Dreamscape (1984) on Netflix
R19841h 39mAdventureSci-FiThriller
Alex Gardner, a psychic who gambles with his gift, joins a government project where psychics enter others' dreams. His mentor, Dr. Paul Novotny, wants him to learn what its overseer intends.
- Netflix3.3/5
- IMDb6.3/1018,912 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes78%
Trailer
Plot summary
A research study once documented Alex Gardner's psychic ability, and he disappeared from it. He now uses the gift for gambling and womanizing. After trouble with a gangster named Snead, he lets two men, Finch and Babcock, take him to an academic institution, where he meets his former mentor, Dr. Paul Novotny. Novotny, with the scientist Dr. Jane DeVries, works on a government-funded program that lets a psychic enter another person's subconscious during REM sleep, a technique meant to diagnose and treat sleep disorders and nightmares. Novotny brings Alex into the project to learn what Bob Blair, the government agent now overseeing it, intends. Alex tries the method on a man worried that his wife is unfaithful and on a boy named Buddy, whose nightmares feature a snake-man.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Dreamscape (1984)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Buddy's nightmare monster was first described as a "rat-man" but became a snake-man because it could not be told apart from the werewolves of The Howling and An American Werewolf in London; at Ruben's suggestion, based on his own fear of snakes, Russell drew designs inspired by 7 Faces of Dr. Lao.
- Ruben and Russell spent seven months rewriting the script, scaling down ideas such as Eddie Albert's president's recurring nuclear-holocaust nightmare, originally set in New York City with a destroyed Statue of Liberty and a backdrop of fiery seas with boats of the undead, which would not have been filmable.
- Dreamscape was the second film released to theaters with a PG-13 rating under the then-new MPAA guidelines, following Red Dawn, which had come out five days earlier.
