Vanilla Sky begins with a dream, as David Aames (Tom Cruise), playboy and heir to a publishing house, wanders an empty Times Square. David then wakes up to reality, in his real New York home, before the film jumps forward in time to David - now in a prosthetic mask - telling his story to psychologist Dr Curtis McCabe (Kurt Russell), as David awaits a trial for murdering his girlfriend. Via flashback the audience is shown David's life before, bedding obsessed "f*** buddy" Julie Gianni (Cameron Diaz), hanging out with writer friend Brian Shelby (Jason Lee), and generally living the carefree lifestyle of a wealthy bachelor. Then David meets the mysterious Sofia (Penelope Cruz) through Brian, and they begin a love affair that alters David's outlook on life. This prompts Julie to drive herself and David off a bridge in an attempted murder-suicide - Julie is killed, but David survives and is left disfigured. David's life begins to unravel; reality and fantasy blur as David drunkenly breaks down before Sofia and Brian, has his face put back to the way it was by surgeons, and finally is institutionalised for killing Sofia (who appeared to physically turn into the reincarnation of Julie Gianni). With the interrogation over, Dr McCabe takes David to the offices of Life Extension (LE), a company that places people in cryonic suspension following their death, while the brain is kept active so the client can remain in a state of lucid dreaming. A man claiming to be 'tech support' for the company (Noah Taylor) then takes David up to the roof of the LE building, where he explains that David is currently dreaming, as he has been for 150 years. Tech Support explains that David actually killed himself not long after his disfigurement, and what David thinks has been his life up to this point has actually been a dream, beginning on the day after his drunken night with Sofia and Brian. Tech Support gives David a choice: continue with the dream, or leap off the building and wake up in a future where his physical ailments from the crash will have finally been healed. David jumps, the film fades to white, and the final shot is of David's eyes opening.
Lover of film, writer of words, pretentious beyond belief. Thinks Scorsese and Kubrick are the kings of cinema, but PT Anderson and David Fincher are the dashing young princes. Follow Brogan on twitter if you can take shameless self-promotion: @BroganMorris1
