Dream Scenario’s new trailer makes viral fame seem like the nightmare it is

For many people, the concept of achieving viral fame has become the definition of success worth aspiring to — if not for simple popularity, then for the brand deals and endorsements that can come along with it. But in the first trailer for A24’s mind-bending new comedy Dream Scenario from writer / director Kristoffer Borgli, becoming a worldwide phenomenon overnight is just the beginning of one man’s descent into madness.

Dream Scenario tells the strange tale of evolutionary biologist Paul Matthews (Nicolas Cage), an ordinary man whose quiet life of teaching apathetic college students about the behaviors of ants and other animals is upended one day when he starts inexplicably appearing in people’s dreams. Like his wife Janet (Julianne Nicholson) and his two young daughters, Paul has no solid answers as to why so many people who have never met or even seen him begin encountering him in their subconsciousness while they sleep. 

But once it becomes clear that Paul’s nocturnal appearances are something of a global phenomenon, he’s all too ready to embrace the attention that comes with them, and Dream Scenario’s trailer makes it pretty clear that he doesn’t really understand just what all he’s getting himself into.

Dream Scenario hits theaters on November 10th.