Dennis Quaid's Weird '80s Sci-Fi Horror Movie Has Major Similarities To Inception

Ever since the summer movie season formally became a thing with the release of "Jaws" in 1975, the May-to-early-September period has ranged from glorious (1982, 1999, and 2008) to godawful (2000, 2002, and 2005). For me, however, nothing has yet to top 1984. I was 10 years old that summer and overwhelmed by the multitude of legitimately good-to-great escapist options. The season got off to a roaring, if controversial, start with the surprisingly dark "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." We then got "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" and Walter Hill's "Streets of Fire," with "Ghostbusters" and "Gremlins" following on the same weekend and going on to gross over $100 million at the domestic box office. Before June was out, we also had classics like "The Karate Kid" and "Top Secret!" jockeying for screens.

July backed off on the big-budget spectacle, but there were gems like "The Muppets Take Manhattan," "The Last Starfighter," "The NeverEnding Story," and "Purple Rain" to lead us into what, back then, was typically the dead zone of August. Instead, MGM unleashed John Milius' deliriously entertaining Cold War fantasy "Red Dawn" that month, while Warner Bros. served up Clint Eastwood's best film of the 1980s with the kinky cop thriller "Tightrope." Even 20th Century Fox tried to find an audience for the exhilaratingly brainy and bizarre "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension," but that was always destined to be a cult movie.

Nestled within that August was the sci-fi horror flick "Dreamscape." Starring Dennis Quaid and a bang-up collection of supporting actors (including Max von Sydow, Christopher Plummer, and Eddie Albert), the film pondered the possibility of people inserting themselves into and manipulating other people's dreams. It was the low-budget precursor to "Inception,"and it's hugely entertaining in its own right.

Directed by proficient studio filmmaker Joseph Ruben (who would go on to make "The Stepfather," the underseen "True Believer," and "Sleeping with the Enemy"), "Dreamscape" features Dennis Quaid as Alex Gardner, a remarkably gifted psychic who grew tired of being "poked and prodded" by his mentor, Paul Novotny (Max von Sydow), and fled the study to use his gifts for dubious pursuits (gambling and womanizing). When the federal government expresses an interest in Alex's talents, he's brought back in to assist in the development of their dreamscape study, and his extrasensory talents prove highly effective in the (voluntary) infiltration of other people's REM states. After helping a child defeat his recurring nightmare of a monstrous snake man, he even seems to be in line for a successful career.

Then Alex discovers nefarious government agent Bob Blair (Christopher Plummer) plans to use the dream-linking procedure to enter the subconscious of the President of the United States, where he is to be assassinated before upcoming nuclear arms reduction talks. To accomplish this, Blair hires psychic psychopath Tommy Ray Glatman (a dependably twisted David Patrick Kelly) to kill the president in his dream, which will trigger his death in the real world. Can Alex insert himself into the president's dreams, defeat Tommy, and, oh yeah, save the world from nuclear annihilation?

The stakes are wildly high for a B-genre flick, but Joseph Ruben, who's a credited writer on the film along with David Loughery and horror great Chuck Russell ("A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors" and "The Blob"), embraces the implausibility of it all and gets to fully buy in as well. It helps that Dennis Quaid's got that devilish grin working (the man always seemed one blockbuster away from being one of the biggest stars in Hollywood), and that all-timers like Max von Sydow and Christopher Plummer are completely engaged. (No one is phoning it in here.)

Most impressively, Ruben makes the most of his relatively small budget. (Again, do not expect "Inception"-level set pieces.) The dream sequences are deeply unnerving, and Craig Reardon's chilling creature makeup effects on the snake man (among other monsters) might find their way into your nightmares (Reardon would go on to win Emmys for his makeup work on "The X-Files," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," and "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine"). "Dreamscape" rips through its 99-minute runtime. It's fun, inventive B-movie perfection that you can currently stream for free on Tubi.