Beyond Dream's Door (1989) Movie Script

- It's for you, Benjamin.
- Hello?
- You don't get it, do you?
It's for you, Ben.
Only for you.
- Wanna play hide and seek?
- Gotta study.
- What's it say?
- It doesn't say anything.
It's numbers, you know, math?
- Sure. Like counting
hide and go seek.
- Okay.
Count to a hundred.
- That's too high to count.
You could be on
the moon by then.
- No way.
I've gotta find a good place
to hide or you'll find me.
- I'll find you anyway.
- Not this time.
- I'll find you.
1, 2, 3...
53, 54, 55.
90, 91, 92, 93.
99, 100.
Ready or not, here I come!
Ricky?
You up?
- Hey, that's no way
to treat a love letter.
- It looked more like
a paper airplane to me.
- You should have opened it.
It might've had a
thousand dollars in it.
- You just don't
give up, do you?
- Should I?
- Not necessarily.
- There's my desk.
- What do you mean?
- Yeah, I convinced the
psychology department
that I just had to be the
second TA for Psych 400.
- Well, good for you.
But this is your desk over here.
Have you got keys
for the office yet
or were you planning
to lose mine?
- Are you kidding?
- I'll get some for you.
I've gotten kind
of fond of my own.
- I am looking for the new teaching
assistant for Psych 400.
Are you aware at Eric Baxter?
- Uh, yeah. Why?
- I need your help.
I'm in the class.
- You?
- Sure.
What's wrong with that? Huh?
Look, I didn't have
the money before.
I'm not cool to room
temperature yet.
- I'm sorry, I didn't mean...
- No, it doesn't matter.
But I've gotta know
how I did on the test.
- Well, this is my first day.
The other TA should
be back in a minute.
- Look, I've gotta know now!
If I can't keep my grades
up, I lose my loan.
And if that happens,
I'm through at school.
Are you listening to me?
I've gotta know now or
it's all over for me!
- Hey, I really think
you're overreacting.
- No.
No, I've got a meeting at noon,
and if I can't keep my grades
up and prove it, then...
You've
gotta find those.
Here it is.
- Well, it's still
early. Surely you can...
- Professor Noxx!
- Who are you going to call?
- The police, I guess.
- He did something like
this to me too, Eric.
- What, some kind of
ongoing experiment?
- It's a test of
something quite simple.
A cliche, actually.
"The buck stops here."
You've heard of it?
The question the experiment
asks is what happens
when it stops?
I'm studying how
people react to it.
If it had been for real, this
place would be a mess by now.
- And exactly what
was I supposed to do?
- Help, that's all.
There's no exactly to it.
Just something to think about.
You know, next time,
crazy bastard might be for real.
- So what did you do?
- I ran out in the hall
screaming for help.
- So we both killed him.
Name?
- John O'Learchy.
- Name?
- Benjamin Dobbs.
- Oh, here's your
paper airplane.
Not a bad paper
airplane at that.
Name?
- Kristen McNalty.
- Yesterday, I
promised to tell you
about a real case of
major league insanity.
Now this is not a case with
big knives or running showers.
This is a case of a person
turning against himself.
It all started with a series
of increasingly violent dreams.
- Mom, Dad wake up!
- Subconsciously, this man felt
that he had wasted his life
to such an extent that
he created a demon
to destroy himself.
Finally, the patient lapsed
into a catatonic state,
an escape from loneliness
into total self-absorption.
He didn't move.
He didn't speak.
And he was in his own
mind, nonexistent.
The only time he
moved after that
was when he collapsed and died.
So all of you be
good to your minds,
and they'll be good to you.
- Remember, if you're
in my experiment today,
be there at three.
- Professor Noxx?
Could you read this?
- Assuming it's in English,
I can.
What is it?
- Just a dream, I guess.
- I'll give it a look.
- Thanks.
I've got to go.
Dr. Bruce, telephone, please.
Dr. Bruce.
- Benjamin Dobbs, right?
- That's right.
- This is your last
session, Benjamin.
I wanna ask you a question
before we get started.
What was the first dream you
ever had that you can remember?
- I haven't thought about
that in a long time.
- Well how old where you?
