Never Seen It #234: Jacob's Ladder

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 blog. So the way he sees it, if you're frightened of dying and you're watching 400 movies you've never seen before, 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.

Jacob's Ladder

1990

Adrian Lyne

Thanks to Group B for an interesting movie, and some deep thoughts below!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sam

My major fascination with this movie originates from Jason Manzukas's running joke that every movie really is just a back door for a Jacob's Ladder scenario. But like Jake Tapper recently admitting that he had never seen Sliding Doors despite frequently referencing it on his Biden book tour, I need to own up and admit not digesting the source material for the reference.

When we open on a military drug experiment scene in Vietnam, I feared I was in for a long one. But despite the incredibly '80s-ness of the film—complete with one-the-nose biblical references, disgusting street portrayals of NYC, and implausibly elaborate house parties—I was pretty delighted by the outcome.

Tim Robbins really can carry a movie. I enjoyed him being likable and not stupid. His affection for his lost life came off as genuine, and it was easy to root for him. Funny idea that working for the post office is essentially purgatory.

Stellar casting, if for nothing else than notoriety. A who's-who of banger bit character casting from '80/'90s staples like Ving Rhames, Jason Alexander, Eriq (St. John Baptist de) La Salle and (clicking for me in the credits) S. Epatha Merkerson. Kyle Gass from Tenacious D and Lewis Black from The Daily Show also popped up. Of course, the most surprising and oddly uncredited is Macaulay Culkin as the vital prop device of dead son.

Those around Robbins with actual significance, including the annoyingly named Jezzie, were kind of dopey. But the ultimate reveal of "in his own head" justifies (if not excuses) their stock portrayals. Adrian Lyne's direction of a dreamy script is fine though not exceptional. Like the one-noted characters, the hard to follow plot twists are excused by the big reveal. It's more plausible that Danny Aiello could extradite Robbins from a shady VA hospital if it's just dream logic.

In 2025, in a post-Lost world, I'd be annoyed that a psychological thriller was just the death spirals of a dying soldier. But I am fine excusing a kind of lame climax from a movie 40 years old. Robbins charmed me enough, and I was happy he ascended into heaven with Kevin McAllister leading the way. Plus, I get the reference now—the best gift of all.

GRADE: 3 out of 5

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sunny

My initial reaction.

My follow-up reaction is: amazement, amazing that somehow over 35 years I didn't have the twist spoiled, which would seriously alter the viewing of the whole movie. Does the fact I had no idea this movie had a big twist among the era of big twist movies say something about it? Is it because the movie is dumb and bad and has been forgotten?

Let's climb the ladder. Was this movie dumb and/or bad? I'm still trying to decide. It definitely was dumb/bad in large doses, and I'm still not so sure about the conceit at the end. All the weird spooky bits like the ghost faces and the faceless bodies freaking out in fast-forward usually had me laugh in reaction, rather than be like scared or have some deep pathos.

I asked Kelsey what she thought and she gave it the benefit of the doubt: that all this corny cheesy laughable stuff might have come off as more avant-garde in 1990, but in 2025, it feels like tropes. Even that big ending.

There were moments I was literally falling asleep and then moments I was raucously cheering at the scene, like when that car comes out of nowhere trying to run down Robbins.

There are enough good moments, enough pulls, enough visual interest to keep the movie mostly interesting just under two hours. I have an affinity for Robbins, especially with this haircut. Danny Aiello's good in this, and of course Macaulay Culkin playing a dead child is unimpeachable. Lot of the side characters are fun; George Costanza in there is memorable.

Thematically, it's a mix of high-minded and half-clever. Before I watched the movie, I joked it was about a ladder; afterwards, I understand it is about a ladder, but a metaphorical one, which, eh. A lot of the heaven/hell stuff works on one plane (the Pena/Aiello dichotomy), but lacks much depth and then feels awfully ham-fisted. Some of the scenes, like the walk through the increasingly gruesome hospital into the ER scene, or the emphatic speech by the chemist dude, are for what exactly? Did they love the disembodied leg FX so much that they had to use it like six times? As you try to put together a scene, you're jumped into another time/place as to not leave you much time to linger. This baffles the mind trying to put together a narrative, which is then mostly handwaved away at the end, leaving the core thread about his boy. That thread isn't awful, but it's woven in between a lot of cheap fabric that leaves an odd smell when it burns.

