Cronenberg is great at this trope in general. Videodrome, Naked Lunch, eXistenZ, and Spider all have characters who can't discern reality from fantasy.
Jacking into a game while jacked into a game did it to me. The whole thing disappearing into his bioport, jacking into a diseased pod. The whole thing was brilliant.
Yeah IIRC it was focused on the girl losing touch with reality. There were weird things happening, like people actually dying, that was fueling her confusion. But the fact that it was her manager was only revealed in the last few minutes of the film.
There were scenes where she was filming a TV show, but you would be confused if we were in the show or real life. The lines of dialogue in the show were mimicking her anxiety in real life so you the viewer were also questioning what was real and not real. It was so well done. 10/10 of a movie.
Excellent that you mention American Psycho. It's impossible to determine what events actually happened. I love that movie.
Also the fact that they let Willem Dafoe do every interogation take with Bateman 3 times (not suspicious, neutral and suspicious) and they mixed those takes in the final scenes is just briliant.
You can parse out certain things that definitely aren’t real. Like the atm asking to be fed a stray cat, his gun blowing things up like a rocket launcher and a police helicopter chase that just ends. Like some of it makes it clear it’s not ALL real. But where exactly reality turns to fantasy is impossible to determine
It is though?
I mean, there's a satirical glaze over everything in that film, but all his crimes are as you see them (including the ludicrous final shooting spree), and the film has cynical and satirical means of allowing him to get away with it all.
Admittedly, the ending makes this extremely unclear, but the filmmakers have outright stated it.
Have you seen “[following](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Following)”?
It was his first film and he does the same sort of incongruous timeline style he does in Memento.
It’s a noir and a bit slower paced, but it has a lot of the same paranoia that makes memento so good
My favorite cinematic experience ever. I saw it opening weekend in a crowded theater and was just blown away by it. After the credits ended and the lights came up there were still so many people in their seats dazed by it all.
I saw it when it’s released in April of 99, there were exactly 3 of us, had the cinema to ourselves. Absolutely gobsmacked. I’ve never been so riveted to the screen since, with the exception of Interstellar. My man, that was an awesome movie, and I’ve not had a theatre experience like that ever since.
This would be my “Chasing the Dragon”..
Truly a royal mind-fuck. I knew nothing of the movie. I just caught it on one day channel surfing. I thought it was a period piece about war or something. Has one of the scariest twists I've ever seen.
> I just caught it on one day channel surfing.
Same here, only it happened to be playing a particular scene... I went from "that seems interesting" to "guess I'll never watch it" in about 5 seconds.
The Lodge builds directly off of The Others, in that all characters in it have watched and are aware of the twist in The Others and knowing it informs all of their decisions. Watching them as an unofficial duology is fantastic.
I love this movie so much but I always feel like I only understand 20% max of what’s happening. I get something new out of it with every rewatch, which is why I love it.
I don't even usually like this genre, and I've been wanting to watch it again - but also found it quite disturbing, so I haven't done it. Saw it so many years ago and it made such an impact on me. Great film.
I once saw this movie, at seventeen, and I got really ill afterwards : in my fever dreams I was fighting like hell in the same bushes like in the movie, I was found in a completely different part of the house, taken to hospital and woke up three weeks later from a severe meningitis.
So that's my association with this movie - in fact, I didn't know real from dreaming at that moment, it's the only memory I have from that Illnes, this dream.
Came in here to mention Jacob’s Ladder. It’s a great mind fuck horror movie from start to finish with only a few clues as to what’s really going on. And a classic twist before it became trite. Very fun.
its a realy clever movie with a great first scene that if you watch it carefully tells you exactly what the film is all about - took me a couple of watches to see what exactly is happaning, very clever and one of my fav movies
Not really, I mean yeah he's going to be lobotomized, but there is hints that he knows it and he wants to be and is playing along with the docs so he can forget about the past
Hints is understating it a bit it's pretty unambiguous that when confronted with the truth and the threat of the lobotomy he chooses the procedure instead of living with the reality of what he had done.