- Four or five at most.
I've got a red
balloon on a string
and my mother's carrying me.
I'm watching the balloon.
I think that balloon is
the greatest thing ever.
Maybe the first thing I've
ever been given to hold.
All I want to do
is grab the string
and have the balloon again.
- Good.
Now, since this is
your last session,
we're gonna try something
a bit different.
- How so?
- Relax, we're not
gonna cut you open.
The only difference
is that this time
we're gonna give
you a sleeping pill.
It's a mild sedative.
It makes it sound like a
drug and drugs scare people,
sleeping pills don't.
Any objections?
- No, I guess not.
- Come on up here with me.
Your parents won't mind.
I'm only going ask nicely once.
There's plenty of room up here
You might as well
get used to it.
This is your dream and they
won't be the last to die.
- Hello?
- Is this Ben?
This is Professor Noxx.
- Yes, Professor Noxx.
- Ben, I just finished reading
what you gave me this afternoon
and was wondering if you
could come over here now
and talk with me about it?
- I mean, sure.
Just tell me where you live.
- Can you find it?
Good. See you soon.
- I found you.
Wanna play hide and seek?
Good. Come in.
Well do you think your
dream is the start
of some mental problem?
- I'm not sure.
- Maybe you think
it's like the case
I talked about in class.
- I'm afraid I slept
through most of it.
I was awake all night,
writing all that down.
- Nevermind that.
Your family in the dream,
are they still alive?
- My folks are dead.
I never had any
brothers or sisters.
- Has anything even
remotely like your dream
ever happened to
you in real life?
- No, absolutely nothing.
- The dream, is it
always the same?
- They're like a chain
hooking onto each other.
I don't wanna know
where it's going to end.
- Where are you now?
- I found you.
Time for bed, Ben.
- I reach out to take his hand.
Then I realize I
can't feel anything.
I can't feel anything!
Did I fall asleep?
- No.
You were wide awake.
Look, for whatever
assurance it might be,
you're not going crazy.
We're both way over the edge.
Before you came here tonight,
I started reading these again.
And your dream kept going.
Your non-existent brother Ricky
was standing right here.
We have things to do
before we go to sleep.
- "D.F. White, a single
man in his middle 20's,
claimed he had never dreamed
until after a blow to the
right side of his head
he received in a car accident."
- What about you?
- I haven't had any
dreams since I was a kid.
Until recently.
- Well, everyone dreams,
you just chose not
to remember yours.
- The psych experiments.
They taped those
things to my head.
- Well they didn't
cause you to dream,
but they have made
you aware of dreams
you've been suppressing.
White's dreams. Hmm.
What does it say about them?
- "In contrast to White's
gentle, uneventful life,
the dreams were wild and
increasingly violent.
Despite medication, the
nightmares worsened.
He lapsed into a coma and
died within a year's time."
- No, that's not it.
Here's a picture of White.
Now there's a book
that quotes from White
on the content of the dreams.
I'll go look at the journals.
Maybe I'm not
remembering it correctly.
- What do you remember?
- What we both saw. The dreams.
White had the same
dreams 20 years ago.
- "The patient
explained his nightmares
as punishment for
forgetting all his dreams."
- It comes for me out of
the emptiness of my dreams.
It kills everyone
that I ask for help
and leaves me there to
walk through the blood.
- Found it.
All gone.
I'm all that's left now.
As long as I'm alive,
it will keep on killing.
Only I know that it
takes the victims
and hides them in the nightmares
because if enough people knew,
they might stop it.
Can't you hear them, Ben?
It's a poem, a song of death.
Listen to our new
friends and lovers.
The dead.
- Hello, Julie?
Well, why not?
- I have to go over some tapes.
- Well, why tonight?
Are you graduating
tomorrow or something?
- No, I'm
sorry. I just can't.
- Yes, operator, I have a
number for a Dr. Harold Noxx,
but I can't seem to get through.
- What is the number?
- The number's 724-1962.
- That is correct. I
find no such number.
- Well, do you have
another number?
- I find no
listing for a Noxx, Harold.
- That's impossible.
- There is no number. Thank you.
- Excuse me. Could
I talk with you?
- Sure. What's your name?
