History Main / AllJustADream

** The high-profile ''[[ComicBook/BatmanGrantMorrison Batman: RIP]]'' storyline is (among other things) an attempt to bring the wackier [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] adventures of the Dark Knight in-canon by explaining them as hallucinations caused by sensory deprivation experiments. An original quote from one of those Silver Age tales is a prominent part of the storyline (and very typical of the trope): "It would be far easier to consider this a dream... but how can I? For in my hand, I hold the Bat-Radia!" The sensory deprivation experiment was actually not in itself a {{retcon}}, but ''was'' the framing device for a real Silver Age story; ''RIP'' just expanded it to cover others as well. An alternative explanation provided for some of these episodes is the insinuation that they were hallucinations brought about by exposure to [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker Joker]] toxin, [[Characters/BatmanTheScarecrow Scarecrow]]'s fear gas, etc.

** Another of the alternate endings did something very similar except, instead of being a dream, the whole series was an UsefulNotes/XBox Live game played by the characters.

[[caption-width-right:274:Dude, take a chill pill, it was just another unreal universe.]]

* [[https://garfield.com/comic/1999/05/13 Jon got a date]] and asked ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' to pinch him to be sure it wasn't a dream. It was.

* ''[[ComicStrip/LittleNemo Little Nemo in Slumberland]]'' ends every strip with Nemo waking up in bed. There were continuous storylines despite this. And when Nemo gets into trouble it does not feel as safe as a dream. No no no.
** Also Creator/WinsorMcCay's ''Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend''-- though the title makes that obvious.

* Alan Ayckbourn's 1985 play ''Woman in Mind''. The entire play. From start to finish. Really.

* ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'': Quite a bit of it really is just a dream, but that doesn't make it any less real. "I give you -- [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_characters_in_The_Sandman#Alex_Burgess eternal waking]]...". It's all about the importance of dreams and fiction. In the second story arc, the protagonist reflects on how cliche this trope is, but ultimately decides she can't find a better way to sum up her adventures. Fast-forward to the last story arc, where Dream's funeral concludes with [[ContinuityCavalcade every one of the guests]] waking up -- [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou even the reader]].

* An early Music/{{Beck}} song called "Blackfire Choked Our Death" recounts the travails of a family caught in DeadlyDustStorm, possibly during TheGreatDepression, as Beck discusses sand pouring through the walls of the house and grit in the food. Towards the end of the song, the imagery becomes more surreal and stream-of-consciousness, until the narrator wakes up in his bedroom with Music/BlackSabbath playing on the radio.

* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/scratch.php?s=6&p=005732 Here]], Doc Scratch [[TheReveal reveals]] that, from the [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/scratch.php?s=6&p=005674 coin flip onwards]], he had [[MetaphoricallyTrue actually been describing]] a [[ForWantOfANail doomed alternate timeline in which Terezi let Vriska carry out her plan]], and that, in the alpha timeline, Terezi had [[SelfDefeatingProphecy foreseen that outcome and stabbed Vriska to avoid it]]. It's revealed eventually that ''that'' was a doomed alternate timeline (which was followed for the entire rest of the comic), and that ''actually'', Vriska survives due to a literal in-universe {{Retcon}}.

* One early Apple Jacks commercial (back when Apple was a bad guy) shows Apple putting Cinna-Mon in a cage and happily giving a bowl of Apple Jacks apple flavor. Then it turns out he was just dreaming and completely missed the cue to go for the next bowl.

* ''ComicBook/AnimalMan'': Grant Morrison ends their run by retconning it into a dream as a favor to the title character.

* ''Fanfic/TheBoltChronicles'': “The Murder Mystery” is revealed at the end of the story to be Penny’s [[AcidRefluxNightmare jalapeno and pepperoni pizza-fueled nightmare]].

* Discussed in ''WebAnimation/OverlySarcasticProductions''. Red discussed how all being just a dream is a difficult trope to play straight, as it can easily break audience's willing suspension of disbelief as it can invalidate the entire story the audience was invested in. She also claims better received are the stories where the events being the dream is left ambiguous, there are strong hints that imply that the events acutlly happened, or that the events explicitly turn out to not be a dream after all. Alternatively, it can be a combination of both real and just a dream, with dream world being a separate place that can exist even when characters are not currently dreaming.

