History Film / Flatliners

** Before Labraccio goes through the death process, he says to Nelson "Don't let go of the rope". This is a reference to ''Film/{{Poltergeist|1982}} (1982)''. When Diane Freeling, who is tied to a rope, is about to be sent into the dimension where her daughter Carol Anne was taken, she tells her husband Steven "Don't let go (of the rope)".

* GuiltComplex: [[spoiler: The movie gives the first impression that the characters are being haunted by vengeful ghosts, only to reveal that its their ''guilt'' over their past sins that is driving them to see hallucinations. The "hauntings" stop when the characters finally own up to their past misdeeds]].

* IronicHell: Implied, and in a manner of speaking. When you die, you go to your own afterlife where you are tormented by the people you wronged when you were alive. The metaphorical and possibly literal demons of the protagonists' pasts follow them back into life. Making peace with the people you wronged can stop this. [[spoiler:In Nelson's case, this is a big problem because Mahoney is dead and there's no way he can reach him to make peace [[DrivenToSuicide except...]]]]

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Are our heroes persecuted by honest to hell demons, or just by their inner demons? Do they see real ghosts or do they just hallucinate (because brain damages) about some deep seated guilty feeling? There is no way to know.

* ShoutOut

* Main/UnnaturallyBlueLighting - the film was pretty much shot in this fashion.

%%* TheAtoner: What the protagonists are all forced to become.

** Before Labraccio goes through the death process, he says to Nelson "Don't let go of the rope". This is a reference to ''Film/{{Poltergeist}}''. When Diane Freeling is about to go through the entrance into the dimension where her daughter Carol Anne was taken, she tells her husband Steven "Don't let go (of the rope)".

* ShoutOut: Kiefer Sutherland being pursued by a creepy figure with a red hood might be a reference to a [[Film/DontLookNow certain movie]] featuring [[Creator/DonaldSutherland his dad]].

* PositiveDiscrimination: While all the men in the group have to deal with the various people they hurt in their lives, the one female in the group's only sin is [[spoiler:having a father who committed suicide when she was a child, through no fault of her own]]. In the original script, her sin was an affair with a college professor, which she framed as sexual assault when she got caught. The storyline was changed so as not to reflect badly on the reputation of "nice girl" actress Julia Roberts.

%%* {{Meganekko}}: Rachel. If it's Creator/JuliaRoberts wearing glasses, then yeah.

* TheAtoner: What the protagonists are all forced to become.

* CrossingTheBurntBridge: The entire movie is about this.

* {{Flatline}}: To nobody's complete surprise, this happens a lot.
* FlatlinePlotline: The best-known, if not the first, such example.

* GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion: In the remake it turns out what Jamie did is abandon his pregnant girlfriend rather than going with her to get an abortion. When he later goes to ask her for forgiveness, it turns out she didn't go through with having an abortion (possibly ''because'' of him abandoning her) and they have a son that Jamie never knew about.

* IfYouDieICallYourStuff: He says he was joking.

* {{Meganekko}}: Rachel. If it's Creator/JuliaRoberts wearing glasses, then yeah.

A remake was released in September 2017, starring Creator/EllenPage and featuring Creator/DiegoLuna, Creator/NinaDobrev, Creator/JamesNorton, Creator/KierseyClemons and Creator/BeauMirchoff.

* DecoyProtagonist: In the remake, Courtney, Ellen Page's character, receives the most focus in the trailers for the movie. [[spoiler:She is the only character to die, and dies about halfway through the plot. Marlo is ultimately the one who is the focus of the climax.]]

* YourCheatingHeart: Joe constantly cheats on his fiance.

''Flatliners'' is a 1990 movie directed by Creator/JoelSchumacher and starring Creator/KieferSutherland, Creator/JuliaRoberts, Creator/KevinBacon, William Baldwin and Creator/OliverPlatt as medical students experimenting with near-death experiences. In the course of their experiments, they accidentally bring back the ghosts of their past, in the form of vengeful entities that torment them, forcing them to confront their past mistakes and try to figure out a way to send them back where they belong.

A remake was released in September 2017, starring Creator/EllenPage and featuring Creator/DiegoLuna, Creator/NinaDobrev, Creator/JamesNorton, Creator/KierseyClemons and Beau Mirchoff.

* PositiveDiscrimination: While all the men in the group have to deal with the various people they hurt in their lives, the one female in the group's only sin is [[spoiler:having a father who committed suicide when she was a child, through no fault of her own]]. In the original script, her sin was an affair with a college professor where she villainized him after being caught and claimed sexual abuse. The storyline was changed so as not to reflect badly on the reputation of "nice girl" actress Julia Roberts.

''Flatliners'' is a 1990 movie directed by Creator/JoelSchumacher and starring Creator/KieferSutherland, Creator/JuliaRoberts, Creator/KevinBacon, William Baldwin and Oliver Platt as medical students experimenting with near-death experiences. In the course of their experiments, they accidentally bring back the ghosts of their past, in the form of vengeful entities that torment them, forcing them to confront their past mistakes and try to figure out a way to send them back where they belong.

A remake was released in September 2017, starring Creator/EllenPage and featuring Creator/DiegoLuna, Creator/NinaDobrev, Creator/JamesNorton, Creator/KierseyClemons, Creator/KieferSutherland and Beau Mirchoff.

A remake was released in September 2017, starring Creator/EllenPage and featuring Creator/DiegoLuna, Creator/NinaDobrev, Creator/JamesNorton, Creator/KierseyClemons, Creator/KieferSutherland, and Creator/BeauMirchoff.