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All Just a Dream: Difference between revisions
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** The entire series turns out to be just a virtual dream in the end.
* Frequently subverted in ''[[Nightmare Inspector]]'', though grandly played straight in the end when the characters learn that {{spoiler|not only is Mizuki's brother Azusa, vessel for the Baku Hiruko before Chitose took over, still alive, he's been concocting the biggest, darkest, and most twisted nightmare ever, hoping that it will consume him and [[Who Wants to Live Forever?|he can finally rest in relative peace]]. Turns out? Chitose was a figment of his imagination. Everything that happened since Chitose took over was all just Azusa's nightmare, that Mizuki and Hifumi were trapped in.}}
* In ''[[Ranma ½|[[Ranma
* ''[[Baki the Grappler]]'' has a humorous example: the fight between Oliva and Guevara ends with Guevara the winner, then being introduced to the president of the United States, who begs him for forgiveness, and Yujiro, who tells him he's the strongest warrior in the world. He marvels, at this, saying it all seems like a dream...which, of course, it is. A dream he had after Oliva knocked him out with a punch that embedded him in the ground.
* Episode 287 of ''[[Bleach]]'', but with a twist. We're initially led to think that it's Ichigo's dream {{spoiler|but it turns out to be a [[Dream Within a Dream]] of Isane Kotetsu's.}}
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* In ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'', [[Moe Anthropomorphism|Japan]] tries to convince himself that the [[Ho Yay|"Private Lesson"]] with close friend [[Chivalrous Pervert|Greece]] was [[Crowning Moment of Funny|All Just A Dream]]. Even when he woke up naked—[[Did They or Didn't They?|or at least shirtless]]—next to him...
* The third-to-last episode of ''[[Gun X Sword]]'' implies the series so far was a dream of [[The Rival]] Ray, with him waking up back home {{spoiler|Actually THAT is a dream he's having as he dies.}}
* The ''[[One Piece]]'' short "Jiginai Time" (or "No Respect Time") apparently takes place entirely within the dream of an incredibly bored, talking moai, much to the main characters' chagrin.
* The {{spoiler|last}} ''[[Daily Lives of High School Boys]]'' {{spoiler|skit in the anime, ''High School Boys and ...'', was pretty much Tadakuni's dream which contained much of the fandom's desires.}} Interestingly enough, this has [[Wild Mass Guessing|generated a fair bit of discussion]] [http://i.imgur.com/a9vqT.jpg?1\], as the punchline to the skit as presented in the anime (incredibly similar to the start of a skit way back in episode 4) makes it seem that ''9 of the 12'' episodes of the anime ''never happened'', invalidating all of the characters introduced since then.
** In the un-animated skit ''High School Girls are Funky -- Tolerance'', {{spoiler|[[Always Second Best|Yanagin]] again dared NAGO to test how long can they stay in the sauna. While most of the skit showed Yanagin won over NAGO... it turned out Yanagin fell unconscious earlier than NAGO, Ikushima and Habara; what we saw for the previous pages were just her dream while she was unscious.}}
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** Bonus points for {{spoiler|the film having run long enough to make you think it might be ending.}}
* Reality and dreams are blurred in ''[[The Science of Sleep]]''.
* ''Stay (1996)''
* Throughout ''[[Pan's Labyrinth|Pans Labyrinth]]'', there are strong suggestions that certain aspects of the plot may be All Just a Dream. [[Word of God]] [http://twitchfilm.net/archives/008507.html debunks that possibility], though that same god also explicitly tells you not to listen to him so in the end it looks like nobody's happy.
* In ''[[The Shining]]'', it sometimes got difficult to tell what was real and what were projections of the family's minds. [http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060618/REVIEWS08/606180302 Roger Ebert's review] talks at length on the subject.
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* Ripley's nightmare of having an alien rip out of her chest near the beginning of ''[[Alien (franchise)|Aliens]]''. This is especially misleading since some of the marketing material played-up that the aliens would be attacking Earth... well, a space station around Earth... well, a dream sequence on a space station near a planet which could maybe possibly be Earth.
* In ''[[Hackers]]'', the two main characters (played by Jonny Lee Miller and [[Angelina Jolie]]) each have erotic dreams about the other at the same time.
* In ''[[Brazil (film)|Brazil]]'', a dystopian sci-fi film, {{spoiler|the entire, increasingly weird, ending of the film is revealed to be a fantasy in the mind of protagonist to "escape" from being [[Cold-Blooded Torture|tortured]] in a scene near the end of the film.}}
** This was edited out in the "Love Conquers All" edition; the "reveal" is removed, moving the events from fantasy to reality.
