Jacob's Ladder (film)

For other uses, see Jacob's Ladder (disambiguation).

Jacob's Ladder
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Adrian Lyne
Produced by	Mario Kassar Alan Marshall Bruce Joel Rubin Andrew G. Vajna
Written by	Bruce Joel Rubin
Starring	Tim Robbins Elizabeth Peña Danny Aiello
Music by	Maurice Jarre
Cinematography	Jeffrey L. Kimball
Editing by	Tom Rolf
Studio	Carolco Pictures
Distributed by	TriStar Pictures
Release date(s)	November 2, 1990 (1990-11-02)
Running time	116 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$26,118,851

Jacob's Ladder is a 1990 American psychological thriller/horror film directed by Adrian Lyne, based on a screenplay by Bruce Joel Rubin.

Plot

Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins) is a U.S. soldier deployed in the Mekong Delta during the Vietnam War. When the story begins, in 1971, helicopters are passing overhead, carrying supplies for what seems to be preparations for a Viet Cong offensive. Without any warning, Jacob's unit comes under heavy fire. The soldiers try to take cover but begin to exhibit strange behavior for no apparent reason. Jacob attempts to escape the unexplained insanity, only to be stabbed with a bayonet by an unseen attacker.

The film then shifts back and forth from Vietnam to Jacob's memories (and hallucinations) of his son Gabe (Macaulay Culkin) and former wife Sarah (Patricia Kalember), and to his present (set in 1975) relationship with a woman named Jezzie (Elizabeth Peña) while working as a mailman in Brooklyn, New York City. During this latter period, Jacob faces several threats to his life and experiences grotesque hallucinations. It is also revealed that his son Gabe was hit by a car and killed before Jacob went to Vietnam.

At a key moment, Jacob's friend and chiropractor, Louis (Danny Aiello), cites the 14th century Christian mystic Meister Eckhart:

Eckhart saw Hell too. He said: "The only thing that burns in Hell is the part of you that won't let go of life, your memories, your attachments. They burn them all away. But they're not punishing you," he said. "They're freeing your soul. So, if you're frightened of dying and... you're holding on, you'll see devils tearing your life away. But if you've made your peace, then the devils are really angels, freeing you from the earth."

As the hallucinations become increasingly bizarre, Paul (Pruitt Taylor Vince), one of his old Army friends, contacts Jacob to tell him about his hallucinations and is later killed when his car explodes. At the funeral, his surviving platoon-mates confess to Jacob they too have been seeing horrible hallucinations.

Jacob is then approached by a man named Michael Newman (Matt Craven), who claims to have been a chemist working with the Army's chemical warfare division in Saigon, where he worked on creating a drug that would increase aggression. The drug was code named "The Ladder" because it took people straight to their most primal urges. The drug was first tested on monkeys and then on a group of enemy POWs, with gruesome results. Later, small doses of "The Ladder" were secretly given to Jacob's battalion via their C-rations. Instead of targeting the enemy, however, the men in Jacob's unit attacked each other indiscriminately. This revelation insinuates that Jacob was stabbed by one of his fellow soldiers.

The last scenes of the movie have Jacob returning to the apartment building he once lived in with Sarah. He enters and begins looking through an old shoe box, containing his memories and the pain he’s been clinging to, things like his dog tags and a picture of Gabe. Jacob then is surprised to see Gabe at the foot of the stairwell. Gabe takes Jacob by the hand and together the two of them ascend the stairwell and disappear into a bright light.

At the dénouement, we learn Jacob never made it out of Vietnam; his body is shown in an Army triage tent with two surgeons just after he expired, with a now peaceful look on his face. Apparently, the entire series of events was his dying hallucination. Before the film credits, an on-screen title card states that reports of BZ testing by the U.S. Army on its soldiers during the Vietnam War were denied by the Pentagon.

"The Ladder"

Jacob is told that the horrific events he experienced on his final day in Vietnam were the product of an experimental drug called "The Ladder", which was used on troops without their knowledge. Jacob is told this by Michael, who is later seen treating his wounds in a Medevac helicopter. He is told that the drug was named for its ability to cause "a fast trip straight down the ladder, right to the primal fear, right to the base anger."

At the end of the film, a message is displayed mentioning the testing of a drug named BZ, NATO code for a deliriant and hallucinogen known as 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate that was rumored to have been administered to U.S. troops by the government in a secret attempt to increase their fighting power. The effects of BZ, however, are different from the effects of the drug depicted in Jacob's Ladder. The film's director Adrian Lyne himself noted that "nothing ... suggests that the drug BZ—a super-hallucinogen that has a tendency to elicit maniac behavior—was used on U.S. troops."

Cast

• Tim Robbins as Jacob Singer
• Elizabeth Peña as Jezzie
• Danny Aiello as Louis
• Matt Craven as Michael
• Pruitt Taylor Vince as Paul
• Jason Alexander as Geary
• Patricia Kalember as Sarah
• Eriq La Salle as Frank
• Ving Rhames as George
• Brian Tarantina as Doug
• Anthony Alessandro as Rod
• Brent Hinkley as Jerry
• S. Epatha Merkerson as Elsa
• Kyle Gass as Tony
• Lewis Black as Jacob's doctor
• Perry Lang as Jacob's assailant
• Macaulay Culkin as Gabe (uncredited)

Production

The film's title refers to the biblical story of Jacob's Ladder, or the dream of a meeting place between Heaven and Earth (Genesis 28:12). The film was also perceived by many, including its screenwriter and co-producer Bruce Joel Rubin, as a modern interpretation of the Liberation Through Hearing During The Intermediate State, Tibetan Book of the Dead. Rubin's original screenplay differs significantly at parts from the film, especially towards the ending.

The film's director Adrian Lyne used a famous body horror technique in which an actor is recorded waving his head around at a low frame rate, resulting in horrific fast motion when played back. In a Special Edition's commentary track, Lyne said he was inspired by the art of the painter Francis Bacon when developing the effect.

Reception

Critical reception

Reception of the film was quite polarized at the time of release. According to aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, 73% of reviews of the film were positive, but the top critics were split evenly, with 50% giving it a positive review. According to film critic Roger Ebert, "This movie was not a pleasant experience, but it was exhilarating in the sense that I was able to observe filmmakers working at the edge of their abilities and inspirations."

Legacy

Jacob's Ladder greatly inspired the horror franchise Silent Hill, including the film adaptation and the video game Silent Hill Homecoming.

The music video for Avenged Sevenfold's 2010 song "Nightmare" is also highly based on the film (the band members used it as a tribute to their late drummer The Rev, who often cited Jacob's Ladder as his favorite movie). The title of the UNKLE's song "Rabbit in Your Headlights" is a quote from the film. VNV Nation's 1998 track "Forsaken" ends with the quotation from Eckhart.

Home media

The Special Edition DVD was released by Artisan Entertainment on July 14, 1998, containing three previously deleted scenes ("Jezzie's Transformation", "The Antidote" and "The Trainstation") along with several other special features, such as a feature-length audio commentary by director Adrian Lyne and a 26-minute documentary on the making of Building 'Jacob's Ladder'.

See also

• "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"
• Divine Comedy
• Jacob's Ladder
• Project 112
• Project SHAD
• Vietnam Syndrome

External links

• Jacob's Ladder at the Internet Movie Database
• Jacob's Ladder at AllRovi
• Jacob's Ladder at Box Office Mojo
• Jacob's Ladder at Rotten Tomatoes
• Jacob's Ladder at Metacritic
• Jacob's Ladder at TV Tropes