing more than to prove that he's special and better than he appears to be, and at first the dreams seem to give him his wish. However he's simply a passive observer in the dreams which frustrates him, and not long after they start a mentally unwell man breaks into his house with the intent to kill him (though he ultimately chooses not to). He also finds that people only care about him now because of the dreams and not because of anything he's achieved personally, and once the dreams change to become more violent it causes people to fear and hate him. This leads him to hate the dreams as they continue to get worse, especially after he has a dream of being hunted and killed by himself. He only stops appearing in people's dreams after accidentally injuring a teacher. This leaves his reputation in tatters, with everyone seemingly believing that he chose to terrorise them while a company benefits from his experiences to develop dream travelling technology, and he is divorced from Janet, who starts dating a coworker. Paul meanwhile does write a book, but it's a very small one based on his life story that doesn't sell well while the marketing focuses heavily on the nightmare aspects, with even the title being changed to reflect that, at least in the French translation.
- Bittersweet Ending: With an emphasis on the "bitter"... Paul stops appearing in people's dreams after injuring a teacher by accident, but his reputation is destroyed as a result and Janet divorces him. A company develops dream-travelling technology, which is primarily used for advertising, based on what happened to Paul — so capitalism and propaganda will now be able to get at us while we sleep, while it is implied that everyone believes Paul chose to terrorise people in their dreams. Paul writes a book on his experience that doesn't sell well and it's made very clear that he's only going to be remembered for being a source of nightmares. However, he does use the dream-travelling technology to visit Janet, with it being implied she still has feeling for him, and while some still seem wary around him, the public at large no longer seems to hate him.
- The Cameo: Noah Centineo appears as a dream influencer towards the film's ending.
- Covers Always Lie: In France the film poster[1]
◊ has yellow font on a blue background, making it look like the stereotypical poster for a French straight comedy. - Cringe Comedy: The surprisingly few instances of comedy in the movie tend to be in this category, most notably Paul attempting to reenact Molly's Erotic Dream of him but failing horrendously.
- Dissonant Serenity: People tell Paul that he appears in their dreams, even during disturbing nightmares, just walking in without looking bothered by the situation he's in or interacting much with the dreamer.
- Dream Intro: The movie opens with a scene that is revealed to be Paul's youngest daughter Sophie describing the strange dream she had with him being present in it.
- Dream Walker: Paul doesn't strictly fit the trope as he doesn't know what goes on in other people's dreams. But a company in the end figures out how to do this, and Paul uses the technology to visit his now ex-wife.
- Erotic Dream:
- Unlike everyone else, Molly's dreams are of Paul appearing in her house and without speaking a word having sex with her, with Molly at first fearing him before quickly being turned on. When Molly meets him for real, she's embarrassed and awkward around him, only admitting what her dreams are about after having some drinks and lightly flirting with him. This leads her to try and recreate her dreams in real life, but Paul fails to live up to her expectations.
- The idea is played far more horrifically later in the film when it's mentioned that some students have started to have nightmares of Paul sexually assaulting them.
- When people first begin dreaming of Paul, Janet wonders why he never appears in hers. Paul attempts to seduce her by asking how she would like him to appear in her dreams; she replies that she'd like him to rescue her while wearing David Byrne's suit from Stop Making Sense. At the end of the film, he attempts to recreate this dream with the new dream-sharing technology, to ambiguous results.
- Famous for Being Famous: Paul achieves fame by accident, rather than through any kind of conscious achievement. It seems that the only people who are shown not to dream about him are people who know him reasonably well; his fame is actually based on his obscurity.
- Fingore: As Paul forces himself into Sophie's school play, he ends up in a struggle with her teacher where her pinky gets severed after the door gets slammed on it.
- Foreshadowing:
- Paul teaches biology, and is shown lecturing about how animal markings may help a creature avoid standing out from the crowd, making it safer, or may help it gain a mate. This subtly foreshadows his own later experiences; standing out from a crowd makes him vulnerable (but doesn't really help him gain sexual partners).
- All the dreams Paul appears in seem to be disturbing or traumatising to some extent, with Paul simply being a passive and uncaring observer. Molly being the first person to reveal that she has different dreams, of him being much more active and interacting with her, hints that things are changing and it isn't long until Paul no longer simply observes people suffering and becomes the source of it, possibly because he's becoming more angry in real life.
- French Jerk: After he becomes a nightmare figure, Paul remains popular in France, in a joke about the "Germans Love David Hasselhoff" effect and a bit of a dig at perceived French intellectual perversity. Then, when he visits France on a book signing tour, it turns out that the publishers have changed his title without his permission, a magazine that interviews him just wants to depict him as a hammy monster, and a bookshop consigns his signing session to their basement.
- Henpecked Husband: It's subtle, but Paul's ex-girlfriend notes that he took his wife's name, and certain comments imply that he largely follows her lead. The (very nice) house in which they live was her family home, and she stonewalls any suggestion of moving out. It's deconstructed as it seems to have made him somewhat resentful and leads him to almost have an affair with Molly.
