Requiem for a Dream exposes four paralleled individuals and their menacing addiction to heroin, cocaine, and diet pills (speed). Taking place in Brooklyn amidst the waning Coney Island, the drugs are very easily obtained and keep each main character in its cycle of dependence. The protagonist Harry Goldfarb is your typical heroin junky with an ambitious plan of "Getting off hard knocks," with help from his cocaine crazed girlfriend Marion and his long time friend Tyrone. Meanwhile his widowed mother is obsessed with the glamor of television and eventually finds her way to a dietitian who pushes her into the cycle of drug induced enslavement.

The role of Harry Goldfarb was originally intended for Giovanni Ribisi. Director Darren Aronofsky wanted Ribisi for the role because he resembled the look of Harry Goldfarb, who had curly blonde hair in Hubert Selby Jr's 1978 Novel.

Tappy Tibbons:
Now we come to step three. This... drives... most... people... crazy.

Revealing mistakes: When Marion is leaving Arnold's flat for the first time you can see some parts of the steady cam outlined under her coat. When she catches some wind while leaving the building, the coat is lifted up for some instants and you can actually see them.

Performed by The Moonrats
Marcel Reginatto - Saxophone, Vocals
Brian Emrich - Bass Guitar, Vocals
Oscar Oñoz - Trumpet, Vocals
Theodore Birkey - Keyboards, Vocals
Tico Torres (as Hector Torres) - Percussion, Vocals
Darren Aronofsky - Vocals
Engineered, Programmed and Mixed by James Murphy for DFA at Plantain Recording House NYC