‘Dream Scenario’ Is (Not) Based on a True Story: Here’s How ‘This Man’ Is Connected to It
‘Dream Scenario’ is the latest American black comedy fantasy film written and directed by Kristoffer Borgli. Produced by Ari Aster, Lars Knudsen, Nicolas Cage, Jacob Jaffke, and Tyler Campellone under the Square Peg banner. The movie features a star-studded cast, including Nicolas Cage, Julianne Nicholson, Michael Cera, Tim Meadows, Dylan Gelula, and Dylan Baker. But besides the technical details, the movie also has an extremely interesting premise that may draw some inspiration from real-life phenomena. Let’s see whether ‘Dream Scenario’ was based on a true story and what the connection to ‘This Man’ is.
‘Dream Scenario’ was inspired by a real-life case of “This Man”
The movie ‘Dream Scenario’ shows Paul Matthews (Nicholas Cage) in the role of a college professor who suddenly starts appearing in people’s dreams around the world. Paul’s journalist ex-girlfriend, Claire, notices him with his wife Janet and informs him that he has been appearing in her dreams. Intrigued, Claire proposes to write about these occurrences, and Paul agrees. The article, featuring Paul’s picture and Facebook profile, goes viral, with numerous people claiming to recognize him as the dream figure.
At first, Paul likes attention and tries to use this opportunity to publish a book, but now that his personal information is online for everyone to find and see, he is stalked by a mentally ill patient in whose dreams he also appeared. Following this violent attack, Paul’s life descends into pure chaos as nobody can explain what the hell is going on.
It sounds like quite a unique premise, I have to agree, but as it turns out, despite the movie being written by Kristoffer Borgli and not based on any specific cases or books, the movie does have a connection to a bizarre real-life case of “This Man.”
“This Man” has appeared in people’s dreams since the 1980s
If you’ve visited *THOSE* corners of the internet or you frequently read through creepypastas and similar stories online, you’ve probably happened upon the case of “This Man.”
Reports of “This Man” appearing in dreams date back to the 1980s, with the first image sketched in January 2006 by a New York psychiatrist based on a patient’s recurring dreams. As a result, more individuals claimed to recognize “This Man” in their dreams, and the phenomenon gained attention worldwide. Over 8,000 people from cities like Los Angeles, Berlin, São Paulo, Tehran, Beijing, Rome, Barcelona, Stockholm, Paris, New Delhi, and Moscow reported seeing “This Man” in their dreams.
Anonymous testimonies described varying degrees of interactions within dreams, from romantic fantasies to violent encounters, with recurring themes like advising dreamers to “go North.” The mysterious figure’s identity and role in dreams haven’t been discovered as of 2023. “This Man” Site creator Andrea Natella, who dreamt of “This Man” in 2008, launched ThisMan.org to explore the phenomenon, following the figure’s instructions. The website included an identikit image of This Man created using the Ultimate Flash Face app.
The explanation behind “This Man” doesn’t exist
We’ve mentioned that “This Man” has never been properly identified, and except for appearing in people’s dreams, he has no significant or noteworthy interactions with them. Still, several explanations have been proposed on why & how exactly he appears in dreams of random, unconnected people.
The first theory states that “This Man” could be an example of Carl Jung’s concept of the unconscious “archetypal image” that all people see while they are undergoing difficult situations. He represents father and stability and some part of our psyche with hardcoded elements that all of us can expect to see at least once in our dreams.
Some people associate “This Man” with divinity, assuming he is a manifestation of god within our dreams, while some more reasonable theories state that people dream about “This Man” only after learning about him or that people simply remember faces from dreams poorly and that they simply assume or correctly associate “This Man” with a face they saw in their dreams.
In any case, it’s an interesting case and an interesting movie, but the science behind it cannot agree on a single cause or explanation. Have you ever seen “This Man” in your dreams? Let us know in the comments below!