* ''ComicBook/{{Kathy}}'': Issue #25 features the two-part "Kathy and Rick Elope!" story. The first and last scenes are real events, but everything else - which is mostly the couple's jinxed attempt to elope in the middle of the night - is just one of Kathy's dreams.

* ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'': ''Creator/MarvelKnights: The Punisher'' #8, Frank goes back in time to the 30s thanks to Reed Richards and Nick Fury. He quickly infiltrates UsefulNotes/AlCapone's gang and kills every last mobster in Chicago along with Al, the idea being that by breaking the mafia's hold early on, there'll be no gang shooting in Central Park in the late twentieth century, saving Frank's family and preventing his StartOfDarkness. Then he wakes up.

* Grant Morrison ends their run of ''ComicBook/AnimalMan'' by retconning it into a dream as a favor to the title character.

* A story told in ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica: Red, White & Blue'' showed Cap and Bucky duking it out with the Red Skull seemingly during World War II. Bucky saves Cap from the Skull's trap, and we see what Cap looks like with his mask off: He's an old man. [[WhatIf Bucky is still as young as ever]]. It then cuts to a shot of Cap frozen in ice. The story continues; We see Bucky saving Cap from falling off a ledge, encouraging him when he's on life support... and then four [[ComicBook/TheAvengers familiar silhouettes]] walk through the door. Bucky tells Cap that he's done all he could, that the rest is up to him now, and that no matter what, [[TrueCompanions he'll always be his partner]]. Cap wakes up and hears Giant-Man explaining how they pulled him out of the ice, remarking that even with his advanced metabolism, the odds of surviving that experience for so long were pretty much impossible.

* The final arc of ''ComicBook/DaredevilCharlesSoule'' has Matt hit by a car and driven to finally take down Mayor Wilson Fisk. Matt manages to beat Bullseye, reunite with estranged "Brother" Mike and get evidence that Fisk fixed the mayoral election, forcing him to resign. As he celebrates, Matt is attacked by Fisks's newest masked enforcer, beating him down, pulling off the mask...and seeing his own face. Cut to Matt on the operating table as the last ''four issues'' have all been a dream in his mind as he's near death from the accident.

** A dream ending was hastily written into the Barks story "The Firebug" where Donald becomes a {{Pyromaniac}} but is pardoned when he catches a more dangerous person who was starting similar fires. In the original ending, Donald sets the judge's waste basket on fire and is thrown in jail as well, but in the altered ending Donald is woken up by one of his nephews instead.
** There's an Italian comic by Marco Rota where Donald takes a nap on a bed in Gyro Gearloose's workplace, but accidentally activates a dream device by releasing a nightmare potion. The rest of the comic features freaky scenes such as [[DirtyCop the Beagle Boys running the police force]] and pursuing Donald, Uncle Scrooge dying when he activates his Money Bin's self-destruct before turning into a [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever giant coin-monster]], and Little Helper becoming a robotic MadScientist by switching places with Gyro. At the end Donald wakes up back in Gyro's workplace and realizes it was all a dream.

** In the story "Paperino e l'incubo dello zione" Uncle Scrooge is seemingly visited by characters from his recurring nightmares, then Donald discovers it's all a plot by the Beagle Boys to rob Scrooge. Scrooge then promises that he'll reward Donald with ''half of his entire riches''. At this point it's revealed that the entire story was just Donald's happy dream.
* A story of ''ComicBook/TheFabulousFurryFreakBrothers'' from the early '70s has the trio staging a violent assault on a prison to free an incarcerated friend. Fat Freddy ends up cut off and bludgeoned to death by a horde of cops - but it's all just a dream, and Franklin is beating him with a rolled-up newspaper for eating a whole batch of hash cookies. Then, some seven years later, an extended story where they take a cross-country trip in a vintage RV ends in a full-scale riot at a Greenwich Village Halloween parade -- but it's all just a dream, and Franklin is beating Freddy with a rolled-up newspaper...implying ''everything'' that happened between the two stories was Fat Freddy dreaming!
* Subverted in issue 5 of ''ComicBook/FishPolice''. Inspector Gill wakes up, believing he just dreamed that he was a fish — only to find that yes, he really is one. He didn't dream up a single thing that happened so far in the plot; he was just drunk when a lot of it happened. Cue the "WhatDidIDoLastNight" from Gill.