3/5 pukes

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Joe

It's been noted many times in the past, in some blog posts scattered around these parts (what, you expect me to go out and actually look for them?), that I am not a fan of movies in which the protagonist is perceived by other characters as "crazy." I don't know if I've done a deep dive into my emotions on this front, regarding why this annoys me so. I suppose it's either 1) that these types of films often involve a certain amount of willful ignorance on the crazy-accuser's part, like the plot requires them to avoid learning about facts that we the audience already know, which I find frustrating, and probably bad scriptwriting, or 2) that I live in constant fear that I myself will be perceived as crazy, so when the protagonist gets that accusation lobbed their way, it hits me in a very sensitive place.

I had my antennas up and at alert when Jacob's Ladder started and continued in this manner for quite a while—the titular Jacob, a Vietnam vet, starts to have hallucinations, and his reactions to those hallucinations start to affect his interpersonal life, to the point where his live-in girlfriend begins to accuse him of, yup, being crazy. It's frustrating, because—oh shit, here's another possibility, let's attach a "3)" to this—because 3) if my loved one told me that she had seen me raped by a giant unseen reptile creature on the dance floor last night and started screaming uncontrollably at the sight, then I would probably... gently seek help for them? Or is that just the social worker in me speaking? Do people really push people away when they act erratically in some way, calling them crazy? Is that normal? Am I the freak here? Am I letting a very normal reaction by very normal people negatively affect my filmwatching experiences?

Here's a crucial difference in this movie, the path that Jacob's Ladder manages to find that gives me patience and grace in an otherwise frustrating situation—we're not actually sure whether Jacob is "crazy" or not. This isn't a "god when are these fucking idiots going to realize that the protagonist has been right the whole time?!" type of movie. We literally don't know what's true and what's not when it comes to Jacob's experiences. It could be that he's been dead the whole time. It could be that the scene in which he's pronounced dead is yet another hallucination. It's really up to the audience to decide for themselves, figure out what they need from Jacob's Ladder. I think what I need is just the comfort of knowing that Jacob isn't being gaslighted the entire fucking movie.

Another thought I had that turned out to be more complicated than I thought it'd be: that this film is about PTSD. No one utters the phrase once, but I figured for a good long while that all the hallucinations were building up to an allegory about mental illness in the wake of war. Again, it's not that simple. You could probably generalize it a little further and say that Jacob's Ladder is about the senselessness of war, like the idea that we were in Vietnam for ???-related reasons and a lot of people died and the soldiers are seen to be suffering long after they leave the battlefield. In this way, the experimental psychedelic chemical warfare could be seen as a metaphor as well. It's just fascinating how Jacob's Ladder leaves so many questions hanging. Is it a metaphor? Or were the soldiers really dosed with some chemicals in order to make them more aggressive? Or is this all happening to Jacob in purgatory as he decides whether to descend into hell or follow Macaulay Culkin into heaven?

I think this would probably be a pretty easy film to dissect and critique for having too many plotholes, or for featuring characters who don't act as normal human beings would typically act. I was doing that without even thinking about it—"why is she calling him crazy, that's not how a normal person would react" etc. But the true victory of Jacob's Ladder as a movie is that it leaves open-ended the possibility that maybe none of this is "real," and so of course there are plotholes and of course no one is acting rationally. And so everything melts away and we're left with the tungsten core of the film, the What It All Means. And that's a great place to be when you're watching a movie. To not have to worry about what is literally happening, but instead sit with it for a while, ponder what Jacob's experiences are supposed to be telling us.

Jacob's Ladder surprised me in the way that it got me to forgive a lot of shit that would typically annoy the fuck out of me. I have watched the film, and I'm not annoyed at all.

GRADE: 3.5 pukes out of 5

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pat

[EXT: The jungle. Explosions and helicopters can be heard in the distance. "Fortunate Son" is playing, spiritually if not literally. It's early '90s movie 'Nam! PAT comes running through the brush. He is holding an M16 and wearing an Army helmet with "SKIBIDI" painted on the side.]

PAT: Man, war sucks ass. At least our commanders really care about our well-being. 

[Suddenly, another soldier comes bounding out of the forest. He is tall, bearded, and has been dosed with a lethal amount of hallucinogens.]

JOE: Film Club! Zoom tonight! Group B picked a double feature! Now You See Me and Come and See! Come and see it now, you! 

[JOE stabs PAT in the stomach with a bayonet.]

PAT: Ow! Fuck! Uncool, dude! 

[PAT falls to the ground.]

[INT: Subway car. PAT wakes up in his seat. He is dressed as a postal worker.]

PAT: Ugh. I just had the strangest dream. 

[An old lady wearing a babushka stares at him menacingly. She hisses.]

PAT: Ah, New York. Greatest city on Earth.

JACK: But is it?

