10 Best Movies About Unrealised Dreams

1. Requiem For A Dream

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Artisan

Darren Aronofsky's trippy psychological drama follows several characters who each dream of making a better life for themselves, wishing to escape the lowly, drug-fuelled confines of their current situations.

The movie is packed full of hallucinations and visions, making it a difficult film to watch at first, but one that rewards repeat viewings to try and make sense of it all. Most of the main characters take drugs, leading to some frequent, unusual hallucination sequences, including a particular standout where a woman is attacked by her fridge. Yup.

This over-reliance on drugs eventually leads to the downfall of all four main characters, destroying their dreams in the process. Sara wished to appear on a TV show, Harry and Marion wanted to open a clothing store, and Tyrone hungered for his mother's approval. None of these desires come true, with each character ending the film in a far worse place than they started it in, despite starting at the bottom.

Sara becomes addicted to amphetamines and goes crazy, experiencing that aforementioned fridge attack and eventually being committed to a psychiatric ward. Marion resorts to selling her body for drugs and money, while Harry and Tyrone are arrested, with the former having an infected arm amputated.

Saddeningly, the film ends with Sara imagining her appearance on the game show, where Harry - healthy and successful - gives her an embrace. Drugs are bad.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.