Read more about David Aames at: Wikipedia Official Site: Paramount Pictures Vanilla Sky is a 2001 American psychological thriller film directed, co-produced, and co-written by Cameron Crowe. The film is a remake of the Spanish movie Abre los ojos (Open Your Eyes) (1997), the screenplay for which was written by Alejandro Amenábar and Mateo Gil. The film stars Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, and Penélope Cruz (in a repeat of her performance in Abre los ojos), with Jason Lee and Kurt Russell. Vanilla Sky has been described as "an odd mixture of science fiction, romance, and reality warp," "part Beautiful People fantasy, part New Age investigation of the Great Beyond," a "love story and a struggle for the soul," and an "erotic adventure, romance, comedy, mystery, and psychological thriller, with a dose of science fiction." David Aames (Tom Cruise) becomes the heir of his deceased father's New York City publishing company, and he enjoys the lifestyle of a wealthy bachelor in New York City. He has a casual, on-off relationship with Julianna (Cameron Diaz), but during a party in his home he is introduced to Sofia Serrano (Penélope Cruz) by his best friend Brian Shelby (Jason Lee). David and Sofia spend a romantic, though not sexual, night together in her apartment; David feels he may have found his soulmate. However, Julianna, after seeing David and Sofia leave together, is consumed by jealousy. Julianna waits for David outside Sophia's apartment the next morning, and offers David a ride when he leaves. She then drives them off a bridge on purpose and crashing into a brick wall. Julianna is killed on the spot, but David survives though unconscious. David wakes up to find that he has a face shattered so badly that he has to wear a custom-made mask to hide the disfigurement. He tries to continue seeing Sofia, but she finds his resentment and bitterness about the accident difficult to deal with. After he gets drunk at a bar and falls asleep in a puddle in the street outside, Sofia walks away, leaving with Brian. The next day, David wakes up in the street to find Sofia bending over him, anxious to help. They continue to date and grow closer, and David has successful cosmetic surgery to restore his face. Despite the perfect life, David starts to notice oddities in his perception of the world; at times, it appears that his face has reverted to the disfigured state, and he encounters a strange man (Noah Taylor) at a bar who tells him he has the power to change the world. One day, at Sofia's apartment, he finds that Sofia, and every image he knew of her, has been replaced by Julianna, and in a bout of madness, suffocates her. He is arrested and assigned a court psychologist, Dr. Curtis McCabe (Kurt Russell), who tries to determine the cause of David's insanity. After recollection from an advertisement on television for a service called "Life Extension", David and Dr. McCabe visit the Life Extension office in a skyscraper. They learn that they offer to put clinically-dead patients into cryonic suspension to be awakened in the future when cures may be available; the patients are given the option of a "lucid dream" to keep their mind occupied over the years. David recognizes the term, and escapes from Dr. McCabe's control, shouting for the lucid dream's "tech support". Arriving in the now-empty lobby, David is met by the man from the bar, his tech support. |