In Your Dreams

Plot Summary

• Stevie (Jolie Hoang-Rappaport) is a 12-year-old perfectionist who struggles with the chaos of her younger brother, Elliot (Elias Janssen), an aspiring magician. Stevie quickly notices when her parents start acting differently. Mom Joanne (Cristin Milioti) wants to move the family to Duluth for a stable teaching job, while Dad Michael (Simu Liu) wants to stay put and continue pursuing his dream of being a rock musician.There's something off about them, and Stevie needs to get to the bottom of this matter, fast, before her mom moves to a new city and their happy family is split up forever. Stevie makes French toast for Joanne and says that it was made by Michael.Desperate to stop the divorce and keep everything the way it was, Stevie and Elliot discover a mysterious book called The Legend of the Sandman. The book claims that if they can find the Sandman in the dream world, he will grant their ultimate wish. They perform a ritual and fall asleep, entering the dream realm together.In the dream world, the siblings discover they are "Lucid Dreamers", they can control aspects of the world as long as they hold hands and focus. They are joined by Baloney Tony, Elliot's smelly, wisecracking stuffed giraffe who comes to life. To reach the Sandman, they must traverse surreal landscapes derived from their own subconscious, such as "Breakfast Town" where food is alive and absurd nightmares involving teeth falling out or giant pop quizzes. Throughout the journey, they are hunted by Nightmara, the Queen of Nightmares, who tries to wake them up to force them back to reality.The siblings eventually reach the Sandman's (Omid Djalili) castle, hoping that he will cast their wish where their parents will not move away to Duluth. The Sandman tells her that all she and her brother need to do is turn the hourglass around and wait in their dream till the last grain of sand falls, then whatever they're dreaming of will become true. It's not that her dreams will come true. It's just that she won't realize the difference between reality and dream, getting stuck in a limbo forever.Unlike the benevolent figure they expected, the Sandman traps dreamers by offering them a "perfect" fantasy life that never ends, keeping them asleep forever so he can feed on their dreams. Stevie follows the Sandman's instructions. The family has the time of their life making French toast. Elliot realizes that their "real life" is too perfect and believes that they are still dreaming. Elliot makes Stevie realize that they are in a simulation and she confronts the Sandman.Sandman offers Stevie a simulation of her life where her parents are happy and where her brother Elliot never existed. Stevie walks towards the dream and Elliot tries to stop her, causing Stevie break her bond with Elliot, separating the two. Stevie is seduced by this perfect world, leaving her physical body comatose in the real world.Nightmare lady (Gia Carides) is an angel who has been trying to protect them from the Sandman.As soon as she wakes up from the dream the next day, Elliot's been erased from her life. Stevie realizes that she does not want this life and asks Sandman to restore her reality. At the same time, in the real world, Elliot's woken up, but Stevie's stuck sleeping, making the whole family worry for her.Elliot knows that he needs to go back in to save his sister, and it's when he hears her say his name that he immediately decides to use the sleeping machine to go back to sleep. Before he does so, he asks his parents to help too, telling them about how Stevie wanted to keep the family together and ended up in a dream, and they need to help her get out. It's their mom who immediately believes little Elliot's story, and the 3 of them fall asleep to bring Stevie back.Elliot, who resists the Sandman's temptation, teams up with Nightmara. It is revealed that Nightmara is actually a "tough love" mentor. Her role is not to scare kids for fun, but to wake them up so they can face their real-life problems and grow.At the same time, Stevie tries her best to wake up, because she doesn't want to live without Elliot. But she's unable to break free of this dream as she's too far in. The second Elliot shows up in the dream, and the light return to Stevie's eyes, and she admits to him that he makes everything better, not worse. He says the same thing back. She rejects the Sandman's illusion, choosing the messy, imperfect reality over a fake paradise. Together, they use their lucid dreaming powers to defeat the Sandman and escape.The duo then try to get out of the dream, but the Sandman finally reveals himself as the bad guy and tries to stop them. "He just wants Stevie to be happy." But Elliot and Stevie are met with their best friend, Baloney Tony (Craig Robinson), who brings the horse-bed to the rescue. The Sandman then uses his little glowing marshmallows to stop the sibling duo from escaping his world, but in the last moment, the parents come to the rescue too, and it's the teamwork of all 4 of them, as well as Elliot and Stevie holding hands, that stops the last grain from falling and saves the day. Finally, using dynamite fists, they break the hourglass, waking themselves up from this real nightmare.Stevie and Elliot have a much tighter bond than before, but as for their parents, they're going to do what's best for them, and Stevie may not like it, but she has to learn to live with it. There's a moment where the Sandman tells Stevie that he knows what her parents' dreams are, and at the moment, they don't involve each other anymore. This is the hard truth Stevie has to accept, and she also has to realize that nothing she does could ever change how her parents feel, even if it might temporarily fix her problem by bringing them together.The truth is, in the end, even if Elliot and Stevie's parents split up, they'll always have each other, and that's what's important. Additionally, as parents, Mom and Dad will always be around for their kids, and even though Mom is moving towns and Dad's starting his own band, they'll always have time for Stevie and Elliot's little world.The Sandman book is left behind under the family's car, as disaster strikes and their stuff falls out of the back of the truck. But that's okay. However, it's handsome Joon-Bae who finds the book, which is great because he goes ahead and tosses it in the bin, because he doesn't care about the Sandman or anything whimsical. He is just devoid of emotions.

Storyline

• Siblings Stevie and Elliot discover a magical book that allows them to enter the dream world, where they seek the Sandman and wish for their parents to stay together as their marriage falls apart. Their journey through absurd and fantastical dreamscapes forces them to confront their fears and anxieties, ultimately teaching them to embrace imperfection and the messy reality of family rather than trying to control it. — Canon y mus Lately, Stevie has been worried about her family on account of her parent's frequent arguments. However, a chance to fix everything arrives when Stevie and her younger brother Elliot stumble across, and ultimately read, a magic book. That evening, they discover that not only are they dreams linked, but they can travel through them. Using the knowledge in the book, the two seek out the Sandman, facing monsters, breakfast foods, and each other. — L-critic11