Genre: Action/Supernatural
Director: David Slade
Writer: APJ
Cast: Tom Cruise, Mireille Enos, Oliver Platt, January Jones, Mia Wasikowska, Brent Sexton, Sissy Spacek, Tom Wilkinson, Jake Johnson, Anjelica Huston
Plot: Best-selling novelist Alan Wake (Tom Cruise) has been suffering from writers block for a long time, not having been able to write anything for two years. He and his wife Alice (January Jones) decide to take a trip to the small town of Bright Falls, Washington for a vacation. The couple go to the town diner to pick up the key to the cabin from a man named Carl Stuckey. At the diner they are greeted by waitress, Rose Marigold (Mia Wasikowska), who claims to be Alan's biggest fan, as well as Rusty (Jake Johnson), a local park ranger. Alan is directed to the back of the diner where the restrooms are to look for Carl. He knocks on the men's room door. After receiving no answer, he is confronted by an old woman, Cynthia Weaver (Sissy Spacek), holding a lantern who tells him that Carl couldn't make and gives him the keys and a map to the cabin. Alan and Alice get back in the car and follow the map to the cabin which is located on a small island on Cauldron Lake.
Later, while they are unpacking, Alan discovers that Alice has set up a typewriter for him in the study in order for him to try and write. Alan, angered by Alice's persistence, goes outside for a walk. While standing on the bridge leading to the cabin, the power goes out and Alan hears Alice scream his name. He races back to the cabin to find that Alice has fallen into the lake. He dives in after her.
Suddenly, Alan wakes up in his car with his head bleeding due to an apparent car accident. Alan decides to head to the nearest gas station to make a phone call as his cell phone doesn't get a signal. He opts to cut through the woods to save time. Along the way, Alan comes across some manuscript pages. The first page reads "Departure," which was a book Alan was going to write but never could. The next page describes the protagonist being attacked by an ax-murderer in the woods at night. Alan then comes across a lumber yard and Carl Stuckey. Alan tries to speak to him, but when Carl turns around, something is off about him, and finds himself surrounded by a dark presence. He is then attacked by the shadowy presence. He ends up eventually having to kill Carl. He then runs toward the gas station.
Along the way he notices a sign that has the date on it and realizes that it's been a week since he jumped in the lake after Alice. Inside the gas station, Alan calls for the police and waits on their arrival. Sheriff Sarah Breaker (Mireille Enos) arrives and Alan tells her that his wife has gone missing on Cauldron Lake. She tells him that there is no cabin on Cauldron Lake, not since the island sank during a volcanic eruption 40 years earlier. Sarah then asks Alan if he's seen Carl Stuckey, the owner of the gas station. Alan lies to her in order to keep the focus on his missing wife. Sarah drives Alan to the lake to show him that there is no cabin or island, and to Alan's horror, she is right, the island and cabin are not there.
After being interrogated by Sarah, Alan receives a call from a kidnapper telling him to meet him at Lover's Peak in Elderwood National Park. Soon Alan's agent, Barry Wheeler (O. Platt), shows up at the police station. He made the trip after not being able to get a hold of Alan for a week. Alan and Barry head toward a cabin in the woods. Alan sets out to meet the kidnapper while Barry stays at the house. On the way, Alan finds Rusty, who is badly wounded after being attacked by the shadows. Rusty, possessed, turns on Alan, who manages to kill him with a rock. Alan continues to Lover's Peak and finds the kidnapper. The two are attacked by the "Taken" but they manage to hold them off. The two then get into a scuffle when Alan demands to get his wife back. The two end up tumbling off the edge of a cliff, though neither are critically harmed. Alan receives a call from Barry, who says the power has gone out at the house. The kidnapper tells Alan that he has two days to deliver him the completed manuscript at the old coal mine, or he'll kill Alice.
When he gets back to the house, Alan sends Barry into town to see if anyone knows a man matching the kidnapper's description. Later, Barry receives a call from Rose. Rose tells Barry that she has the manuscript.
