10 Movie Characters Who Discovered That Their Universe Didn’t Exist

In one of the most hauntingly beautiful films I’ve ever seen, a college student named Henry Letham, played by Ryan Gosling, confides in his devoted psychiatrist that he plans to kill himself in three days. This leads to a series of downright confusing scenes in which the psychiatrist, Sam, played by Ewan McGregor, searches for answers as to the bizarre and seemingly otherworldly events which begin to unfold around him. The climax of the movie takes place on the bridge where Henry plans to shoot himself. With reality literally falling apart around them, Sam cries out “Henry… if this is your dream then the whole world is inside it!” and it’s at that moment that everything clicks into place.

Our protagonist, Sam, has discovered that he is simply a fabrication existing in the dream of Henry, who is wracked with guilt over one final mystery. That mystery is explained in the final scene, where it turns out that he, his parents and his girlfriend were all killed in a car crash on that exact bridge, and the prior three days of the movie were not just his dream, but a whole reality dreamt up by him in his dying moments. Everything he saw around himself in those final minutes, including a paramedic named Sam, who tried to save him, became the inspiration for the entire universe that slowly winked out of existence as he let out his final breath.