Cult movies about the human subconscious: a selection for the weekend

Sometimes we cannot explain why we acted in a certain way and attribute irrational actions and incomprehensible thoughts to the tricks of the subconscious. This mysterious layer of our personality, which sometimes takes over, could not help but attract the attention of filmmakers.

Many films have been made about the influence of the subconscious on our lives. OBOZ.UA has compiled a list with excellent ratings on the IMDb aggregator.

Inception

A lover of all kinds of mysteries, Christopher Nolan could not ignore this topic. In 2010, he released Inception, a sci-fi psychological thriller about a team of professional thieves who steal corporate secrets by penetrating the dreams of their victims. Nolan based his work on the phenomenon of lucid dreaming, which science still cannot explain in detail. Similarly, for almost a decade and a half, viewers have not been able to find out for sure which scenes from this movie describe reality and which are fragments of dreams.

Inside out

We don't know how emotions arise and what mechanisms they use to control us. However, we can learn to control them, even though they are outside our consciousness. And this is exactly what the wonderful Pixar cartoon tells us. The main character of the movie is 11-year-old Riley, whose mind is filled with Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Disgust. Over and over again, they start arguing to decide who will be in charge of the girl. They will have to find a way to negotiate with each other so as not to turn Riley's life into complete chaos.

Being John Malkovich

The acting profession is one of the few that allows you to tap into your subconscious. It is with its help that actors create different images and transform into characters completely different from themselves. In the movie, the main character named Craig Schwartz is an actor. He finds a new job. However, his "office" is located on a strange 7 ½ floor, where it is impossible to straighten up to his full height. Behind one of the cabinets, he finds a door that leads into the mind of his famous colleague John Malkovich. Craig teams up with his colleague Maxine and organizes a business - anyone can spend 15 minutes in the inner world of a movie star for $200 and understand how it all works.

Limitless

Failed writer Eddie Mora is about to miss the deadline for submitting his manuscript to a publisher, but he can't even start a new book. His lover can't handle this crisis and leaves him. It seems that his whole life is going wrong. Therefore, Eddie, who has nothing to lose, agrees to his friend's suggestion to try a mysterious drug. It helps to unlock the full potential of the brain. Under the influence of the pills, Eddie regains control over his life, but terrifying events and mysterious deaths begin to occur around him. The hero will have to go through many trials to not only uncover the terrible secrets associated with the amazing drug, but also to figure out how not to lose the superpowers he has gained from it.

Fight Club

The protagonist of the movie is an unnamed man in his 30s who, by all outward appearances, has achieved great success in life. Despite the fact that he seems to have nothing to worry about, he suffers from terrible insomnia, which makes him unable to distinguish reality from delusion. His doctor suggests that instead of taking sleeping pills, he should try exercising and attend a group for terminally ill people. This way, he says, he will realize that his problems are not so terrible compared to his inevitable death, and he will calm down. In the group, he meets a fellow simulator named Marla Singer, and also meets an eccentric soap salesman named Tyler Durden in a bar. The appearance of these two strangely coincides with an explosion that destroys the hero's home. Thus, at one point, he has to radically change his life and plunge into vicissitudes that he could not even imagine before. The hero gradually loses control over the events. But isn't what is happening to him a play of his exhausted subconscious?

Enemy

University professor Adam Bell rents an unknown movie out of boredom. He suddenly notices that one of the characters in the movie is an exact copy of him. His appearance, voice, movements, and even the scar on his stomach match. Adam decides to find his double. After overcoming many obstacles, he finally meets him. But it turns out that it was a bad idea. Now Adam can't figure out who this Anthony is - friend, foe, figment of his imagination, delusion, his own dark self?

The Machinist

Machine operator Trevor Resnick has been suffering from insomnia for a year. He has lost a lot of weight and seems to have completely lost touch with reality. The events that are happening around him, the people around him - everything hints that he is in the center of some terrible conspiracy. Or in some terrible delusion. In order not to go completely crazy, Trevor decides to find out how it all started and what brought him to this terrifying point. The hero will have to find in the past something that consciousness has pushed out so deeply, but which has such a strong impact on his life.

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