Anthony Peake Discusses The Ending of ‘Vanilla Sky’

I have long suggested that elements of my “Cheating The Ferryman” model are subliminally understood by many as being an accurate reflection of what happens in the final micro-seconds before we die.

Writers, authors, poets and film-makers over the years have incorporated similar tropes into their stories.

One such example, and one I have mentioned many times in my talks and lectures, is Cameron Crowe’s 2001 movie “Vanilla Sky”, based on Alejandro Amenábar’s Spanish language film “Abre los ojos”.

This appeared in the cinema’s about nine months after I had completed the first draft of my book “Cheating The Ferryman”, which was subsequently published in 2006 under the title “Is There Life After Death – The Extraordinary Science of What Happens When We Die”.

The whole theme of this movie is living your life again and again in a form of lucid dream state. At the end of each life the central character, David Aames (played by Tom Cruise) goes back and lives the life again.

In the final sequence of the movie David/Tom jumps off a high skyscraper. As he does we see a series of still photographs suggesting that as he falls he is experiencing the classic NDE-facilitated effect known as the “Panoramic Life Review.”

In a curious synchronicity while writing CTF I regularly played the haunting music of Icelandic band Sigur Rós …. their music placed me in a curious mind-state where creativity and inspiration flowed into me. (Specifically the albums “Ágætis byrjun” and “Von”). It is the music of Sigur Rós, specifically a track from “Ágætis byrjun” entitled “Svefn-g-englar”, which is Icelandic for “sleep walker/sleep angel”, that Cameron Crowe decided to use for this extraordinary sequence.

I love the wonderful “itladian” statement “Every passing minute is a chance to turn it all around”……

If you are interested I discuss this movie in detail in my book “ITLAD” on pp.12-13 and 37-38.