Vanilla Sky...

[tolinka]

Ok, im not a big fan of tom cruise...but i just findished watchin this movie....and i must say this is shit is fucked up! in a good way.
One of the most mind bending movies i ever seen...have any one else seen it?

[wimp]

ya i saw it. it was a weird but good movie.

[Steele]

yes, it kicks ass. watched it twicw to see if i missed anything. i think i figured it out.
he just wanted a normal life, so he jumped. he just wanted to live and die.
maybe thats obvious, but i was confused the first time i saw it.
oh, and its a remake of a foreign film.

[tolinka]

Originally posted by Steele
yes, it kicks ass. watched it twicw to see if i missed anything. i think i figured it out.
he just wanted a normal life, so he jumped. he just wanted to live and die.
maybe thats obvious, but i was confused the first time i saw it.
oh, and its a remake of a foreign film.

man you missed the whole thing i think...(im not really sure about it either)

The movie kept on reapeating about the subcounsiosness...little things...love...his dreams...his face...after putting it all together...and loosing all of his fears (the last fear- jumping of the building) he wakes up.....from the comma he had been since the accident

Thats what i think...all of what he saw was just in his head...while he was in a comma

[BostonBobby]

Awesome movie I had to watch it a couple times to figure it out... First time I saw I'm like what the fuck did I just watch.. Now it's one of my favorites..

B

[Deadend]

One of my favorites as well. If you've got it on DVD watch the movie with the commentary by Cameron Crowe on. You'll appreciate it much more.

[Aragorn]

It was a great movie...I'll definately watch the dvd though to see it with the commentary.

Aragorn

[tolinka]

was my assumption right about it??? share your ideas

[Aragorn]

Originally posted by tolinka
was my assumption right about it??? share your ideas

For me I haven't seen it in a while so I can't fully comment...It was more of an "artsy" film so if you aren't into that you probably wouldn't like it...but if you like to wrap your head around different types of genre films then it's definately a movie to watch.

Aragorn

[Babyweight]

Originally posted by tolinka
was my assumption right about it??? share your ideas

Here it goes:
The entire movie is about trying to wake him up out of his cryogenic state.
Everything was real up to the bar sceen. He woke up the next day, went home, went online and contact L.E., he met up with the guy and signed the contract, went home and overdosed and he died.

He never got plastic surgery, you just kept seeing frames of his dreams. Like once when he went to the bathroom turned on the light and his face was messed up, then he did it again and his face was normal.
What was happened with the 2 girls is, the blonde (Cameron Diaz) put a huge impact on his life before the car accident. So in his subconscience (or actually in his Lucid Dream) he was also dreaming and couldn't figure if he was awake or asleep. A couple of times in the movie people kept asking him what happiness was to him...It kept reflecting back to that moment.
So to make a long story short...(take a big breath), his 150 years were up cryogenically, so the whole time they are trying to wake him up.. (kinda like when you go under after an operation), some people can wake right up, while others, me included especially in my last operation, kept slipping back into my subconscious and it took me 2 hours to awake. SOOOOOO, this is when they had to call in Tech Support to get him out of the state. In the end on top of the building Tech support explains everything..then he looks at penelope and says, I'm frozen and your dead, meaning he might as well go ahead as had originally planned and wake up from his dream. Which of course to wake him up he had to deal with his biggest fear. Heights.
One last thing..if you notice in parts of the movie, the alarm clock saying "open your eyes", or I think a time while he was in his bed "open your eyes" was repeated. The very last words in the movie was "open your eyes"...trying to wake his ass up!!!!! and he did.

Baby

[FireFighter]

sorry babyweight.. i couldn't read your reply.. i was too busy staring at your Avatar! haha

[tolinka]

If what you are saying Babyweight is the ending...then i dont like it...to science fiction for me...all this Life Extension bullshit...what i assumed from was that all of this was in his mind...there was no Life Extension...there was no Tech Support...it was all in his mind...I thought that everything was real till the crazy bitch drove him off a bridge...so now he wakes up 150 years later...what is the fucking point of that...it would be much better if he actually woke up from a coma... im disepointed of the ending but Cameron Crowe is one bad ass director.

[Babyweight]

Tolinka...that was just my opinion after I put it all together. I guess the only person to know would be Mr. Crowe himself.
I'm sure he made the movie so that people would look at it a few different ways. What good would it be if It was like every other movie out there that you can figure out in the first 20 minutes.

It's just a mind twister, thats all...Just like our own lives!

[tolinka]

Yea i guess you are right about that...everyone takes soemthing diffrent from this movie....

Bu the way....you pic i....Mmmmmmmm

[Babyweight]

Originally posted by tolinka
[
Bu the way....you pic i....Mmmmmmmm [/B]

hhehee...is this English????

[tolinka]

Originally posted by Babyweight


hhehee...is this English????

Its Universal i think....

[FireFighter]

looks like babyweight is in the christmas spirit... I am now as well!

[Babyweight]

I am always in the Christmas spirit.....I'm a giving person..