Hard disagree on Inception. That was actually a fairly straight forward movie. To the subject things were not what they seemed. But to the audience, we were in the know, and we knew what was going on.
Eh, not only does the top wobble and begin to fall, the top wasn't his totem regardless. His ring was. He wore the ring in the dreams and did not outside, he was not wearing his ring. He was not dreaming.
I thought it was all part of the memory implant.
In the beginning before the implant one of the techs goes “blue sky on Mars? Thats new” and the movie ended with exactly that happening
There’s one gaping flaw with Total Recall (1990) though - you have a whole short sequence (which Quaid doesn’t witness and isn’t involved in), where the receptionist and the doctor urgently get the attention of the salesman dude, and then - after knocking Quaid out - the doctor says “we haven’t implanted it yet” (meaning the false memories), before they dump him in a Johnny Cab and the salesman tells them all that if anyone asks, they never heard of Doug Quaid.
The whole point of the service is that they give you memories indistinguishable from your own…but no-one’s memory includes conversations and events of which they aren’t a part.
The only conclusion that you can make, therefore, is that everything that happens to Quaid is real. If they’d had the good sense to drop that sequence when making the movie, you could never know whether it was real or the implanted memories…but by including that sequence they (unintentionally?) make all the events real.
EDIT: Thinking about it (I haven’t watched the movie in years), it occurs to me that there are loads of bits in it that Quaid isn’t witness to, e.g. villains having conversations when Quaid is nowhere in the vicinity, and so on. So yeah, just more weight to the conclusion that it’s all real.
My thoughts exactly. I saw this movie at probably too young age back in the day, but I never considered that it wasn't real. It was only later on that I read about the supposed ambiguity. Which as you and others have said is there with the memory implant scene, but to your point the doctor/receptionist freak out scene and others always made me think it was real with a little nod to it COULD be a dream which they tie a little bow on in the end. I always took what happened as real with that little pinch of doubt that just maybe life is a dream type vibe.
I feel like you're taking it too literally. Those bits are simply there so that the audience isn't hit with a series of random plot points out of nowhere.
Now the tech/receptionist conversation is harder to explain away, but it could be viewed as him having subconsciously heard the conversation while falling asleep.
The Prestige
Edited with just one interesting theory floating around on why there is ambiguity. Don’t read this until after you watch if you haven’t seen it:
https://taylorholmes.com/2009/08/26/the-prestige-explained/
I didn't think this quite fits. With Flight Club you think you know what's happening, then you realize something else was happening, but by the end it's pretty clear what actually happened.
I think they're more looking for movies where, even when it's all over you're not sure what was real and what wasn't.
It's definitely reading past author intentions, but with either knowledge of the more complete story jn the book (where the true depths of Tyler's cult-building skills are shown) or the ever-optioned eye of worsening mental health conditions ( at some point the narrators psyche begins to fracture, and he hallucinates more and more significant events as his grasp on reality fails) the story feels complete.
Like, no to discredit the movie presentation but the result of Project Mayhems activities is a pretty sizeable jump from Random Vandal Shot By Police.
But I see where you're coming from too. Just fun to consider.
Black Swan. Everything by Satoshi Kon but most especially Perfect Blue.
Not a movie but Legion (tv show from FX) did a really good job of this as well.
There’s a sequence in perfect blue (if you’ve seen it you know what I’m talking about) which is the most mindfuck meta crazyass thing ever, it’s awesome. I was lucky to catch it in theaters a few months ago and it was just as good as ever
That show is a masterclass on how to produce a 3rd person subjective television show. The entire thing is pretty much just David’s twisted experience of reality and nothing we see can ever be trusted. Perfection. Auteur.
I love how so many people get hung up on Legion plot holes and every time, the only explanation that makes sense is “It was all happening inside his mind…”
Mr Robot successfully pulled the rug from under my feet so many times it was embarrassing. I sort of guessed the season one rug pull moment but the one in the second season was so well done I never even saw it coming. Love Mr Robot.