* Played very non-comedically in ''Happiness'', where one of the characters apparently goes on a rampage through his neighbourhood with a machine gun, only to wake up. He's a... troubled guy. {{spoiler|We later find out he's a paedophile.}}
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It was just about the worst ending you could have to any story.'' }}
* ''[[Godel Escher Bach]]'' has a dialogue in which the protagonists win a raffle. The prize is a "Subjunc-TV", which has the ability to show them what would happen under various hypothetical circumstances. In the end, it turns out that they never actually won the raffle; the entire dialogue was itself a Subjunc-TV broadcast of what would have happened if they had.
* Chapter 39 of ''[[Atlanta Nights]]'' reveals that the rest of the book was all a dream, and the main character is on death row. Please note that there are 41 chapters, and the last two [[Anachronic Order|follow the same plotline as]] [[Plot Hole|the first 38 chapters]].
* ''[[The Pilgrim's Progress|The Pilgrims Progress]]'' by John Bunyan subverts this: The very first sentence is: "As I walk'd through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place, where was a Denn; And I laid me down in that place to sleep: And as I slept I dreamed a Dream." That this is All Just a Dream is reinforced throughout, to the very last sentence, which is: "So I awoke, and behold it was a dream." The book was written in 1675. Dream frames were a common medieval trope to explain that "I made this all up."
* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s ''[[The Tower of the Elephant]]'', [[Conan the Barbarian]] briefly wonders about this:
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* Reversed in ''The Lathe Of Heaven''. George Orr has “effective” dreams, meaning, when he wakes up, something that was in his dream is now part of reality. His psychiatrist tries to use this ability to improve life on earth, but when he suggests that George dream of an end to international strife, George dreams of an alien invasion!
* In ''[[Metro 2033]]'', Artyom is put on trial to be hanged by the Fourth Reich {{spoiler|but is saved by Hunter, when the latter literally ''massacres everyone in the station''}}. Aaand then Artyom wakes up only to find himself {{spoiler|leaning against a door in one of the Fourth Reich's cells}}.
* ''[[An Elegy for the Still-living]]'' implies that this is the case without ever openly stating it, and the ending is left rather open ended on the subject.
* Justified in Frederick Pohl's short story "The Hated", in which the protagonist plots to murder a former co-worker, but before he can, he's awakened by a psychiatrist from an induced dream. {{spoiler|The protagonist and his co-workers were astronauts on a lengthy voyage during which they developed a profound, murderous hatred for each other. The psychiatrist was working with all of them to enable them to control their rage. It's made clear at the end that at least in the protagonist's case, it wasn't working.}}
* In ''[[Goosebumps]]'', this is played with in the TV ending to "Awesome Ants". The protagonist’s experience turns suspiciously nightmarish as the town is suddenly abandoned, there is a storm outside, and the ants are growing to enormous proportions. Just before he gets killed by one, he wakes up at home and all seems fine. Then he gradually remembers the reality of the situation: in the real world ants are actually mountain-sized, and keep humans secluded in the human equivalent of ant farms and force them to live on small pellets of blue food. In the book the ants just grew that big rather than always having been so.
** For a true [[Mind Screw]], count how many times this happens in "I Live In Your Basement".
* [[Alexander Pushkin]]'s short story ''The Undertaker'' is an [[Older Than Radio]] example.
* [[The Box of Delights]] ends this way. The action supposedly takes place during Kay Harker's school holidays, but at the end he wakes up still on the train.
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* The season 1 finale of ''[[Reno 911]]'' ended on a [[Cliff Hanger]], which was revealed in the season 2 premiere to be a dream, in what turned out to be a [[Dream Within a Dream|dream sequence itself]] Dangle wakes up from the dream, to discover himself in bed with Kenny Rogers. This turns out to be a dream Garcia is having in the meeting room at the sheriff's station.
* ''[[The Cosby Show]]'' did a number of these, normally precipitated by Cliff's consumption of a large sandwich near bedtime.
* ''[[Smallville]]'': The episode "Slumber" both uses and subverts this trope, as a girl with dream-walking powers can only contacts Clark through dreams. Although occurrences in the episode were fantasy, the dreams do serve a purpose to the plot.