[tolinka]

Originally posted by Babyweight
I am always in the Christmas spirit.....I'm a giving person..

Oooooowwweeeee........

[FireFighter]

im in the reciving spirit!

[Cycleon]

Originally posted by FireFighter
im in the reciving spirit!

Carefull if you pickup the soap then - I see that Nathan is about

[FireFighter]

hehehe.... Thanks for the warning Cycleon... I heard hes jumping around from gym to gym.. hinding in the showers waiting for his victims! ahha

[JP1570]

Originally posted by tolinka
If what you are saying Babyweight is the ending...then i dont like it...to science fiction for me...all this Life Extension bullshit...what i assumed from was that all of this was in his mind...there was no Life Extension...there was no Tech Support...it was all in his mind...I thought that everything was real till the crazy bitch drove him off a bridge...so now he wakes up 150 years later...what is the fucking point of that...it would be much better if he actually woke up from a coma... im disepointed of the ending but Cameron Crowe is one bad ass director.

Like you said yourself, it was a remake, Crowe just followed the same plot. ANyway, babyweight's synopsis is correct. Here's a couple other cool things to look for in that movie.

1) The ring on Cameron Diaz's phone - end of the refrain to "Row your boat." ("Life is but a dream")

2) The first voice on the alarm clock in the morning is Penelope cruz's, not Cameron Diaz's. She says "Abre les ohos," or "open your eyes" in Spanish, which is the name of the foreign film V Sky is based on.

3)Different car in his dream and real life. The car in his dream is Badass.

4)Tom cruise's attitude when he sees Penelope Cruz in the park. He gets confused for some reason, I'm really not sure why. Watch the scene.

I think I could type about a hundred more.....

[tolinka]

Good stuff...but i'm not really in the mood to reply on it...ill do it later

[Babyweight]

Originally posted by JP1570


Like you said yourself, it was a remake, Crowe just followed the same plot. ANyway, babyweight's synopsis is correct. Here's a couple other cool things to look for in that movie.

1) The ring on Cameron Diaz's phone - end of the refrain to "Row your boat." ("Life is but a dream")

2) The first voice on the alarm clock in the morning is Penelope cruz's, not Cameron Diaz's. She says "Abre les ohos," or "open your eyes" in Spanish, which is the name of the foreign film V Sky is based on.

3)Different car in his dream and real life. The car in his dream is Badass.

4)Tom cruise's attitude when he sees Penelope Cruz in the park. He gets confused for some reason, I'm really not sure why. Watch the scene.

I think I could type about a hundred more.....

When you mention about the scene in the park.. I am a little stumped with this one too.
When she brings up about the "sadest girl to ever hold a Martini" he looks very confused, and he did say "what party?" Which of course was his birthday.
But then they mention that a couple more times in the movie and he and she both caught on... very confuzing..again I don't know for sure whether the birthday party was real or not..But I think it has to be because isn't that when he first meet Penelope????

[FireFighter]

Damn babyweight is hot! hehe

[BigGreen]

I'm sorry, I'm a bit lazy to type it out now....guess tolinka and I have more in common than I thought. But, I have an interpretation that I would argue supports Tolinka's particular reading of "the awakening" as awakening from the "true" coma, as opposed to the technologically induced coma of LE....i know you'll all be looking forward to it, so I'll be making my best effort to get it up there ASAP, but it's a hectic day today.

[BigGreen]

HERE's MY DISSERTATION...hahaha

Okay, as promised my treatise on the “original coma” reading of Vanilla Sky. I’m going to try not to get too longwinded, but I live for this stuff, so please excuse it if in fact it does happen.

I would argue that the film’s treatment of technology offers compelling evidence to support this reading. Chiefly, there is very little in the film’s established reality (the point up to the divide– when David Aames is in the car accident…. even this is debatable, but we’ll assume that much is true) to indicate that there is in fact a technological infrastructure of any sort in place capable of supporting the immortality through technology fantasy. Indeed, there is reason to believe that the iconic use of technology in the film deliberately stresses this impossibility. For example, for a multimillionaire, if not billionaire, Aames’ vehicle is auspiciously denying the technological both in dream and reality. Furthermore, Sophia’s absolute marveling at the hologram playing the trumpet can certainly be interpreted as an act that would be most incongruous in a culture in which technological immortality is not only attainable, but advertised and incorporated into pop culture.

Following the car accident, technology permeates at an incredible rate, deliberately guiding and leading this “world” towards and end in which the ultimate technological aspiration – immortality – becomes feasible. Beginning with the virtual board meeting (which stands in stark contrast to the Aames of the identifiable real world whose concerted efforts to meet “in person” almost get him killed by a truck, not to mention the cynical view of technology harbored by this Aames), progressing to radically successful facial reconstruction surgery and from there placing amazing technology in the hands of the Jason Lee character (the tiny digital camera) who previously (back in our established real world) stood as the antithesis to a technologically driven culture as the literati – all culminating in the technological “allowance” of LE.

