Main Cast: Dennis Quaid, Max von Sydow, Christopher Plummer, Eddie Albert, Kate Capshaw
Release Year: 1984
Country: US
Run Time: 99 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
Great special effects do not always make for a great film, but Dreamscape comes awfully close. Dr. Paul Novotny (Max Von Sydow) and Dr. Jane Devries (Kate Capshaw) run a clinic for the study of dreams. Hoping to alleviate the pain of those plagued with recurring nightmares, Novotny hires a team of psychics to "inhabit" the subconsciouses of the patients. Alex Gardner (Dennis Quaid), a small-time hustler who uses his ESP gifts for financial gains, is hired to work at the clinic. He helps to disperse the fears of a young nightmare-plagued boy, then reverts to type by "raping" the thoughts of the lovely Dr. Devries. Things come to a head when one of the patients, the American president (Eddie Albert), decides to purge himself of his apocalyptic dreams by making a lasting peace with the Soviets. Bob Blair (Christopher Plummer), the political reactionary who finances the clinic, decides to assassinate the president by acting upon Dr. Novotny's pet theory: if a person dies in his or her dream, he/she will die in real life. The finale pits Gardner against psychic assassin Tommy Ray Glatman (David Patrick Kelly). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
This tidy little B-movie never fully capitalizes on the full potential of its novel premise but remains good fun in a "Saturday matinee" vein. The script is occasionally overwhelmed by its own ambition but moves fast enough to gloss over its weaker elements: the cold-war angle of the story hasn't dated well, and a subplot with a Stephen King-like horror novelist goes nowhere, but there's always an inventive nightmare scenario or a fun bit of action to keep things moving along past any bumps in the plot. Director Joseph Ruben wisely plays to the film's genre-based strengths, maintaining a taut pace and effectively using veteran actors like Christopher Plummer and Max Von Sydow to lend the film's conspiracy angle some dramatic weight. The film further benefits from some strong lead performances: Dennis Quaid uses his down to earth charm to make Alex Gardner a hero that is easy to relate to, and David Patrick Kelly is both scary and darkly witty as Gardner's eccentric (and psychotic) rival. Dreamscape's appeal is cemented by its creative dream sequences; the larger-scale special effects show their seams due to the low budget, but all the effects exhibit an expressionistic sense of imagination that makes them truly captivating (the most stunning is a train ride through a post-nuclear-war Washington). All in all, Dreamscape is a light but entertaining film that offers plenty of solid B-movie fun for genre enthusiasts. ~ Donald Guarisco, All Movie Guide
David Patrick Kelly - Tommy Ray Glatman; Timothy Blake - Mrs. Blair; Kendall Carly Browne - Mrs. Matusik; George Caldwell - Buddy's Father; Larry Cedar - The Snakeman; Kate Charleson - President's Daughter; Trent Dolan - Desk Guard; Larry Gelman - Mr. Webber; Redmond Gleeson - Snead; Ernest Harada - Gardener; Peter Jason - Babcock; Betty Kean - Grandma; Virginia Kiser - President's Wife; Ben Kronen - Train Conductor; Brian Libby - McClaren; John Malone - Trolley Conductor; Madison Mason - Fred Schoenstein; Carl Strano - Edward Simms; Jana Taylor - Mrs. Webber; Bob Terhune - Dobbs; George Wendt - Charlie Prince; Chris Mulkey - Finch; Alan Buchdahl - Track Announcer; Marii Mak - Tech Aide; Cory "Bumper" Yothers; Fred M. Waugh - Bill Hardy; Andrew Boyer - Webber's Brother; Carey Fox - Tech Aide
Credit
Jeff Staggs - Art Director, Jerry Tokofsky - Co-producer, Linda M. Bass - Costume Designer, Joseph Ruben - Director, Richard Halsey - Editor, Stanley R. Zupnik - Executive Producer, Tom Curtis - Executive Producer, Maurice Jarre - Composer (Music Score), Brian Tufano - Cinematographer, Chuck Russell - Producer, Bruce Cohn Curtis - Producer, Peter Kuran - Special Effects, Craig Reardon - Special Effects, Richard Taylor - Special Effects, David Loughery - Screen Story, David Loughery - Screenwriter, Joseph Ruben - Screenwriter, Chuck Russell - Screenwriter
Alex Gardner (Quaid) is a psychic who’s abandoned years of study and showcasing his talents for a life of gambling and sloth.
