Sound familiar?

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shadowwalker

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Can't think of anywhere else to post this so...

Normally I don't have very coherent dreams, but last night I had a long and very detailed one - it was just like a scene from a movie. And now I'm thinking I'd like to use it in a story (it was practically written for me in this dream), but I have this nagging feeling that it really was part of a movie or book already. So I'd like to know if this sounds familiar to anyone:

Man standing at a deserted bus stop, just a bench under a streetlight (picture the last scene in "Casablanca"). Winter. Another man, for unknown reasons, comes out of nowhere and attacks him. They scuffle, and the first man ends up getting shoved down on the street. A short distance away, the bus approaches, honking twice. Before the guy can move, the bus runs over him. The killer has scurried off into the snowy underbrush, and keeps traveling through the snow until he comes to a cement retaining wall, above which is a dimly lit parking lot. Dream ends.

There was a lot more detail in the dream, but that's the gist of it. Oh, and it was seen through the eyes of the killer. (Yeah, maybe too much coffee...)

Anything ring a bell?
 

writingismypassion

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Doesn't sound familiar to me, but it could be something I haven't seen. Sounds like it good be a great beginning to a novel.
 

shadowwalker

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Okay, thanks. I'll hold out a while longer. (Just my luck I'd go ahead and write the thing only to find it was all "from memory"!)
 

Alpha Echo

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Nope. Never heard of it. But I don't have the movie-memory my husband and many men seem to have. And a select few women.
 

dangerousbill

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There was a lot more detail in the dream, but that's the gist of it. Oh, and it was seen through the eyes of the killer. (Yeah, maybe too much coffee...)

Anything ring a bell?

Sounds very 1940s noir-ish. Why not consult a forum on old movies? There are people that know every scene in every reel from the B&W era.

I'd hate to start a story based on a dream and discover I'd inadvertently copied a scene from some movie I watched years before. You might have only been in the same room while someone else watched it.

I think I'll have a dream about a guy in the middle of the prairie, totally exposed, being chased by an airplane carrying a man with a machine gun. And then there's a gasoline truck...
 

shadowwalker

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Sounds very 1940s noir-ish. Why not consult a forum on old movies? There are people that know every scene in every reel from the B&W era.

Oh yes - even the bus was an old 40s/50s style! LOL But that's a good idea about the movie forum. I'll start checking around.

I'd hate to start a story based on a dream and discover I'd inadvertently copied a scene from some movie I watched years before. You might have only been in the same room while someone else watched it.

That's exactly what worries me. For years, I remembered a scene where a little boy was sliding on the roof of a house, lost control and ended up impaled on an iron fence. It wasn't until a couple years ago I saw Spellbound on TV and there it was - somehow, I'd seen it as a child and remembered only that particular scene (not surprising, I suppose).

Well, will do some further checking re: movies and in the meantime, start writing it up as others suggested. What the heck, right? ;)
 

Mike_Gasaway

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It doesn't ring a bell. I agree with dangerousbill in that it sounds very noir.
Here's my take though. It's a scene - and a cool one at that. Keep building on it from there. You can twist and turn it wherever you like even if that SCENE is similar...

I wrote an entire spec screenplay including a revision only to find out the exact same story had not only been written but produced. Talk about agony...that is until I saw Pauley Shore was the lead in it and that the movie tanked...
 

Manuel Royal

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Doesn't ring a bell for me either, Shadowwalker. The feel is familiar, but not the details of the scene. Does remind me of some great black and white movies, and sounds like a very intense scene. Hope to read what comes of it!
 

shadowwalker

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Well, so far nothing on film sites/forums, though that might take some time. But I'm going to move ahead - if I get any more "flashes" I might slow down a bit but otherwise...
 

frankiebrown

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Just poking my head in to say that it sounds like a neat scene, and doesn't ring a bell from any movie. Good luck!
 
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