* In the 33rd issue of ''ComicBook/GIJoeDevilsDue'', Hawk is shown to have recovered from being shot by Cobra Commander in the previous issue and getting to enjoy retirement with his until-then-unseen wife after being informed that the threat of Cobra has come to a permanent end as a result of Cobra Commander being incarcerated and most of the surviving members of Cobra's top hierarchy being killed. This turns out to be a dream when Hawk pulls through for real and is told that Cobra is still active with very few casualties on their side. The reveal is especially made heartbreaking because the non-existence of Hawk's wife is confirmed by a WhamShot showing a newspaper article confirming that the woman Hawk dreamed he was married to had died long ago.
* ''Magazine/HeavyMetal'' had the story "Rahu's Reich", where a demon named Rahu is summoned by a foolish wizard, only to break free from the summoning circle and take over the world. The story ends with the reveal that everything that happened was a dream of Rahu's; in truth, the book with his summoning ritual was destroyed centuries ago, [[AlasPoorVillain and all he can do as he sleeps, forgotten, is dream of glory]].
* Bruce Jones' run on ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'' was {{retcon}}ned in this manner, with Creator/PeterDavid's subsequent run explaining that it was all a hallucination brought on by Nightmare.

* There's a ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'' story where Frank goes back in time to the 30s thanks to Reed Richards and Nick Fury. He quickly infiltrates UsefulNotes/AlCapone's gang and kills every last mobster in Chicago along with Al, the idea being that by breaking the mafia's hold early on, there'll be no gang shooting in Central Park in the late twentieth century, saving Frank's family and preventing his StartOfDarkness. Then he wakes up.
* Sometimes used as TheTeaser in ''ComicBook/QuantumAndWoody''. For example, issue #5 starts with Woody, Quantum, and Amy working together as a tightly coordinated counter-terrorism team to stop a criminal called Othello. In reality, it's a dream induced after Quantum was accidentally blasted off of a building in the previous issue.

* Two ''ComicBook/{{Spawn}}'' issues written by Creator/NeilGaiman and Creator/GrantMorrison has Spawn dying accidentally after a fight with an angel warrior, and goes to a special level of Hell, where he finds all Creator/MarvelComics and Creator/DCComics superheroes imprisoned, and with help of [[LawyerFriendlyCameo Superman]], who gave him his power, he sets them all free. Next issue happens back on Earth, with the narrator saying "Let's come back to reality. Spawn has a bad dream last days."
* The infamous ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' storyline ''ComicBook/OneMoreDay'' had Peter and Mary Jane's marriage retconned when Peter made a DealWithTheDevil to save Aunt May. [[ComicStrip/SpiderMan The newspaper comic]] didn't do the whole "deal with Mephisto" storyline but it did suddenly change, making Peter single again to fit in with the comic book line. Fan uproar eventually convinced the writers of the newspaper comic to retcon ''that'' change, and they did that by saying it was all just a dream.

* ''ComicBook/TomStrong'' issues 29 and 30 had the eponymous hero awaken from his superheroic life into a gray world with no wonder or adventure where he was just a factory worker with a case of bad self-esteem. Then the clues mount that he really is a superhero - only to discover that he was a failed military experiment and [[CuckooNest all of his memories of a heroic life were delusions]]. But at the last moment, he breaks out of the hallucination - back into the superheroic world where the BigBad of the story had been forcing him to hallucinate. He said later that he knew the world he had been in wasn't real because it was all gray, with no sense of hope or wonder in it. (A cynical person might just say that he was unable to cope with the truth and retreated into his dream-world... à la that much-referenced episode of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''.)

* ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo: Usagi stays with a peasant family, and at night they are set upon by a demon which slays the mother and father, and eventually Usagi. The son wakes up and it's all revealed to have been a dream he had from eating too much candy. Usagi leaves and bids them goodbye. Then [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Jei]], known for slaughtering people who give him hospitality, shows up at the house and asks if he can stay the night.
* ''ComicBook/SensationComics'': ComicBook/WonderWoman ends up in a very surreal town with two neglected children who have her bring their parents to them to teach their parents to appreciate them. The whole thing turns out to be a dream, but as it was a ''shared'' dream and the parents never realized it wasn't real it helps things anyway.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Some people believe that "real life" is really all just a simulation using technology that doesn't yet exist in real life/this simulation. This is based on the belief that technology is likely to get to the point of being able to perfectly simulate real life while making the subject forget real life while in the simulation and that since once this technology exists it will result in more virtual worlds than the one real one the odds are that this is a simulation and not real life. [[http://www.simulation-argument.com/ The Simulation Argument]] tells that: it is overwhelmingly likely that ''either'' 1) we are living in an "ancestor simulation" created by our descendants ''or'' 2) this is not. A counterpoint is the idea that [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulated_reality#Relativity_of_reality "real life" is a meaningless term]], since any reality must be absolute from the perspective of its inhabitants (if we are indeed simulated beings, this is still the highest level of nested realities we can exist in).
* The trope may have arisen from a dream those grieving a deceased loved one often experience. In the dream, the griever learns that the loved one is not dead and that the "death" was nothing but a very bad dream. The griever then wakes up, only to realize that the death really took place and the "miraculous survival" was in fact the dream. Although not every griever experiences this dream, it's common enough to be considered a normal part of the grieving process. Children who experience the dream may not be able to differentiate the dream from reality and therefore may suspect that the deceased person didn't really die (a common fallacy among bereaved children). ''Books'' by reputable scientists have been written on this phenomenon. Interestingly, it's possible to have an inversion of that--someone dreams of losing a loved one (or ones), only to wake up.
* {{Subver|tedTrope}}sion: After Creator/DanielRadcliffe learned that he had gotten the part of Film/HarryPotter, he woke up in the middle of the following night. He woke up his parents to ask them if he'd really gotten the part or if it was a dream.
* The philosophy of existentialism holds that how one views the world is subjective to one's experiences. Existentialists believe that truth is in the eye of the beholder, as is even the existence of the world around us. It's the basis for the scene in ''Film/TheMatrix'' in which the boy in the Oracle's apartment tells Neo, "There is no spoon."
* Confabulation, or false memory syndrome, applies to this trope, as well. Also see this Cracked article: [[http://www.cracked.com/article_18704_5-mind-blowing-ways-your-memory-plays-tricks-you.html 5 Mind Blowing Ways Your Memory Plays Tricks On You]].
* How many times have you been sure what's happening be real, only to wake up? This can be a disappointment or a relief depending on the nature of the dream. In some cases, it ''is'' possible to realize when one's dreaming (lucid dream), and the person may even prefer make the dream last as long as possible.
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boltzmann_brain The Boltzmann brain thought experiment]] does this for all of reality. To summarize it, random fluctuations are capable of creating matter spontaneously, so what's more likely: an entire universe being created from those random fluctuations? Or your brain being created in a void, which then hallucinates that reality exists? [[OccamsRazor Because simpler things are more likely to happen based on random chance,]] probability favors the hallucinating brain to be the only thing that truly exists, but there's no real way to confirm or deny this.
[[/folder]]

** Mike Allred wrote a story in the seventh issue of ''Solo'' titled "Batman A-Go-Go", an homage to [[Series/Batman1966 the 1966 television series]] that takes a darker turn as Aunt Harriet is gruesomely murdered off-screen and ends with Robin falling to his death. In the end, it turns out all of this was dreamed by Batman when he was knocked unconscious during the fight with the Riddler and his goons in the beginning of the story.

* ''WebVideo/SomeJerkWithACamera''[='=]s ''Ride/StarTours'' review was The Wire's dream within Jerk's dream within Spazz's dream within [[WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife Heffer]]'s dream within [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Lisa]]'s dream within North's dream within Jerk's dream within [[Film/BackToTheFuture Marty McFly]]'s dream within Music/MichaelJackson's mind.