Hugo Nightmare Scene Analysis

There are many things that are significant and have deeper meaning in Martin Scorsese's 2011 film "Hugo" but the items that stand out the most are the two nightmare scenes in the middle of the film. In the first one, we see young Hugo in the middle of the train station where he notices a bright, translucent key lying in the middle of the train tracks. Perplexed, Hugo goes onto the tracks in order to retrieve the key, which is the heart shaped key he needed in order to fix the automaton. As he examines the key, he takes a closer look and realizes that it had his last name on it. All of the sudden, a train starts approaching and Hugo is practically frozen on the tracks. Subsequently, the train hits Hugo and in a strange turn of events, spirals off of the tracks and goes rampant through the train station, destroying everything in its path. At that point, Hugo "wakes up", still frightened from the previous dream. After looking at the automaton, who is also blankly staring at him, he breathes a sigh of relief that the nightmare is over. That is until he sees himself slowly turning into an automaton while the setting changes to that of the inside of a machine. While the gears are turning and Hugo is panicking, he wakes up again to the automaton looking at him indifferently. While the first nightmare may possibly be used to foreshadow future events in the film, it might also be used to warn Hugo of the dangers of continuing his journey and show his preoccupation with the automaton. While Hugo is determined and committed to finding out the secrets of the automaton, he also becomes somewhat fixation with his goal and does not realize the amount of danger he could potentially be in. In the dream, he goes to great lengths and even jumps on live train tracks in order to find the key and obtain the message his father left for him. His constant obsession obsession keeps him from focusing on the world around him. Likewise with the second dream, the fact that he is turning into the automaton symbolizes his fixation of the automaton.