History Main / OrWasItADream

* [[http://s1.subirimagenes.com/otros/464973qu-mala-es-la-gente.jpg This strip]] from {{Quino}}. Slightly {{NSFW}}.

** Also done [[http://www.housepetscomic.com/2010/07/14/never-believe-its-not-so/ a second time]].

* Used in [[http://www.yellow5.com/pokey/archive/index22.html this]] classic ''PokeyThePenguin'' strip.

* The ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'' episode "Shadow of the Bat!". After bitten by the vampire Dala, vampire!Batman turns almost all the members of the Justice League into vampires. The Martian Manhunter moves their base close enough to the Sun to incinerate them. However the scene cuts to black and then to Batman waking up, back to normal. He looks at Jason Bard and Martian Manhunter, saying that it was nothing but a hallucination caused by Dala’s bite. It's unknown if Batman’s experience as a vampire was just a dream or real.

* ''{{Miyuki-chan in Wonderland}}''
* ''HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi'' uses this trope in the Saikoroshi-hen chapter.
** [[spoiler:Or not, since it was a real world, as well. But since Rika did not choose that one, it becomes a dream. But her matricide still exists.]]

* Shinji after defeating Sachiel in the manga adaptation of ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion''.

[[folder:Films]]
* ''Film/{{Inception}}'' is built around this trope.

* ''DeadOfNight''.

* ''ThePolarExpress''.

* ''Literature/TheFrostGiantsDaughter'' by Robert E. Howard.

* The [[AllJustADream dream episode]] near the end of ''WalkerTexasRanger'' ends with this possibility.

* This occurs at the end of the ''Series/RadioActive'' episode "Daydreams".

* Series/UltraSeven's superior officer from M-78 in his first appearance.

* Marcus Kane (Roadkill)'s ending in ''TwistedMetal 2''.
* One of the bad endings in ''[[VideoGame/BubbleBobble Bubble Symphony]]''.

* In {{Tsukihime}} along several paths Shiki wonders if he's a killer as he sees himself murdering people in dreams who turn up dead the next day. [[spoiler:Except in Kohaku's route, he was just watching someone else do it. But at least this time he gets to have a nice friendly chat with SHIKI about society, his eyes and coffee after they try killing each other.]]

* The intro to KingdomHearts
** [[spoiler: 358/2 days...Roxas is with Organization XIII for 358 days. However, he wakes up (in the simulated Twilight town) and considers the events a dream. The evening he goes to sleep and the morning he wakes up is over 2 days.)]]
*** He doesn't consider the events a dream. He can't even remember what happened when he was in the Organization.
* The end of ''MonsterMadness''.

* ''PinkyAndTheBrain'' does this in the episode "You'll Never Eat Food Pellets in This Town Again."

* The episode Shadow of the Bat! ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'' has the vampire batman after bitten by the vampire dala has turn almost all the members of justice league into vampires leaving maritan manhunter as the survivor to orbit the base close enough to the sun to incinerate them, However the scene cuts to black to Batman waking up who is shown back to normal and looks at Jason bard and martian manhunter infront of him saying that is nothing but a hallucination by Dala’s bite it was unknown if batman’s experience as a vampire was just a dream or real.

* Episode 7 of the webtoon ''[[http://www.8legged.com Deep Fried Live]]'' has Chef Tako being kidnapped by aliens and forced to cook steak. At the end of the episode, he wakes up back in his kitchen on earth, seemingly discovering it was AllJustADream; however, it turns out shortly after that that was just a hallucination (possibly brought on by head trauma), and he really is still on the alien ship.

* In ''FoxTrot'' Paige writes a story for a school assignment. The story is about Jason entering a haunted house and getting attacked by monsters. At the end, Story!Jason wakes up in bed...and his head removable. Not surprisingly, Paige got an appointment with the school counselor alogn with her grade.

* Literature/MaryPoppins constantly denies taking the Banks children on mystical adventures, but they often find signs that the adventures really happened.

* In the ''SweetValleyHigh'' version of [[YetAnotherChristmasCarol A Christmas Carol]], Jessica wakes up on Christmas morning after dreaming that the ghosts visited her in the night, only she can't find her left slipper (which fell off while she was with the Ghost of Christmas Present) and her ankles are covered in scratches (she walked barefoot through a forest while with the Ghost of Christmas Future).
* In [[Literature/TheHouseOfNight Tempted]], Zoey comes to this conclusion when it turns out the locations Kalona has been chosing as the back-drop of their dreams together reveal his actual location.

