Due to the nature of this trope, expect spoilers.
Daydream Surprises in Live-Action Films.
- Ripley being killed by a chestburster in Aliens. It's a proper nightmare and not a daydream, but you don't find that out until she wakes up.
- After Alistair Smythe make a crack that he's Spider-Man in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Max Dillon, obsessed with Spider-Man ever since the wall-crawler saved him, has a daydream where he slams Smythe against a wall, but in reality, he does nothing. A deleted scene has him similarly having a daydream about yelling at his asshat of a mother after she mocked his singing when he hummed "Happy Birthday" on his own birthday.
- The first joke of Analyze This is Dr. Ben Sobel listening to a neurotic patient vent about a breakup and responding, "Well, what I think you should do is stop whining about this pathetic loser. You are a tragedy queen! 'Oh, Steve doesn't like me! Steve doesn't respect me!' Oh, who gives a shit, GET A FUCKING LIFE!!!" Cut to Ben still quietly sitting at his desk.
- Following on the previous film, Analyze That has Dr. Sobel daydreaming that he finally snaps as he's delivering an euology on his father's funeral and rants about how much of an asshole his father (who was an even more renowned psychologist and gave him absolutely jack shit in respect) truly was before making clear that he always hated the guy and he can burn in hell for all he cares while in reality he droned out the cookie-cutter kiss-ass speech he wrote down for the occasion.
- In Andhadhun, Akash protests against the prepared statement the police asks him to sign, instead saying that he's not blind and revealing everything that happened. After that daydream is over, he does indeed sign the statement.
- When praying in Black Death, Osmund sees dead Averill calling his name, then he's brought back to reality by Ulrich, who does the same.
- In Blood Simple, Abby believes that Marty appears in her apartment, but it turns out to be a dream.
- The Body (2012): At one point, Álex finds a filled glass of wine at the hospital and a dead-looking Mayka emerges from behind his back. Then we cut to Álex waking up, revealing this scene to be a dream sequence.
- The "escape" scene at the end of Brazil. Although, unlike Winston Smith in 1984, Sam Lowry actually does escape - according to his captors. "He's got away from us"...
- Bridget Jones' Diary: Bridget Jones is talking to Mark at the launch party when her coworker Perpetua walks up to them. Bridget introduces them to each other with thoughtful details: "Mark's a prematurely middle-aged prick with a cruel raced ex-wife. Perpetua is a fat-arse old bag who spends her time bossing me around." Then the voiceover says, "Maybe not," and we cut back to reality, where Bridget gives a much more ordinary introduction.
- In Camp Slaughter, Mario is attending a rehearsal for an amateur Shakespeare performance of Othello when the drama coach gets so frustrated by the poor fight choreography that he decides to show them how to do it by slaughtering the entire cast one by one. Then, Mario wakes up and sees it was all just a dream.
- At the end of The Chase (1994), Charlie Sheen gets out of his car and is riddled with bullets...or not. A clue was left for the observant viewers: he lights a cigarette with a lighter that, in reality, was thrown out of the car long ago.
- Chicago has a fake-out. It's like punching the audience for being so credulous with their Willing Suspension of Disbelief. Then again, this could be said of almost every musical number, that they're all part of Roxie's imagination.
- Daredreamer, being a movie about daydreams, frequently has Winston's vivid fantasies end with snaps back to cold, hard reality.
- In The Dark Knight Rises, Bruce imagines a conversation with (the deceased) Ra's al Ghul.
- In Death Grip, Kenny fights a group of skateboarding kids at a baseball diamond. The fight is elaborate and showy, and he sustains a fair amount of damage. Then, we cut back to before the fight and it ends with an anti-climactic punch.
- Die Another Day:
- After Bond is reinstated back into MI6 and the base is suddenly attacked. He makes his way through shooting the assailants until he gets to one holding M hostage... so he promptly shoots her to get to the assailant. Q suddenly appears and chastises Bond on his performance while taking off the VR glasses. The whole thing being a training simulator.
- The end abruptly jumps to Bond walking in on Moneypenny in her office, where things quickly begin to get steamy... until R shows up wondering why Moneypenny is using his virtual reality machine.
- Dressed to Kill opens and closes with a tense Hitchcockian shower scene. Each time it's revealed to be a dream sequence.
