You Might Have Misunderstood It - Dream Scenario Explained

so you've watched the weird and surreal 2023 film  dream scenario starring Nicholas Cage written and   directed by Kristoffer Borgli and you're wondering  what it was all about well prepare for your tiny   little mind to be blown for starters despite  what the end credits say this movie wasn't   really written by Kristoffer Borgli at least  not according to the man himself you see Borgli   believes in this quote that's often attributed  to Carl Jung people don't have ideas but ideas   have people this means that in the director's own  view the film story wasn't so much a creation of   his own will but rather an idea that chose him  as its vessel this brings us to the real main   theme of the movie dream scenario and it's not the  fickle nature of celebrity or cancel culture to   State the obvious dreaming is something the minds  do dreaming is like a psychosis Sophie our brain   decides to start hallucinating while we sleep it's  part of its housekeeping process Paul doesn't see   any emotional or psychological significance of  Dreams he just sees it as a biological function   we need that to happen for some reason for Borgli  a movie is like a dream movies are dreams we all   come in and sort of collectively share a dream  together which I think is really interesting what   if just as brain cells work together to create  a mind we as individuals contribute to a larger   Collective mind sort of global brain a swarm  intelligence you know like ants swarm intelligence   ant colony algorithms yeah sounds awfully similar  to my research now Borgli's film is a reflection   on how ideas and information evolve and propagate  within ourselves and within groups of people and   how any one individual only has access to a  paucity of information dream scenario actually   has something in common with Christopher Nolan's  Inception because I believe the dreams that we see   in the film are dreams within a dream on a meta  level the whole movie can be viewed as a dream   there's a scene where Paul tries in vain to turn  off the basement light according to lucid dreamers   one method to recognize if you're in a dream is  to perform what they call reality checks and the   behavior of light switches is one such check  in many dreams light switches don't function   normally either they don't change the lighting  when used or their effect is delayed or unusual   but there are other scenes in the film where  light switches work so there is some ambiguity   here the only explanation why Paul can show up  in other people's minds as if those minds are   somehow connected and the movie mentions a couple  of examples of collective mind theories namely the   concept of the super organism swarm intelligence  the collective unconscious and memetics all names   will become dreams if the whole movie is a dream  then whose dream is it the obvious candidate would   be Paul Matthews but it could also be viewed as a  dream that is occurring in the collective mind of   the global brain Borgli didn't set out to write a  commentary on Modern Life cancel culture and the   fickle nature of celebrity he wanted to create  a Jungian dream movie it didn't start as and   then let me think of a a way to speak about  Modern Life it started as like I want to do   something Union something about Dreams Carl  Jung is famous for proposing the collective   unconscious the part of the unconscious mind  that we all share the conscious part of our   mind doesn't get full access to everything going  on in our brains there's a whole unconscious world   boiling under the surface below the level of  our awareness Borgli also wanted to explore   how we don't fully know the people that we know  only ever experience a person filtered through   our own perception the part that makes it the  Consciousness I know it's not my project but   I'd love to be involved somehow I thought you  weren't on that project well I wasn't but now   Chris wants me on so we have limited information  coming both from the subconscious mind below and   the perceived external world we live as personas  in each other's heads rather than being physically   present and sometimes the true nature of another  person doesn't align correctly with our impression   of them one of the earliest ideas for the film was  that attempted sex scene please please don't hurt me oh did you just come it's an exaggerated  cringe worthy depiction of what happens when   our perceptions of someone don't align with  reality because our perceptions of other people   are impoverished it's a bit like data compression  lowquality rendering or caricature but the movie   isn't only about the gap between our perceptions  of famous celebrities and their true nature that's   only one angle here it's about the gap between any  Persona and its true nature even within families   the information Gap plays a role the relationship  between fathers and daughters friendships husbands   and wives there's a gap between the Persona that  Paul presents to Janet how to go Oh you mean with   Sheila yeah yeah know it's technical I mean she  totally saw my argument but we didn't fully you   know resolve it yet really and the real Paul  Please Sheila I need this and there's even an   information gap between her own idea of ourselves  and our true nature I'm finally cool huh well I   wouldn't go that far you hear that Janet she's  saying I'm a cool dad now I didn't say that hi I   have a table for Paul the name Paul comes from the  Latin word paulus which means little or small Paul   and Paul is a timid academic that feels entitled  to recognition for work he hasn't even started   doing look there's a big difference between  talking about an idea and actually doing all the   work well I haven't really started of the actual  sitting down and riding portion of it yet in Paul   Matthews we see a man that doesn't understand  the culture and the ideas that are driving   Society much like how an individual neuron doesn't  understand the ideas that are whirling around in a   brain or a single ant has a lesser intelligence  than the collective Colony well this is strange   Paul maybe you should take a minute and think  before you do anything drastic maybe we should   cool this thing off I this is why I was skeptical  in the first place oh you knew specifically that   this would happen this kind of