History Film / JacobSLadder

-->'''Doctor:''' [[spoiler: There is no 'out of here'. You were killed. Don't you remember?]]

** Michael recounting [[spoiler:what The Ladder did to chimps -- then P.O.W.'s]].

* SuspiciouslyAproposMusic: "Sonny Boy" is sung several times during the film. [[spoiler: It's about a father reconciling the death of his young son.]]

* AngelUnaware: [[spoiler:Jacob's chiropractor Louie is implied to be an angel trying to save him.]]

* AngelUnaware: [[spoiler:Jacob's chiropractor Louie is implied to be an angel trying to save him.]]
-->'''Jacob:''' [[spoiler:You know you look like an angel? Like an overgrown cherub.]]
* AngelsDevilsAndSquid: A variant where [[spoiler:the angels, the demons, and the squid are ''all'' the same]].
** The "squid" factor was [[ArtisticLicenseTraditionalChristianity added]] by director Adrian Lyne in the rewrite of Bruce Joel Rubin's initial script, which was [[AsTheGoodBookSays much more Biblical]] in its angel-/demonology. However, a DeletedScene shows [[ObscuredSpecialEffects just a quick peek]] at one of Rubin's intended beasts.

* TooSoon: [[invoked]] Jed gets a DopeSlap by his mom Sarah when he comments, "Just hang in there, Dad!" (Jacob's legs are suspended in the hospital bed to immobilize his bad back.)

* FanDisservice: Elizabeth Peña dancing suggestively while sweating? Hot. Elizabeth Peña dancing suggestively while sweating whilst [[spoiler:being molested and then impaled by some sort of demon/angel?]] Not so much.

''Jacob's Ladder'' (1990) is a psychological {{thriller}} / {{horror}} film directed by Adrian Lyne, based on a screenplay by Bruce Joel Rubin. It stars Creator/TimRobbins, Creator/ElizabethPena, Creator/DannyAiello, and Creator/JasonAlexander. Creator/MacaulayCulkin appears briefly in an uncredited performance.

-->[[spoiler:'''Jacob:''' You know you look like an angel? Like an overgrown cherub.]]

* AdultFear: Plenty. [[spoiler: Gabe's death, being trapped in a subway, friends dying one by one, becoming an UnPerson, being taken hostage in broad daylight with witnesses pretending they don't see you, and so on.]]

* ArcWords: The song "Sonny Boy," as recorded by singer Al Jolson. Interestingly, the song's final verse clarifies that, much like Jacob, the narrator [[spoiler: is grieving the death of his son:]]

* BadSanta: Played straight and PlayedForLaughs, at the same time with [[spoiler:the Salvation Army Santa that steals Jacob's wallet]]. ([[SignificantAnagram A subtle one, but it's noteworthy that "Santa" is an anagram for "Satan".]])

* DarkIsNotEvil / GoodAllAlong: The horrid monstrosities and abominations? [[spoiler:They're angels, trying to make Jacob accept his death and ascend to Heaven.]]

* DeadAllAlong [=/=] DeadToBeginWith: [[spoiler: [[DyingDream Jacob never made it out of Vietnam]].]]

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: After Louis cures Jacob of a slipped disc, the scene is reminiscent of a baby learning to walk. [[spoiler: Which is deliberate as Jacob's beginning to be reborn - in preparation for his death.]]

--->[[spoiler:'''Jacob:''' Get me out of here.\\

'''Evil Doctor:''' Home? This is your home. You're dead.\\
'''Jacob:''' Dead? No. I just hurt my back, I'm not dead.\\

'''Jacob:''' I'm '''''alive'''''.\\

'''Evil Doctor:''' ''(sighing with frustration)'' There is no "out of here". You've been killed, don't you remember?]]
** Earlier in the film, he gets the same thing from the woman reading his palm.
--->'''Palmreader:''' [[spoiler:It's not funny. According to this, you're already dead! Get outta here baby!]]

* FanDisservice: Elizabeth Peña dancing suggestively while sweating? Hot. Elizabeth Peña dancing suggestively while sweating whilst [[spoiler: being molested and then impaled by some sort of demon/angel?]] Not so much.

** At one point, Jacob looks at his chiropractor Louis and jokes that [[spoiler:he looks like an angel.]]

* HospitalGurneyScene: In one that's considered one of the scariest ever made (and provided a great deal of inspiration for ''Franchise/SilentHill''), an abducted Jacob is strapped to a gurney and wheeled through a hospital that gets progressively more dilapidated and [[LudicrousGibs bloody]], and its patients more unhinged and horrific.

** [[spoiler:Jezebel in a vision of Jacob's during her sex dance scene.]]

* ShellShockedVeteran: This is what Jacob is implied to be [[spoiler:at first.]]

* HospitalGurneyScene: In one that's considered one of the scariest ever made (and provided a great deal of inspiration for ''VideoGame/SilentHill''), an abducted Jacob is strapped to a gurney and wheeled through a hospital that gets progressively more dilapidated and [[LudicrousGibs bloody]], and its patients more unhinged and horrific.

''Jacob's Ladder'' (1990) is a psychological {{thriller}} / {{horror}} film directed by Adrian Lyne, based on a screenplay by Bruce Joel Rubin. It stars Creator/TimRobbins, Elizabeth Peña, Danny Aiello, and Creator/JasonAlexander. Creator/MacaulayCulkin appears briefly in an uncredited performance.

---> [[spoiler:And the angels grew lonely / Took you because they were lonely / I'm lonely, too, sonny boy]]

A remake is scheduled for 2019, helmed by ''The Perfect Guy'' director David M. Rosenthal.