** Used as a bit of a fake-out in season 6's {{spoiler|Lana/Lex wedding. The episode begins with a ridiculously melodramatic wedding/murder/suicide scene, which is immediately revealed to be a dream. The rest of the episode tells the story out of order chronologically, with many of the scenes using the same lurid gothic style, faking the viewers out into thinking these scenes are ''also'' just a dream; unfortunately, ''none'' of them are. Instead, when the episode is over and no-one wakes up from the terrible dream, the viewer is left with the slow, horrible realization that the gothic awfulness ''actually happened''.}}
* An episode of ''[[MacGyver]]'' in which the title character dreams of his [[Identical Grandson|lookalike ancestor]] ends with an [[Or Was It a Dream?]] moment when he woke to find he now possessed his ancestor's distinctive pocketknife.
* ''[[Happy Days]]'' somehow managed to [[Spin-Off]] ''[[Mork and Mindy]]'' from an All Just a Dream episode. Though [[That Was Not a Dream]] as shown by Mork's presence at the end of the episode, where he told his contact on Ork that he tricked "the human (Richie Cunningham)" to ''think'' he had been dreaming. Mork also visited in a subsequent episode during the run of ''Mork and Mindy'' to tell Richie that he was living on Earth in "the future" (i.e. [[The Seventies]] when ''[[Mork and Mindy]]'' took place, and when both ''[[Happy Days]]'' and ''Mork and Mindy'' were made and first aired).
** The episode "They Call It Potsie Love" had Joanie--who had developed a crush on Potsie--falling asleep and dreaming she marries him.
* ''[[The Dick Van Dyke Show|The Dick Van Dyke Show's]]'' classic ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' parody "It May Look Like a Walnut."
* British surreal comedy series ''[[The Brittas Empire]]'' concluded with the revelation that the entirety of the programme, all 53 episodes, had been a dream. The title character had fallen asleep while on the train to the interview for the job that he'd had throughout the series. The other people in the dream (apart from his wife, who was the same in the dream and in real life) were actually people on the train with him, and he projected them into the dream.
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* In an episode of ''[[The 4400]]'', main character Tom dreams of a world where the 4400 abductions never happened. As it turns out at the end, {{spoiler|the "dream" was actually a power of one of the 4400, whose alternate reality powers allowed him to have an eight year relationship with her in an extremely short time, allowing them to know everything about each other despite only meeting once.}}
* ''[[Freddy's Nightmares|Freddys Nightmares]]'' overused this to the point of inverting it. All Just a Dream was so ridiculously commonplace that [[Twist Ending|the real twist]] was when an episode ''didn't'' turn out to be just some random character's dream/hallucination/daydream/DyingDream.
* Several ''[[Round the Twist]]'' episodes ended this way, as a result of being adapted into a continuing series from standalone stories. A particularly odd example is "Santa Claws," which not only has Pete falling asleep in the first scene, thus establishing [[All Just a Dream]] right away, but features a [[Framing Device]] within the dream - Pete telling the story of how his mouth was shrunk.
* Spoofed in the final episode of ''[[Ace of Cakes]]'' after building a giant cake replica of the BTTF Delorean the final scene has Duff noticing the lights in the flux capacitor are on the fritz so he opens it up and messes with the wires, next scene he wakes up at his job at a factory, turns to Geoff and tells him about the wierd dream he had 'where you and I worked at a cake shop making all sorts of wierd cakes"
* In ''[[Dollhouse]]'', the events in the Attic are [[All Just a Dream]]. That does ''not'' make it any better. {{spoiler|You'll forever be trapped in an endless loop of your worst fear, unlikely to ever wake up. All the while the Rossum Corporation is using your mind as a giant computer for their own ends. Even worst; one of the co-founders of Rossum dreams of an oncoming apocalypse, and he knows it almost 100% certain to become reality.}}
* "For Whom The Bell Trolls" in Season 1 of ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]''. It's left ambiguous as to whether "The Wild Wipeout" in ''[[Power Rangers Ninja Storm]]'' was this or not.
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* The video for Live's "Run To The Water" turns out to be Ed Kowalczyk's dream.
* The video for [[Miley Cyrus]]' "Start All Over" is established as being a dream in the very beginning; it starts with her going to sleep and waking up in the dream world, and ends with her going to sleep in the dream world and waking up in the real world. [[Or Was It a Dream?|Then pictures she took while in the dream world start coming out of the printer.]]
* The video for [[Maroon 5]]'s "Makes Me Wonder" features this. With gratuitous [[Fan Service]]
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== Stand-Up Comedy ==
* Comedian Emo Phillips {{spoiler|inverts this trope when he}} talks about a dream he had. He describes a long series of really bizarre, Emo-Phillipian events, that ends with him getting knocked unconscious. "And that's when I had my dream...."
