History Film / Stay

[[quoteright:325:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/stay_film.jpg]]

A 2005 PsychologicalThriller directed by Creator/MarcForster and starring Creator/EwanMcGregor, Creator/RyanGosling and Creator/NaomiWatts.

A troubled young art student named Henry Letham (Gosling) miraculously survives a car accident on the Brooklyn Bridge. He goes to see a psychologist named Sam Foster ([=McGregor=]) and announces that he will kill himself in three days' time, on the eve of his twenty-first birthday. As Sam races to track down Henry and save his life, he finds his perspective on what's real and what isn't beginning to slip as he gets drawn into Henry's dark and frightening world.
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!! ''Stay'' contains examples of the following tropes:

* AllJustADream: Of the DyingDream variety.
* AmbiguousEnding: [[spoiler: The explanation the film gives is that the events of the film were created in the mind of a dying Henry Letham, but there are a number of details that suggest something else is going on. For example, at the end of the film, once the plot shifts outside of Henry's mind, several characters flashback to their lives in the dreamworld and Elizabeth Levy never said her name while Henry Letham was dying, but after he died she tells a police officer her name is Elizabeth Levy, so there's no way that Henry could have known about that and incorporated it into his dream world.]]
* ArcNumber: 21.
* AteHisGun: How Henry "kills himself".
* DrivenToSuicide:
** The plot is set in motion by Henry announcing his intention to kill himself in three days' time. He eventually completes the suicide... sort of.
** Sam's girlfriend Lila attempted suicide in the past, but Sam saved her. He agonises over whether to propose to her in part because he fears she'll try again.
* DyingDream: [[spoiler:More or less the entire film is Henry's dream as he lies dying after a car accident which also killed his girlfriend and parents.]]
* FreezeFrameBonus: Lots of plot relevant and interesting shots can only be seen for less than a second throughout the movie.
* SanitySlippage: Throughout the film it's implied that Sam is slowly losing his mind.
* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: Throughout the film it looks like Sam is losing his mind as the line between reality and fantasy becomes blurred, but the end reveals that [[spoiler:the whole film was Henry's DyingDream.]]
* WholePlotReference: It's effectively a modern adaptation of "Literature/AnOccurrenceAtOwlCreekBridge".
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A notable critical and commercial failure, making back only $8 million on a $50 million budget and getting panned by most critics (although several, including Creator/RogerEbert, responded more positively).

* AmbiguousEnding: [[spoiler: The explanation the film gives is that the events of the film were created in the mind of a dying Henry Letham but there are a number of details that suggest something else is going on. For example at the end of the film once the plot shifts outside of Henry's mind several characters flashback to their lives in the dreamworld and Elizabeth Levy never said her name while Henry Letham was dying but she tells a police officer her name is Elizabeth Levy once he had died so theres no way that Henry could have known about that and incorporated it into his dream world.]]

* WholePlotReference: It's effectively a modern adaptation of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge".

* WholePlotReference: It's effectively a modern adaptation of "An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge".

!!''Stay'' contains examples of the following tropes:

* FreezeFrameBonus: Lots of plot relevant and interesting shots can only be seen for less than a second through out the movie.

* AmbiguousEnding: [[spoiler: The explanation the film gives is that the events of the film were created in the mind of a dying Henry Letham but there are a number of details that suggest something else is going on. For example several characters flashback to their lives in the dreamworld and Elizabeth Levy never said her name while Henry Letham was dying but she tells a police officer her name is Elizabeth Levy once he had died so theres no way that Henry could have known about that and incorporated it into his dream world.]]

* AmbiguousEnding: [[spoiler: The explanation the film gives is that the events of the film were created in the mind of a dying Henry Letham but there are a number of details that suggest something else is going on. For example several characters flashback to their lives in the dreamworld and Elizabeth Levy never said her name while Henry Letham was dying but she tells a police officer her name is Elizabeth Levy once he had died so theres no way that Henry could have known about that and incorporated it into his dream world.

* Freeze-Frame Bonus: Lots of plot relevant and interesting shots can only be seen for less than a second through out the movie.

A troubled young art student named Henry Letham (Gosling) miraculously survives a car accident on the Brooklyn Bridge. He goes to see a psychologist named Sam Foster ([=McGregor=]) and announces that he will kill himself in three days' time, on the eve of his twenty-first birthday. As Sam races to track down Henry and save his life, he finds his perspective on what's real and what isn't beginning to slip as he gets drawn into his dark world.

A notable critical and commercial failure, making back only $8 million on a $50 million budget and panned by most critics (although several, including Creator/RogerEbert, responded more positively).

A troubled young art student named Henry Letham (Gosling) miraculously survives a car accident on the Brooklyn Bridge. He goes to see a psychologist named Sam Foster ([=McGregor=]) and announces that he will kill himself in three days' time, on the eve of his twenty-first birthday. As Sam races to track down Henry and save his life, he finds his perspective on what's real and what isn't beginning to slip as he gets drawn into his dark world,.

A troubled young art student named Henry Letham (Gosling) miraculously survives a car accident on the Brooklyn Bridge. He goes to see a psychologist named Sam Foster ([=McGregor=]) and announces that he will kill himself in three days' time, on the eve of his twenty-first birthday. Sam does everything in his power to help Henry, but as he gets drawn into Henry's dark world, his perspective on what's real and what isn't begins to slip.

A troubled young art student named Henry Letham (Gosling) miraculously survives a car accident on the Brooklyn Bridge. He goes to see a psychologist named Sam Foster ([=McGregor=]) and announces that he will kill himself in three days' time, on the eve of his twenty-first birthday. Sam does everything in his power to help Henry, but as he gets drawn into his dark world, his perspective on what's real and what isn't begins to slip.

A troubled young art student named Henry Letham (Gosling) miraculously survives a car accident on the Brooklyn Bridge. He goes to see a psychologist named Sam Foster (McGregor) and announces that he will kill himself in three days' time, on the eve of his twenty-first birthday. Sam does everything in his power to help Henry, but as he gets drawn into his dark world, his perspective on what's real and what isn't begins to slip.

* WholePlotReference: It's effectively a modern adaptation of "An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge".