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* AwardSnub: No UsefulNotes/AcademyAward nominations for Creator/TimRobbins, Creator/ElizabethPena, Creator/DannyAiello, Music/MauriceJarre's score or Bruce Joel Rubin's screenplay.
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Music/MauriceJarre's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbiq6xaEYn4 haunting score]].
* CaptainObviousReveal: Perhaps relating to the film's ItWasHisSled reputation, [[spoiler: the Vietnam flashbacks strongly imply Jake's been mortally wounded. ]]
* FanPreferredCutContent: There is a deleted scene just before the end where Jezzie makes a major reveal to Jacob. [[spoiler:Jezzie is revealed to be a facsimile of Jacob himself, and Jezzie was a coping mechanism to deal with all the trauma Jacob was dealing with in his life.]] This content resolves the relationship between Jacob and Jezzie, and it's notable that ''VideoGame/SilentHill2'' has a similar reveal.
* GeniusBonus: The film's premise seems to have been strongly influenced by Creator/AmbroseBierce's story ''Literature/AnOccurrenceAtOwlCreekBridge''.
* ItWasHisSled: The twist in this movie is only ''slightly'' less well-known that the similar one in ''Film/TheSixthSense''.
* SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome: Louis' subdued BigDamnHeroes moment when he marches into the hospital demanding to see Jacob, calling out the staff for their harsh treatment of his patient and going so far as to threaten them with a crutch before wheeling Jacob out of the hospital for his gentler treatment. Doubly so [[spoiler: if you accept the "Louis is an angel" theory, as he's doing this ''to demons or other harsher angels'' by siding with a man who's dying and needs to let go]].
** Additionally, the scene where Jacob manages to beat up the two government goons sent to intimidate him and his friends into silence before escaping from the car.
* {{Narm}}
** Right at the end of the movie, when we see Jacob [[spoiler: spasm on in the hospital tent in Vietnam before dying]], there's a guy at a typewriter who looks up, sees this, then kind of shrugs and continues typing. His nonchalant reaction makes this quite comical.
** Jake's fever is so high, Jezebel is forced to immediately put him in an ice bath, so we get to see Jake's bare behind in glorious detail.
* OnceOriginalNowOverdone: Countless movies have taken their inspiration from the theme, visuals, mood and dialogue of ''Jacob's Ladder''. The "blurry face" undercranking effect has almost become a cliché. [[DyingDream The final twist]] has been ripped off by every two-bit {{Fanfic}} and WildMassGuessing on the internet.
* OneSceneWonder:
** The eyeless surgeon only appears on screen for a few seconds, but still manages to be the image that sticks in people's minds the most, and even appears on some of the promotional material for the film, mainly due to how freaky he looks.
** Technically two scenes, but Louis "Louie" Denardo due in part for Creator/DannyAiello’s comforting performance providing relief from the horror as well as being the one who says the movies important ArcWords.
* RetroactiveRecognition:
** Creator/MacaulayCulkin has an uncredited role as Jacob's son.
** How about Creator/LewisBlack showing up for three seconds as the doctor who comes to help when Jacob has his mortally high fever?
** Creator/EriqLaSalle and Creator/VingRhames play two of Jacob's fellow veterans, before either of their actors had those roles.
** Creator/JasonAlexander also has a small role as the lawyer.
** When Jacob is running a high fever and freaking out, [[Music/TenaciousD Kyle Gass]] helps fill his tub with ice.
** One of the partygoers is comedian [=Reggie McFadden=].
** The palm-reader at the party is Creator/SEpathaMerkerson.
* SignatureScene: The nightmarish HospitalGurneyScene. Not for nothing that this sequence inspired the infamously terrifying ''Franchise/SilentHill'' franchise.
* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome. There are no post-production effects in the movie. The very horrifying use of the {{undercrank}} is done by shooting an actor slowly waving their head at 4fps, so when played normally, would produce the now infamous effect.
* TheWoobie: Jacob is nothing more but a decent man who went to serve Vietnam and dealing with the trauma of the death of his son. [[spoiler: And then he dies in war and the entire film plays off his DyingDream of torment by angels/demons who are trying to help him pass on. It makes him reuniting with his son a big case of EarnYourHappyEnding considering he deserves peace for what he struggled with]].
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