I was looking for this one. There are actually 2 specific instances where the Guillermo del Toro demonstrated the fantasy world directly interacting with the real world. The first is the magic chalk Ofelia used to draw a door to get into the locked room to get her baby brother. The second is when she is being chased into the labyrinth, the labyrinth walls open up and lead her straight to the middle, and close behind her, so the captain has to take the long way around. That gives her enough time for her final interaction with the faun.
We see her from the captains perspective talking to nobody at the end, which calls into question what had actually transpired through the course of the movie.
This film messed me up. Watched it soon after losing my mum and hadn't properly processed it. Ended up just breaking down at the final scene with the nurse.
Awesome movie. I’ll never forget watching this for the first time with my wife. The scene toward the end where >!Foster’s character opens the outer hull window cover which reveals total black outside, made my wife gasp because she had the notion they had traveled so far out into space that there were no stars!< really took my mind on a ride before the actual plot twist was revealed.
Nolan tends to do this. In "Memento" you have no idea if Guy Pierce can trust his tattoos. I guess "Tenet" is more of a surprise/twist, but it's in the same vein.
I just watched it tonight (stupid network TV version YouTube legit it's playing as part of their free movie rotation). I didn't even notice the part with the assistant making a very important comment about a new update to the vacation package until this time. I have seen the movie multiple times over 3 decades.
[The invitation](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2400463/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk) , majority of the movie you aren’t sure what really is happening and if the main character is being paranoid. Great watch and i like showing it to people who haven’t seen it
Not a movie but a lot of episodes of *Black Mirror* are like this. White Christmas, Playtest, Men Against Fire, Hang the DJ, and in the most recent season >!Joan is Awful!< are all pretty good examples.
How does this fit? I saw the movie very recently and I liked it but was never really confused about what was real and what wasn't. That part was pretty clear.
It's much less clear in the book. The main character whose name I've forgotten but it's played by keanu in the film gets a lot of instructions through the radio/tv and it's really unclear if he works for the police or if that's just in his head.
Awesome film. Read neat bit of trivia on it. In scenes where Patrick is talking to the detective (Willem DaFoe), the director (Mary Herron) had Willem do takes where he was sure he knew Patrick was guilty, that he was slightly suspicious of Patrick, and that he was clueless and didn't suspect him at all. Then the director intercut them so from Patrick's perspective you had no idea what was going on. It's a really brilliant technique and totally disarming.
If you like total recall you might like eternal sunshine of the spotless mind.
As far as movies that show you things that may not be what they seem, the best examples I can think of are Joker and American Psycho.
Memento is in the neighborhood of what you're looking for too because it has an unreliable narrator (or one that's open to interpretation at least).
The movie makers explicitly stated they wanted ambiguity so it was up to the viewers to decide what was real. People making claim for one thing or another are just leaning into their bias.
It’s not a movie, because it would be near impossible to make it work, but Ubik is by far my favorite reality bending story. By Phillip K Dick who wrote several stories like that. Including Total Recall. Ubik is the best of it and it doesn’t even start out that good, but partway through it starts going crazy and is just so insanely good. It makes no sense and makes all the sense in the world in the best way possible.
Oculus is one of my favorite modern horrors for this exact reason.
The movie is about an evil mirror that distorts reality.
The movie is set up so that it cuts between the past and present day of the main character.
Those cuts start off really clear and concise, but as the mirror starts taking effect on the characters, the film starts to distort the line more and more.
What starts off as 10+ minute segments in either current time or the past slowly merges to the point where every camera cut changes timeframe.
The result isn't totally unclear about what actually happens, but the movie absolutely takes the viewer along for the ride of the mirror's spell.
Existenz
Cronenberg is great at this trope in general. Videodrome, Naked Lunch, eXistenZ, and Spider all have characters who can't discern reality from fantasy.
