10 Sci-Fi Movie Endings No One Understands

Released in 2001, Vanilla Sky is one of director Cameron Crowe’s most underrated cinematic offerings, as well as being a major tonal departure for the Almost Famous film maker.

Where most of Crowe’s output is relatively light-hearted and romantic, this Tom Cruise vehicle is a surprisingly cerebral and dark thriller which sees our hero thrust into a world of mystery and intrigue. It all starts in the iconic sequence wherein he awakens to an empty New York City, a surreal sight which serves as a warning that all is not as it seems…

And indeed, the viewer eventually learns that this isn’t New York at all. The protagonist has been in an induced coma this entire time, and the glimpses of his “real life” have been glitches in the system.

Or... Have they?

Well, don't expect any answers from the film's ambiguous ending anyway. So-called "tech support" offers the above explanation, but there's no way of knowing if they're telling the truth, if this is all a dream, or if it's a dying hallucination in the moments since his car crash...

In the end, the viewer knows our hero is choosing to wake up. but whether he's dead, alive, in Heaven, in purgatory, in a coma, or anywhere else is unclear.