''Open Your Eyes'' ( es, Abre los ojos, links=no) is a 1997 Spanish film co-written, co-scored and directed by

Alejandro Amenábar Alejandro Fernando Amenábar Cantos (born March 31, 1972) is a Spanish-Chilean film director, screenwriter and composer. He has won nine Goya Award for Best Director, Goyas—including a Goya Award for Best Director for his 2001 film ''The Othe ...

and co-written by

Mateo Gil Mateo Gil Rodríguez (born 23 September 1972, Las Palmas, Spain) is a Spanish film director, screenwriter, second unit director, assistant director, cinematographer, editor and producer. He co-wrote most of Alejandro Amenábar's films with him, ...

. It stars Eduardo Noriega,

Penélope Cruz Penélope Cruz Sánchez (; ; born 28 April 1974) is a Spanish actress. Known for her roles in films of several genres, particularly those in the Spanish language, she has received various accolades, including an Academy Award and a British A ...

Chete Lera Ramón Mariano Fernández Lera (1949–2022), better known as Chete Lera, was a Spanish actor. With a long on-screen career in addition to a stage career, he featured in films such as ''The Red Squirrel'', '' Secrets of the Heart'', '' Familia'', ...

Fele Martínez Fele Martínez (born Rafael Martínez; 22 February 1975) is a Goya Award-winning Spanish actor. Early years Martínez was born in Alicante, Spain. A product of the Escuela Superior de Arte Dramático in Madrid, he began to act and direct theater ...

and

Najwa Nimri Najwa Nimri Urrutikoetxea (; born 14 February 1972) is a Spanish actress and singer. Early life Nimri's mother is from Pamplona and her father, Karam Nimri, is Jordanian. She has a brother named Karim Nimri, a half-brother named Andre Nimri an ...

. In 2002, ''Open Your Eyes'' was ranked no. 84 in the Top 100 Sci-Fi List by the

Online Film Critics Society The Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) is an international professional association of online film journalists, historians and scholars who publish their work on the World Wide Web. The organization was founded in January 1997 by Harvey S. Karten ...

. The movie's intersecting planes of dream and reality have prompted some critics to suggest comparisons to Calderón de la Barca's 1635 play '' Life Is a Dream''. An American remake entitled ''

Vanilla Sky ''Vanilla Sky'' is a 2001 American science fiction thriller film directed, written, and co-produced by Cameron Crowe. It is an English-language remake of Alejandro Amenábar's 1997 Spanish film '' Open Your Eyes'', which was written by Amenábar ...

'', directed by

Cameron Crowe Cameron Bruce Crowe (born July 13, 1957) is an American journalist, author, writer, producer, director, actor, lyricist, and playwright. Before moving into the film industry, Crowe was a contributing editor at ''Rolling Stone'' magazine, for wh ...

, was released in 2001, with Penélope Cruz reprising her role.

Plot

A handsome young man wakes up to a female voice telling him to open his eyes. He drives to an empty city. He wakes again, this time to a woman in his bed. He tells her not to leave him messages on his alarm clock. From a prison cell in Madrid, the 25-year-old man, César ( Eduardo Noriega), tells his story to psychiatrist Antonio (Chete Lera) while wearing a

prosthetic In medicine, a prosthesis (plural: prostheses; from grc, πρόσθεσις, prósthesis, addition, application, attachment), or a prosthetic implant, is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part, which may be lost through trau ...

mask. Flashbacks reveal the following events: Good-looking César is attractive to women. At his birthday party, he flirts with Sofía (

), his best friend Pelayo's ( Fele Martinez) date. Later, he takes her home and stays the night, but they do not sleep together. The next morning, César's obsessive ex-lover Nuria (

) pulls up outside Sofía's flat, offering him a ride and sex. On the way to her house, however, she crashes the car with the intent to kill them both. César survives the crash but is horribly disfigured, beyond the help of cosmetic surgery, so he decides to wear a mask to conceal his face. Sofía cannot bear to see him and tries to keep her distance. After César's disfigurement, he begins to have a series of disorienting experiences. Drunk, César falls asleep in the street. On awakening, everything has changed: Sofía now claims to love him and the surgeons restore his lost looks. But as he makes love to Sofía one night, she suddenly changes into Nuria. Horrified, César smothers her to death with a pillow. Yet everyone else believes Nuria was indeed the woman everyone else calls Sofía, and he is imprisoned for her murder. While he is confined to the prison, fragments of his past return to him as if in a dream. It is revealed that, shortly after falling asleep drunk on the street, César signed a contract with Life Extension, a company specializing in

cryonics Cryonics (from el, κρύος ''kryos'' meaning 'cold') is the low-temperature freezing (usually at ) and storage of human remains, with the speculative hope that resurrection may be possible in the future. Cryonics is regarded with skepticis ...

