The Truman Show

***The Truman Show*** is a 1998 American comedy-drama movie. It is directed by Peter Weir and was written by Andrew Niccol.

The movie shows the story of Truman Burbank, who does not know that he is living his whole life in a giant dome and is being recorded and shown as a live TV show. All his friends, family and community are actors who are paid to stop him from leaving and not say the truth to him.

The movie stars Laura Linney, Ed Harris, Noah Emmerich, Natascha McElhone, Holland Taylor, Paul Giamatti, and Brian Delate.

## Plot

Truman Burbank was adopted by a television studio after an unwanted pregnancy and he becomes the star of _The Truman Show_, without knowing. He is being recorded all the time, using around 5000 cameras, and shown across the world.

Truman lives on Seahaven Island, which is made up of a very big set. This means Christof, who created and runs the show, can control Truman's life in many ways, even by changing the weather. Lots of actors are on Seahaven Island to make a community for him, but stop him from knowing his world is not real. The actors often use hidden product placement to earn money for the show, as there are no advertisements. Christof made up events to make Truman afraid of water, like saying Truman's father died in a storm at sea, but this is not true. The other actors also try to stop him from leaving by giving him reasons to stay home and making travel seem dangerous.

The producers wanted Truman to fall in love and marry Meryl, who he studied with at college, but he develops feelings for another student, Sylvia. Sylvia was just an extra and so she tries to tell Truman his life is a fiction, but she gets fired before she can properly explain. Truman marries Meryl but he does not really love her. He instead imagines a life with Sylvia and dreams of going to Fiji where he was told she moved to. In real life, Sylvia joins "Free Truman", a group that wants to free Truman from the life he is in.

As Truman and the show get to almost 30 years old, Truman starts to find strange things around him. There is a stage light that serves as the star Sirius that falls out of the sky and almost hits him, there is rain that only falls over him and not anywhere else, he tunes into a radio that read out his movements around town and he saw his father, who he thought had drowned, but he is quickly bought away. Truman starts to think the city is built around him and questions his life. He asks who he sees as some of his closest friends to help him.

Truman ends up trying to leave the island but many unlikely events block his way. He is caught and returned home with a weak reason. He questions Meryl about their marriage. Meryl changes the subject and tries to do a product placement. This causes Truman to lose control and hold her at knifepoint. Meryl breaks character and ends up being removed from the show.

Christof brings his father back onto the show to get Truman back to normal. The show's ratings get better and Truman seems to get back to normal. However, one night, Christof finds out Truman has started sleeping in his basement. He sends Truman's best friend Marlon to visit then finds out Truman has escaped through a tunnel in the basement. Christof suspends the show's broadcast for the first time ever, meaning a lot of people view the show.

Christof makes the whole town search for Truman and brings daylight to the town at midnight to make it easier to find him. Truman is found sailing away and no longer seems to be scared of water. Christof starts the show broadcasting again and creates a violent storm to overturn Truman's boat. He nearly drowns but he keeps sailing until the boat hits the end of the set.

Truman looks around and finds a staircase that leads to an exit. As he thinks about leaving, Christof speaks to Truman from the sky of the set. He tells him the truth about the show and wants him to stay, saying it is better in this fake world than the real one. Truman says, "In case I don't see you, good afternoon, good evening, and good night", bows to the audience, then leaves. People around the world celebrate him escaping and Sylvia makes her way to the studio to greet him. The show is left on a shot of the open exit door, which upsets Christof.

After the program ends, Truman’s viewers look for something else to watch.

## Release

The movie was originally going to release on August 8, 1997. However, it was pushed back to November 14, 1997, and then to the summer of 1998. NBC purchased broadcast rights in December 1997, around eight months before the movie was released. In March 2000, Turner Broadcasting System purchased the rights, and now airs the film on TBS.

### Home media

Paramount Home Entertainment released the movie on VHS on January 12, 1999, and DVD on January 26, 1999. A "Special Edition" was released on August 23, 2005. It was later released on Blu-ray on December 30, 2008. An Ultra HD Blu-ray was released on July 4, 2023, to celebrate the movie's 25th anniversary.

### Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, _The Truman Show_ has a 94% approval with 162 reviews and an average rating of 8.50/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "A funny, tender, and thought-provoking film, _The Truman Show_ is all the more noteworthy for its remarkably prescient vision of runaway celebrity culture and a nation with an insatiable thirst for the private details of ordinary lives." Metacritic gave the movie a score of 90 out of 100 based on 30 critics, meaning "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the movie an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert gave the movie four out of four stars and said it was like _Forrest Gump_. He thought the movie had the right balance of comedy and drama. He was also liked Jim Carrey's dramatic acting. Kenneth Turan of the _Los Angeles Times_ wrote, "_The Truman Show_ is emotionally involving without losing the ability to raise sharp satiric questions as well as get numerous laughs. The rare film that is disturbing despite working beautifully within standard industry norms." He would name it the best movie of 1998. In June 2010, _Entertainment Weekly_ named Truman one of the 100 Greatest Characters of the Last 20 Years.

James Berardinelli liked the way the movie was "not being the casual summer blockbuster with special effects", and he made a comparison of Carrey's "[charismatic], understated and effective" performance to Tom Hanks and James Stewart. Jonathan Rosenbaum of the _Chicago Reader_ wrote, "Undeniably provocative and reasonably entertaining, _The Truman Show_ is one of those high-concept movies whose concept is both clever and dumb." Tom Meek of _Film Threat_ said the movie was not funny enough but still found "something rewarding in its quirky demeanor".

## Related pages

- The Truman Show delusion

## Other websites

- _The Truman Show_ screenplay

## Infobox (movie)

- **name**: The Truman Show
- **director**: Peter Weir
- **writer**: Andrew Niccol
- **cinematography**: Peter Biziou
- **studio**: Scott Rudin Productions
- **distributor**: Paramount Pictures
- **runtime**: 103 minutes
- **country**: United States
- **language**: English
- **budget**: $60 million
- **gross**: $264.1 million