# Movies that ask what's real and what's fake **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 12, 2003, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-ask-whats-real-and-whats-fake/194612 "2003-08-12T10:32:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Grousser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9d8465/32.png) [@Grousser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grousser)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-ask-whats-real-and-whats-fake/194612/21 "2003-08-12T22:47:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by TJdude825 \* > \*\*In Vanilla Sky David sees one person change into another, knows something is wrong, and discovers he’s actually dead, and has been experiencing a carefully programmed “lucid dream” (not unlike the matrix, actually). I don’t like this one very much, because Mr. Tech Support basically gives it away, so there’s not much mystery left. The worst part was him telling exactly when the lucid dream started. But the theme is still there. > \*\* Not to contradict you, but Mr. Tech Support, as in the spanish original version by Alejandro Amenabar “Abre Los Ojos”, plays a significant role in the story, telling David precisely what is really happening and when the dream started. I mean, that’s the apogee of the story, where it had to arrive. ---
**Author:** ![PigArcher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bcef8e/32.png) [@PigArcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PigArcher)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-ask-whats-real-and-whats-fake/194612/22 "2003-08-12T23:04:15Z")
I’ve often wondered this about the movie **Croupier**. How do we know that the events of the movie “really” happened to Jack? Perhaps he just made it all up for his book. ---
**Author:** ![Grousser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9d8465/32.png) [@Grousser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grousser)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-ask-whats-real-and-whats-fake/194612/23 "2003-08-12T23:15:37Z")
I got a great uncertainty about threads like this: (spoilers for **Vanilla Sky** , **The Truman Show** , **The Game** , and **The Others** ) What if I haven’t seen **Vanilla Sky** , or **The Truman Show** , or **The Game** , and I enter a thread named “Movies that ask what’s real and what’s fake” and the thread is full of spoiler boxes? Wouldn’t I suspect that everything is fake in those movies? Next when I see them, they’ll be spoiled for me? I think I’m suspicious enough, as well as any smart doper, to realize that even with spoiler boxes those movies are losing their sense of… surprise. That is, a surprise is a surprise when you don’t know there is something hidden. Even in **The Others** , which is very obvious what’s happening. I don’t want to spoil the party, btw. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-ask-whats-real-and-whats-fake/194612/24 "2003-08-12T23:31:25Z")
Nitpick about **The Others** : Actually, the servants were already aware they were ghosts. ---
**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-ask-whats-real-and-whats-fake/194612/25 "2003-08-13T00:12:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by C K Dexter Haven \* > \*\*Spoiler tags fixed, sorry about the delay. \*\* No problem Dex, I know you guys are busy. Thanks for the fix. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-ask-whats-real-and-whats-fake/194612/26 "2003-08-13T00:30:29Z")
**Soul Surviors** (which I liked better than Vanilla Sky, but most people on imdb disagree apparently), **Abandon** , **Urbania** … ---
**Author:** ![Mearl\_Dox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@Mearl\_Dox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mearl_Dox)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-ask-whats-real-and-whats-fake/194612/27 "2003-08-13T02:14:10Z")
In **Perfect Blue** Mima has quite a few identity issues to work out, and starts blurring the movie she’s working on with reality, among other things… ---
**Author:** ![owlofcreamcheese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@owlofcreamcheese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owlofcreamcheese)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-ask-whats-real-and-whats-fake/194612/28 "2003-08-13T02:51:16Z")
dark city ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-ask-whats-real-and-whats-fake/194612/29 "2003-08-13T03:30:37Z")
A few more _The Other_ (the 1972 movie, not _The Others_) _Sleuth_ _Penn and Teller Get Killed_ ---
**Author:** ![RealTronic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9dc877/32.png) [@RealTronic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealTronic)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-ask-whats-real-and-whats-fake/194612/30 "2003-08-13T06:07:43Z")
How about **Spider** …where we are never REALLY sure if Ralph Fiennes is reliving his childhood or if all events just are part of his twisted imagination ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-ask-whats-real-and-whats-fake/194612/31 "2003-08-13T07:59:42Z")
About Minority Report, not only was it what you said but also What about the whole ‘people who are put in stasis dream the rest of their lives away’ Theoretically anything that happened _after_ Cruise’s character was captured and put into stasis could be just a dream. A dream he made up to be all nice and comfy in the confines of his own head and not feel there is unfinished business. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-ask-whats-real-and-whats-fake/194612/32 "2003-08-13T10:55:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Avalonian \* > The other one I was going to mention is _Closet Land_, with Madeline Stowe and Alan Rickman (possibly Rickman’s best role, anywhere). Without spoiling the film much, Stowe plays a writer who is abducted and brought to an interrogation room. Rickman is her interrogator. He so effectively builds a different reality around her during his “questioning” that by the end of the film, even the audience is unsure what is real and what is his invention. \*\* Love that movie. Have been a huge Madeleine Stowe fan ever since. And all of Rickman’s stuff is gold, as usual. Although honestly I wonder about the mental state of people who have actually seen it. I mean, I saw it, and I know _my_ mental state. 🙂 Staying on-topic, if you like Closet Land, check out [Death and the Maiden](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0109579) for another reality-in-question movie. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-ask-whats-real-and-whats-fake/194612/33 "2003-08-13T12:10:22Z")
Thought I’d also mention _Naked Lunch_, from William Burroughs’ novel. Incidentally, Burroughs shooting his wife in the head playing “William Tell” – that actually happened. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-ask-whats-real-and-whats-fake/194612.md?page=1)