(Click here to watch the movie trailer)Vanilla Sky
Tasting the Sour on the Way to the Sweet
"Vanilla Sky" is a movie by Cameron Crowe. The movie is telling the story of the life of David Aames Jr (Tom Cruise). People who watched this movie had many whys and whats in their heads. The movie starts with David waking up and getting ready to go to work. when he starts driving in New York City streets and he finds himself alone he wakes up again. The movie goes on and the viewer would think:"Oh! now i understand what is happening", then David wakes up again and that brings the confusion to the viewer's head. When the movie is over the major question that the viewers will ask is: was the movie David's dream or was it David's real life? Eventhough the "tech support" told David at the end of the movie that everything that happened after David passed out outside the club was a dream, there is some evidence that the whole movie was dream.
Now, let's stop here for a second and talk about David's life because it is the main thing of what happens in the movie. David is a rich, 33 years old guy who inherited a big publishing company from his dad. He does what he wants. He sleeps, eats, works and has sex with whoever he wants. His friend Brian Shelby (Jason Lee) who is a writer mentions that when he is talking to David in the car. Brian says:".. You can do whatever you want in your life...", but Brian continues to say " but one day you will know what love truely is. It is the sour and the sweet." I will be back to the sweet and sour thing later but i want to focus on the true love. David has never practiced true love in his life, but he is definitly thinking about it all the time. His father was too busy to love him and he didn't talk about him. He did say "David Jr was a delight as a child" and that was all he said. Everyone in David's life is connected to him for personal benifits and that what Sofia Serrano (Penelope Cruz) tells David: "Everyone in your life is connected to you for survival someway". So, in his real life there is no true love, but was he dreaming about it? Few things that shows that David was looking for true love in his dream. The first one "Subconsious is a very powerful thing." This phrase is said to David twice in the movie. The first time is by the Psychologist McCabe (Kurt Russell) and the second time is by the lady who showed him the Lucid Dream. The second thing is McCabe's talk about the five emotions in life "Shame, Revenge, Guilt, Hate and Love" and when he asks David about the emotion that gripped him before he commited the murder, love is the one he focuses on. David is not thinking about the money because he has a lot of it. He is not thinking about girls, cars or power because he has it all. He is thinking about love, the only thing missing in his life. His subconsious translates that into a dream where he meets the girl that he truely loves.
In the movie, David has a car accident and his face gets smashed and toward the end of the movie he kills the girl he loves. At the end of the movie he wakes up again. The car accident and the murder are the sour that Brian talked about which David has to taste before he appreciates the sweet. His subconsious makes those things up because he is looking for true love.
The "Tech Support" tells David that his Lucid Dream begins after David passes out in the street. In the Lucid Dream, Sofia comes back and wakes David up, but in the real life David wakes up by himself and he walks away. The "Tech Support" gives David the Choice either to go to his real life or to continue with the Lucid Dream and David chooses to go back to the real life. When David wakes up, there is a voice telling him to open his eyes. Let me make this clear. "Tech Support" tells David that in the real life he wakes up by himself, but when David goes back to the real life somebody wakes him up. that doesn't make sense unless it is the made of imagination or if it is a dream.
The entire movie is David's journey to find himself and find his true love. David is the person who is looking for happiness in his life. "What is happiness to you David?" is a question that is being asked to David by several people. It is amazing journey of self awakening because as Sofia says: "Every passing minute is another chance to turn it all around" and this is David's chance to turn things around and find happiness in his life.
Now, let's stop here for a second and talk about David's life because it is the main thing of what happens in the movie. David is a rich, 33 years old guy who inherited a big publishing company from his dad. He does what he wants. He sleeps, eats, works and has sex with whoever he wants. His friend Brian Shelby (Jason Lee) who is a writer mentions that when he is talking to David in the car. Brian says:".. You can do whatever you want in your life...", but Brian continues to say " but one day you will know what love truely is. It is the sour and the sweet." I will be back to the sweet and sour thing later but i want to focus on the true love. David has never practiced true love in his life, but he is definitly thinking about it all the time. His father was too busy to love him and he didn't talk about him. He did say "David Jr was a delight as a child" and that was all he said. Everyone in David's life is connected to him for personal benifits and that what Sofia Serrano (Penelope Cruz) tells David: "Everyone in your life is connected to you for survival someway". So, in his real life there is no true love, but was he dreaming about it? Few things that shows that David was looking for true love in his dream. The first one "Subconsious is a very powerful thing." This phrase is said to David twice in the movie. The first time is by the Psychologist McCabe (Kurt Russell) and the second time is by the lady who showed him the Lucid Dream. The second thing is McCabe's talk about the five emotions in life "Shame, Revenge, Guilt, Hate and Love" and when he asks David about the emotion that gripped him before he commited the murder, love is the one he focuses on. David is not thinking about the money because he has a lot of it. He is not thinking about girls, cars or power because he has it all. He is thinking about love, the only thing missing in his life. His subconsious translates that into a dream where he meets the girl that he truely loves.