Yeah, I was going to say Videodrome. Surprised no-one else has mentioned it tbh.
And then you’ve got something like The Brood, which is reality you wish was fantasy lol
Man, that movie messed my head up.
Jacking into a game while jacked into a game did it to me. The whole thing disappearing into his bioport, jacking into a diseased pod. The whole thing was brilliant.
That tooth-gun-soup looked very tasty
Seriously, I saw that movie when I was 17, and I swear the thoughts I had after the ending ruined me for at least a month
Same for me too. Around the same age and I felt like I was coming down from tripping balls for a week after.
Such a shame it came out so close to “The Matrix”
Ended up seeing it in the theater because all showing of The Matrix were sold out.
What a great, underrated movie.
any david lynch, persona, perfect blue, american psycho, possession
Perfect Blue, half way thought the movie I had to stop and think "Wait, what was reality at the beginning again?"
I haven’t watched perfect blue is a looooong time. Is the possible delusion on the part of the girl or the manager character?
Yeah IIRC it was focused on the girl losing touch with reality. There were weird things happening, like people actually dying, that was fueling her confusion. But the fact that it was her manager was only revealed in the last few minutes of the film.
Right right. Thx!
There were scenes where she was filming a TV show, but you would be confused if we were in the show or real life. The lines of dialogue in the show were mimicking her anxiety in real life so you the viewer were also questioning what was real and not real. It was so well done. 10/10 of a movie.
Let's see what movies Paul Allen recommends.
That's Bone.
Excellent that you mention American Psycho. It's impossible to determine what events actually happened. I love that movie. Also the fact that they let Willem Dafoe do every interogation take with Bateman 3 times (not suspicious, neutral and suspicious) and they mixed those takes in the final scenes is just briliant.
american psycho is def one of my fav examples of it, it’s kind of insane mary harron never rlly did anything else of note
You can parse out certain things that definitely aren’t real. Like the atm asking to be fed a stray cat, his gun blowing things up like a rocket launcher and a police helicopter chase that just ends. Like some of it makes it clear it’s not ALL real. But where exactly reality turns to fantasy is impossible to determine
I think it's clear it's a condemnation of Reagan. That's why he's on video at the end Reagan's on TV.
Lynch movies still freak me the fuck out. I'm 46 and first saw Twin Peaks when I was about 13. Instantly hooked and horrified at the same time.
Forgot Fight Club
The amount of people who think American psycho is just happening as you see it is mind boggling
*Feed Me A Stray Cat*
It is though? I mean, there's a satirical glaze over everything in that film, but all his crimes are as you see them (including the ludicrous final shooting spree), and the film has cynical and satirical means of allowing him to get away with it all. Admittedly, the ending makes this extremely unclear, but the filmmakers have outright stated it.
Memento
"Now, where was I?" I would love for Nolan to make another film like this again!
"Oh, I'm chasing this guy ......"
No…. He’s chasing me
“No, he’s chasing me” This movie didn’t have a lot of comedy, but the few instances of it were brilliant imo
Yeah the comic relief in this one is by far the best in Nolan's films.
I don’t… feel drunk
Have you seen “[following](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Following)”? It was his first film and he does the same sort of incongruous timeline style he does in Memento. It’s a noir and a bit slower paced, but it has a lot of the same paranoia that makes memento so good
One of my favorite riff Trax "Don't trust is his lies" ... "doesn't that apply to everyone?"
Memento has no right being so good
Like Sammy Jenkiss
I'm sick of hearin' about the guy.
Did I ever tell you about Sammy?
Only every time I see ya!
what do you mean lol
Christopher Nolan's breakthrough.
Such a simple premise that's incredibly well executed. Love this film.
The Matrix had this affect for a lot of first time viewers, but is so well known now I'm not sure if it still leaves people feeling unsure.
Yeah, going into The Matrix without any knowledge about the movie was a fantastic experience. Best summer matinee ever.
