Placing a dream sequence in a movie is a really great storytelling technique. While it’s not a novel idea and has been done in various ways, dream sequences allow the audience to get closer to the characters. Often, dreams are where you can learn a person’s deepest fears and desires and gives you a deeper look into how they generally think and feel.
Dream sequences can also serve as a portal to a character’s memories or perception of past events, and can sometimes even foreshadow what’s to come, or rather what they hope will happen. It’s typical for movies to have one, or maybe a series of dream sequences. However, there are also movies, like The Wizard of Oz, where almost the entire movie is a dream. There are a lot of options to pick from, but here are five of the coolest dream sequences in movies.
5 Inception (2010)
Christopher Nolan's Inception was a mega-box office hit when it premiered in 2010. It's about a man (Leonardo DiCaprio) a professional thief who steals information by infiltrating the subconscious mind of his targets. The movie features an ensemble cast with big names like Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elliot Page, Cillian Murphy, Michael Caine, and Ken Watanabe. The bulk of the movie is spent building up the dream world DiCaprio's character so often enters, and a lot of the movie's best moments happen within said dreams, like the iconic tilting hallway fight scene. Inception deeply explores themes of reality and dreaming in general in ways that few movies have before.
4
The Big Lebowski (1998)
This dark comedy from 1998 starring Jeff Bridges, Steve Buschemi, John Goodman and a number of other big stars is a major classic. It's about Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski (Bridges), an infamous slacker, and avid bowler who gets beat up as he was mistaken for the millionaire Jeff "The Big" Lebowski. Following the mix-up, The Big Lebowski's wife is kidnapped, so he commissions The Dude to deliver some ransom money and get her back. Despite mixed reviews from critics, The Big Lebowski is a fun film that has since become a cult favorite.
There's an elaborate, musical dream sequence in the movie where The Dude receives bowling shoes from Suddam Hussein, dances down a giant staircase, and shows Maude (Julianne Moore) how to properly throw a bowling ball. The Big Lebowski itself touches on a lot of philosophical themes like absurdism and nihilism, with bowling and comedic moments constantly in the background, and The Dude's dream is a culmination of all of those things, delivered with a sorta psychedelic flair that really fits into the movie as a whole.
3 A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)
Dreams are really the focal point of the A Nightmare on Elm Street movies, as the vicious Freddy Krueger only attacks while you're sleeping and dreaming. There's a number of iconic dream sequences from the classic 1984 slasher. There's the bloody scene where Glen (Johnny Depp) is pulled deep into his bed, or when Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) falls asleep in the bathtub and is pulled underwater by Kruger's clawed glove. The dream sequences in A Nightmare on Elm Street were downright terrifying and made bedtime a scary time, and there's an entire franchise full of them.
2 Grease (1978)
There are likely few people who haven't seen the 1978 classic musical Grease, or know at least one of the movie's signature songs. While it's just a minor part of the movie, one of the best scenes comes from the dream sequence for the song "Beauty School Dropout." In this scene, a pink-haired Frenchy (Didi Conn) is serenaded by an angelic Frankie Avalon as her friends dance around in silver capes and hair rollers. It's a fun scene with a memorable song, and a totally different feel than the rest of the movie, yet it fits in perfectly. For fans of the original movie, there's currently a TV series, Grease: Rise of The Pink Ladies, in production at Paramount+, which will serve as a prequel to the movie.
1 Wizard of Oz (1939)
The Wizard of Oz is unique because almost the entirety of the movie is a dream. In her dreams, Dorothy (Judy Garland) travels to the bright, whimsical Munchkin Land and meets Glinda the Good Witch, who sends her on a journey down the Yellow Brick Road to see the Wizard of Oz. Along her trek, she meets the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion, all of which are exaggerated dream versions of the people she knows from her reality back in Kansas.
From the Wicked Witch of the East and her flying monkeys to the talking evil trees that throw apples to the sleepy poppy fields and the splendor of the Emerald City and the horse of many colors. The Wizard of Oz is full of magic and brightly-colored curiosities. It almost makes you wish it wasn't all a dream.