# Movies where main character thinks its fake, but it isn't **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 7, 2009, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242 "2009-07-07T20:10:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/1 "2009-07-07T20:10:51Z")
I’m looking to come up with any additions to this list. Specifically movies where the main character thinks he’s involved in a charade/movie/etc. but it is actually real. What I have right now are: \*\*The Three Amigos \*\*(they think they’re in Mexico to make a movie) \*\*The Last Shot \*\*(director thinks he’s making a movie but it is an FBI sting operation) \*\*The Man Who Knew Too Little \*\*(Bill Murray thinks he’s in a piece of street theater but it is a spy thing). Anything to add to the list? Similar but not really qualifying would be: \*\*Galaxy Quest \*\*- The aliens think the show is real when it is fake. **Bowfinger** - Same, Eddie Murphy doesn’t realize he’s being incorporated into a movie. **Truman Show** - Truman doesn’t know his life is a TV show. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/2 "2009-07-07T20:14:43Z")
**Tropic Thunder** –they all think they’re just in a movie because they are making a film initially and then get taken out to the jungle. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/3 "2009-07-07T20:15:45Z")
Is it too early to nominate **Ender’s Game**? ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/4 "2009-07-07T20:17:57Z")
D’oh. Can’t believe we didn’t think of **Tropic Thunder**. Pre-emptively putting **Ender’s Game** on the list seems fair. ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/5 "2009-07-07T20:20:02Z")
I recall a movie with Michael Caine and (I think) Pierce Brosnan where Caine plays an old, washed up, Hollywood has-been actor who thinks he is getting a break, a role starring in a big-budget movie, that turns out to be a front for money laundering/kiddie porn… I saw this several years ago on a broadcast TV weekend “midnight movie” showing, and cant recall the title or many other details. (I really remember enjoying “The Man Who Knew Too Little”— It was no classic or anything, but cute and endearing, and (to me) better than many of Murray’s other recent movies) ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/6 "2009-07-07T20:23:19Z")
How about **Rocky 4** , with the staged fight between Drago and Apollo Creed? ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/7 "2009-07-07T20:24:42Z")
This also makes me think of a Twilight Zone ep–“A World of Difference,” but it’s about a guy who suddenly realizes his life is a TV show/he’s an actor, but he thinks it’s really his life and he starts freaking out. We’re not sure if he’s crazy or if everyone else is just…I don’t know, not real or something. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/8 "2009-07-07T20:33:37Z")
Not EXACTLY what the OP asked for but… what about “Shadow of the Vampire,” which asks us to imagine that Max Schreck, the scary star of “Nosferatu,” was a real vampire who was really killing his co-stars? ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/9 "2009-07-07T20:34:12Z")
I wonder if **Life Is Beautiful** would qualify? Guido convinces his son that the Concentration Camp they’re in is really a game? How about **Shadow of the Vampire** , where Nosferatu is really a vampire, but the rest of the cast doesn’t know that? ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/10 "2009-07-07T20:35:59Z")
In **Galaxy Quest** , Tim Alan’s character initially believes it it fake until proven otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/11 "2009-07-07T20:36:24Z")
**Total Recall** , sort of. There’s some ambiguity about which events in the movie are actual experiences and which are false memories. ---
**Author:** ![Labtrash](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/labtrash/32/528_2.png) [@Labtrash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labtrash)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/12 "2009-07-07T20:38:27Z")
Would the Last Action Hero count? Ah’nuld “thinks” that 1 shot will blow up the car. etc. probably doesn’t qualify. ---
**Author:** ![xnylder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/bbce88/32.png) [@xnylder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xnylder)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/13 "2009-07-07T20:50:01Z")
In **My Name is Bruce** , Bruce Campbell (playing himself) thinks he’s in a movie shoot when he’s actually been kidnapped and brought to a small town to fight a vengeful Chinese ghost. ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/14 "2009-07-07T20:53:03Z")
> [@TWDuke](#): > > **Total Recall** , sort of. There’s some ambiguity about which events in the movie are actual experiences and which are false memories. In “12 Monkeys” there is so much ambiguity/time shifting going on that all of the main characters are unsure of reality at one point or another… ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/15 "2009-07-07T20:58:07Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > I recall a movie with Michael Caine and (I think) Pierce Brosnan Apparently wasn’t Brosnan. The only movie they’ve made together involves a nuclear bomb and spies. > [@astorian](#): > > Not EXACTLY what the OP asked for but… what about “Shadow of the Vampire,” which asks us to imagine that Max Schreck, the scary star of “Nosferatu,” was a real vampire who was really killing his co-stars? Haven’t seen it, but it certainly seems to fit from the point of view of the cast. > [@Morbo](#): > > I wonder if **Life Is Beautiful** would qualify? Guido convinces his son that the Concentration Camp they’re in is really a game? Yes, I’ll add it. > [@Chimera](#): > > In **Galaxy Quest** , Tim Alan’s character initially believes it it fake until proven otherwise. I know, but in the end it is such a brief part of the movie I give most of the weight to the aliens thinking it is real when it isn’t rather than Allen thinking it is fake when it is real. > [@labtrash](#): > > Would the Last Action Hero count? I’d put it in the “thinking it is real when it’s fake camp” though that isn’t quite right either. ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/16 "2009-07-07T21:22:45Z")
Both of these don’t meet the criteria of the OP, but in them, the public thinks they are real events. **Wag The Dog** - fake war based on footage produced in the White House basement. **Capricorn One** - Similarly, a faked trip to the moon, produced in a desert studio. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/17 "2009-07-07T21:51:30Z")
Malibu’s Most Wanted, eventually. B-Rad finds out that his kidnappers are actors, so when he eventually gets embroiled in a real firefight, he thinks it’s all an act and is utterly fearless. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/18 "2009-07-07T21:54:27Z")
**Delta Farce** –Three Army reservists think they’ve landed in Iraq, but they’re really in Mexico. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/19 "2009-07-07T22:20:13Z")
On second thought, that seems more like another “thinking it is real when it’s fake.” ---
**Author:** ![chique](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/20 "2009-07-07T22:56:25Z")
In _Sixth Sense_ the protaganist thinks he’s a child psychiatrist. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242.md?page=2)