Tom Cruise
David Aames
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Vanilla Sky is a 2001 sci-fi thriller film directed by Cameron Crowe, starring Tom Cruise and Penélope Cruz. It is an English-language remake of the Spanish film Open Your Eyes, about a magazine publisher who wakes up in a lucid dream after a car crash.
Dec 14, 2001 · Vanilla Sky: Directed by Cameron Crowe. With Tom Cruise, Penélope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Kurt Russell. A self-indulgent and vain publishing magnate finds his privileged life upended after a vehicular accident with a resentful lover.
- (288K)
- Fantasy, Mystery, Romance
- Cameron Crowe
- 2001-12-14
A complex and twisty thriller starring Tom Cruise as a wealthy playboy who faces a mysterious fate after a car accident. Roger Ebert analyzes the plot, the themes, and the surprises of this scrupulously moral picture by Cameron Crowe.
- What Is Vanilla Sky About?
- Cast
- Why Is The Movie called Vanilla Sky?
- The Themes and Meaning of Vanilla Sky
- The Ending of Vanilla Sky Explained
- Important Motifs in Vanilla Sky
- Questions & Answers About Vanilla Sky
- Now It’S Your Turn
For those who want a quick answer—Vanilla Skyis pretty straightforward. Everything that Tech Support says in the final scene is true. Tom Cruise is having a lucid dream. He did die (sort of) and was saved by Life Extension. He didn’t kill Sofia. He does have a choice of waking up or continuing the dream. And David chooses to wake up about 150 years...
David Aames – Tom CruiseJulie Gianni – Cameron DiazBrian Shelby – Jason LeeSofía Serrano – Penélope CruzVanilla Sky is a remake of the 1997 Spanish film Abre los ojos, or Open Your Eyes, made by Alejandro Amenábar, also starring Penelope Cruz as Sofia. The plot is almost verbatim. Handsome guy. Crazy ex. Sofia. Car crash. Disfigurement. Prosthetic mask. In jail and talking to a psychiatrist. Mystery. Thrills. Murder. Life Extension revelation. Jumps ...
Reality vs dream
Vanilla Sky opens with a bit of a joke. David drives around New York City, right into the heart of Times Square, with zero traffic. He’s alone in one of the most popular, populated places in the entire world. Being able to easily get around NYC is a dream come true. Except David isn’t thrilled. He’s terrified. What happened to the people? They should be there. Even if that means traffic and annoyances. It’s what shouldbe. That gets at the central tension between dreams and real life. As amazi...
Entertainment and escapism
Art is a subtle throughline throughout Vanilla Sky. Diegetically, it’s there in the references to famous works, like The Seine at Argenteuil, or Joni Mitchell, or the Jules and Jim poster on David’s bedroom wall, the quick look at Sabrinaon the TV in the opening scene, the talk show interview about Benny the Dog, the Bob Dylan album cover. Non-diegetically, we have the barrage of pop music that Crowe fills the score with. From “Everything In Its Right Place” by Radiohead to “Last Goodbye” by...
Trauma, self-esteem, and perception
There’s that famous saying that the eyes are the window to the soul. Typically, we think of that as looking into the eyes of someone else and perceiving their emotions and thoughts. Whether there’s worry, joy, boredom, anticipation, passion, fear, etc. But there’s something about applying that phrase to our own eyes. You know, the things through which we perceive the world around us. If our soul is in a good place, how does that affect how we perceive the world around us? Likewise, if our sou...
Recap:
David and McCabe go to the headquarters of Life Extension, escorted by a police officer. There, they encounter Rebecca Dearborn. She reminds David that he is a client of Life Extension and chose the Lucid Dream package. Overwhelmed by this revelation, David escapes from the office and cries out for tech support. Edmund Ventura, aka Tech Support, appears, introducing himself as someone from “Oasis Project, formerly Life Extension—L.E.”. On a journey to the skyscraper’s roof, Tech Support expla...