- Fast Times at Ridgemont High: Infamously, Brad masturbates while daydreaming about his crush Linda (Phoebe Cates) emerging from the pool and taking off her bikini top... until the real Linda walks in on him.
- Happens frequently with protagonist Troy in Fat Kid Rules the World . The very first scene has him attempting suicide by jumping in front of a fast-moving city bus: When it appears he's been hit, he explodes into Ludicrous Gibs, which cover a passerby on the sidewalk with blood as the bus-driver merely wipes off the mess with his windshield wipers and drives on. Cut back to Troy still on the sidewalk working up the nerve to do it - this time he really does run out in front of the bus, but is tackled and saved at the last second.
- Harry Deane sees PJ Puznowski in the bar in Gambit, approaches her, and explains the scheme. They quickly con Shahbandar out of his money and ride off into the sunset. Then we cut back to where he hasn't approached her yet, and very little turns out to go as planned.
- The Girl Next Door uses this a few times: The first time, the protagonist imagines skipping school and getting pulled over by the police, while the second time he imagines a faculty member walking in on his Get Rich Quick sex-education video production.
- In Kenneth Branagh's version of Hamlet, the title character (eavesdropping on Claudius' soliloquy from the other half of a confessional) imagines stabbing Claudius through the ear; the scene snaps back as Hamlet reconsiders his plan.
- Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle: Harold, returning home from a long day at work, gets into an elevator with his sexy neighbor and successful chats her up. We then cut back to reality, where the scene actually plays out as an Uncomfortable Elevator Moment.
- An homage to Aliens is found at the beginning of Hostel Part II, which practically duplicates the scene. Both movies start with the protagonist from the first movie hospitalized, then being killed off in the theme of the movie series... only to reveal it was All Just a Dream. Though in Hostel 2, the protagonist ends up getting killed a minute later.
- The Incredible Jessica James: We get some scenes involving Damon from the POV of his imaginative ex Jessica before it becomes clear it's not real:
- Jessica imagines Damon standing on the ledge outside her window trying to confess something to her before he falls. Cut back to her at her laptop.
- She dreams Damon trying to explain their breakup before a piano falls on him. Turns out it was a nightmare.
- Jessica imagines Damon telling her he's still in love with her before it's revealed she's in Boone's bed..
- The Killing Room (2009). An NSA psychiatrist is recruited to observe an experiment, and is shocked to find it's part of a lethal Mind Control program. She steals the swipe card to the titular room, slips into the room and frees the two subjects who are still alive. As they're fleeing down the corridor and the Red Alert goes off, we cut back to her watching the subjects through a double-sided mirror, being unable to go through with it. The head scientist then demands the return of his swipe card.
- One of the most poignant uses of this trope forms a substantial portion of the latter half of Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ, in which Christ is allowed to descend from the Cross, marry Mary Magdalene, and live out the rest of his days as a mortal man. On his deathbed, however, he realises this was a trick by the devil, and renounces the illusion of His mortal life, returning instantly to the Cross.
- A Deleted Scene in Lolita (1997) has Humbert swimming with his wife after she decides to send her daughter Off to Boarding School (meaning Humbert won't be able to be near her). Humbert pulls her underwater until she drowns, coldly brushes aside her drifting legs, then resurfaces... and his voiceover admits that he couldn't do it.
- The Maiden Heist opens with one. It involves Christopher Walken with Guns Akimbo. It is awesome.
- The Dutch film Majesteit ends this way. The queen reads the first few lines of her Prinsjesdag speech, stops, announces she steps down from the throne then and there and walks away. When she gets to the door she looks back and sees herself still sitting on the throne, reading out her speech normally. Because the queen of the Netherlands did not in fact step down in 2003, we know the version in which she walks away is a daydream, but the camera stays with her nonetheless, following her through The Hague.
- A Running Gag in Major Grom: Plague Doctor which has the Cowboy Cop hero pulling some badass stunt, only for reality to ensue and he gets killed, so we Smash Cut back to him saying "Think, think!" as he tries to think up a better plan.
- Twice in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl does a scene between Greg and Rachel turn out to have been a figment of Greg's imagination. The scene then cuts back to what really happened.
- Mean Girls:
- The DVD edition has an alternate version of the anti-clique workshop scene.Ms Norbury: Nothing you wanna apologise for?