* BadSanta: Played straight and PlayedForLaughs, at the same time. ([[SignificantAnagram A subtle one, but it's noteworthy that "Santa" is an anagram for "Satan".]])

* CassandraTruth: When asked who mugged him, Jacob blurts angrily, "Santa!... gonna get the bastard!" The doctor and nurse look at each other like Jacob's either high on drugs or ''really'' in shock.

* [[spoiler:DeadAllAlong]]: [[spoiler: [[DyingDream Jacob never made it out of Vietnam]].]]
* [[spoiler:DeadToBeginWith]]: See the above spoilered trope.

* [[spoiler: DyingDream: At the end, Jacob discovers that he never made it out of Vietnam. His nightmares were partly caused by the psychedelic drug he was given by the government.]]

* [[spoiler:TheHeroDies]]: [[spoiler:Jacob himself, before the post-war events of which the majority of the film consists.]]

* HospitalGurneyScene: [[FromBadToWorse It gets worse]].

** In the opening scene, Jacob gets bayoneted in the gut, badly.
** Jezebel in a vision of Jacob's during her sex dance scene.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: [[spoiler:While the GovernmentConspiracy to test drugs on American soldiers is confirmed as actually happening - ''[[{{Mockspiracy}} probably]]'' - everything that happens after Jacob gets bayoneted is just a DyingDream. So is his flatlining brain [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness hallucinating everything]] about the demons/angels that are supposedly tormenting him, or is the afterlife plot actually real and everything that happens to him is [[IronicHell a final Judgment of his soul before he's ready to pass on]]?]]

* NothingIsScarier: See SinisterSubway, below.
** Not scary, but chills when Jacob finally returns home - his ''old'' home - and [[spoiler:he finds homework and food on the dining room table - books open, pie half-eaten, as if they were there and had just vanished. Of course, that's exactly what ''had'' happened - he's letting go and his past is vanishing.]]
** Michael recounting what The Ladder did to chimps -- then P.O.W.'s.
--->'''Michael:''' We did experiments on jungle monkeys. They bashed each other's heads in, gouged out their eyes, chewed off their tails. The brass loved it. Then they made us try it on Charlie. ''(shaken)'' They took these POW's, just kids, really, and put 'em in a courtyard. We fed 'em huge doses of the stuff. ''[[ManlyTears (tears rolls down a cheek)]]'' They were '''''worse''''' than the monkeys. I never knew men could '''''do''''' such things.

* WarIsHell: The opening battle in Vietnam is ''brutal'' -- and that's not even considering that the war influenced the US military to experiment on young [=POWs=], as detailed in Nothing Is Scarier above.

A remake is scheduled for 2018, helmed by ''The Perfect Guy'' director David M. Rosenthal.

* GoodIsNotNice: [[spoiler:Louis cryptically tells Jacob early in the film that the nightmare creatures he's seeing are just trying to help him let go of his life and prepare himself for heaven]].

* HolyHalo: When Jacob looks up at Louis and sees his head set aglow by the lamp above him, he notes that Louis looks just like an angel. [[spoiler:This, and a lot of what Louis says in this scene, foreshadows that Louis ''is'' an angel]].

* EverybodyKnewAlready: [[spoiler:The Bad Doctor]] actually ''spoils the entire movie'', if you take what he's saying at face value.
-->[[spoiler:'''Jacob:''' Get me out of here.]]
-->[[spoiler:'''Evil Doctor:''' Where do you want to go?]]
-->[[spoiler:'''Jacob:''' Home.]]
-->[[spoiler:'''Evil Doctor:''' Home? This is your home. You're dead.]]
-->[[spoiler:'''Jacob:''' Dead? No. I just hurt my back, I'm not dead.]]
-->[[spoiler:'''Evil Doctor:''' What are you, then?]]
-->[[spoiler:'''Jacob:''' I'm '''''alive'''''.]]
-->[[spoiler:'''Evil Doctor:''' Then what are you doing ''here''?]]
-->[[spoiler:'''Jacob:''' I don't know. This isn't happening.]]
-->[[spoiler:'''Evil Doctor:''' What ''is'' happening?]]
-->[[spoiler:'''Jacob:''' Get me out of here.]]
-->[[spoiler:'''Evil Doctor:''' ''(sighing with frustration)'' There is no "out of here". You've been killed, don't you remember?]]

* [[spoiler:DeadAllAlong]]: One of the [[ItWasHisSled most iconic examples]].

* {{Mockspiracy}}: Jacob believes that he's being pursued by government agents who want to suppress the truth about the use of psychedelic drugs during the war. [[spoiler:The drug story may or may not be true, but the conspiracy itself is just a Dying Dream of the protagonist who never actually made it out of Vietnam. His brain being on a psychedelic while dying might explain the idea is DyingDream is akin to a bad trip -- because it ''is'' a bad trip.]]

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: For all of the horror and torture in the movie there's a surprisingly idealistic backdrop to the story. [[spoiler:The hell Jacob endures is ultimately for his own sake as the monsters try to get him to accept his own death]]. Louis speech to Jacob at the end encapsulates this.

%% * ThroughTheEyesOfMadness

* [[spoiler:DeadAllAlong]]
%%* DeadToBeginWith

* RedHerring: [[spoiler:The GovernmentConspiracy, to a degree.]]

''Jacob's Ladder'' (1990) is a psychological {{thriller}} / {{horror}} film directed by Adrian Lyne, based on a screenplay by Bruce Joel Rubin. It stars Creator/TimRobbins, Elizabeth Peña, Danny Aiello, and Creator/JasonAlexander. Actor Macaulay Culkin appears briefly in an uncredited performance.