thing Paul strange  consequences take it as a warning I really feel   like you're playing with fire here what do you  mean what am I doing and Paul Matthews is a boring   man that doesn't stand out from the crowd yeah I  barely recognized you wow oh yeah the beard maybe   no it's the whole you know it's about blending in  with the herd you see Predators need to identify   their prey they can't just attack the whole  group that's so if you stick your head out you   make yourself a Target some people have called  him an NPC or non-playing character why didn't   I do anything he's a man that easily gives up on  his own principles can we please put our phones   away and have a real conversation I have to take  this and I speak now from actual lived experience   no no no don't say lived experience Paul is a  slave to the social Conformity enforcers with a   critical inner judge that prevents him from being  his own man when we first meet him he's extremely   passive and indecisive he's a conformist who  easily acquiesces to social pressures the closer   you are to someone it's more likely that your  idea of them matches up to the reality but it   still doesn't match fully the people who really  know Paul don't dream of him why do you suppose   you're not showing up in my dreams well because  you get the real deal wouldn't it be fair if you   got both what have you been dreaming about  me I don't know I don't keep track of things   like the all Matthews lies a lot to his wife even  Janet doesn't see the real him are you nervous no so keeping in mind that we're witnessing a  collective psyche in Jungian psychology there   is a concept called The Shadow Self the Shadow  Self is the part of your personality that your   conscious ego doesn't identify with it contains  repressed weaknesses shortcomings instincts and   desires it's a Jungian archetype a myth that  lives in the collective unconscious minds of   all humans it's not something we learn it's  pre-coded into our brains at Birth archetypes   are the tools of thought an operating system that  comes pre-installed the shadow is the gap between   the real you and who you imagine yourself to be  there are parts of your identity that you leave   out because they make you look bad and according  to psychotherapy all our negative traits that   are rejected by our conscious egos can start  showing up in your dreams the version of Paul   that is turning up in other people's dreams is  his shadow personality his negative qualities   or insecurities were so strong that they started  showing up in other people's dreams Paul refuses   to accept any responsibility for the actions of  the other dream polls or accept them as part of   his own identity what am I doing they're dreams  it's not real I'm not actually doing anything   to them when Paul rejects the idea that the  students have experienced trauma he's also   rejecting the idea that trauma is the cause of his  own psychological issues trauma is a trend these   days it is a joke everything is trauma arguing  with a friend is trauma getting bad grades is   trauma they need to grow up Paul is a fan of the  neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky Robert Sapolsky   his career has been pretty admirable in the cafe  Paul is reading Sapolsky's book why zebras don't   get ulcers Sapolsky argues that chronic stress in  humans is partly caused by social factors chronic   stress arises from prolonged worry about social  standing personal failures relationships or work   rated issues this stress is exacerbated by a  sense of helplessness or lack of control over   these factors Paul's passivity and timidity is  him trying to cope with the psychological trauma   of being a node in a social network and that's  the thing with the zebras the camouflage is for   blending in with the herd because the lion can't  just hunt the whole group it has to identify a   single Target zebras Sapolsky argues don't suffer  prolonged stress because they lack the brain power   to worry about the future or the past they live in  the moment we humans crack up because we're part   of a complex culture I'm sorry I've experienced  what so many of you must have experienced being   violently attacked I have to stress that that man  is not me my mere presence upsets people and not   because I've actually done anything am I not the  biggest victim in this whole phenomenon this is a   dramatic depiction of the ego rejecting the shadow  in Jungian Psychology dark urges exist within all   of us but they largely remain unconscious and  we refuse to accept and integrate them into our   personality but Paul's actions in the real world  do influence how he's perceived in dreams he isn't   entirely innocent he's got this idea for his book  but he's never done anything about it he's guilty   of inaction not taking control over his life he's  not assertive or dominant in his own life and the   shadow Paul shows up as a helpless man who doesn't  react or take action even in emergency situations   does anyone have a more original one maybe one  where I'm actually doing something but when Paul   starts getting recognized it boosts his confidence  it makes Janet feel insecure and makes him more   desirable to her are you jealous I don't know I  mean rationally I'm not but do you think other   people are seeing you naked I'm going to make  sure you stay right here this boost in confidence   manifests itself in Molly's dream where he's  become a dominant assertive confident lover it's   a version of Paul that he'd love to be for real  but he's afraid so he represses it whether it's   because of repressed aspects of her personality or  low bandwidth perceptual simplification imagined   persons don't often match reality with the awkward  sex scene Paul experiences shame and humiliation   when he can't live up to the imaginary version  of himself but the big Catalyst for the dreams   turning violent is Sheila's article The Rage Paul  feels because she stole his research ideas starts   manifesting in the dreams people are having about  Paul Paul Shadow enters into one of his own dreams   showing that Paul doesn't really know himself  remember Paul Shadow only appears in dreams of   people that don't know him so when he's showing  up as a shadow in his own Dream It's showing that   he doesn't even know himself he wants to be that  killer not literally but subconsciously