Awake is a 2007 American conspiracy thriller film written and directed by Joby Harold (in his directorial debut). It stars Hayden Christensen, Jessica Alba, Terrence Howard and Lena Olin. The film was released in the United States and Canada by The Weinstein Company and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on November 30, 2007.
Young billionaire Clay Beresford, Jr. is in love with beautiful Samantha "Sam" Lockwood, his mother's personal assistant. Clay requires a heart transplant and Dr. Jack Harper is Clay's heart surgeon and friend. Clay asks Dr. Harper to arrange his elopement with Sam and they marry privately at midnight, then Clay goes to the hospital for the operation.
While Clay's mother Lilith awaits completion of his surgery, Clay encounters anesthesia awareness. The surgical pain causes Clay to have a clairvoyant experience, exposing Dr. Harper's plot to murder him, also revealing that Sam worked at the hospital under Dr. Harper and has conspired with him against Clay. Sam's plan was to poison the donor heart by injecting Adriamycin to cause its rejection, thus murdering Clay to collect insurance money to pay off Dr. Harper's malpractice lawsuits.
The scheme unravels and Lilith, realizing what has happened, sacrifices her own life so that Clay, who is close to death, can live: she commits suicide so her heart can be switched for the poisoned one, and save Clay. While Sam tries to get away with what she did, Dr. Harper feels guilty and he holds onto proof so she can be arrested too. Another surgical team takes over the operation, as Clay barely clings to life and the conspirators are arrested. The new team takes Lilith's heart and transplants it into Clay's body, as Clay and Lilith have their final moments together in spirit (in an out-of-body experience).
The new head surgeon announces that Clay has come back to life, as the new team stitch Clay's wound. Clay, in spirit, is still in the afterlife with Lilith, tries to take his own life to stay with his mother. Clay makes his new heart stop beating and the surgeons have to use the defibrillator in attempt to revive Clay. As Clay resists being revived, Lilith forces Clay (in the "afterlife-world") to revisit a scene from his childhood, when Lilith killed Clay's abusive father. This scene reveals the truth for Clay and connects his childhood flashbacks. After seeing this, Clay gives way to revival, and before the surgeons can shock his body again, Clay allows his new heart to begin beating. Clay opens his eyes when the surgeons remove the eye tapes while Harper ends his narrating with "He is awake."
Portions of Awake were filmed on Fordham University's Lincoln Center campus (Lowenstein Hall is converted to look like a hospital; the statue of "St. Peter: Fisher of Men" is visible in the film). In addition, many scenes, including Dr. Jack Harper's office, the cafeteria where Lilith dies by suicide, and the elevator bank, were filmed in Bellevue Hospital.
Awake received generally negative reviews upon release. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 23% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 62 reviews, with an average rating of 4.23/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "Awake has an interesting premise but would have benefited from tighter performances and more efficient direction and editing."[2] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 33 out of 100 based on 17 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[3] Dennis Harvey of Variety said the film "does have an attention-getting plot hook, but piles on too many narrative gimmicks to maintain suspense or credibility."[4] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it three stars out of four and defended the film, saying, "I went to a regular theater to see it Friday afternoon, knowing nothing about it except that the buzz was lethal, and sat there completely absorbed... I did not anticipate the surprises, did not anticipate them piling on after one another, got very involved in the gory surgical details, and found the supporting soap opera good as such things go".[5] Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter said "[Harold] succeeds in creating a quietly ominous tone that never lets up, with this being the rare modern horror effort that relies on suspense rather than bloodshed."[6]
A group representing anesthesiologists in Ontario criticized the film following its release for having its "science completely wrong." Ontario's Anesthesiologists, a section of the Ontario Medical Association, declared numerous scientific and procedural distortions in the film such as the presentation of improper anesthetic techniques. The group disputes the film's claim that anaesthesia awareness occurred as frequently as one in every 700 patients, although this in turn is debated by anesthesia awareness advocate Carol Weihrer.[7][8]
Awake is a 2021 American apocalyptic science fiction thriller film, directed by Mark Raso, from a screenplay he wrote alongside Joseph Raso. It stars Gina Rodriguez, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Barry Pepper, Finn Jones, Shamier Anderson, Ariana Greenblatt, Frances Fisher, Elias Edraki, Lucius Hoyos and Gil Bellows. Rodriguez plays Jill (Rodriguez) who discovers her daughter (Greenblatt) may be immune to a disorder causing mass chronic sleep deprivation and attempts to bring her daughter to a laboratory to help develop a cure.
