Dreamscape

1984
R
1h 39m

IMDb RATING

6.3/10

19K

YOUR RATING

Dennis Quaid, Kate Capshaw, Christopher Plummer, Cory 'Bumper' Yothers, Larry Cedar, Redmond Gleeson, Peter Jason, David Patrick Kelly, and Chris Mulkey in Dreamscape (1984)

Play trailer1:57

5 Videos

99+ Photos

B-Action B-Horror Political Thriller Psychological Thriller Action Adventure Horror Sci-Fi Thriller

A man who can enter and manipulate people's dreams is recruited by a government agency to help cure the President of the United States of his nightmares about nuclear war but stumbles upon a... Read allA man who can enter and manipulate people's dreams is recruited by a government agency to help cure the President of the United States of his nightmares about nuclear war but stumbles upon an assassination plot.A man who can enter and manipulate people's dreams is recruited by a government agency to help cure the President of the United States of his nightmares about nuclear war but stumbles upon an assassination plot.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.3/10

19K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 win & 2 nominations total

Videos5

Trailer 1:57

Dreamscape

Clip 2:35

Dreamscape: Don't Fall

Clip 2:35

Dreamscape: Don't Fall

Clip 2:22

Dreamscape: Don't Open The Door

Featurette 1:47

Dreamscape: James Aupperle, Brian Tufano & Craig Reardon On Making The Film

Featurette 0:57

Dreamscape: Dennis Quaid On Working With Director Joseph Ruben

Photos158

+ 150

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Was the second film to be Rated PG-13 under then new MPAA ratings guidelines following Red Dawn (1984), which had come out weeks prior to this film's release.

Goofs
Blair may be the head of the CIA but he is not in charge of security for the President. That falls solely on the Secret Service for which Blair and Novotny , would have no say in the matter of where the President would be staying.

Quotes
Alex Gardner: You had Tommy Ray kill that woman in the dream link, didn't you?
Bob Blair: Yes.
Alex Gardner: Why?
Bob Blair: I wanted to see if it could be done.
Alex Gardner: You're a real humanitarian, Blair.
Bob Blair: I'm a realist. We live in a dangerous, hostile world. I will do whatever I have to to keep this country safe.
Alex Gardner: Yeah, that's what scares me.
Bob Blair: You're a very intelligent young man, Alex. You've mastered an amazing technique. Surely you can see the possibilities. During his dream link with Matusik, Tommy Ray stabbed her with a knife. A dream knife. The shock to Matusik's system caused a coronary and she died. So, the old wives tale comes true after all. When you dream that you die, you die in life at the very same instant. Now we can go into an enemy's dream, kill him, make it look as if he died in his sleep. Do you realize what that means?
Alex Gardner: It means no one's safe from you.
Bob Blair: The question is whether you're gonna cooperate. I never had any doubts about Tommy Ray.
Alex Gardner: Well, why should you? He killed his own father. He's a fucking psychopath.
Bob Blair: Alex, it's very simple. Either you work for me or you die.

Alternate versions
When reclassified by the BBFC in 2000 the nunchaku weapon was no longer deemed a problem to pass on film following a weapons rethink in 1999. The BBFC waived the 28 seconds of cuts made to previous versions. Dreamscape was cut for the UK cinema upon original release in 1984 and video issues also suffered the same edits. The scene on the train where Alex meets Tommy is shorter as it features the infamous nunchaku, which rarely made it onto the British Screen at this time, and shots of a man's severed heart were also removed by the UK censor. This scene can be seen in the TV version which was shown on BBC1 albeit minus a few "strong" words. When the BBFC reclassified the film in 2000 under newer guidelines the nunchaku was no longer a problem and they waived the aforementioned cuts.

Connections
Featured in At the Movies: Sheena, Queen of the Jungle/Dreamscape/The Adventures of the Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension/The Bostonians/Metropolis (1984)

Soundtracks
Baby, Can't We Take It Home
Composed and Produced by Craig Huxley (as Craig Hundley)

User reviews93

Review

Featured review

6/10

Good Sci-Fi for Its Time

For 1984, this is a good sci-fi movie. I remember watching its as a kid. I was scared for days of the Snake Man in the movie. Having watched it recently, I noticed that it had naturally lost the terror that it instilled when I was a child. Despite this, it brought back foggy memories and allowed me to analyze and enjoy the film on an adult level.

The story concerns a project that allows telepaths to enter into the dreams of others. Inside these dreams they are able to help/harm the individuals from/with their nightmares. Dennis Quaid plays a young Alex Gardner who possesses the gift of telepathy. Under the study of Max Von Sydow and Kate Capshaw (forgot how attractive she was), Alex enter patient's dreams and tries to help them. But with this ability, there are others that would use it as a weapon. When the President (Eddie Albert) begins having haunting nightmares, can someone help him escape his dreams before its too late?

Dreamscape delivers some of the eighties creativity and originality that we can only hope for in today's movies. Take out the gore and grotesqueness of "The Cell" and you could say this movie was its inspiration.