10 Best Movies About Unrealised Dreams
3. Brazil
Though Universal Pictures were displeased with the bleak ending of Terry Gilliam's 1985 sci-fi drama and fought for a more optimistic alternate cut, the director won out, and got to release his movie as he originally intended it.
Protagonist Sam Lowry is a regular guy stuck in a boring government job, constantly dreaming of a reality where he can just fly away from the repetitive dullness of his day-to-day life, with the perfect woman in tow. While on an assignment to rectify an error that resulted in the death of an innocent man, Sam - to his surprise - meets someone who looks a lot like the woman from his dreams, and the two go on to share a passionate night together.
By this point, Sam has become an enemy of the state, and must go on the run if he wants to keep his life. He has quite the adventure too, and by the end of the film, he even manages to escape his pursuers, driving out of the city with his lover, Jill. Sam is practically living that dream version of his life where he's a heroic warrior saving the damsel in distress. Or so we're led to believe.
As it turns out, Sam has actually been strapped to a chair for a while, and that happy ending is just a delusion he had while being tortured. He's not a hero. He's not with Jill. And he didn't escape. Dream ruined.