11 Distressed Movie Characters Who Couldn't Kill Themselves To End Their Pain

5. David Aames - Vanilla Sky

Vanilla Sky isn't exactly the most cheerful of movies, given that it deals with bodily obsessions, suicide and a sci-fi utopia that (surprise, surprise) doesn't turn out to be as perfect as the label says. David Aames (Tom Cruise) effectively kills himself twice in the movie, first, when he took an overdose after having a drunken fight with Sofia, and then at the end of the film when he decides to end his altered reality and open his eyes. In the first instance, he is so distraught at the idea of not getting to love Sofia that he loses hope and attempts to end it all, but ends up unknowingly trapped in his Extended Life dream that quickly becomes a nightmare. Later, when his nightmare turns even worse, and it is revealed that he's in the Extended Life programme, he chooses to take the leap of faith and wake up - effectively killing himself in the dream world in order to return to reality, where he will be faced with the numbing revelation that everyone he loved is gone, including Sofia - which is exactly the context that lead to his first attempt to commit suicide. So, not only is David denied death when he sees it as his only option, when he is allowed to commit "suicide," it's unlikely he's going to be happy in the future world he knows very little about, without anyone he loves, and crucially without a penny to his name.