- Ben Dobbs.
Have you seen
Professor Noxx today?
- No, he didn't
show up for class.
- Then I need your
help with these.
- Why don't you have a seat.
- Over the last couple of
weeks, I've been having
these dreams.
Nightmares, really.
I wrote down last night's dream.
I talked with Professor
Noxx about them.
I'm afraid something
has happened to him.
- What do you mean?
- I don't know.
I can't tell where the
dream ends anymore.
- Look, I don't have any idea
what you're talking about.
- Look, if we can, if we can
find another copy of this,
it tells about a case
exactly like mine.
- What is it? What's wrong?
- There were pages
missing from that book.
Now they're all
there, aren't they?
- What was on the pages?
- A case!
A man with dreams like mine.
- Look, I think you
oughta sit down.
Tell me about your dream.
- Those pages are
gone like that article
never existed at all.
- Where's your dream take place?
- It's a big, cavernous place.
Girders hold up the roof.
Made of rough concrete.
And there's this huge set
of concrete trap doors.
- Wait a minute.
There's something
I want you to see.
- This place really exists.
- Trap doors are here too
- But they're closed.
They were always
open in my dreams.
That's where it came from.
- They're always closed.
- Maybe it's trapped down there.
Or trapped up here.
- It's called dj vu.
You feel like you've
been here before.
The truth is you probably have
or been somewhere like it
and the rest you make
up from anxieties.
- Maybe it's over.
What'd you find?
- I just dropped my keys.
Seen enough?
Hello?
Hello?
God, I hate it
when that happens.
Here.
You can have these back.
- Well, I'd still like you
to read them, if you could.
- I'd rather not.
I mean, it's very personal.
I mean, now that
you know the reason.
- No, I don't mind, really.
- Okay, sure.
Come back tomorrow. Same time.
- Thanks.
I know where you live.
I could come by
your house tonight.
- No, just come back tomorrow.
Julie, where the hell
have you been all day?
- Eric, can you come
over to the lab?
- Why?
- Sorry,
I was up late with some
dreams about a balloon.
There's something
you've gotta see.
Please. I'm scared.
- I guess so.
ls 5:30 soon enough?
- Thanks.
Have you seen Dr. Noxx?
His phone number has
been disconnected.
I don't know. It's
like he disappeared.
- "White claimed
that everyone he knew
was destroyed by it,
wiped away so completely
that not even their
names were left
to show they'd ever existed."
Hey, wait a minute!
- Don't follow me!
- Then stop running!
- Give me that!
What's a matter, dumbass?
Haven't you ever
seen a hand before?
What are you waiting for, a tip?
- My name is Ben Dobbs.
I think you know me.
- Ben Dobbs?
Can't be.
- Now wait a minute.
I need to talk to you.
- I'm nothing.
Just a bad dream.
- Nothing around
here seems very real,
but it's not just
a dream anymore.
- You know that much already.
Well, there's something else
you better remember, Ben Dobbs.
- What's that?
- Whatever you do,
don't lose that piece
of paper in your pocket.
- Tell me what's gonna happen!
- Be careful leaving.
- What's in here?
What's after me?
- Dreams.
Long forgotten dreams.
I'm starting to
rot and go insane.
Get out of here now!
- You might as well
come back, Ben.
In here, out there,
the past, the future,
it's all the same now.
I've loved and waited
for you so long.
I've been so lonely,
I think I'm mad.
- It's here some place.
- It's getting late.
- I know it, just...
- That guy was in my
office this afternoon.
I didn't think I'd
ever get rid of him.
- His name is Ben Dobbs.
This was his last dream session.
- I can't
feel anything!
I can't feel anything!
- This tape wasn't
like this before.
- He's been having these
dreams about the old studio.
Really wild stuff about
something being after him.
- I don't understand what's
wrong with this tape.
- Oh, come on, Julie.
I mean, he saw the
studio in a dream.
That's strange, sure,
but it's not worth spending
the night on, is it?
- No, no. I guess not.
Where are you going?
- I'm just gonna get
a drink of water.
- Look, I promise we'll
leave real soon, okay?
- Good.
Let's leave this
after hours crap
for when we get paid overtime.