- I Just Want to Be Special: Paul deeply wants a way to prove that he's more than he appears, and initially feels that him appearing in people's dreams does this. However he's frustrated when he learns that he's simply a passive observer in the dreams, much like he is real life, and when he attempts to have sex with Molly to recreate her dreams of him he embarrasses himself. In the end the dreams only remind him of how insignificant he is and how little most people like him.
- Jizzed in My Pants: Molly tries to mimic her Erotic Dream of Paul while she's with him. It inadvertently causes him to come before she even gets his pants down, and he leaves, feeling humiliated.
- Memetic Loser: In-universe; Paul's appearance in people's dreams is memetic in a very literal sense, and his appearance and passivity leads to a general but mostly gentle mockery among those who dream of him. Once his dream appearances become more malevolent, his "victims" seeminly lean into mocking him as a way to cope, with his students even tagging his family car with "LOSER" in bright pink letters.
- Minovsky Physics: Jung's theory of the Collective Unconscious is proven to be true when Paul starts appearing in several other people's dreams, to the point that a company is able to develop a technology to allow other people to dream travel from that discovery.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: A student tells Paul that she saw him appear during her nightmare of staying on top of a table to keep herself safe from two alligators on the floor.
- Never Trust a Trailer: The trailer focuses heavily on the more comedic and lighthearted aspects of the premise, making it seem as though the movie is instead about a relatively dorky man finding himself in an unusual circumstance. The film proper is almost depressing in how it depicts his life falling apart as a result of his newfound infamy from appearing in dreams, with very little actual comedy to speak of and a borderline Downer Ending.
- The Resenter: It's made very clear that Paul is a resentful man, due to being a Henpecked Husband and other people taking credit for things he did (at least in his opinion), such as an old classmate using his old ideas in a book.
- Satire: The film is a satire on the nature of fame, especially in the age of the Internet. Paul achieves the fame he wants by a weird accident, becoming in effect a meme and Famous for Being Famous, but it doesn't bring him happiness. Then, through no real fault of his own, he becomes hated and feared, leading to him being cancelled (despite people trying to avoid the word); he's become a Memetic Psychopath and will Never Live It Down. Like many long-lasting memes, Paul's infamy is coopted by the corporate world, which is able to make money off the situation, while Paul sees a decrease in popularity. Also, the image management company Paul talks to are a clear satire of jargon-spouting modern hipsters and bad influencers, while Paul's treatment in France is a satire of perceived French intellectual perversity.
- Scenery Dissonance: Andy's nightmare about being stalked by a Humanoid Abomination in the middle of a sunny forest with odd mushrooms, and Paul's nightmare of being hunted down by a man armed with a crossbow who turns out to be himself while jogging through the neighborhood in broad daylight.
- Shout-Out:
- The aforementioned oversized suit from Stop Making Sense.
- Sophie tells Paul that her classmates have been referring to him as "Freddy Krueger", and Paul later poses for a photoshoot with a bladed glove similar to Freddy's.
- Sophie's class puts on a school play based on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Molly has been dreaming of Paul as being a very dominant and sexually aggressive man, a far cry from his real personality. When she tries to have sex with him in real life, she notes that he's not nearly as forward. He farts out of nervousness, ejaculates before his pants are even unbuckled, and leaves in embarrassment.
- Surreal Horror: Some of the dreams, even before the ones that vilify Paul, are quite disturbing in unique ways. Like Sophie in the Dream Intro helplessly starting to float up into the sky while her dad keeps raking fallen leaves. Or Andy's dream of being chased by a Humanoid Abomination in a Scenery Dissonance location in which he and other men were wearing smokings for some reason.
- The Tooth Hurts: Another student tells Paul of having seen him while having a dream of tearing out a tooth.
- Title Drop: The title of the film is revealed to be the title of Paul's book about his experiences, but it turns out it was changed to I Am Your Nightmare without his consent, at least in the French translation.
- Voodoo Shark: The film never offers any explanation for why Paul begins to appear in people's dreams, nor does it ever directly explore why his dream self changes its behavior and eventually disappears. However, the ending of the film introduces a sci-fi technology that allows people to travel into other people's dreams, allegedly inspired by the Paul phenomenon confirming that people's dreams are somehow connected. It is never explained how this technology works, and it functions so differently from Paul's unwilling and unconscious visitation that it may not even be related to his power at all.
- Would Hurt a Child: Paul himself is a bit of a Jerkass, but not a monster. However, his teenage daughter relates that the nightmare version of him cut off one of her classmate's fingers and ate them, and the kids at her school call him "Freddy", so he ends up being perceived as just that evil.
- YouTuber Apology Parody: In keeping with Paul's dilemma serving as a metaphor for unwitting viral fame, he eventually feels forced to make an apology video when his dream selves start to attack people in their nightmares. He initially resists making any apology at all, rightfully pointing out that he has never controlled the dreams and they haven't caused anyone any actual harm. However, once his life has been entirely ruined by strangers hating him and he suffers a nightmare himself, he posts an apology without any editing or assistance from his family or PR firm... and makes things far worse, as his focus on how the nightmares have affected him plus his over-the-top hysterics makes him come across as insincere, likely convincing even more people that he is in control of his dream selves' behavior. His more Internet-savvy daughters are instantly mortified, and it proves the final straw for his marriage.