After running foul of a local gangster named Sneed (Gleeson), Gardner allows himself to be abducted by two men, Finch & Babcock (Jason & Mulkey) on behalf of his former mentor Dr. Paul Novotny (von Sydow).
Under the guise of a university project, Alex discovers that Novotny, aided by Jane DeVries (Capshaw) has learned a way to project the minds of certain individuals into the dreams of others.
It is soon learned by Alex, who willingly joins Novotny’s efforts, that he’s actually involved in a U.S. government-funded project to train psychics to enter other people's dreams as assassins.
Alex is tested by Jane.
It started out initially as a clinic to diagnose and treat sleep disorders, particularly in the form of nightmares, but the project has been hijacked by Bob Blair (Plummer), a powerful government agent with possible CIA ties, though it is never clearly revealed in the film.
Before the plot is revealed, Alex gains experience helping a man worried about his wife’s infidelity and taking over the case of a young boy named Buddy (Yothers) who’s plagued with nightmares so terrible that a previous psychic lost his mind in an attempt to help Buddy. Buddy's nightmare bogeyman involves a large snakeman which later becomes a weakness for Alex.
Alex is caught invading Jane's dream.
A subplot involving Alex and Jane’s growing infatuation culminates with him sneaking into Jane's dream without the use of the machines which are a part of the process, a point Jane doesn’t realize at first while too furious about the erotic elements of the dream Alex instigated.
With the help of a novelist named Charlie Prince (Wendt), who has been covertly investigating the project for the basis of a new book, Alex learns of Blair’s sinister intentions.
Prince and Novotny are both murdered to silence them, things get worse when the President of the United States (Albert) is admitted as a patient, and Alex’s co-hort Tommy Ray Glatman is sent into the President's nightmare in an attempt to have him assassinated.
Tommy Ray Glatman, dream assassin.
Blair considers the President a threat to national security due to the President's nightmares of a post-apocalyptic world, which represent his fears and becomes cause for his wishing to enter unfavorable negotiations for nuclear disarmament.
Alex and Jane manage to get close enough to the President’s room to save the President and kill Glatman.
The President is grateful but reluctant to confront Blair, who apparently holds a truly powerful position in the government. To protect himself and Jane, Alex enters Blair’s dream and murders him before Blair can bring about any sort of retribution.
The film ends with Jane and Alex boarding a train to Louisville, Kentucky (home of Churchill Downs), intent on making their previous dream encounter a reality. Noticing the same Ticket Conductor from the dream gives them a moment of pause.
The theatrical release of the film in certain U.S. cities (e.g. Tucson, Arizona) included a glaring editing error where two takes of the same scene were shown back-to-back. In both versions, Plummer's character enters the dormitory bedroom of Kelly's character and Kelly's character angrily speaks to Plummer. In the first version, which lasts about five-to-seven seconds, Kelly's character ended the take using the f-word. In the second version, the f-word was replaced with a mild adjective. Subsequent video and DVD versions of the film contain only the tamer version of the scene.
Dreamscape was the third film, after The Flamingo Kid and Red Dawn, to receive the PG-13 rating under the MPAA rating system, although because of a delay in the release of The Flamingo Kid, Dreamscape was actually the second film released with that rating.[1]
Dennis Quaid was the first and only choice for Alex Gardner, after the producers loved his dedication for the role and the project during its pre-production stage.
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.
Originally there was a love scene involving Alex and Jane that was supposed to have taken place in the middle of the film involving nudity, but it was edited for pacing issues and content because of the MPAA's new PG-13 rating guidelines.
Ranked #93 on Rotten Tomatoes' Journey Through Sci-Fi (100 Best-Reviewed Sci-Fi Movies).
The film developed from an initial outline that Roger Zelazny wrote in 1981, based in part upon his novella "He Who Shapes" and novel The Dream Master. He was not involved in the project after 20th Century Fox bought his outline. Since he didn't write the film treatment or the script, that is why his name doesn't appear in the credits; assertions that he removed his name from the credits are unfounded.[2]
^ "...And Call Me Roger": The Literary Life of Roger Zelazny, Part 4, by Christopher S. Kovacs. In: The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny, Volume 4: Last Exit to Babylon, NESFA Press, 2009.
