Waking Life

Waking Life is a 2001 semi-animated film by Richard Linklater. The plot follows a young man walking through a lucid dream where he observes and enters into dialogue about lofty philosophical concepts and theories. The film itself was initially shot on digital video, and then drawn over by a team of animators. The resulting look is fairly unique, and manages to evoke dream-like imagery on a shoestring budget.

Despite lacking a traditional plot, visuals, or even trained actors, the film won a great deal of praise for its innovation and unique look. Roger Ebert would add it to his list of Great Movies in 2009.

"Speed: And as one realizes... that one is a dream figure in another person's dream, that is self-awareness!"
 * All Just a Dream: Inverted. It's the point of the plot, not a plot point.
 * Played with by Speed Levitch:

"Man #1: Stupid bastard.
 * Arc Words: "Dream is destiny."
 * Author Appeal: Richard Linklater is very passionate about philosophy. He's also admitted that his lucid dreaming played a part in the writing.
 * Call Back: When the dream transforms into a nightmare, several characters reappear as different characters.
 * The Cameo: Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy play their characters from Before Sunrise and Before Sunset in one scene, also written and directed by Linklater.
 * As mentioned above, Alex Jones, the fringe political radio host, basically plays himself for one scene.
 * Two Creator Cameos; Linklater is the other hitcher on the boatship at the beginning and the pinball player that speaks with the main character near the end.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: The old man on the telephone pole. Deconstructed by a group of characters who muse they're no better than the old man:

Man #2: No worse than us. He's all action, no theory. We'll all theory, no action."


 * Contemplate Our Navels: Pretty much the whole point.
 * Creator Cameo: Linklater, twice. Lampshaded by The Dreamer.
 * Creepy Monotone: "I remember where I came from and how I became a human. Why I hung around. And now my final departure is scheduled. This way out. Escaping velocity. Not just eternity, but infinity."
 * : One interpretation, but by no means the only one. The Dreamer frets about it near the end, telling his fears to the pinball playing man.

"Soap Opera Woman: We seem to think we're so limited by the world and-- and the confines, but we're really just creating them. And you keep trying to figure it out, but it seems like now that you know that what you’re doing is dreaming, you can do whatever you want to. You're, uh, dreaming, but you’re awake. You have, um, so many options, and that's what life is about."
 * Deranged Animation: Several scenes specifically; arguably the film's style as a whole.
 * Despair Event Horizon: When The Dreamer wakes up from a dream to find himself in another dream once too often, he despairs and
 * Dream Within a Dream: The entire film.
 * Empathic Environment: As The Dreamer grows depressed, and the subject starts to broach the subject of, the world similarly becomes darker and more foreboding, as the soundtrack starts to become more dissonant and threatening.
 * Follow the Leader: Both this and Slacker are heavily inspired by Louis Malle's My Dinner With Andre.
 * Gainax Ending
 * Mind Screw: Much of the film, though one scene in particular is notable. The protagonist is discussing a woman's plan for a "real-life" soap opera when he realizes he's dreaming again. He then asks her what it's like being a dream, inflicting this on the woman (her dialogue becomes much less composed). She still challenges The Dreamer:

"Soap Opera Woman: It's not necessarily passive to not respond verbally. We're communicating on so many levels simultaneously. Perhaps you're-- you're perceiving directly."
 * Then, when he says that he'd been passive (in the first half of the movie), just listening to other characters orate:


 * No Name Given: Nobody in the film has a name. The credits have to use pictures of the characters for identifying the actors. It's even a minor plot point that the main character can't remember his name (which is also pretty hard to do in your real dreams).
 * Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The main character is called "The Dreamer".
 * Steven Soderbergh plays himself and is listed as such in the credits.
 * Reality Subtext: John Christensen died before the film finished completion. One of the theories that  gives Christensen's appearance more meaning and poignancy than his scene should have.
 * Red Body Take Warning: The prisoner's entire body is red, an external representation of his rage.
 * Rotoscoping
 * Seinfeldian Conversation: Averted with great prejudice.
 * The Singularity: Early in the film, the protagonist listens to a man give a lengthy rant on this topic.
 * Spiritual Sequel: Linklater's 2004 A Scanner Darkly adaptation. Both were shot in the same rotoscoped style.
 * Also, Waking Life itself to his first film, Slacker. Both go from character to character, discussing whatever's on their mind. Waking Life has slightly more plot, though.
 * Stealth Parody: Possibly used against Alex Jones. While he is yelling one of his monologues over a car loudspeaker, the animation slowly increases his skin hue to brighter, darker shades of red. This could just be a simple exaggeration used in many pieces of animation, or a reference to the imprisoned psychopath who is shown in the same way earlier in the movie.
 * The Wonka: Speed Levitch, and he's like that in Real Life.