* In {{Film/Click}}, Adam Sandler falls onto a bed in Bed, Bath & Beyond, falling asleep for a couple of seconds, before going back to the loading dock and meeting Mort, who gives him the "Universal Remote." After fast-forwarding through (and missing) most of the important parts of his adult life, and finding his wife married to another man whom his daughter calls her 'second father', he dies of a heart attack, twenty-something years in the future. Later, he wakes up, back on the same bed in BB&B and makes his way home thinking it was all a dream. When he arrives home, he finds the same remote, with a note from Mort saying everyone deserves a second chance and that Mort knows he'll do the right thing, this time. Sandler's character promptly throws it into the trash, where it finally stays.
* ''Film/PrinceOfDarkness and it's mirror ending, even though it does not technically show you the other side of the mirror, nor the anti-god, still leaves the possibility of the entire movie being (or not being) a dream open for debate.
* [[TheGoldenChild Sardo Numspa]] appears in Chandler Jarrell's dream, leaving a long burn on Jarrell's arm. When Chandler wakes up, the burn is real.

* ''Very'' creepily done in an episode of ''{{Carnivale}}'' that involved the protagonist getting drugged by a creepy mask maker who wants to make a mask out of his face, then waking up with the guy claiming he had fallen asleep and must have had a bad dream. Ben is suspicious, but he never finds out the truth.

* The climactic scene in ''SuzumiyaHaruhi'' wasn't a dream, but the title character is convinced it was one. 'Snow Mountain Syndrome' ends with Haruhi convinced all the weirdness was essentially a waking dream. The possibility of this is explored (and dismissed) as a potential ending for the student movie.

* Early storyboards for ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' have the Ruby Slippers appear under the bed at the end.

* This occurs at the end of the ''RadioActive'' episode "Daydreams".
* One particularly odd episode of CSIMiami has Calleigh critically injured during a case. She finds herself a walking spirit interacting with the ghost of the victim while her physical body fights for its life in a hospital. In this state, she finds a critical clue just as she is brought back to consciousness. She wakes up thinking of a hint that leads to the clue, but no memory of how she got it. Horatio Caine figures that she saw it before she was injured, and her subconscious brought it to the forefront while she was in a coma. And that would be the accepted explanation... If the vic's ghost hadn't appeared one more time (unseen by anyone) at the end of the episode...

* The episode Shadow of the Bat! In BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold‎ has the vampire batman after bitten by the vampire dala has turn almost all the members of justice league into vampires leaving maritan manhunter as the survivor to orbit the base close enough to the sun to incinerate them, However the scene cuts to black to Batman waking up who is shown back to normal and looks at Jason bard and martian manhunter infront of him saying that is nothing but a hallucination by Dala’s bite it was unknown if batman’s experience as a vampire was just a dream or real.

* UltraSeven's superior officer from M-78 in his first appearance.
* One episode of TheColbertReport opened with SteveCarell (Stephen's SitcomArchNemesis on TheDailyShow) having his own show- "The Carell Corral". Stephen bursts in, demanding an explanation. Steve tells him that Stephen had left to make movies and other shows (essentially switching out their respective careers) and pointing out that Stephen has a hoof for a hand. After a BigNo, Stephen wakes up, relieved to find himself on his own set with everything back to normal... except that [[BodyHorror he still has a hoof for a hand.]]

* The ''{{Batman}}: Legends of the Dark Knight'' story "Masks" features Batman apparently [[CuckooNest in an insane asylum]], having imagined all his adventures after years of homelessness when his parents' debts left him penniless. It turns out that it was all a [[{{Gaslighting}} gaslight]] by a psychologist who blamed Bats for his criminal father killing his mom in a murder/suicide. The second to the last page, of course, throws the entire [[TheDCU DC Universe]] into doubt.

[[quoteright:250:[[Webcomic/DresdenCodak http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dcnotadream.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:250:See the source [[http://dresdencodak.com/comics/2009-05-11-42_essential_3rd_act_twists.jpg here]].]]

* The BBC show ''LifeOnMars'', and its sequel ''AshesToAshes'' have this trope as one of their central themes. Whether Sam Tyler (and later Alex Drake) has truly gone to the past, or is simply having a coma hallucination is played with throughout the series. ([[spoiler: It's neither, but closer to the second one.]]

* In StephenKing's ''PetSematary'', Louis dreams that the ghost of one of his dead patients shows up in his bedroom and takes him to the eponymous cemetery in order to give him a warning. When he wakes up, his feet are covered in mud.

* Used in the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2EXPzAis4M&feature=related finale]] of the TheLandBeforeTime Youtube Pop ''Rock Falls, Everyone Dies'' (no relation to [[RocksFallEveryoneDies the trope]]); [[spoiler: at the fifth alternative ending Pterano, after touching the cold fire stone, becomes an [[NeonGenesisEvangelion Evangelion style]] angel]]. Littlefoot wakes up; take 3 guesses of what happens next.

* Shinji after defeating Sachiel in the manga adaptation of ''NeonGenesisEvangelion''.