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Waking Life Poster

Waking Life

"Dreams. What are they? An escape from reality or reality itself?"

Waking Life is about a young man in a persistent lucid dream-like state. The film follows its protagonist as he initially observes and later participates in philosophical discussions that weave together issues like reality, free will, our relationships with others, and the meaning of life.

Top Cast

  • Ethan Hawke

    Ethan Hawke

    Jesse

  • Julie Delpy

    Julie Delpy

    Celine

  • Wiley Wiggins

    Wiley Wiggins

    Main Character

  • Bill Wise

    Bill Wise

    Boat Car Guy

  • Alex E. Jones

    Alex E. Jones

    Man in Car with P.A.

  • Steven Soderbergh

    Steven Soderbergh

    Interviewed on Television

  • Ken Webster

    Ken Webster

    Bartender

  • Charles Gunning

    Charles Gunning

    Angry Man in Jail

  • Lorelei Linklater

    Lorelei Linklater

    Young Girl Playing Paper Game

Overview

Waking Life is about a young man in a persistent lucid dream-like state. The film follows its protagonist as he initially observes and later participates in philosophical discussions that weave together issues like reality, free will, our relationships with others, and the meaning of life.

Trailers & Clips

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A white dropout struggles to become a cartoonist and filmmaker, drawing inspiration from the harsh, gritty world around him. Still sharing his rundown apartment with his middle-aged parents, an oafish slob of an Italian father and a ditzy nutcase of a Jewish mother, he's ridiculed and looked down upon by his friends, hypocrites who run with violent gangs and the Italian Mafia, and a shallow Black girl who makes her living downtown with the pimps and pushers. The cartoonist gets a chance to pitch a film idea to a movie mogul, but the story proves too outrageous: a far-future Earth, depleted by war and pollution, where a mutant antihero challenges and kills God.

Heavy Traffic

6.4 1973