Explanation
In the 2020 interview with Vulture, Cameron Crowe confirmed that not everything Tech Support said is true. Crowe: The clues are all there, and some of the stuff that’s “explained” toward the end is not fully — Noah Tayor is not fully a responsible “host” at that point. Not everything he says can be trusted. It’s a fun game to play with the movie and I’m glad that people have come back to it. The Wikipedia page for Vanilla Sky has an Interpretationssection that mentions five different possible...
It was all a dream
“But couldn’t it also not be a dream?” No. That was semi-plausible up until the point McCabe can’t remember the name of his daughters. He’s clearly a mental construct of David’s Lucid Dream. If the whole thing was an elaborate ruse by the Seven Dwarfs to take control of the company, then, narratively speaking, they would be the main villains and incredibly underdeveloped. Normally, a story wouldn’t completely disregard the primary antagonists like that. But you don’t develop them if all they...
The Vanilla Sky
It’s been mentioned throughout the article, but the Vanilla Sky of the Lucid Dream is a callback to the sky in Monet’s painting The Seine at Argenteuil. The Lucid Dream embodies the way in which art becomes a means of escape and the tension of art being beautiful but also a representation of life rather than life itself. You can admire the sky in The Seine at Argenteuilbut it can’t replace the real sky. Just like Dream Sofia,while wonderful, can’t replace having a relationship with an actual...
The Jules and Jim poster
Jules and Jimis a classic film major movie. Part of the French New Wave revolution of the 50s and 60s, it’s this dreamy story of two friends, Jules and Jim, and the woman, Catherine, that they’re both in love with. She marries Jules and time passes. Jim visits and begins a romance with Catherine, one that Jules agrees to because it turns out Catherine kind of hates him and Jules believes this is the only way he can keep her in his life. Eventually, Jim leaves, goes back to his old girlfriend,...
Empty Times Square
On the one hand, the scene in an empty Times Square doesn’t need to mean anything more than just being a great visual. On the other hand, it does serve as a nice contrast to the very end of the film. Compare the Times Square scene to the final conversation on the rooftop of Life Extension headquarters. In the former, Cruise is on the ground, completely alone. Even though his life seems perfect, it’s empty. By the end, he’s high up on a roof and has with him some very important people—Sofia, B...
Was it Sofia or Julie that David smothered?
Even though he thinks it was Julie, David sees the mole that he knew Sofia had. Which is why he thinks he killed Sofia. There’s a scene earlier in the movie where he makes a big deal about that mole. That’s there specifically to set up the later “reveal”.
Was Julie actually Sofia? Did Sofia ever exist?
There’s a whole argument to be made that no one in the dream ever existed in David’s life and his real life was completely different from whatever we see in the dream. But if we accept some of the facts that the movie gave us in the first 30 minutes, then Julie and Sofia really were separate people.
Why did David think Julie was Sofia or that Sofia was Julie?
The simple answer is it was just the glitch causing the dream to become a nightmare. That’s it. The deeper, thematic answer is that it’s a byproduct of David’s subconscious and relates to a guilt he feels about what happened with Sofia and Julie. If he hadn’t gotten into the car with the one, then he could have had a life with the other. He “chose” Julie. So her becoming Sofia in the dream is just a hyperbolic embodiment of David’s guilt and remorse. That momentary choice had a profound rippl...
Have more unanswered questions about Vanilla Sky? Are there themes or motifs we missed? Is there more to explain about the ending? Please post your questions and thoughts in the comments section! We’ll do our best to address every one of them. If we like what you have to say, you could become part of our movie guide!
Vanilla Sky. Tom Cruise and Cameron Crowe reunite after "Jerry Maguire" for "Vanilla Sky," the story of a young New York City publishing magnate who finds himself on an unexpected...
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- Cameron Crowe
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- Tom Cruise
Synopsis. David Aames (Tom Cruise) drives to work, he finds the streets of New York strangely deserted at rush hour. With growing unease he drives to Times Square and finds the entire city abandoned. He then awakens in his bedroom once again to realize he's only been having a vivid dream.
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Dec 25, 2023 · Learn how the 2001 remake of "Abre Los Ojos" challenges the boundaries of reality and delves deep into the intricate workings of the human mind. Discover the hidden clues, theories, and interpretations of this mind-bending film starring Tom Cruise, Penélope Cruz, and Cameron Diaz.