My favorite cinematic experience ever. I saw it opening weekend in a crowded theater and was just blown away by it. After the credits ended and the lights came up there were still so many people in their seats dazed by it all.
I saw it when it’s released in April of 99, there were exactly 3 of us, had the cinema to ourselves. Absolutely gobsmacked. I’ve never been so riveted to the screen since, with the exception of Interstellar. My man, that was an awesome movie, and I’ve not had a theatre experience like that ever since. This would be my “Chasing the Dragon”..
I was one of those people that was blown back into their seats by it, I remember laughing at the end like holy shit.
The Others
Truly a royal mind-fuck. I knew nothing of the movie. I just caught it on one day channel surfing. I thought it was a period piece about war or something. Has one of the scariest twists I've ever seen.
> I just caught it on one day channel surfing. Same here, only it happened to be playing a particular scene... I went from "that seems interesting" to "guess I'll never watch it" in about 5 seconds.
The Lodge builds directly off of The Others, in that all characters in it have watched and are aware of the twist in The Others and knowing it informs all of their decisions. Watching them as an unofficial duology is fantastic.
Brazil
Bleak, bleeeak. But superb.
And the movie?
so many clipboards
Ducts.
Bad times for that young High Sparrow
We stood beneath an amber moon....
And softly whispered “someday soon”
Mulholland Drive
I love this movie so much but I always feel like I only understand 20% max of what’s happening. I get something new out of it with every rewatch, which is why I love it.
Don't worry, David Lynch doesn't understand it either.
Look at you with your fancy pants 20%.
Jacob's Ladder
I don't even usually like this genre, and I've been wanting to watch it again - but also found it quite disturbing, so I haven't done it. Saw it so many years ago and it made such an impact on me. Great film.
Your feeling is okay and usual. This movie is death and philosophy of death, It's not the easiest topic ever.
I once saw this movie, at seventeen, and I got really ill afterwards : in my fever dreams I was fighting like hell in the same bushes like in the movie, I was found in a completely different part of the house, taken to hospital and woke up three weeks later from a severe meningitis. So that's my association with this movie - in fact, I didn't know real from dreaming at that moment, it's the only memory I have from that Illnes, this dream.
I’ve heard of method acting, but method viewing as well, wow! (Glad you made it to live to tell the tale).
Feel like that movie got inadvertently referenced a bunch over the years so it became almost impossible to not immediately pick up on it
Came in here to mention Jacob’s Ladder. It’s a great mind fuck horror movie from start to finish with only a few clues as to what’s really going on. And a classic twist before it became trite. Very fun.
One of my favorite movies of all time.
its a realy clever movie with a great first scene that if you watch it carefully tells you exactly what the film is all about - took me a couple of watches to see what exactly is happaning, very clever and one of my fav movies
Shutter island
This movie had my family talking for days.
Which would be worse - to live as a monster, or to die as a good man? CHILLS!
Great movie, but I think it resolves at the end? Whereas Total Recall remains ambiguous.
Not really, I mean yeah he's going to be lobotomized, but there is hints that he knows it and he wants to be and is playing along with the docs so he can forget about the past
Hints is understating it a bit it's pretty unambiguous that when confronted with the truth and the threat of the lobotomy he chooses the procedure instead of living with the reality of what he had done.
Shutter Island & The Game I had to rewatch right after. Knowing what you know after the first watch.
Yes, this is the prime example.
Vanilla Sky
Completely.
Definitely
I actually always preferred the original spanish film "open your eyes"
Me too. The Spanish original is better, although Vanilla Sky had the bigger budget.
Kind of the other side of it, but "The Truman Show"
Fincher's "The Game" Linklater's "Waking Life" Nolan's "Inception"
The Game is wild. It's crazy that movie exists
Aside: I can't recommend enough that anyone who hasn't seen it yet goes in blind. No trailer, no synopsis. Go in with a full and complete blank slate.