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* In ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]: Creature from the Krusty Krab'', {{spoiler|1=the entire story is found to be just a dream of SpongeBob's, [[Dream Within a Dream|then just a dream of Patrick's, and then just a dream of Plankton's]]}}, and it goes on and on after that. {{spoiler|Until it turns out it was just Gary dreaming. .}}
* Occasionally, this is the case in the 1999 [[PS 1]] game ''The Adventures of Alundra'' or just ''[[Alundra]]'' among fans. The twist, however, is that the dream is not the protagonist's. Instead, he enters other people's dreams and slay whatever monsters may be invading their dreams, trying to kill them. Most of the unnecessarily complicated dungeons are actually dreams. Stupid villagers not being able to dream of some puzzles that don't necessarily require the player to consult a walkthrough.
** And even crazier: Whatever amounts of money or items Alundra finds inside other people's dreams, he gets to keep when he leaves them.
* A common fan interpretation of ''[[Rule of Rose]]''; the events were real, but messed by the protagonist's subconsciousness: Jennifer was a young child, not a 19-year old teenager during the actual events, the events did not take place on a giant airship and the imps were just creepy dolls and doodles and/or other children wearing masks, not inhuman monsters. {{spoiler|Unfortunately the Stray Dog was real.}}
* In the Konami arcade game ''Devastators'', the entire events of the game were actually parts of a movie somebody was watching.
* The chapter {{spoiler|Sleepless Night}} from ''[[Heavy Rain]]'' turns out to be a [[Dream Within a Dream]] when {{spoiler|Madison wakes up after having her throat slashed}}.
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* The brief [http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=030707 "Magic Flap"] arc from ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' ends like this.
* ''[[The Perry Bible Fellowship]]'' sets this up, [http://www.pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF044-Falling_Dream.gif then subverts it].
* ''[[8-Bit Theater
* ''[[YU+ME: dream]]'' has a [[Wham! Episode]] (and [[Broken Base]] inducer) in the middle when this happens, leading to a [[Coming Out Story]] having a [[Genre Shift]]; instead of the usual dream revelation being at the end and nothing in the real world having changed, the dream is the turning point of the story and the main character is greatly affected by what happened. The comic was conceived after its author experienced this trope for real: she met a girl and fell in love, only to wake up after what felt like months of being with her.
* ''[[Silent Hill Promise]]'' uses this in the beginning, before getting to the real horror.
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* In ''[[Nip and Tuck]]'', [http://www.rhjunior.com/NT/00519.html hoping things turned out well.]
* In ''[[Minion Comics]]'', there's a[http://www.meetmyminion.com/?p=921 short dream sequence] involving Dingus's fantasies about predators, aliens, and the holy grail.
* In [[Greg (webcomic)|Greg]], Greg dreams he's a swashbuckling slayer of beasts and a suave ladies man, too bad the reality is so different, [http://gregcomic.com/2012/02/23/world-of-gregcraft-page-14/ here].
* In ''[[L's Empire|Ls Empire]]'', the [[Zombie Apocalypse]] during the April Fools Day special was actually a movie directed by [[M. Night Shyamalan]].
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** Another of the alternate endings did something very similar except, instead of being a dream, the whole series was an [[Xbox]] Live game played by the characters.
* ''[[The Onion]]'' episode [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qYL_KT06-U Today Now!: Save Money By Taking A Vacation Entirely In Your Mind] deals with using this trope to your advantage.
* An episode of [[Ranma Abridged]] features Akane sleepwalking and causing chaos as she goes through several dreams. After waking her up, they discuss how ridiculous the episode was, until it turns out to be Ranma's dream.
* [[Things Mr. Welch Is No Longer Allowed to Do In An RPG]]
{{quote|598. Any adventure that ends up with my character being worshiped as an orc god was just a dream. Retroactively if need be.
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'''Moe:''' I thought dreams was on goldenrod.
'''Producer:''' No, goldenrod is for [[Adventures in Coma Land|coma fantasies]]! }}
** Happens in "Treehouse of Horror" episodes which are already [[A Day At the Bizarro]]. In TOH II, Homer has a nightmare that ends with Mr. Burns' body being crushed by a robot. He awakes to find his boss' head stitched to his shoulder. In TOH V, Bart finds the events of "Nightmare Cafeteria" were just a dream. Marge assures him he has nothing to fear except the fog that turns people inside out. In TOH XVI, "Bartificial Intelligence" is a dream of Homer's while possessed by the devil. He's just happy that gets him out of work.
