Flatliners

This article is about the film. For the ska punk band, see The Flatliners. For the drug, see 4-Methylthioamphetamine.

Flatliners
Theatrical Release Poster for Flatliners (1990).
Directed by	Joel Schumacher
Produced by	Michael Douglas Rick Bieber
Written by	Peter Filardi
Starring	Kiefer Sutherland Julia Roberts Kevin Bacon William Baldwin Oliver Platt
Music by	Lincoln Chase James Newton Howard David A. Stewart
Cinematography	Jan de Bont
Editing by	Robert Brown
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	August 10, 1990
Running time	111 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$26 million
Box office	$141,181,969

Flatliners is a 1990 American thriller film starring Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, Kevin Bacon, William Baldwin and Oliver Platt. Five medical students use physical science in an attempt to find out what lies beyond death. They conduct clandestine experiments that produce near-death experiences. The movie was directed by Joel Schumacher, and it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Sound Editing in 1990.

Plot

Nelson (Kiefer Sutherland), convinces four of his medical school classmates — Joe Hurley (William Baldwin), David Labraccio (Kevin Bacon), Randall Steckle (Oliver Platt) and Rachel Manus (Julia Roberts) — to help him discover what lies beyond death. Nelson flatlines for one minute before his classmates resuscitate him. While "dead", he experience a sort of afterlife. He sees a vision of a boy he bullied as a child, Billy Mahoney. He merely tells his friends that he can't describe what he saw, but something is there. The others decide to follow Nelson's daring feat. Joe flatlines next, and he experiences an erotic afterlife sequence. He merely agrees with Nelson's claim that something indeed exists. David is third to flatline, and he sees a vision of a black girl, Winnie Hicks (Kimberly Scott), that he bullied in grade school. The three men start to experience hallucinations that are related to their afterlife visions. Nelson gets physically beat up by Billy Mahoney twice. Joe, engaged to be married, is haunted by his home videos of his sexual nuances with other women. David finds Winnie Hicks on a train, and she verbally taunts him like he did to her.

Rachel decides to flatline next. David tries to stop the others from giving Rachel their same fate, but she is already "dead" when he arrives. Rachel nearly dies after the power goes out, and the men are unable to shock her with the defibrillator paddles. Luckily, she survives, but she, too, is haunting by the memory of her father committing suicide when she was young. The three men finally reveal their harrowing experiences to one another, and David decides to put his visions to a stop. He goes to visit Winnie Hicks, now grown up, and he apologizes to her. Winnie thanks him, and she accepts his apology. David immediately feels a weight lifted off his shoulders. Then, David finds Nelson, who accompanied David to visit Winnie, beating himself with a crowbar. For Nelson, Billy Mahoney is attempting to beat him to death for a third time. David stops him in time, and they return to town. Meanwhile, Joe's fiancée, Anne (Hope Davis), comes to his apartment, and she breaks up with him after she discovers his videos. Joe's visions cease after Anne leaves him. Rachel seeks comfort in the arms of David, and the two make love. While Rachel and David are together, Nelson takes Steckle and Joe to the graveyard. He reveals that he killed Billy Mahoney as a kid when he hit him with a rock, and he fell out of a tree. Nelson storms off, leaving Joe and Steckle stranded.

David leaves Rachel alone in order to rescue Joe and Steckle at the cemetery. While alone, Rachel goes to the bathroom, and she finds her father. He apologizes to his daughter, and her guilt over his death is lifted when she discovers that he was addicted to heroin. Then, Nelson calls Rachel, and he tells her that he needs to flatline again in order to make amends. He apologizes for involving her and their friends in his stupid plan. The three men race to Nelson, who has been dead for nine minutes. Rachel soon finds them, and the four friends work feverishly to save Nelson. Meanwhile, a young Nelson is being stoned by Billy Mahoney from the tree. Nelson dies in the afterlife from the fall, and his friends cannot revive him. When they are about to give up, David gives Nelson one last shock. They bring him back, and Nelson tells them, "Today wasn't a good day to die."

Cast

• Kiefer Sutherland - Nelson Wright
• Julia Roberts - Rachel Mannus
• Kevin Bacon - David Labraccio
• William Baldwin - Joe Hurley
• Oliver Platt - Randy Steckle
• Kimberly Scott - Winnie Hicks
• Joshua Rudoy - Billy Mahoney
• Benjamin Mouton - Rachel's father
• Hope Davis - Anne Coldren

Critical Reception

Upon its release Flatliners received mixed reviews. While the film was praised for its overall premise and striking visual style, as well as the strong cast; it was criticized in some quarters for descending into silliness. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 52% of critics give the film a positive review, based on 21 reviews.

In her review for The New York Times, Caryn James wrote, "when taken on its own stylish terms, Flatliners is greatly entertaining. Viewers are likely to go along with this film instantly or else ridicule it to death. Its atmospheric approach doesn't admit much middle ground." Critic Roger Ebert praised the film as "an original, intelligent thriller, well-directed by Joel Schumacher," and called the cast "talented young actors, [who] inhabit the shadows with the right mixture of intensity, fear and cockiness." But Ebert criticized Flatliners for "plot manipulation that is unworthy of the brilliance of its theme. I only wish it had been restructured so we didn't need to go through the same crisis so many times." Similarly, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine praised the film's young stars, but complained that "by dodging the questions it raises about life after death, Flatliners ends up tripping on timidity. It's a movie about daring that dares nothing." Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "D" rating and Owen Gleiberman wrote, "What isn't in evidence is the sort of overheated lunacy that made the William Hurt speed-freak trip movie Altered States (1980) such delectable trash. Flatliners is camp, but of a very low order. Schumacher is too intent on pandering to the youth market to take the mad risks and plunges that make for a scintillating bad movie."

In contrast, the Washington Post's Rita Kempley loved the film, calling it "a heart-stopping, breathtakingly sumptuous haunted house of a movie that takes off where Dracula and Dante left off and CPR began. . . . Movies about dying, grief and life after death are cropping up like corn in the Field of Dreams as a response to on-screen violence, a reaction to AIDS, a desire for something beyond materialism. And we're grateful for their reassurances even when they overreach themselves. Though it's got its excesses, Flatliners brings a certain warmth to the chill of the decade."

Box Office

The movie debuted at No.1. With an estimated budget of $26 million, the film took in $61.5 million in the United States during its theatrical run.

External links

• Flatliners at the Internet Movie Database
• Flatliners at AllRovi
• Flatliners at Rotten Tomatoes
• Flatliners Blu-ray Disc Review" at HD-Report