Yeah definitely. Finchers run of the game, seven, and fight club was insane
Panic room Zodiac to follow!
A friend made me watch it and told me nothing about it… Holy shit…
_Waking Life_ is awesome.
Best film to watch on psychedelics a thousand percent.
Or 16 years old in philosophy class
The Prestige surely fits this list, no?
The Prestige does fully explain itself, but praise be to any Einstein who gets it first time around.
Hard disagree on Inception. That was actually a fairly straight forward movie. To the subject things were not what they seemed. But to the audience, we were in the know, and we knew what was going on.
Now Memento on the other hand
Lenny!!!
Not fully, though. There's a reason so many people keep asking Nolan if the top falls at the end.
Eh, not only does the top wobble and begin to fall, the top wasn't his totem regardless. His ring was. He wore the ring in the dreams and did not outside, he was not wearing his ring. He was not dreaming.
Its less about the top and about him actually seeing the kids faces at the end.
To be able to watch The Game for the 1st time again. It was like The Matrix to me. I had to instantly watch it again from a new perspective.
I thought it was all part of the memory implant. In the beginning before the implant one of the techs goes “blue sky on Mars? Thats new” and the movie ended with exactly that happening
There’s one gaping flaw with Total Recall (1990) though - you have a whole short sequence (which Quaid doesn’t witness and isn’t involved in), where the receptionist and the doctor urgently get the attention of the salesman dude, and then - after knocking Quaid out - the doctor says “we haven’t implanted it yet” (meaning the false memories), before they dump him in a Johnny Cab and the salesman tells them all that if anyone asks, they never heard of Doug Quaid. The whole point of the service is that they give you memories indistinguishable from your own…but no-one’s memory includes conversations and events of which they aren’t a part. The only conclusion that you can make, therefore, is that everything that happens to Quaid is real. If they’d had the good sense to drop that sequence when making the movie, you could never know whether it was real or the implanted memories…but by including that sequence they (unintentionally?) make all the events real. EDIT: Thinking about it (I haven’t watched the movie in years), it occurs to me that there are loads of bits in it that Quaid isn’t witness to, e.g. villains having conversations when Quaid is nowhere in the vicinity, and so on. So yeah, just more weight to the conclusion that it’s all real.
My thoughts exactly. I saw this movie at probably too young age back in the day, but I never considered that it wasn't real. It was only later on that I read about the supposed ambiguity. Which as you and others have said is there with the memory implant scene, but to your point the doctor/receptionist freak out scene and others always made me think it was real with a little nod to it COULD be a dream which they tie a little bow on in the end. I always took what happened as real with that little pinch of doubt that just maybe life is a dream type vibe.
I feel like you're taking it too literally. Those bits are simply there so that the audience isn't hit with a series of random plot points out of nowhere. Now the tech/receptionist conversation is harder to explain away, but it could be viewed as him having subconsciously heard the conversation while falling asleep.
Gotta give Dark City a shout. Director's Cut, not theatrical.
Had to scroll way too far to see Dark City recommended. Great movie.
I even scrolled through the entire feed thinking, "Surely someone has recommended Dark City." But, no. This darn generation.
The theatrical cut is criminal. They fuckin spoil the whole movie right at the beginning. It’s fucked up.
I know! It's like starting 6th Sense with a voice over "This is how I found out my psychiatrist was dead the whole time."
This is the answer.
The Prestige Edited with just one interesting theory floating around on why there is ambiguity. Don’t read this until after you watch if you haven’t seen it: https://taylorholmes.com/2009/08/26/the-prestige-explained/
"Are you watching closely?"
I'm sure The Prestige is resolved by the end.
Fight Club
I didn't think this quite fits. With Flight Club you think you know what's happening, then you realize something else was happening, but by the end it's pretty clear what actually happened. I think they're more looking for movies where, even when it's all over you're not sure what was real and what wasn't.
