A young psychic on the run from himself is recruited by a government agency experimenting with the use of the dream-sharing technology and is given the inverse task of planting an idea into the mind of the U.S. president.
A government funded project looks into using psychics to enter people's dreams, with some mechanical help. When a subject dies in his sleep from a heart attack Alex Gardner becomes suspicious that another of the psychics is killing people in the dreams somehow and that is causing them to die in real life. He must find a way to stop the abuse of the power to enter dreams.Written by
Zaphod <aaa@scs.leeds.ac.uk>
Originally the producers wanted Maurice Jarre to write the music for the film orchestrally, but Jarre insisted on scoring the film electronically because he felt that it was the right approach for the material and also sets the tone of the film. See more »
Goofs
Although the movie is fictitious, the underlying premise is completely absurd in that if someone dies in their dream, they die in real life. Millions of people all over the world have reported that they have died in their dreams, and at the moment of death in their dreams, they simply woke up. See more »
Quotes
Bob Blair:
[opens the elevator door to find Alex there]
How did you get in here?
Alex Gardner:
It was easy!
[Rips his own head in two to reveal a monster inside that bites Blair's head off]
See more »
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. See more »
Psychic Alex Gardner (Dennis Quaid) is recruited for a government-funded institute. In it psychics are able to get into peoples' dreams and interact with them. However one subject dies while in this state and Alex realizes something is wrong. And the President (Eddie Albert) is going to visit the institute for some nightmares he is having...
I enjoyed watching this but realized, after it was over, that it didn't make a whole lot of sense and there were plot holes left and right. Still, it moves quickly and the dream sequences themselves were lots of fun. This was also the second PG-13 rating ever released. It was cut to get that (a sex scene between Quaid and Kate Capshaw was almost completely dropped) but there were some complaints about the amount of violence (none of which was cut) that was allowed in. By today's standards though it's not that bad.
Quaid is good--he's young, handsome and not taking any of this seriously. Max von Sydow is very good as the head doctor of the research. Kate Capshaw is pretty terrible as his assistant. Christopher Plummer seems to be proving he can say his lines without moving a muscle in his face. Albert is lots of fun as the President and David Patrick Kelly almost runs away with the movie as Tommy Ray Glatin.
So a quick, fun little movie. Just don't think about it too much.
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Psychic Alex Gardner (Dennis Quaid) is recruited for a government-funded institute. In it psychics are able to get into peoples' dreams and interact with them. However one subject dies while in this state and Alex realizes something is wrong. And the President (Eddie Albert) is going to visit the institute for some nightmares he is having...
I enjoyed watching this but realized, after it was over, that it didn't make a whole lot of sense and there were plot holes left and right. Still, it moves quickly and the dream sequences themselves were lots of fun. This was also the second PG-13 rating ever released. It was cut to get that (a sex scene between Quaid and Kate Capshaw was almost completely dropped) but there were some complaints about the amount of violence (none of which was cut) that was allowed in. By today's standards though it's not that bad.
Quaid is good--he's young, handsome and not taking any of this seriously. Max von Sydow is very good as the head doctor of the research. Kate Capshaw is pretty terrible as his assistant. Christopher Plummer seems to be proving he can say his lines without moving a muscle in his face. Albert is lots of fun as the President and David Patrick Kelly almost runs away with the movie as Tommy Ray Glatin.
So a quick, fun little movie. Just don't think about it too much.