[PAT looks to the rear of the car. A man in a filthy overcoat rises from his seat. As the coat falls away, PAT realizes he is the handsomest man he has ever seen in-person. It is DR. JACK SHEPHARD from Lost.]

JACK: Not everything is as it seems, Pat. You must accept that...

PAT: I'm dead, right?

JACK: What? No. I...

PAT: I'm dead and this is Hell. 

JACK: Why would you say that? 

[PAT points to the super conspicuous subway ad that says "HELL"]

JACK: Shit. 

PAT: Also, that guy pleasuring himself over in the corner has tentacles coming out of his jacket. I'm dead, this is Hell or Purgatory or some kind of afterlife, and I have to accept that. 

JACK: Yes, fine, but you're doing a Jacob's Ladder. 

PAT: What?! When did that happen?!

 

[PAT frantically unzips his pants.]

JACK: Not the piercing, you moron. You're transitioning from life to death. But there's a lot more to it than just guessing you're in Purgatory. 

PAT: Is there? I figured it out. Everything else is just filler. Kinda like that show you were on.

JACK: Fuck you! There was more to it than that!

PAT: If you say so. I've never actually watched Lost.

JACK: Then how do you know what happens?!

PAT: Really? A plane crashes on an island and weird stuff starts happening to the "survivors"? I got stabbed in the gut, not the brain. Anyway, this is my stop.

[PAT steps off the train. DR. JACK SHEPHARD pokes his head out the door.]

JACK: You have to accept it, Pat! It's the only way to move on!

[PAT walks onto the train tracks, like a dumbass]

PAT: I did! I'm dead!

JACK: No! You have to accept that you're being a giant asshole!

PAT: What?

[Before he can get an answer, PAT hears loud screeching. He turns to see a train coming his way. The front lamp is blinding. Could the bright, white light encompassing PAT be a metaphor? Only time will tell!]

[INT: A house party. PAT is there with his co-worker/roommate/lover JEZEBEL. Does this aggressively horny woman having the name of the Bible's most notorious villainess have some deeper meaning? Maybe!]

JEZEBEL: Come dance with me, babe!

PAT: Maybe later, Jezzie. I'm still kinda sad from when you tossed all those pictures of my dead kid into an incinerator.

JEZEBEL: You're a total pussy.

PAT: Yeah, I know. 

[PAT walks over to the fridge and sees a skinned lamb's head next to a case of Boxer Ice.]

PAT: This party sucks.

DEAN: No, the party is here. 

[PAT turns around. Standing there are two of the handsomest men PAT has ever seen in-person. It's SAM and DEAN WINCHESTER from Supernatural.]

PAT: Sam and Dean! What are you doing here?

DEAN: We heard you were seeing demons. You know how our show works. 

PAT: If you say so. I've never actually watched Supernatural.

SAM: Is that true, Pat? Is it really?

[SAM puts his hand on PAT's shoulder. PAT feels safe with this tall man.]

PAT: I'm halfway through Season 8. 

SAM: That's better.

DEAN: So what have you been seeing?

PAT: You know. Hideous monsters. Vibrating guys in gimp masks. The VA says I was never in the Army, but that might be a clerical thing. A party psychic told me I was dead. Oh, and everyone I know keeps getting car bombed.

DEAN: Sounds like a vampire.

PAT: How the fuck does that "sound like a vampire"?

DEAN: Listen, letter carrier, we're the experts here. Do you want our help or not? 

PAT: Actually, given the choice...

SAM: Let's fan out and see if we can find anything. 

[PAT, SAM and DEAN split up. The party is getting louder. Hotter. Sexier, but in an upsetting way.]

PAT: Hey guys, is that something?

[PAT points to JEZEBEL—his girlfriend who hates him—grinding on the Sarlacc from Return of the Jedi].

DEAN: I'm thinking werewolf.

SAM: I totally agree.

PAT: How?

[Before either of the gorgeous men can answer, the Dance Floor Demon impales the WINCHESTERS with his tentacles, killing them instantly.]

PAT: Fuck! 

CASTIEL, THE ANGEL WHO DOESN'T UNDERSTAND SOCIAL CUES: This is an inadvisable turn of events.

JEZEBEL: I am so embarrassed right now. 

[A flock of birds flies through the party for some reason. PAT falls to the ground unconscious.]

[INT: Bathroom. PAT jolts awake. He is in an ice bath. He is nude. It’s cold as... Hell?! Mwahahahaha!]

PAT: Oh c'mon! Can't I just be damned in peace?

KEVIN: You know you can't, Pat.

[PAT looks over to a man sitting on the edge of the tub. He is the handsomest man PAT has ever seen in-person. It's KEVIN GARVEY from The Leftovers. He is also nude, as is customary for HBO.]