In the movie, David has a car accident and his face gets smashed and toward the end of the movie he kills the girl he loves. At the end of the movie he wakes up again. The car accident and the murder are the sour that Brian talked about which David has to taste before he appreciates the sweet. His subconsious makes those things up because he is looking for true love.
The "Tech Support" tells David that his Lucid Dream begins after David passes out in the street. In the Lucid Dream, Sofia comes back and wakes David up, but in the real life David wakes up by himself and he walks away. The "Tech Support" gives David the Choice either to go to his real life or to continue with the Lucid Dream and David chooses to go back to the real life. When David wakes up, there is a voice telling him to open his eyes. Let me make this clear. "Tech Support" tells David that in the real life he wakes up by himself, but when David goes back to the real life somebody wakes him up. that doesn't make sense unless it is the made of imagination or if it is a dream.
The entire movie is David's journey to find himself and find his true love. David is the person who is looking for happiness in his life. "What is happiness to you David?" is a question that is being asked to David by several people. It is amazing journey of self awakening because as Sofia says: "Every passing minute is another chance to turn it all around" and this is David's chance to turn things around and find happiness in his life.
Tkhatqm
03-19-2009
03-19-2009
wow, that's deep tkhatqm!! i like that explntn..i've seen this film well over 20 times and love it..always thought there was something deeper than just the tech guy's explanation at the end
ReplyDeleteexcellent explanation! I have recently seen it and was astonished by the interesting message that the movie was conveying. Good movie to watch indeed.
ReplyDeletei personally think that the dream begins when he passes out in the street. he has the dreams about seeking love. then in the end he is woken up by somebody(notice that its sophias voice). i think that he is being woken up in the street by sophia.
ReplyDeleteReally though, the message or meaning of this movie is not subliminal. He found Life Extenstions and went for it. It's a completely fictional movie.
ReplyDeleteLE is not real.
However, in the movie, David goes for it. he OD's on pills and chose (in his lucid dream) to be awaken by Sophia...someone he needed to tell him to get his shit together. His parents never did.
From that point on, everything was perfect: Sophia, his love, the sky, the scenery (monet's vanilla sky, walking arm & arm with Sophia like his favorite Bob Dylan album. A wonderful dream. Check out the movie...the skies, his relationships, is career is all perfect.
Like any dream, or the several we may have, there's always a nightmare. His dream did that. I agree with above... the sour and the sweet.
Fiction: he called upon LE tech support (part of his contract) and wanted to the skinny on what is happening.
Tech support told him everything I just explained. Now David was given the choice. Stay in this lucid dream, or go back out into the real world with the knowledge you have...yes, the Sour and Sweet.
he appreciates that now. So he took the plunge, over came his fears and wants to live the life he was deprived of from childhood. Everything he ever wanted. Because he never truely experienced the real, meaningful life.
You can contrude it as greed and ignorance because he had it all and didnt care.
hands down, beautiful movie and amazing story.
One word, though: Fiction.
But again, AMAZING>
i watched vanilla sky today n frankly i was very confused n annoyed with the ending...
ReplyDeletebecause i coluldnt totally understand it...
it couldnt inspirem me!
but ur interpretation seems sooo beutiful that i would like to belive it ...n now i m able to get a taste of the movie!
thank you :)
-Garima P
i swear to god the south needs better education
ReplyDeleteI think this film went waaaay over many people's heads. I had to watch it about 10 times to really get it. Each time I saw something new. This analysis is good and hopefully it will allow people to rediscover this film. It truly is a Cameron Crowe work of art, and I think it's Tom's best acting because it shows his range.
ReplyDeletetech support tells that his dream started after he passed out in the walkway and in real life he walks away...because some of his real life incidents had been erased from his memory...so as much as incidents were erased from his memory...and then it was set to restart from his passing off on the street time(David's option)
ReplyDeleteIf David was in a lucid dream during the second half of the film, why would he choose to start it when he passed out on the sidewalk? LE erased his suicide so why not have it start before the car accident when he first met Sofia at his party? To me, the splice is one of the most confusing things about this movie. There are many theories as to what is really happening to David. He is in a coma from the accident, the lucid dream, a regular dream, the plot of Brian's novel. The ambiguity of the movie is what makes it such a powerful story. The movie is so infinitely deep that you can come away from it any way you see fit and no one else can clearly say your interpretation is wrong. The best question the movie constantly asks is "what is happiness to you, David?" and explores all of the conventional possibilities as well as some ethereal ones. Power, health, wealth, love, friendship, sex, sanity, and even god. No stone is left unturned and yet at the end of the movie we are left to our own devices. Vanilla Sky is a movie about David Aames Jr. that ultimately descends into an introspective journey about what brings true happiness into our own lives.
ReplyDeleteThe concept that resonates the most with me is the moral tale of taking personal accountability for one's own actions and being prepared to face their inevitable consequences for better or for worse. This is a great movie as well as a modern classic.
Maybe it's me, but I found the conversation between David and Sofia at the ehd of the movie so POWERFUL. Plus, the soundtrack in this movie is absolutley incredible.
ReplyDeleteJoe
But he wakes up years in the future after everyone he has ever known has died and tech tells him his money won't last long out there and that the world is different. That's how long this mutha was frozen. He really woke up preserved in the future. She's dead and he's frozen. See you in another life when we are both cats. She dead. too late. toughskies shitskies.
ReplyDeletewow
ReplyDeletei dont get it.. the reason he has a smashed face is cos of a car accident right? but when it shows us that he took the pills.. it co-incides with him falling on the floor right? so the OD on pills is a metaphor for suicide.
ReplyDeletethe reason he committed suicide is because of the car crash and the consequences right? but if you look at the crash as a metpahor it doesnt make sense, why did he really commit sucide?
i dont get it.. the reason he has a smashed face is cos of a car accident right? but when it shows us that he took the pills.. it co-incides with him falling on the floor right? so the OD on pills is a metaphor for suicide.
ReplyDeleteSORRY I MEANT METAPHOR FOR THE CAR CRASH.
the reason he committed suicide is because of the car crash and the consequences right? but if you look at the crash as a metpahor it doesnt make sense, why did he really commit sucide?
For whoever posted this question: The reason he chose for the lucid dream to start after he woke up in the street instead of before the car crash was so that he could experience the "SOUR and the sweet" which was a theme for the movie and the way to be truly happy
ReplyDeleteI think in the end he really choses to continue the dream. Their is small hints that lean towards that. Like when he woke up to the voice of a woman at the end instead of by him self like LE tech support said he would.
ReplyDeletewhat is the matter of 150 years? and in the end david was awaked by whom?
ReplyDeletehe was awaken by an alarm clock
ReplyDeletedavid wakes up in the LE lab where he is frozen..remember he's in a cryo state..so when he chooses to live a real life he is revived again..and the voice at the end telling him to"open your eyes" is clearly not sophia's voice..I'm sure its the voice of some nurse or doctor at the LE lab...He is awoken in the future where if fate happens he will meet a beautiful woman and fall in love with her just like he did with sophia"SEE YOU IN ANOTHER LIFE"..This entire movie is about consequences and regret..He took his life because of the pain and guilt of losing the one true thing he felt love for which was SOPHIA!!
ReplyDeletei saw the movie 'vanilla sky' at first i find it interesting but its not clear to me whether David dies in the end or all events of his life went in his dreams?
ReplyDeleteAnd even if he doesnt die, did sophia came back to him or not? This a bit disappointing to see the end of the movie. Its a good movie but still i dont want to see the end where a guy like David has been left by sophia, whom he seemed to be deeply in love.
I think Cameron Crowe should make 'Vanilla Sky' part 2 taking Tom Cruise again, where he can show what actually happened to David when he wakes up from the dream. where his girlfriend ' Sophia' and best friend have gone.
ReplyDeleteBecause, most of us are eager to see this as, whole of the movie was moving around dream, and was a bit confusing to see when its real n when its dream..