colin spoelman

In the first scene of REM, Taylor Carmichael, a smart and ambitious graduate student, interviews a combat veteran about his nightmares. Taylor is working on an experimental program to help alleviate the anxiety felt by Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) victims through a chemical compound that manipulates the release of the neurotransmitter serotonin. The research is being conducted under the authority of Dr. Vincent Salvadori, a meticulous practitioner of sleep psychology research and a well-loved educator in the university community. Taylor hopes that his work with Salvadori will earn him a prestigious placement in a pharmaceutical company and allow him to continue to do cutting-edge research on sleep and dreams.

However, Taylor’s aspirations shift when Dr. Salvadori hires Ben Davis, an undergraduate who is considered to be a genius in chemical pharmacology. Ben and Taylor begin to commiserate over their shared grunt-work for the cautious Salvadori and discuss altering the compound in a way that has significant implications beyond nighttime anxiety in PTSD cases.

The students see the drug compound as a new window into the mind: a pharmacologically induced conduit to the subconscious. By changing the drug compound slightly, the students posit a way to generate waking consciousness within the context of dreams. While mystics and clairvoyants have claimed the ability to have “lucid dreams” for centuries, the students suggest that through careful study, they could calibrate the medication to produce dreams so real, the subject would hardly be able to separate them from reality. And by using sophisticated computer programs to interpret brainwave patterns, the students could quantify their results and explain their discovery to the academic community. The experiment has profound implications for the study of neuroscience: to allow patients a window into the buried memories and emotions that may be at the root of depression, anxiety, paranoia, and many other psychological disorders. Although Salvadori recognizes that their drug may work as intended, he dismisses their ideas as impractical and cavalier.

Disappointed but committed to his work with the doctor, Taylor continues to endure the monotony of his research until the pharmaceutical company rejects his application on the grounds that his work with Salvadori is insignificant. That same night, Taylor discovers Ben sleeping in the lab, apparently experimenting with the compound they hypothesized. Forced to decide whether to expose Ben or join him, Taylor struggles with his own emerging concept of scientific ethics.

After a confrontation, Taylor decides to work with Ben. Taylor insists they use only themselves as subjects, follow strict clinical procedures, and demands secrecy. For several weeks, the experiments go well, but soon the students’ personal lives start to disintegrate. Taylor cannot discern whether his memories are real or from one of his drug-induced dreams. Taylor’s girlfriend becomes involved and stops going to classes, sleeping her days away, maintaining that she is learning more about herself than she could in class. Ben loses all interest in the academic angle of the research, and shares the drug freely with fellow students.

In the end, Taylor must grapple with his own perception of scientific responsibility, even as it contradicts his personal ethics. When the final reckoning does awaken the characters, Taylor realizes his efforts have become bitterly ironic, and he realizes that the truth will not necessarily set him free.