, to be cryogenically preserved and to experience extremely lucid and lifelike

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), educ ...

dreams. Returning to their headquarters, under supervision by prison officers, he discovers they specialize in cryonics with a twist: "artificial perception" or the provision of a fantasy based on the past to clients who are reborn in the future. He committed suicide at home shortly after signing the contract and was placed in cryonic suspension. Duvernois, the L.E. representative who explains César's experiences to him while dreaming, reveals that the era is 150 years in the future and César's time from his awakening in the street onward has been a dream, spliced retroactively into his actual life and replacing his true memories. At the end of the film, César decides to wake and be resurrected by committing suicide. Convinced his life since the drunken night in the street has been a nightmarish vision created by Life Extension, he leaps from the roof of the company's high-rise headquarters, and the film ends, apparently ambiguously, on a black screen with a woman telling him to open his eyes.

Cast

* Eduardo Noriega as César, a confident and wealthy young man who has money and is successful with women *

as Pelayo, César's best friend, whose personality is marked by his inferiority complex when it comes to meeting women *

as Sofía, César's love interest *

as Nuria, César's former lover, who still has feelings for him *

Tristán Ulloa Tristán Ulloa (born 6 May 1970) is a Spanish actor, writer, and director. Career He was born in Orléans and lived with his Spanish grandparents exiled in France. He spent his teenage years in Vigo, Galicia. His mother, Esther San Román, lives ...

as Camarero *

as Antonio, a psychologist who tries to help *

Gérard Barray Gérard Barray (born 2 November 1931 in Toulouse) is a French actor. Early life and education Barray's parents split up quickly and his mother, who came from Montauban decided to return to her hometown with her little boy. Around the age of 15, h ...

as Duvernois, a representative of the L.E. company

Release

The film was theatrically released on 19 December 1997.

Reception

Critical reception

''Open Your Eyes'' received mostly positive reviews. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has an 85% approval rating based on reviews from 47 critics, with a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

score of 7.39 out of 10. The site's critical consensus states: "Director Alejandro Amenábar tackles some heady issues with finesse and clarity in ''Open Your Eyes'', a gripping exploration of existentialism and the human spirit".

James Berardinelli James Berardinelli (born September 25, 1967) is an American film critic and former engineer. His reviews are mainly published on his blog ''ReelViews.'' Approved as a critic by the aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, he has published two collections of r ...

of ReelViews gave the film three and a half stars (out of four), writing that movies "of this intelligence, audacity, and complexity come along so rarely that it's mandatory to cry out their arrival" and that "those who see it will not quickly forget the experience". Rob Blackwelder of SplicedWire gave the film four stars (out of four), calling it "a jaw-dropping psychological thriller" that's "beautifully orchestrated". Richard Scheib of ''The Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Film Review'' also gave ''Open Your Eyes'' four stars, writing that it is "quite a remarkable film". Holly E. Ordway of DVD Active wrote "I don’t give out “perfect 10” ratings lightly, but ''Open Your Eyes'' earns one by all accounts". However, Aaron Beierle of

DVD Talk DVD Talk is a home video news and review website launched in 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman. History Kleinman founded the site in January 1999 in Beaverton, Oregon. Besides news and reviews, it features information on hidden DVD features known as ...

gave a more lukewarm review, writing that he "found most of ''Open Your Eyes'' interesting" but remarked that "there's something about the picture that kept me from being completely involved". In 2016, Alejandro Amenábar said in retrospective that ''Open Your Eyes'' was his worst film, telling that it had been written by teenagers, who did not know anything about life.

Box office

In Spain, the film was the second highest-grossing Spanish film of the year behind '' Torrente, el brazo tonto de la ley'' with a gross of $7.8 million. In the United States and Canada it grossed $370,720. Elsewhere it grossed $0.7 million.

Soundtrack

;Vol. #1 #"Glamour" - Amphetamine Discharge (6:03) #"Risingson" -

Massive Attack Massive Attack are an English trip hop collective formed in 1988 in Bristol by Robert "3D" Del Naja, Adrian "Tricky" Thaws, Andrew "Mushroom" Vowles and Grant "Daddy G" Marshall. The debut Massive Attack album ''Blue Lines'' was release ...

(5:29) #"El detonador EMX-3" - Chucho (5:17) #"How do" -

Sneaker Pimps Sneaker Pimps are an English electronic music band, formed in Hartlepool in 1994. They are best known for their debut album, ''Becoming X'' (1996), and its singles " 6 Underground" and "Spin Spin Sugar". The band takes its name from an article ...

(5:04) #"Sick of you" -

Onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' L., from Latin ''cepa'' meaning "onion"), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus ''Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion ...

