Dream Scenario(2023)

Submitted by Jeremy

Paul Matthews (Nicolas Cage) is an ordinary biology professor who finds out that people around him are starting to have dreams with him in it, though mostly as a passive observer. After a mentally ill man that dreamt about Paul breaks into his house and tries to kill him, he signs with a PR firm to help his image, though he mostly uses it to try and publish a book on his work. One of the PR members tries to sleep with Paul after she tells him she had erotic dreams about him, but he is too nervous and embarrasses himself.

Soon, people have nightmares where Paul is killing or raping them, leading to his students to cut his class, and for everyone else in town to turn him away, while his wife and daughters also suffer from the public backlash. Even after Paul tries to make an apology, it is only seen as pathetic and self-serving. Things culminate when Paul tries to attend his youngest daughter’s play, and he accidentally severs her teacher’s finger during a struggle.

Paul retreats from the public eye and separates from his wife, Janet (Julianne Nicholson).

Dream-traveling technology is later developed (with some credit given to Paul) for others to enter anybody’s dreams. Paul buys a device and uses it to travel into one of Janet’s dream, as it is implied they still love each other.