Alan and Barry head to Rose's trailer to get the manuscript, but when they arrive they both fall unconscious after drinking coffee offered by Rose. When Alan awakes, he has only twelve hours left to deliver the manuscript. Barry is still knocked out, and Alan drags him out to the car. Outside, Alan is confronted by FBI agent Nightingale (Brent Sexton). The trailer park manager had called the police when he noticed that Alan and Barry hadn't left. Alan tries to evade Nightingale, who then opens fire on Alan. Alan flees into the woods, leaving the still asleep Barry behind. Alan heads to the local radio station for directions to the old coal mine, but Nightingale turns up again. Alan flees once again as the pursuing police is decimated by the shadowy "Dark Presence" in the woods. Alan finds a car by sunrise and heads to the coal min. He arrives on time and waits, until getting a call from the kidnapper, telling him to find him at Mirror Peak. At Mirror Peak, the kidnapper reveals that he never had Alice. Just then, a tornado of the Dark Presence engulfs them.
Alan wakes up in the Cauldron Lake Lodge, a formal hotel that now runs as a mental institute for "artists," lead by Dr. Emil Hartman (Tom Wilkinson). Hartman informs Alan that his wife died and all of the recent events were a figment of his imagination. Alan refuses to believe him, and as night falls, two other patients begin to cause havoc in the institute. In all the chaos, Alan manages to escape and soon reunites with Barry, who has been poisoned by Dr. Hartman. Soon, the Dark Presence engulfs the institute, killing Hartman. Alan and Barry flee and come across a farm. They find a message that tells them to "Find the Lady of the Light." Alan then remembers the woman, Cynthia Weaver, who was holding a lantern in the diner when he first arrived in Bright Falls. They agree to go find Cynthia in the morning. The two spend the night at the farm, drinking some homemade moonshine they find.
As Alan falls asleep, he dreams of the night of Alice's disappearance… When he jumped to save Alice, he couldn't find her and thought she drowned. He broke down crying on the dock before heading back into the house. The Dark Presence, in the form of Barbara Jagger (Anjelica Huston), a writer from the 1970s, tells Alan to start writing a story, saying that the story will come to life and he can write Alice back into existence. After writing for a week, Alan realized he was under control of the Dark Presence, and wrote his own escape into the story. He ran to his car, but was tired, and drove off the road.
Alan wakes up and is greeted by Agent Nightingale at gunpoint. He takes Alan and Barry down to the police station and locks them up. When the power goes out at the station, both Sheriff Sarah Breaker and Nightingale come to watch over them. Nightingale reaches into his pocket to check a page of the manuscript he had been reading. The Dark Presence sweeps Nightingale away. Sarah frees Alan and Barry. They tell her that they need to find Cynthia Weaver. Sarah tells them that she lives in the old power station. While Barry is left behind to make some phone calls for the Sheriff, Alan and Sarah start to make their way to a helicopter. The power starts malfunctioning again and Barry makes a run for it and winds up in a shop not far from Alan and Sarah. Barry grabs flares and flashlights from the store and regroups with Sarah and Alan. The three of them reach the helicopter and fly it to the old power station. On the way there, the helicopter is attacked by crows. Sarah drops Alan off, while she and Barry remain in the helicopter. Alan finds Cynthia. She tells him to go to the Well-Lit Room.
Alan, Barry, Cynthia, and Sarah all meet there. Alan finds a page that mentions a "clicker," a snapped-off light switch that Alan was given by his mother, that turns on a magical light and gets rid of all the darkness. Alan now knows that he needs to go to Cauldron Lake and use the clicker to save Alice and the town.
Alan begins to drive to Cauldron Lake, telling Barry, Cynthia, and Sarah to stay in the Well-Lit Room as this is something he must do alone. After several encounters with large groups of the "Taken", he reaches the lake, dives in, and presses the clicker. He ends up in a world filled with darkness. Illuminated pieces of giant text begin to form the house that disappeared. When the house reappears fully, he hears Barbara talking and Alice screaming for help. Alan heads into the house and sees Barbara in front of him with a hole in her chest from her husband's attempt to kill her in the 1970s. He grabs her, puts his hand in her heart and clicks the clicker. The light fills her body, coming out of her eyes and mouth before the house is engulfed by light as well. Alan then walks to the typewriter his wife set up and starts writing, saying that he knows how to write the ending.
