YMMV / Awakenings

• Harsher in Hindsight: The condition that leaves the patients paralyzed is compared to an extreme form of Parkinson's. Robin Williams' eventual suicide is believed to have been in part a reaction to Lewy-body dementia, a disorder similar to Parkinson's.
• Nightmare Fuel: See And I Must Scream. Think about it: these people have spent their entire lives in a statue-like state. They can't move, talk, or do anything on their own, but (other than that) their brain is still perfect.
• One-Scene Wonder: she shows up twice, but the unnamed patient who’s terrified of pens is quite memorable.
• Retroactive Recognition: Vin Diesel makes his film debut as a hospital orderly, although he was uncredited.
  • Julie Kavner was a recognizable character actor at the time. But shortly after the film’s release her voice would become instantly recognizable as Marge Simpson.
• Tear Jerker: The scene where Dr. Sayer watches the home videos he and Leonard filmed showing Leonard's gradual deterioration back to catatonia.
  Dr. Sayer: You told him I was a kind man. How kind is it to give life, only to take it away?
  • Leonard barricading himself in a room and raving angrily about how none of the patients are allowed to leave. The next morning, his illness is resurgent and he's sprawled on the floor, his eyes visibly filled with terror. As restrictive as life in the hospital is, even losing that is a horrifying prospect to him.
• The Woobie: Leonard, and indeed all of the encephalitis patients, who lost decades of their lives to a terrible condition and were temporarily restored to near-normalcy only to regress back to their previous near-comatose condition weeks later.

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