# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/21 "2009-07-07T22:59:59Z")
**Mouth Of Madness** Through most of the film (That British guy. Sam something I think. He was in Jurassic Park and the Madness Of King George) is convinced that everything he’s experiencing is part of an elaborate publicity campaign by a publishing company. It takes seeing a man blow his own head off with a shotgun to convince him it’s real. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/22 "2009-07-07T23:05:38Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > 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. I swear, more than any other Twilight Zone episode, this one is burned into my memory. I used to interject randomly with, “You’re looking at a tableau of reality: Objects of dimension, of physical material: a desk, a window, a lamp. These things exist and have substance…” Of course, I was frequently high at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/23 "2009-07-07T23:18:04Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > 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… Ah… _The Forced Protocol_… ---
**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, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/24 "2009-07-07T23:19:37Z")
> [@Larry\_Mudd](#): > > I swear, more than any other Twilight Zone episode, this one is burned into my memory. I used to interject randomly with, “You’re looking at a tableau of reality: Objects of dimension, of physical material: a desk, a window, a lamp. These things exist and have substance…” > > Of course, I was frequently high at the time. Best way to watch the Zone! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/25 "2009-07-07T23:23:03Z")
**A Bug’s Life** - arguably the main character is Flick, and he knows the fight is real, but thinks the circus performers are fighters. But all the performers think they’re hired for a circus act, not to take out a bunch of bad-ass grasshoppers. ---
**Author:** ![Orr\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ee59a6/32.png) [@Orr\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orr_G)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/26 "2009-07-07T23:28:47Z")
_W_ character minimum ---
**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, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/27 "2009-07-07T23:30:02Z")
Well, if we’re including TV episodes, the new **Doctor Who** has done this sort of thing a couple of times. In “Human Nature”/“Family of Blood”, English schoolteacher John Smith has recurring dreams in which he is called “The Doctor” and travels around in a magic blue box and doing impossible things. In “Silence in the Library”/“Forest of the Dead”, a little girl learns that her waking life is an illusion and her nightmares are real (sort of). ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/28 "2009-07-07T23:31:03Z")
> [@chique](#): > > In _Sixth Sense_ the protaganist thinks he’s a child psychiatrist. He _is_ a child psychologist. He’s mistaken about some other things, but certainly not that. ---
**Author:** ![YamatoTwinkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/cc9497/32.png) [@YamatoTwinkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YamatoTwinkie)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/29 "2009-07-07T23:35:50Z")
Michael Douglas’s character in **The Game** goes through the “is it real?” “is it fake?” process several times throughout the movie. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/30 "2009-07-07T23:44:15Z")
In _ **Short Time** _, cop Dabney Coleman is under the false impression that he is dying of a terminal illness, so he takes every outrageous risk imaginable, hoping that he’ll die in the line of duty so he can get a better pension for his family before his imminent retirement. ---
**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 8, 2009, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/31 "2009-07-08T01:07:07Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Ah… _The Forced Protocol_… Thanks Bryan Ekers— I saw it on TV several years back, and had promptly forgotten it, then remembered it (sort of) when I read this thread; now I have been trying to remember it all day long, with no success… Matthew ---
**Author:** ![otorophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3ab097/32.png) [@otorophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/otorophile)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2009, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/32 "2009-07-08T01:07:24Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > Is it too early to nominate **Ender’s Game**? Has that been made into a movie? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2009, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/33 "2009-07-08T01:59:48Z")
If we accept **The Black Bird** as a legitimate sequel, then **The Maltese Falcon** counts. Sam Spade thinks the statuette is fake, but the sequel establishes it’s real. In the **Man From U.N.C.L.E.** episode “The Never Never Affair,” the audience in a theater is watching a war film and thinks the gunshots are fake. But the theater is actually the location of a gun battle between U.N.C.L.E. and T.H.R.U.S.H. and some of the shots are actual bullets. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2009, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/34 "2009-07-08T02:43:00Z")
In **F/X** , Bryan Brown thinks he’s part of an elaborate hoax and goes through a couple of iterations of “real or fake?” ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2009, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/35 "2009-07-08T02:58:42Z")
Moon over Parador Dave Not sure if they qualify as the protagonist in both film is part of the charade. The Last Starfighter ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2009, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/36 "2009-07-08T03:09:45Z")
Does _Dirty Rotten Scoundrels_ count, in the sense that though the characters thought they were running a ridiculously elaborate con, it turned out they were the targets of an even ridiculouser elaborate con? ---
**Author:** ![Orr\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ee59a6/32.png) [@Orr\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orr_G)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2009, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/37 "2009-07-08T03:28:02Z")
Some of the _X-Files_ episodes, would fit, I think. Especially those with David McKean as the “Man in Black” whose job it is to make up ridiculous stories that only fools could believe are true, and of course are about just the sorts of phenomena Mulder and Scully dealt with on a weekly basis. Not to mention that the stories are cover for even weirder stuff the government is really working on. In particular, I remember a soldier dressed in an alien costume, smoking a cigarette, rocking back in forth and repeating (IIRC) “This can’t be happening.” This, of course, is a result of shock from his recent alien abduction and implied (?) probing. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2009, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/38 "2009-07-08T05:02:04Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > He _is_ a child psychologist. He’s mistaken about some other things, but certainly not that. I don’t think so. Dead people don’t have professions. Sigmund Freud’s ghost would not be a psychiatrist, though he might think he was. ---
**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 8, 2009, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/39 "2009-07-08T05:06:08Z")
> [@Captain\_Carrot](#): > > I don’t think so. Dead people don’t have professions. Sigmund Freud’s ghost would not be a psychiatrist, though he might think he was. Why not? Their knowledge doesn’t go away. ---
**Author:** ![SunSandSuffering](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@SunSandSuffering](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunSandSuffering)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2009, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242/40 "2009-07-08T11:36:15Z")
> [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](#): > > **Capricorn One** - Similarly, a faked trip to the moon, produced in a desert studio. [nitpick] It was a faked trip to Mars. [/nitpick] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-main-character-thinks-its-fake-but-it-isnt/502242.md?page=3)