- Where did this come from?
- Hey.
Hey, are these yours?
What is it? A broken
pipe or something.
- Rain.
- Rain?
It hasn't rained in weeks.
- Shake.
- Eric?
What's the matter?
- Nothing.
Hey, let's get out of here.
- Sounds good to me.
I'll just go lock up.
- What's wrong?
- Come on!
- Just some lights
being shut out, right?
- Yeah. Where's your car?
- Well, not close enough.
Are you sure you'll
be all right?
- My parents are
home. I'll be okay.
We have to find Professor Noxx.
- Dobbs gave me
some things to read.
I'll call you as soon
as I find something out
and then we'll find
Professor Noxx.
- Goodnight.
- Bye.
"Gone to stay with Grandma.
Will call tomorrow."
Great.
On the one night in my
entire life I want them home.
- Okay. Ben.
Let's see this bear.
- I'm standing in the rain.
A man comes up to me
and says, "Shake."
I reach out my hand to
do it but then I see
the man hasn't got any arms.
The man throws his head
back and laughs loudly.
He cackles with glee
as he changes into a,
a hideous thing.
- Got you.
Never touched
a dream before?
Don't worry. I won't
kiss you again.
- Why are you doing this to me?
- You forgot about us, Ben.
We never forgot you.
- Why me?
- Don't feel so bad.
You're not the first.
And you're not the last.
You're simply next.
- There's a mirror
in here some place.
You've been running straight
towards it all your life.
It shows everything
you don't want to see.
- What's happening?
- You're already the
next link in the chain.
It started way back
there in the past
when the first person
forgot that first dream.
We all hate you for it.
- You can help me stop it.
- No, I can't, Ben.
I'm already dead.
- Beyond dream's
door is where horror lies.
Where love may sleep
with sorrowed eyes.
Where demons await
to greet the ones
who dare not reach
it's darkened shores.
Beyond dream's
door, tomorrow dies.
For demons keep not human ties.
To dreamers dead
and dreamers dying.
Souls on fire with
fear of flying.
Falling fast beyond the
door where trouble grows.
And feet touch earth
instead of rows.
To this end, some may go.
A one way trip into the coal.
Red hot with ash
from wasted dream.
Beyond the bonds
that might redeem.
- Shake.
- Hello, Julie. Are you okay?
- We're
not home right now.
But if you would like
to leave a message,
please do so after the tone.
We'll get back to you.
Thanks for calling.
- Go away, dammit. I'm awake.
I'm awake!
- Help me.
Please, help me!
- Julie?
Eric?
- Too late.
- Come on.
- Ben?
Ben, come on inside.
Professor Noxx just got here.
Professor Noxx has the book.
If you bring the missing page,
we can figure the
whole thing out.
Come on. Stay with me, honey.
I want another kiss.
- Stop the car. I wanna get out.
- No you don't.
Are you alright?
Come on.
- Where are we?
- My place.
Damn.
- Let's get outta here.
Come on!
- But this is my apartment.
- We'll be safe here.
This is my place.
- Did you leave it that way?
- I can't remember.
- What was in it?
- Some kind of teeth.
I found them by the
trap doors today.
- It's covering itself.
Nothing can be left
to show it exists.
Not Noxx's house,
my apartment,
or any of us.
Look we're safe as
long as we can prove
it's real and stick together.
Look, this is what it wants.
It's the only thing left that
proves that this is real.
- And what about us?
- We can stop it.
We could trick it back
into the trap doors
where it came from.
It's out there now.
- Well you stop it.
It's your nightmare.
Everybody you
bring into it dies!
- Look, you're
right and I'm sorry,
but it's too late
now, all right?
- Too late for you!
- Wait!
It's not just my
nightmare anymore,
it's yours too!
Once we're gone, it will
start all over again
with someone else.
I know you're out there,
and I know where you're from.
You'll have to kill me now.
I won't spread this any further.
- Got something for you, Dobbs.
Nothing, really.
Just a kid scared
of his own dreams.
Stupid, really.
Why you don't even remember
us and you're scared.
It's been fun, Ben.
And now it's time to die.
- I hid it.
- If it's hid than no
one's ever gonna find it.