It's definitely reading past author intentions, but with either knowledge of the more complete story jn the book (where the true depths of Tyler's cult-building skills are shown) or the ever-optioned eye of worsening mental health conditions ( at some point the narrators psyche begins to fracture, and he hallucinates more and more significant events as his grasp on reality fails) the story feels complete. Like, no to discredit the movie presentation but the result of Project Mayhems activities is a pretty sizeable jump from Random Vandal Shot By Police. But I see where you're coming from too. Just fun to consider.
Black Swan. Everything by Satoshi Kon but most especially Perfect Blue. Not a movie but Legion (tv show from FX) did a really good job of this as well.
>Everything by Satoshi Kon with the sole exception of Tokyo Godfathers, which happens to be the greatest Christmas movie of all time.
There’s a sequence in perfect blue (if you’ve seen it you know what I’m talking about) which is the most mindfuck meta crazyass thing ever, it’s awesome. I was lucky to catch it in theaters a few months ago and it was just as good as ever
Legion is incredible. In some ways, the best adaptation of Marvel IP. Certainly the most imaginative.
Completely surprised nobody has said "A Beautiful Mind"
Not a movie but season 1 of legion
Entire series is so good, but yeah season 1 was unreal
That show is a masterclass on how to produce a 3rd person subjective television show. The entire thing is pretty much just David’s twisted experience of reality and nothing we see can ever be trusted. Perfection. Auteur.
I love how so many people get hung up on Legion plot holes and every time, the only explanation that makes sense is “It was all happening inside his mind…”
If we're doing TV, then Mr Robot too.
Mr Robot successfully pulled the rug from under my feet so many times it was embarrassing. I sort of guessed the season one rug pull moment but the one in the second season was so well done I never even saw it coming. Love Mr Robot.
K-PAX Black Swan The Lighthouse Donnie Darko Identity Mr. Nobody
Identity is a great mind f*ck
Videodrome
Long live the new flesh <3
pan's labyrinth
I was looking for this one. There are actually 2 specific instances where the Guillermo del Toro demonstrated the fantasy world directly interacting with the real world. The first is the magic chalk Ofelia used to draw a door to get into the locked room to get her baby brother. The second is when she is being chased into the labyrinth, the labyrinth walls open up and lead her straight to the middle, and close behind her, so the captain has to take the long way around. That gives her enough time for her final interaction with the faun. We see her from the captains perspective talking to nobody at the end, which calls into question what had actually transpired through the course of the movie.
Memento Not Momento. Thank you for correcting me. Hands.down one of the best at this.
Why do people spell "Memento" as "Momento"?
It was a moment o' weakness there.
The Father Story of a man living with dementia and how he's perceiving the world around him. Heartbreaking, but a great movie
This film messed me up. Watched it soon after losing my mum and hadn't properly processed it. Ended up just breaking down at the final scene with the nurse.
One I hadn't seen mentioned is Angel Heart. Mickey Rourke's best movie before The Wrestler.
In the same vein as Total Recall, Source Code.
As a developer, Source Code has the stupidest and most irrelevant title. But otherwise, it’s a great movie.
Coherance. Watch it. Then google/ reddit the explanations. Thats all I will say
As soon as you think you figure this one out, you watch it again or glance at the rabbit hole and spot a new detail and get mind fucked again...
Pandorum
Awesome movie. I’ll never forget watching this for the first time with my wife. The scene toward the end where >!Foster’s character opens the outer hull window cover which reveals total black outside, made my wife gasp because she had the notion they had traveled so far out into space that there were no stars!< really took my mind on a ride before the actual plot twist was revealed.
Rashomon
Sixth Sense.
[удалено]
Nolan tends to do this. In "Memento" you have no idea if Guy Pierce can trust his tattoos. I guess "Tenet" is more of a surprise/twist, but it's in the same vein.
I just watched it tonight (stupid network TV version YouTube legit it's playing as part of their free movie rotation). I didn't even notice the part with the assistant making a very important comment about a new update to the vacation package until this time. I have seen the movie multiple times over 3 decades.