* In the ''[[Little Lulu]]'' cartoon "[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151675/ Musica-Lulu]", Lulu sneaks out to play baseball instead of practicing her violin, and when knocked out by a foul ball, she wakes up in a land of musical instruments, [[Kangaroo Court|who arrest, try and imprison her]] for her misdeed. When she breaks out of the jail, she is chased and terrorized by the musical instruments. It turns out to be a dream.
* ''[[Futurama]]''
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** Another episode has Batgirl getting hit by Scarecrow's fear gas and hallucinating a scenario where [[Bad Future|she dies, and Gordon goes to war against Batman]]. The dream ends when Bane, who had just been electrocuted to near-death, uses his last breath to toss the Bat-signal at Batman and Gordon, knocking them both off the top of Police Headquarters.
* The ''[[Rugrats]]'' episode "Pickles Vs. Pickles" was about Drew dreaming about Angelica suing him for making her eat broccoli.
** The episode "In the Dreamtime" begins with Chuckie waking up from a dream, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91TKa2133vQ ending like this.] His father explains that there is nothing to fear as nothing can hurt you in a dream. In the next scene Chuckie explains his dream to the babies only for that to be revealed to be a dream. When he next talks to them, he decides that he is still in a dream. Yet when he gets hurt, he realizes it isn't a dream. Chaz then puts his son to bed leading to [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RNmINEsN6U the final scene of the episode.]
* Subverted in the ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' cartoon ''Water, Water Every Hare''. At the end of the cartoon, [[Bugs Bunny]] wakes up in his bed and thinks the events of the cartoon were all just a dream. Then Gossamer, who Bugs had made small earlier, comes in on a boat his size and says, "Oh yeah? That's what you think!"
** Played straight in the early Merrie Melody ''Smile, Darn ya, Smile''.
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* Parodied by ''[[G.I. Joe: Renegades]]'': [[The Stinger]] of the final episode cuts to the original 1980s ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' cartoon and reveals that ''Renegades'' was just 80s!Duke's dream.
* One episode of ''[[Young Justice (animation)|Young Justice]]'' had the entire cast killed off one-by-one by an unstoppable [[Alien Invasion]]. It's revealed at the end that the whole thing was a psychic-induced [[Unwinnable Training Simulation]]. There was some actual danger to the cast, however: Miss Martian accidentally used her [[Psychic Powers]] to [[Holodeck Malfunction|turn off the safety features]], forcing [[Martian Manhunter]] to [[Orphean Rescue|enter the dream and free the cast]].
** Unlike many instances of this trope, the events have long lasting effects, as it not only tips other characters off to the strength of Megen's abilities, but the cast are shown to be traumatised by the events, as it still feels as they watched all their family and friends die.
* Subverted in ''[[The Looney Tunes Show]]'', "Parade Float". A series of events involving Daffy using all of Porky's money to buy a yacht ends with him falling off and about to drown. He wakes up and remarks "It was all a dream. That's why I was such a horrible person." Bugs then reminds him that "it wasn't a dream. You really are a horrible person." In fact, Daffy was in a hospital bed, recovering from his near-drowning.
* The events of the 2003 ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003]]'' episode "Bad Day" are simply a form of [[Mind Rape]] conjured by the Foot Mystics.
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== Real Life ==
* Some people believe that "real life" is really all just a simulation using technology that doesn't yet exist in real life/this simulation. This is based on the belief that technology is likely to get to the point of being able to perfectly simulate real life while making the subject forget real life while in the simulation and that since once this technology exists it will result in more virtual worlds than the one real one the odds are that this is a simulation and not real life.
** [http://www.simulation-argument.com/ The Simulation Argument] postulates that: it is overwhelmingly likely that ''either'' 1) we are living in an "ancestor simulation" created by our descendants ''or'' 2) humanity can never be technologically advanced enough to stage ancestor simulations. Neither conclusion is very palatable.
** "Perfectly simulate real life while making the subject forget real life"? Why are we talking about ''[[The Sims]]''?
** An interesting counterpoint is the idea that [[wikipedia:Simulated reality#Relativity of reality|"real life" is a meaningless term]], since any reality must be absolute from the perspective of its inhabitants (if we are indeed simulated beings, this is still the highest level of nested realities we can exist in).
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