he wants   to be that man of action killing the weak timid  Paul if we take a closer look at the article   we get a better understanding of what Paul's  unfinished research was about it's about ant   intelligence or as Paul calls it ant intelligence  that's not the intelligence of one individual ant   it's instead the intelligence of the entire ant  colony the article states that ant intelligence   is comparable to a human child that ants even  have a telepathic like understanding of each   other which enables them to successfully survive  as a colony and it is groundbreaking research on   the collective psyche of the colony if the entire  movie was Paul's dream this could explain why he's   hallucinated a scenario where the minds of all  humans are linked together in a sort of super   mind like the ants that he studied the dream is  validating his research ideas and the collective   psyche as his topic all has fantasized the  scenario where he was right Jung was right   there is a collective subconscious Paul Matthews  proved that it's simultaneously a fantasy and a   nightmare but why does Paul stop showing up in  other people's dreams so what happened they just   stop yeah I don't know people stopped having them  Jung emphasized the importance of becoming aware   and integrating the shadow into Consciousness  recognizing and accepting the Shadow Self is seen   as important for personal growth self-awareness  and individuation I think there are some hints   that Paul is beginning to accept and integrate his  shadow side the light switch scene symbolizes Paul   beginning to integrate his subconscious Shadow  and when he stormed into the room to see Sophie   on stage he was finally being assertive and taking  action finally doing something that he'd failed   to do all these years and I think that's what  stopped him showing up in other people's dreams   he had integrated that part of his shadow into  his Consciousness and decided he wasn't going to   be bullied around anymore he then also reassessed  what was important in his life he no longer craved   the academic recognition he just wanted his life  back he just wanted his family back and this scene   he fantasizes or Daydreams about a reconciliation  with Janet but Paul still doesn't take action he's   still too timid and if you remember that policeman  said there was a couple of ways Paul could protect   himself could move out to a new house Janet  rejected it or he could get a dog and these are   the things that Paul's actually somehow managed to  achieve he did move out and he did get a dog it's   all fear fear of rejection fear of other people  Paul's still living in fear when your chances for   intimacy and connection come along in real life  you need to be brave and you need to take them   what would you want to see in your dream remember  when you wore that talking head suit for Halloween   there was just something about it something kind  of weird and sexy you should wear that and save   me from like some situation for me the main  message if there is one is the heartbreaking   fact that full openness and intimacy is a dream  scenario that can never be fully realized because   it wasn't Janet's dream that Paul entered at the  end it was his own dream at the beginning of the   film when Sophie is dreaming the dream ends when  she floats away it's the dreamer that floats away   and with Janet and Paul at the end it's Paul that  floats away so Paul is a dreamer and there's no   dream visitation going on the whole thing's in  his mind I wish this was real the final scene is   so moving because it's so intimate but it's not  real the idea of a collective psyche is tragic   because it contains an apparent contradiction at  a deep level we're all joined together but at the   surface level we experience disconnect and feel  distant and different from each other due to the   personal narratives cultural identities and life  experiences we share a common psychological ground   but our awareness of this is limited because  the doors of perception are only a jar they're   not wide open when Janet first tells Paul of her  fantasy he scoffs at her and this is why people   build walls and are afraid to open up the fear of  being judged negatively and that's what results   in alienation you might have guessed that I liked  this movie a lot it wasn't perfect for me I was   wasn't too keen on the norio dream influencers  subplot but I do think it was added because   the dream scenario was turning into a nightmare  scenario it further lends Credence to the idea   that the whole movie is a dream either Paul's  dream or the dream of a collective psyche in a   society humans act like neurons in a collective  brain the urge to conform is strong the culture   shifts attention and energy like a brain shifting  attention and energy without concern for the   individual this is the life force that can ignite  an individual or shatter them this explanation is   just my interpretation of the film The beautiful  thing about Cinema is that we each see different   films dream scenario didn't start as a way to  speak about Modern Life and the terrible side   effects of Modern Life it started as something  jungian something about dreams and now people are   seeing their own version of a message in the movie  The Audience projects their own meaning onto the   movie like a rorschach test dream scenario does  touch on meme culture and cancel culture and I   think it's because some of the gags they're like  low hanging fruit I hope that you've now realized   that when I said at the start of this video  that your tiny mind would be blown I only meant   to suggest that your mind is Tiny when compared  to the collective hive mind and don't worry I'm   sure it's quite normal size and after all it's  not how big it is it's what you do with it may   I suggest that you take this chance to subscribe  to the channel I'm new to YouTube and I'm trying   to reach that magical 1,000 subscribers level so  if you like this video and you would like to see   more similar videos then go ahead and subscribe  thanks for watching and see you again next time

Channel: Cinema Detective

Views: 15,781

Keywords: A24, DreamScenario, NicolasCage, EndingExplained, FilmAnalysis, Jungian, CollectiveUnconscious

Id: Hv9dAmNtIgc

Length: 17min 30sec (1050 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 08 2024