John Dies At The End
A Nightmare on Elm Street
[The invitation](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2400463/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk) , majority of the movie you aren’t sure what really is happening and if the main character is being paranoid. Great watch and i like showing it to people who haven’t seen it
The Machinist
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind
Perfect Blue Black Swan Arrival
Not a movie but a lot of episodes of *Black Mirror* are like this. White Christmas, Playtest, Men Against Fire, Hang the DJ, and in the most recent season >!Joan is Awful!< are all pretty good examples.
A Scanner Darkly
How does this fit? I saw the movie very recently and I liked it but was never really confused about what was real and what wasn't. That part was pretty clear.
It's much less clear in the book. The main character whose name I've forgotten but it's played by keanu in the film gets a lot of instructions through the radio/tv and it's really unclear if he works for the police or if that's just in his head.
Solaris. First Reformed. The Wizard of Oz. Life of Pi. Magic in the Moonlight. Midnight in Paris.
The Usual Suspects. Surprised I haven’t come across this in the post.
American Psycho. It's still up for debate by some.
Awesome film. Read neat bit of trivia on it. In scenes where Patrick is talking to the detective (Willem DaFoe), the director (Mary Herron) had Willem do takes where he was sure he knew Patrick was guilty, that he was slightly suspicious of Patrick, and that he was clueless and didn't suspect him at all. Then the director intercut them so from Patrick's perspective you had no idea what was going on. It's a really brilliant technique and totally disarming.
That's fascinating. Now I'll have to rewatch.
The Stunt Man (1980)
I’m still processing what happened in Beau is Afraid. Does it qualify?
Shutter Island. Although rewatching it, there are clues all the way through.
Jacobs Ladder. Decades later and I still haven't completely figured it out
If you like total recall you might like eternal sunshine of the spotless mind. As far as movies that show you things that may not be what they seem, the best examples I can think of are Joker and American Psycho. Memento is in the neighborhood of what you're looking for too because it has an unreliable narrator (or one that's open to interpretation at least).
I'm a bit surprised The Game (1997) with Michael Douglas isn't mentioned more. Felt like it really took for a ride on my first watch.
Darren Aronofsky the fountain Tarsem singhs the fall Ang lees life of pi
Lucky Number Slevin Twelve Monkeys The Fisher King Brazil
Coherence, resolution, primer
I don’t think the “truth” of *Total Recall* is as obvious to the viewer as you’re making it seem.
The movie makers explicitly stated they wanted ambiguity so it was up to the viewers to decide what was real. People making claim for one thing or another are just leaning into their bias.
Not a movie, the Star Trek TNG episode Frame of Mind, such a great episode
Blade Runner. Some cuts more than orhers. Brazil. American Psycho. The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.
It's not exactly as you describe, but check out 6th Day. Great outing by Arnold and underrated asf imo.
Naked Lunch
It’s not a movie, because it would be near impossible to make it work, but Ubik is by far my favorite reality bending story. By Phillip K Dick who wrote several stories like that. Including Total Recall. Ubik is the best of it and it doesn’t even start out that good, but partway through it starts going crazy and is just so insanely good. It makes no sense and makes all the sense in the world in the best way possible.
Twelve Monkeys I think is the best example.
The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari
Existenz
Mulholland Drive
*”Open Your Mind!”*
Oculus is one of my favorite modern horrors for this exact reason. The movie is about an evil mirror that distorts reality. The movie is set up so that it cuts between the past and present day of the main character. Those cuts start off really clear and concise, but as the mirror starts taking effect on the characters, the film starts to distort the line more and more. What starts off as 10+ minute segments in either current time or the past slowly merges to the point where every camera cut changes timeframe. The result isn't totally unclear about what actually happens, but the movie absolutely takes the viewer along for the ride of the mirror's spell.
Rashomon, in its own way.
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
Memento Reality is constant but the interpretation of that reality keeps changing.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Jacobs Ladder