(4:28) #"T-sebo" - Side Effects (5:44) #"Flying away" -

Smoke City Smoke City was an English band that blended acid jazz and trip hop, borrowing from Brazilian styles such as samba and bossa nova and some lyrics have excerpts in Portuguese. They are best known for their single " Underwater Love", which was ...

(3:50) #"Arrecife" - Los Coronas (3:11) #"Yo mismo" - If (3:37) #"Tremble (goes the night)" -

The Walkabouts The Walkabouts were an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington in 1984. The core members were vocalist Carla Torgerson and vocalist and songwriter Chris Eckman. Although the rest of the line-up changed occasionally, for most of the time ...

(5:02) #"El detonador remix" – Chucho / Side Effects (5:01) ;Vol. #2 (Instrumental) #"Abre los ojos" (2:28) #"Sofía" (1:12) #"Soñar es una mierda" (1:04) #"La operación" (1:33) #"¿Dónde está Sofía?" (0:54) #"El parque" (3:08) #"Hipnosis" (2:20) #"Quítate la careta" (2:56) #"Eres mi mejor amigo" (2:41) #"La única explicación" (2:05) #"Quiero verte" (6:38) #"Esa sonrisa" (0:53) #"''Deja vu''" (1:51) #"Excarcelación" (4:28) #"La vida" (1:46) #"La azotea" (5:21) #"Créditos finales" (3:31) Source: .

Awards and nominations

, - , align = "center" rowspan = "10" , 1999 , , rowspan = "10" ,

13th Goya Awards The 13th Goya Awards were presented in Madrid, Spain on 23 January 1999. ''The Girl of Your Dreams'' won the award for Best Film. Winners and nominees Major award nominees Other award nominees Honorary Goya * Rafael Alonso Rafael Al ...

, , colspan = "2" ,

Best Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

, , , , rowspan = "10" , , - ,

Best Director Best Director is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards. It may refer to: Film awards * AACTA Award for Best Direction * Academy Award for Best Director * BA ...

, , Alejandro Amenábar , , , - ,

Best Original Screenplay The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best screenplay not based upon previously published material. It was created in 1940 as a separate writing award from the Academy Award for Best Story. Beginning with the ...

, , Alejandro Amenábar y Mateo Gil , , , - ,

Best Actor Best Actor is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actors in a film, television series, television film or play. The term most often refers to th ...

, , Eduardo Noriega , , , - , Best Editing , , María Elena Sáinz de Rozas , , , - ,

Best Art Direction The Academy Award for Best Production Design recognizes achievement for art direction in film. The category's original name was Best Art Direction, but was changed to its current name in 2012 for the 85th Academy Awards. This change resulted fro ...

, , Wolfgang Burmann , , , - , Best Production Supervision , , Emiliano Otegui , , , - , Best Makeup and Hairstyles , , Colin Arthur, Paca Almenara, Sylvie Imbert , , , - ,

Best Sound This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow List of film awards, film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awa ...

, , Daniel Goldstein, Patrick Ghislain, Ricardo Steinberg , , , - , Best Special Effects , , Reyes Abades, Alberto Esteban, Aurelio Sánchez , ,

American remake

Director

's film ''

'' (2001) is a remake of ''Open Your Eyes''. It stars

Tom Cruise Thomas Cruise Mapother IV (born July 3, 1962), known professionally as Tom Cruise, is an American actor and producer. One of the world's highest-paid actors, he has received various accolades, including an Honorary Palme d'Or and three Gol ...

in the lead role (renamed David Aames),

reprising her role as Sofia,

Cameron Diaz Cameron Michelle Diaz (born August 30, 1972) is an American actress. With a variety of works in film, she is widely recognised for her work in romantic comedies and animation. Diaz has received various accolades, including nominations for ...

as the woman who disfigures David (renamed Julianna Gianni),

Jason Lee Jason Lee may refer to: Entertainment *Jason Lee (actor) (born 1970), American film and TV actor and former professional skateboarder *Jason Scott Lee (born 1966), Asian American film actor * Jaxon Lee (Jason Christopher Lee, born 1968), American v ...

as the friend (renamed Brian Shelby), and

Kurt Russell Kurt Vogel Russell (born March 17, 1951) is an American actor. He began acting on television at the age of 12 in the Westerns on television, western series ''The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (TV series), The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters'' (19 ...

as the psychiatrist (renamed Curtis McCabe). Transporting the action from Madrid to New York City, ''Vanilla Sky'' follows its source material's plot very closely, but makes several changes to the ending.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Open Your Eyes 1997 films 1990s psychological thriller films 1990s science fiction films 1990s Spanish-language films Cryonics in fiction Films about telepresence Films about altered memories Films directed by Alejandro Amenábar Films shot in Madrid Madrid in fiction Films about dreams Films with screenplays by Mateo Gil Artisan Entertainment films Works about plastic surgery Spanish psychological thriller films 1990s Spanish films