The film was released by Netflix on June 9, 2021,[1][2] and received generally negative reviews from film critics who criticized the derivative plot and lack of tension. However, it reached number one worldwide on the platform when it was released.[3]
While driving, their car loses power and is hit by another car, sending it into a lake. Matilda drowns but is revived by a police officer who reveals that everything that uses electricity is malfunctioning. At the hospital, they learn that coma patients have awoken. At home, the family is unable to sleep. On her way to work, Jill observes that the whole neighborhood is awake. Psychiatrist Dr. Murphy explains that people appear to be no longer able to fall asleep and they will soon suffer from sleep deprivation. The only known exception is an old woman who is being studied at a military base called The Hub, in hopes of finding a cure.
Jill remembers that Matilda appeared to be asleep that morning, and fears that she may be dead. She finds Matilda at church, where the churchgoers want to sacrifice her. After an officer opens fire, the ensuing chaos allows Jill to flee with her kids. Noah tells a reluctant Jill that they should bring Matilda to The Hub.
En route to The Hub, an escaped prisoner steals their car with Matilda in it. Jill and Noah are saved from the other hostile prisoners by the thief of their car, Dodge. Upon reaching The Hub, Jill has Dodge leave and enters The Hub alone. She finds the other woman who can sleep in ill condition. Murphy explains that there is no cure and lab workers have been using a drug that helps the brain function to keep them going. However, it is only temporary and causes neurological damage. The army confronts the family and Matilda tearfully admits that she can sleep.
Doctors decide to find what makes Matilda special. Matilda sees an ape in the lab that doesn't fall asleep when given anesthetic gas. The doctor reveals that chimps are the only animals besides humans that can't sleep due to their biological closeness to humans. They test the gas on Matilda and she falls asleep. Jill is handcuffed in a room where she experiences delirium.
Murphy explains to Jill that the sleep disorder was caused by the same solar flare that knocked out power, affecting humans' brains. Dodge is taken as a guard and given stimulants. The woman who can sleep goes into cardiac arrest and dies. Noah is taken away for experiments. As the soldiers start to go insane and kill each other, Jill rescues Matilda with the help of one of the doctors. Noah, hallucinating, electrocutes himself. Jill and Matilda try resuscitating him but suffer a mild electrocution from improperly using the defibrillator.
The next morning, Matilda notices that Noah was successfully revived and he awakens, saying that he was dreaming. As Jill is exhausted and dying, Matilda realizes the reason that she and Noah could sleep was because they had both temporarily died. They then drown Jill in a lake and attempt to resuscitate her. She awakens just as the camera cuts to the credits.
In May 2019, it was announced Gina Rodriguez had joined the cast of the film, with Mark Raso directing from a screenplay by himself and Joseph Raso and with Netflix distributing.[4] In August 2019, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Barry Pepper, Finn Jones, Shamier Anderson, Ariana Greenblatt, Frances Fisher, Lucius Hoyos and Gil Bellows joined the cast of the film.[5]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 24% of 51 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.4/10. The website's consensus reads: "A scattered and shallow disaster flick, Awake will have audiences reaching for the snooze button."[8] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 35 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.[9]
Nick Allen at The Playlist called it "abysmal" gave the film a "D". He wrote that the movie "proves it has no idea how to present its one original idea with visual thrills, and it foolishly underestimates how performance is key to horror like this."[10]
Dr. Jack Harper: [closing narration] At 6:32 this morning, on Thursday the 1st of November, Clayton Beresford Jr. died on my operating table. Two and a half hours later, his life was saved. There are no excuses for what we did. There's no defense, no-one to blame but us. We got what we deserved. Clay would have his revenge, and justice would finally be served. But despite all the secrets, despite all the lies, and a terrible loss, one thing really matters now. He... is... awake.
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