Cady: ...No.
Cady: (as narrator) And then she said it. The worst thing you can hear from any adult.
Ms Norbury: Your parents have been eaten by cannibals!
Cady: (as narrator) ...Uh, OK, the second worst.
Ms Norbury: I'm really disappointed in you, Cady. - One of the final scenes counts, as there's a brief spot of the freshman Plastics getting hit by a bus before it's revealed they actually stepped back just in time.
- The DVD edition has an alternate version of the anti-clique workshop scene.
- The ending of Mr. Brooks where the eponymous character is killed by his daughter.
- Done a twice in Monster-in-Law. Viola imagines slamming Charlie head-first into a cake, and later, Charlie imagines whacking Viola in the head with a frying pan.
- Next, as might be imagined in a movie with a precog as the protagonist, does this a lot. (Such as everything after Nick Cage sleeps with Jessica Biel, which comes out to about two-thirds of the movie). In fact, it's the main gimmick of the movie: his precognition is frequently represented as a "daydream", and if he wants to change what happened, it then becomes the "surprise".
- A Nightmare on Elm Street:
- A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge: Subverted. At one point during Lisa's journey into Freddy's lair, a wound on her leg is suddenly infested with insects. She frantically tries to get them off until she realizes that nothing is there, as it was another dream. Except she was never asleep—Freddy's powers are just starting to reach into the real world.
- A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master has the protagonist being coached to "lucid dream" herself out of the scary setting and onto a tropical beach. When the shift happens in her dream, she's wearing a bikini and lounging on a towel. It's quickly subverted when the glove "swims" like Jaws through the sand straight toward her.
- The same movie has Rick get stabbed by Freddy, but at his funeral, he emerges from the coffin alive and well, comforting her grieving sister Alice. Unexpectedly, this is Played for Drama rather than horror. Alice knows she's just in denial and tells him "No more daydreams." The imaginary Rick then politely returns to his coffin, bidding her good night and confirming that yes, he really is dead.
- In a scene in One Hour Photo, Sy drives up to the Yorkin house while the family is away. This is followed by a montage of him breaking into and exploring the house, and doing mundane things like going to the bathroom. This culminates in him sitting on the couch watching a football game, while drinking a beer and wearing a sweater he hadn't had on before; all just as the family's coming home. They walk in and see him before he can escape, but instead of reacting with shock or outrage, they chat with him like he lives with them and they were merely surprised to see him home. The camera then cuts back to Sy, still sitting in his car, revealing that the whole scene was just a daydream.
- Point of Origin: When Orr is arrested, he daydreams that he fights back
by pulling out dual handguns (one of which is an absolutely massive revolver) and blasting all of the cops away in a display of acrobatic Gun Fu. In reality he is actually being dragged to the patrol car in front of his wife and child. - Requiem for a Dream:
- Marion dreams about stabbing, with a fork, the hand of a man she absolutely detests while she is on a date with him.
- Harry fantasizes himself and Tyrone playing keep-away with a police officer's firearm, the policeman in the middle.
- A very long version occurs before the climax of Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, where Michelle daydreams an entirely different ending to the film, culminating in a 90-year-old version of Romy flipping her off over videophone for ditching her at the reunion.
- Someone Great: In the end, Jenny sees Nate comes back to "their spot" and asks to give their relationship another shot. She wakes up, revealing it to be a dream.
- Spy Kids: Gregorio learns his son Juni is bullied at school and that Juni is ashamed of him. When he sees that the bully has a big and just as cruel father, Gregorio imagines beating up the rival dad and winning the admiration of his son. But in real life he backs off and leaves.
- In True Lies, the briefest daydream ever: trained spy Harry is driving along listening to the chatter of the schmuck in the passenger seat — who he knows is messing around with his wife. Harry, without taking his eyes off the road, elbows the guy in the face and kills him. Then suddenly we're back to the guy rambling on and laughing.
- Zabriskie Point ends with the heroine, Daria, walking out of a desert compound and watching it and all of its contents (fridges, wardrobes, etc) explode dramatically to the tune of "Come in Number 51, Your Time Is Up" (later retitled "Careful With That Axe, Eugene") by Pink Floyd. Abruptly, the scene ends and it is revealed that the building is still standing intact. She gets into her car and drives off into the sunset.