PAT: But why not, Kevin Garvey? I figured out the twist!

KEVIN: Maybe it's not a twist. Maybe it's just a story that needs to play out. 

PAT: Well then what the hell is this story? I'm in Brooklyn, but I'm also in Hell, but I'm also flashing back to the war, but I'm also still with my wife and kids? If I died in Vietnam, how do I know about Labelle's "Lady Marmalade?" Did I write it just for this fantasy? Why is death so complicated?

KEVIN: Because life is complicated! There are no easy answers to any of this. 

PAT: Yeah, yeah, I know. I've seen every episode of The Leftovers.

KEVIN: What did you think?

PAT: Massively underrated, but I have a hard time explaining why. 

KEVIN: That's very nice of you to say. Also...

[KEVIN punches PAT in the face, knocking him unconscious. At the same time, a man dressed as Santa Claus takes PAT's wallet from his nearby pants. Santa crimes are a recurring theme in PAT's life and afterlife.]

[INT: Chiropractor’s office. PAT is being worked on by DANNY AIELLO, the handsomest man PAT has ever seen in-person.]

PAT: Thanks for rescuing me from that nightmarish mental hospital, Danny Aiello. 

DANNY AIELLO: No problem. But like I was saying, the inability to let go is what creates the horror. If you make peace...

PAT: You see angels. I know. I've read Meister Eckhart. I have an MFA in this movie. 

DANNY AIELLO: Really? 

PAT: Apparently.

DANNY AIELLO: Huh. Anyway, you get the idea. You need to accept what this movie is. It's the only way you can move on. C'mon, Pat. Do the right thing. 

PAT: I can't. I just can't. 

DANNY AIELLO: Would it help if you talked to someone else? Maybe Sobbing Paul, your Army buddy? Or Jason Alexander, the World's Least Enthusiastic Lawyer?

JASON ALEXANDER: You got no case, Pat!

PAT: No, I'm fine. It wouldn't change my mind. 

DANNY AIELLO: Then what's the problem? 

PAT: My problem is that Jacob's Ladder can't accept what it is, so why should I?

DANNY AIELLO: Explain.

PAT: I can accept a story about accepting death. I'll even chalk up the confusing transitions between Jacob's life with Jezebel, Jacob's life with Sarah, and Jacob's real life in the war as his id, ego, and superego hashing it out as his brain shuts down. But when the last 20 minutes veer into a story about the government secretly dosing soldiers with mind-altering gas weapons, I'm out. That totally contradicts everything we've seen so far.

DANNY AIELLO: I mean, that's just one aspect...

PAT: They put that postscript at the end! It's clearly the story they wanted to impart!

PAT: How does Jacob even know he was dosed with BZ? He learns from a guy in his hallucination! If he's tripping balls the whole time, how can we trust anything that happened? Hell, maybe Jacob never had a family! There's no spiritual journey. Just a guy getting dicked over by the military. There's no God in this movie except Melvin Laird! 

DANNY AIELLO: No one understands that reference! And maybe you're underthinking it! Maybe Army chemist Michael Newman is an angel?

CASTIEL, THE ANGEL WHO DOESN'T UNDERSTAND SOCIAL CUES: Unlikely. 

PAT: This movie can't settle on whether it's An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge or a John Grisham novel. It tries to be both and fails because the concepts as presented undercut each other. It's bullshit. I do not approve.

DANNY AIELLO: Alright, could you accept it as a screenwriter using all the ideas he cut out of the script for Ghost to work through the trauma of taking way too much acid as a young man? 

PAT: Yes. I can do that. 

[A blinding light appears at the far side of the room. Out of the glow steps MACAULAY CULKIN. He is a 44 year-old man. He is wearing a shirt depicting Ryan Gosling wearing a shirt depicting him. He is the handsomest man PAT has ever seen in-person.]

MACAULAY: It's time, Pat. We can go now. 

PAT: Oh my god, finally. 

[PAT takes MACAULAY's hand as they ascend a staircase.]

PAT: Where are we going?

MACAULAY: It's hard to say, but Kieran is there. You know, from Succession.

PAT: I've actually never watched Succession.

MACAULAY: Me neither.

— And it truly was a Jacob's ladder -—

Pat's Rating: 💉💉

2 out of 5 unlicensed demon surgical teams

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GROUP AVERAGE GRADE: 2.875

Either stay here (heaven) or move onto the comment section (hell), where the devils will pull this movie to pieces.

(NEXT TIME: Meghan Trainor's husband has been dead the whole time in Spy Kids.)