Line #22 Film/TheJacket


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the-jacket_6150.jpg]]
2
3	->''"When you die, there's only one thing you want to happen. You wanna come back."''
4	-->-- '''Jack Starks'''
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6	''The Jacket'' is a 2005 independent film starring Creator/AdrienBrody and Creator/KeiraKnightley. Jack Starks (Brody) is a gulf war veteran that survived a nearly fatal gunshot wound to the head. Upon returning home, Jack meets a young girl and her mother stranded on the side of the road. He helps the pair by fixing their car. Later, Jack hitches a ride with a young man headed north, but when the two men are pulled over by a police officer, Jack spontaneously suffers an amnesiac black out.
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8	When he awakes, he is in court and is being held responsible for the murder of the police officer. The jury determines he is not guilty on account of insanity, and Jack is locked away in Alpine Groves, an asylum for the criminally insane. There, Jack undergoes experimental treatment for his supposed mental illness, and he begins experiencing strange visions of the future. In these visions, he encounters a grown version of the girl he previously met (Knightley), and he learns startling truths of upcoming events.
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10	Over time Jack learns to control and manipulate his visions so he can uncover more of the mystery surrounding Alpine Groves, his alleged mental illness, and the history of the girl he encountered. With this knowledge, Jack sets out to right several wrongs in the lives around him, and to potentially find freedom from the asylum. Time is running out, however, as he uncovers an unexpected side-effect to the experiments...
11	----
12	!!This film contains examples of the following tropes:
13	* TheAlcoholic: Jean, Jackie's mother.
14	* AlternateTimeline: Jack supposedly creates one by writing his EpilogueLetter.
15	* AmbiguousEnding:
16	** The screen [[FadeToWhite fades to white]] and a female voice asks "How much time do we have?".
17	** The alternate endings are even more ambiguous, with at least one implying that the entire film is a DyingDream from when he was shot in Iraq.
18	* ArcWords: "Come back to me, Jack!"
19	* BedlamHouse: The mental hospital is full of sadists. Though in the future, with Dr Lawrenson now in charge, it seems a little better.
20	* {{Blipvert}}: Jack's visions when in the isolation chamber are presented as flashing images in quick succession.
21	* DisappearedDad: Jackie's father is not around.
22	* DreamingOfThingsToCome: The experimental drug and treatment apparently gives Jack these sort of dreams.
23	* DyingDream:
24	** [[spoiler: One of the alternate endings uses this, showing that Jack dies shortly after waking in the army medical tent. He never returned to America to begin with, nor did he go to a mental hospital, and Jackie never existed.]]
25	** [[spoiler: Used partially in the actual ending, where Jack is dying from his pre-ordained trauma to the head (turns out to be from slipping in the hospital parking lot) during his last future visit/vision/whatever, where he is able to see that Jackie turns out much better with her mother alive.]]
26	* ElectroconvulsiveTherapyIsTorture: Subverted! Jack learns from the future that Dr Lorenson helped Babak with his seizures via ECT. When her past self hears this, she's merely unsure about using the procedure on a child - but goes through with it and sure enough...
27	* EmbarrassingNickname: Subverted. Jackie's mother nicknamed her 'Petal'. Jack tells Jean to keep calling her that, saying he thinks she likes it really.
28	* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: Dr Lorenson has curly hair in Jack's present. When he sees her in the future, her hair is a little shorter and straight.
29	* FadeToWhite: How the film ends.
30	* TheGlassesComeOff: Dr Lorenson's future self is distinguished from the past by not wearing her glasses anymore.
31	* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: The guy who picked up Jack while hitchhiking and then killed the cop (landing Jack in the hospital in the first place) is last seen drinking at a bar, seemingly off the hook.]]
32	%% Oddly enough, his actor, Brad Renfro, died 3 years after the movie came out.
33	* LockedIntoStrangeness: Dr Becker is completely grey when Jack meets him in the future.
34	* MeaningfulEcho: "I was 27 years old the first time that I died"...
35	* MindScrew: The entire movie.
36	* MissingMom: Jack discovers that Jackie's mother Jean passed out one night while smoking a cigarette and burned to death. [[spoiler: He changes her fate however as Jackie is on the phone to her in the alternate future]].
37	* NiceGuy: Jack, to a fault. His [[EstablishingCharacterMoment introductory scene]] has him politely trying to talk to a young boy. This ends up getting him shot.
38	* SnowMeansDeath: Jack and Jackie are visiting a snowed in graveyard. Also [[spoiler: Jack's apparent death happens in the snow when he slips on ice]].
39	* VillainousBreakdown: Damon, the mean orderly, ultimately ends up a patient at the hospital.
40	* VoiceoverLetter: Jack narrating his letter toward the end.
41	* WalkingTheEarth: After being discharged, Jack spends most of his time on the road.
42	* YouCantFightFate: [[spoiler: Subverted. Jack appears to change the future with his actions, but Jackie also seems to be aware of the alternate timeline where her mom died.]]

Context Film / TheJacket