Jacob’s Ladder (1990)
AKA: –
Directed by: Adrian Lyne
Starring: Tim Robbins (Jacob), Elizabeth Pena (Jezzie), Danny Aiello (Chiropractor), Patricia Kalember (Sarah), Ving Rhames (George), Macaulay Culkin (Gabe)
Country: United States
Language: English (Eng Subs)
Runtime: 01:53:55
Genres: Military, Drugs
Plot – Spoilers:
Jacob Singer is an American deployed in Vietnam in 1971 when his unit is suddenly attacked by an unknown enemy. He survives and a few years later is living in New York with his girlfriend Jezzie, having split from wife Sarah.
Jacob had completed his PhD but now prefers to work in US Mail to avoid ‘having to think.’ He regularly suffers from hallucinations and bouts of paranoia where random trains and cars attempt to mow him down. Over the next couple of days, his situation deteriorates and he’s unclear whether his life with Jezzie or the one with Sarah is a dream. But worse still, he’s more and more convinced the US military fucked with his head.
fter reading several reviews on this film I thought I would add my two cents. This remains one of my favorite movies and I never hesitate to take in another viewing. A lot of people seem to be noting the loose script and story elements as the film’s weaknesses, going so far as to call it messy and incoherent. The fact that even after seeing it several times there’s still some mystery in it, still some ambiguity as to the possible meanings to all of the things that go on with Jacob, is what I find most appealing. It’s not a film like the Sixth Sense where all of the pieces fall into place at just the right time and you know exactly where you stand. It’s something rather that is left to the imagination of the viewer, a rare thing when audiences en mass want clear cut explanations and easy answers (hence the success of Sixth Sense, a great film in it’s own right, but the complete opposite of this one). The visuals are incredible and highly influential. The techniques used in this film have since been overused and distilled throughout various horror movies and music videos, but without ever coming close to the power of the original, which presents some of the most psychologically terrifying images ever to appear on screen. I think it’s hard to come to this movie for the first time today and experience it the way you could have eleven years ago, when these… Read more »
Living in three different worlds would be extremely confusing but at least he found peace.
Love this film.. but this is the cut version. There are missing scenes of his hallucinations.. of the LSD treatment ect.
The surrealist masterpiece that inspired Silent Hill still feels just as fresh and daunting.
Solid 8/10
A hell of a movie, thank you.
I love your site. So many rare and exellent movies here. Thanks for this and Greets from germany
Somewhat anti-climactic . . . But I guess it’s my fault for watching “Jacob’s Fuckstick”, the porno version, first.
Damn the comments gave me hope but at this point im giving up too boring
Now we see why robbins became a tranny! Playing a cowardly jew in Nam.
Hello i fart
one of my brother’s favourite movies… i can see why and that makes it sad on a personal level, but it was very very good.
Intense Movie-Haven’t watched it in a long time-still as i remember it-Making peace with the lord before entering the kingdom of God………………
I’m crazy about this movie. I, obviously, watched many fucked-up movies, but this one really got me. I can’t get this off my mind. The tension, those rounds of events that make you feel like you’re going crazy with the main character. Everything’s on point. The twist is kinda obvious, but it doesn’t kill the immersion
Great movie! Psychological warfare… Do you know why Macaulay Culkin uncredited from this movie? His role is small but very important on the plot… which is strange.
holy shit what an intense movie. pure insanity god damn that was a rollercoaster
Best psychological horror I’ve seen, but maybe the genres should remove the potential spoiler tags.
this is one of my favorite movies of all time. The survival horror game silent hill wouldnt be the same without this flick.
excellent film, lots explored and done well. gonna start recommending this to people
Jesus that was terrifying.
Actually, if I’m not mistaken, some of the games from silent hill were somewhat inspired by this movie! There a lot of viideos on YouTube that analyze the correlation between them.
Awesome movie, I really liked it !!
The plot is really interesting, the characters are too, especially Jacob !! The story doesn’t loose you, the characters are likable (well, some at least) ,,,, I have so many things to say about this movie !!
I absolutely love the dancing/party scene, the way it was filmed is just brillant !!
It remind me alot of Hellraisers and the Silent Hill games, I’ll recommend it if you like thoses kind of “medias”, but even if you don’t, give it a go, it’s so astonishing !! Especially the end, so mind blowing (such a twist, wasn’t ready) >:^]