- Can you take that chance?
I figured out most of it from
what was left of D.F. White.
Somebody else could do the same.
- I don't know why we
waste our time on you.
You're nothing but a
dreamless, passionless,
gutless little shit.
- Goddammit, I
left it at Julie's.
- Eric.
Eric.
Eric, it is you.
- I'm sorry. I didn't hear you.
- Oh, I was practically
screaming my head off.
Why don't you come inside
and have something to drink?
- No, thanks. I really
have to be going now.
- Now I won't take
no for an answer.
You look thirsty
and Julie's inside.
- What did you say?
- I thought that'd
get your attention.
- It's over. The sun's out.
It's over. The sun's out.
- I've just been doing
some cleaning up.
Is lemonade okay?
- Where's Julie?
- She's down in her room.
- Julie? I was so worried.
- Here you go.
I'm almost finished cleaning up.
Will you stay for supper?
- What's wrong? Don't
you want me to drive?
- Where are we going?
- We're going to
see Ben Dobbs body.
He died last night, you know.
- But you're dead.
- So are you,
you just don't know it yet.
- The things
that save can often kill.
- This isn't my problem.
- A bite
could be a kiss as well.
- I'm not involved anymore!
- Need some help there?
I almost forgot.
You're not involved.
Besides, I'm dead.
- Are you ready to help me now?
- You stay away from me!
- That'll keep me away
but what about it?
I can't do it alone.
I tried already.
- For all I know,
you're dead too.
- If I were dead, all
this would be over!
- Is this what
you're looking for?
- Leave me
alone. I wanna sleep.
- Don't go to sleep.
You might have a bad dream.
All we want is that dirty scrap
of paper out of that book.
- I don't have it.
- Of course you don't
but I'm sure it's
hidden here somewhere.
- Dobbs never hid anything here.
- Use it on yourself, Eric?
Use it now!
I can't imagine how much
it hurts once it's got you.
- Don't.
It's gone for now.
- Well if I'd killed myself,
then there wouldn't
be any proof.
- Exactly.
Then I'd have to go
tell someone else
and it would start
all over again.
- Do you have the page it wants?
- No. It's the only thing
that's keeping us alive.
It feeds on the
joy of killing us.
- What happened
to Julie and Noxx?
Where'd they go?
- They used me
to get into this world,
but it moves back and forth.
It took them with it.
- So that piece of paper
is real physical proof.
And if somebody else found it,
they might eventually
figure it out.
- It doesn't want anything
left after we're dead.
I can't tell you where it is.
This isn't over yet.
- Then let's finish it.
Can it get through that?
- It sure can.
We'll have to lose
it in the maze.
- You sure know your way
around here pretty well.
- It's been home for
going on two days now.
- Bet you hate to leave it.
- Now you wait here.
It's tricky down here, especially
with that foot of yours.
- That was quick.
- Let's go this way.
Eric?
That sounds close.
- It sure does. We better hurry.
- Wait a minute.
- Don't let it
fool you. Come on.
It's just around
the next corner.
This way!
- I know another way in.
Well that leads
into the men's room.
From there you can come down
and open the door for me.
It's common knowledge.
People do it all the time.
- All right.
It's okay.
- What happened?
It was open before?
- It's always
locked on weekends.
Come on.
- What?
- Seeing as how
these aren't my keys,
they should work, right?
- Let's hope so.
- The page it wants
is down there.
And I'll be down there with it.
You hide up here with this.
Once it's in there with
me, let go of the rope.
- You'll be trapped with it.
- I brought it up here.
It'll chase me until
it gets that page,
but it's not going to catch me.
- I'll get it.
Ben, can I ask you something?
- What?
- Why'd you forget your dreams?
- When I was nine years old
and my parents were dead,
I thought I was the
only person in the world
who knew my name.
I didn't have time for
any kind of dreams.
- I got it.
- Here. Take this.
Eric?
- No!
A dream can save,
a dream can kill.
It's bite could
be a kiss as well.
For nightmares are
but dreams unfound.
Things untried
and left to drown.
Beyond dream's door
where horror lies.
For those who search only
for what's been found.
And hear the noise but not
the sound.