Finally, this reading is supported in the film’s waning moments in that his ostensible return to “reality” is explicitly couched in terms and actions that systematically deny technology beyond that of the real world. First, the ascension over a sweeping metropolis ( a Mecca of technology) in the elevator, followed by realizations that, tellingly, draw upon “vintage” culture (black and white television, a 70’s album cover), all of which can be read as part of this journey back towards limited and “real” technology. Lastly, in this realm, his precipitous exit from the rooftop leads him towards further denial of technology, as it is grainy home videos, black and white photos, rudimentarily crafted cartoons and the like that accompany his descent.

There is a GREAT deal more that I believe lends credence to this reading, but suffice to say, the film’s deliberate and intentional charting of technological presence within the narrative certainly appears to point towards a reading that places David Aames’ awakening in a hospital bed some weeks after the crash, not 150 years after and certainly not cryogenically frozen. Wow….that was longer than I thought.

[JP1570]

Impressive, spoken like an English lit major. I still support the literal interpretation that has Aames waking up 150yrs later, but I think you make some really intelligent and well-thought points. The movie does generally have a "surreal" aspect to it, allowing for amny interpretations. I do not necessarily accept the premise that Aames shuns technology in his real life though. The opening scene with the TV coming out of the floor and the somewhat hi-tech looking alarm clock/cd player dispell that notion, IMO.

Anyway though, I will definitely watch the movie again in the next few days from a new perspective.

[tolinka]

Thank you BigGreen for the great interpertation.

Even though I dont know what the fuck the word "rudimentarily" means, I understand what you were saying there. That was basicaly the same thing I got from this movie, just couldnt express it as well as you did.
This whole dream was just a battle with his subcounsciosness(whatever, just trying to sound literate here) leading him to waking up.

I loved it man, good job.

[BigGreen]

JP, the flat panel TV is an interesting anomaly, though I'd say it is the exception that proves the rule. Moving my idea forward and developing it a bit, the "open your eyes" would be what he hears from the "real world" getting encouragement from his loved ones to awaken from his coma. I'd be willing to bet (and i'm going to check on this as I watch again) that each instance of him hearing "open your eyes", as he is moving closer to the real world (waking up), is coupled with some regression, however minor, in technology. For example, I don't see it as coincidental that the television, if i'm recalling correctly, has a black and white show on. Nor can one ignore the fact that he somewhat aggressively eschews the technology by pushing it back down to the ground.

Additionally, an apparent theme of the film is pop culture's referential influence (a shared history developing not from experience but from consumption). In this sense, the fact that television is upheld as a vehicle/outlet of the culture's most ambitious efforts and resources would hardly seem surprising....as is the case when he runs through the streets alone, save for the giant corporate screens dotting the landscape. I don't know, something to think about...plus, the whole 150 years later bit seems too romantic, ie, it's one of those perfect numbers that the subconscioius would pick to progress through time - convenient, round and immediate in its impact.

[Babyweight]

Wow...Big Green, thats very interesting...However I will admit some of your words are not in my vocabulary and I wish I understood your whole post so I could compare...
It seems both views could be possible...I guess it could be entirely up to the viewer and how we perceive things.. either way he is in a subconscious state whether its in a coma or frozen in a vault somewhere.

[BigGreen]

Originally posted by Babyweight
I guess it could be entirely up to the viewer and how we perceive things.

I actually think that is what is so interesting and amazing about a well done film, or any narrative for that matter - that no single interpretation (not even that of the creator, if we are to put stock in postmodern philosophy and criticism...which puts an interesting twist on your earlier assertion that "only Mr. Crowe knows for sure") holds a definitive position as the dominant or "right" interpretation. So, in my opinion, how we perceive things, and subsquently discuss them, as this thread is helping us do, is the true beauty of narratives of all types. Someone could make the argument that it matters jack sh*t whether Aames is in a coma or frozen (or dreaming, or insane, or tripping) and what truly matters is that the film is an indictment of the inevitability of Enlightened Thought, and thus is a rather Rousseauian film....and as i think about it, that's a cool idea, but the point i'm trying to get at is not that I want to argue my interpretation is somehow "right" but that it is the process of examining and entertaining these interpretations (backed, of course, with evidence), as you say, "how we perceive things" that matters.

[NissanRider240]

Just gotta give my vote. Better late than never.
#1 Vanilla Sky
#2 American Beauty
#3 Fight Club
#4 Brokedown Palace (go ahead and flame)

[Mr. Death]

I've not seen Vanilla Sky, but I saw the original ("Abre Los Ojos") a couple of years before Vanilla Sky came out. It was excellent, and I would recommend that you see it.

[NissanRider240]

I've not seen Vanilla Sky, but I saw the original ("Abre Los Ojos") a couple of years before Vanilla Sky came out. It was excellent, and I would recommend that you see it.

I've been meaning to see the original, i think i might try to download it unless by some chance they have it at the video store. Penelope Rules!!!