I just saw this movie last night for the first time and was very confused. I looked on the message boards on IMDB for information - unfortunately, the IMDB forums are populated by illiterate savages.
Could someone explain to me what the context for Vanilla Sky’s plot was? Namely, when did Tom Cruise’s character die, and when did the “lucid dream” begin? Who exactly WAS Tom Cruise’s character? Why, towards the end of the movie, is he identified as being the son of Kurt Russell’s character?
I don’t remember the details of this movie, but I do remember what helped me understand it when I say it. The review I read before seeing it cautioned that you needed to watch it as a SciFi movie, not as a murder mystery/thriller type movie.
There’s really no way to discuss this movie without spoilers
The Lucid Dream began as David (Cruise) woke up in the alley after the nightclub binge. I think they later explain that in his “real” life, he never saw Sofia (Cruz) again and was miserable. So he went to Lucid Dream to create his new happily-ever-after with Sofia. And Kurt Russel wasn’t really his dad, just a father figure David created in his Lucid Dream based on Gregory Peck’s character in To Kill A Mockingbird. I’m sure someone else can fill in the other details.
I’m a huge Cameron Crow fan, and Vanilla Sky is one of my favorites.
Just keep your eye on the sky. The first time you think “hmm…that looks odd” is the scene you’re looking for.
Well, the first thing you need is some good drugs…
Hey look! There was more in your spoiler box!
[spoiler]So far as I can tell, Tommy was just some corporate schmuck with everything you could hope for. The nice apartment, the big bucks, Cameron Diaz, etc. But he met this down-to-earth girl & really liked her. Cameron Diaz gets jealous & wrecks his face and hence, his life. He goes phsyco trying to get the girl of his dreams, but she doesn’t want anything to do with him anymore - not because he’s disfigured, but because he’s psycho. So he does what any psycho with a lot of money in his position would do - he signs his body over to some cryo-freezing company, to be revived when they can re-animate him and fix his scars. Because you can only get into the cryo-tube dead, he kills himself. The dream they give him is supposed to be a happy happy ‘life that could have been’ kinda thing to keep his mind busy over the many decades while he’s a Tomsicle.
Anywho, I thought Kurt Russells character was just some wacky psycho-analysis Ego-questioning-Id kind of thing. but who knows[/spoiler]
Maybe that answers it 
I don’t know why, but I never had any trouble understanding the original spanish language version of the movie “abre los ojos” (Open your eyes). On top of it being a more comprehensible movie, it also proves that in her native language Penelope Cruze is a terrific actress. Shame it doesn’t translate well.
You mean all that ham-fisted exposition in the elevator wasn’t enough?
I have my own crazy theory about this movie.
You know how at the beginning of the movie, Cruise acts rather selfishly and someone says something about actions having consequences?
I think Cruise is in hell.
No, hear me out here! See, it’s sort of like those crappy Hellraiser sequels that they’re still cranking out: Someone winds up in Hell but doesn’t realize it. In this case, we know Cruise is in Hell because of the two things that we all know would happen to Cruise in his own personal Hell. (1) He’s disfigured. (2) He has sex with women.
That’s my theory and I’m sticking to it.
Yes. See this movie instead of Vanilla Sky. It’s much better.
Look folks, you’re overanalyzing this.
Tom Cruise dies & goes to hell. Since he’s a Scientologist it’s not the dude in the red suit but Xenu himself who administers punishment, so he gets hooked up to an eMeter and learns what really bothered him in life. Those engrams are worked over and over again until his next reincarnation.
Or maybe that was the original script…