Awake turns the disturbingly real phenomenon of anesthetic awareness - in which surgery patients, through completely paralyzed, are conscious of everything they are experiencing, including the pain - into a "completely absorbing" thriller (Roger Ebert). When failed anesthesia leaves a rich young tycoon (Hayden Christensen, Star Wars) alert but immobilized during open heart surgery, he overhears a devious plot to have him killed. Co-starring Jessica Alba (Sin City) and Academy Award nominee Terrence Howard (Crash), Awake does "for operations what Jaws did for the beach" (Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter)