Directed by Joseph Ruben
In order to diagnose the psychic traumas suffered by his patients, Dr. Paul Novotny gets young Alex Gardner to enter their dreams.
El túnel de las pesadillas, 魔域煞星, O Psicopata Assassino, Dreamscape: fuga nell'incubo, Dreamscape - Höllische Träume, Видение, A Morte nos Sonhos, La gran huida, Álomküzdők, Ο εφιάλτης του προέδρου, 드림스케이프, Ucieczka w sen, Útěk ze sna, Escape de un sueño, L'aventure est au bout du rêve
USAPG-13 
16 
UK15 
Spain 
Australia Australia Spain UK USA
Dreamscape: Putting off potential viewers with its shitty Indiana Jones rip off poster since 1984!
Anyway, The Dead Zone meets The Fury meets Scanners meets Nightmare on Elm Street and it's fucking rad.
Cinematic Time Capsule
1984 Marathon - Film #47
”Going into another person’s dream?… I gonna have to see that to believe it”
Could this have been the actual inception for Christopher Nolan’s Inception?
I mean, considering he was thirteen when this came out, he would have been the PERFECT age to fully appreciate this movie, so it’s not totally inconceivable.
In fact, this bizarre film is like a primordial ooze of dream concepts that seems to have been haphazardly shaken up and stirred with a variety of film genres. I honestly can’t decide if it wanted to be a 70s paranoia thriller or a sci-fi fantasy adventure.
Heck, according to the marketing one-sheet, you might even mistake this film for…
Some dream to escape reality; others dream to change it.
A nightmare on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW.
RIP George Wendt.
You too, Fukota?
Efforts to find the snakeman of my dreams have continued to disappoint me, so instead I turn to the snakeman of Eddie Albert's dreams (Larry Cedar FTW).
Dreamscape operates as the OG Paprika/Inception - seeing Dennis Quaid drafted into a government funded program dealing with dream manipulation, only to have shadowy operatives hope to use it for assassination attempts. The dream sequences are wildly inventive and frequently funny. At the same time, the nightmares have enough memorable horror set-pieces that if this didn't give you anxiety as a child, you should let it as an adult.
Choosing sides between Max Von Sydow and Christopher Plummer? As close as you will ever get to a Skyrim movie.
Has anyone seen this? This is one of those movies that if I had seen as a young boy, I would probably have a much a higher rating attached to it. As it stands though, uggghh it’s sooooo old. I say that because the period special effects, of which there are many, really stand out like a sore thumb. Including: Nuclear holocaust as well as a snake/human monster villain which looks equally awesome and terrible.
Basically it’s about a bunch of psychics who have dream fights and Dennis Quaid is the main dude but there is also Cristopher Plummer AND Max von Sydow, so the cast is pretty bangin.’
This is copied right from the IMDB description: “experimenting with the…
Dreamscape takes it's ambitious premise and applies a thick glossy sheen of cheesy 80s madness all over it. A tonally bizarre film that feels like a clumsy mixture of a sci-fi/adventure/dorky Dennis Quaid odyssey of shennanigans. A sneaky little film comprised of some killer cheapo psychadelic dream sequences amongst a lot of corny scientific/conspiracy mumbo jumbo. Less mumbo more dream sequences!
"CLOSE YOUR EYES AND THE ADVENTURE BEGINS."
A secret government project has been experimenting with psychics entering people's dreams. I like where this is going! When one of the individuals dies it is suspected that a psychic is entering people's dreams to kill them! This sounds like another film from the same year hmmmmm. Now it's up to these…
Seemingly lost in 1984's adventure movie shuffle between "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" and "Gremlins," Joseph Ruben's "Dreamscape" deserves mention as another rousing genre spectacle from that year. Starring Dennis Quaid as a psychic able to enter people's dreams, the film combines science fiction conventions, a great cast, and an earnest-toned adventure to appealing effect.
A mid-budgeted science fiction adventure, "Dreamscape" is full of strengths. Its story provides a compelling foundation, following Quaid's devil-may-care psychic as he is hired by a government agency to enter people's dreams as they sleep. Faced with an adversary who can do the same, Quaid's protagonist becomes an in-dream protector, keeping the dreaming out of harm's way.
Quaid, a few year's away from…
Picked up the scream factory blu, cool dream sequences plus snake man for the win!
Kinda ironic I fell asleep during this. 🛌
Sorta like Dead Zone, but with dreams. Sorta like Brainstorm, but more breezy. Sorta like Communion but with Luther from The Warriors and without the aliens.
This is the first Dennis Quaid film I've logged on Letterboxd?! What am I doing with my life.
Yes, I love Dennis Quaid. Not as much as Kurt Russell, but still quite a lot. He's been in loads of films I've liked and has cheered up a few that I might not have liked otherwise. He's a good guy, I would like to see him in more films these days, or at least some films that I care about. No point in him being cast by Chris Nolan or someone else I couldn't give a shit about.
Dreamscape is one of the earliest ones I've seen him in now and you can see here why he was…
Dreamscape is a largely forgotten 80's film but, back in the day, it was one of the first PG13 films and one of the more memorable VHS box covers. It also had a brilliant idea in the same year Nightmare on Elm Street did. Plus it starred budget Harrison Ford with Dennis Quaid. Love Dennis Quaid and, when he's not turning on the grin, he reminds me so much of Ford (and check that cover art... Indiana Jones much?).
Quaid plays a psychic who uses his abilities to bet on the ponies. A research group hires him to run sleep experiments where he uses his abilities to enter the dreams of others. Of course, government spooks want to turn him…
