MovieChat Forums > Jacob's Ladder (1990) Discussion > Explaination *Spoilers*

Explaination Spoilers

posted 10 years ago by mickbanner
19 replies | jump to latest

Im trying to get my head around it...sooooo

Jacob is drugged during the war
He is stabbed by his own squad, all hallucinating.
He is on the Medic's bed, and not willing to let go of life, his memories of the past and a hallucinated future mash together to help him let go of his life.
Jacob;s memories are tainted -EG he awakes with Sarah and discusses Jezebel. (a future that doesn't exist.

UP FOR DEBATE

How can he hallucinate the right answers - Chemist tells him about the Ladder?? AND if so is it an explanation from a higher power! OR in his feverish state after being stabbed by a Viet-Kong it has his hallucination begging for answers....

In the flash-forwards they go out of their way to play music and references from the 70's (Post-Jacob's supposed Death???

Was Jacob the chemist? (read that on the boards - not sure)

PLEASE post your ideas!

[–] pullman1881 10 years ago

Jacob is drugged during the war
He is stabbed by his own squad, all hallucinating.
He is on the Medic's bed, and not willing to let go of life, his memories of the past and a hallucinated future mash together to help him let go of his life.
Jacob;s memories are tainted -EG he awakes with Sarah and discusses Jezebel. (a future that doesn't exist.

I think you're right on here.

I just watched this on Cinemax for the first time in years. I'm guessing there is no "right answer". He was stabbed by a comrade (I don't think he was attacked by the enemy), and in his dreams, he made it work into an understandable answer. As you said "his hallucination begging for answers" - he would dream some kind of explanation as to why he was killed by another American solider and why in his dreams they all abandoned the effort to take the Army to court. He was married and Gabe died (I'm sure he blames himself), they got divorced, and he went to Nam - penance for Gabe's death? While he's dying, his dreams are him fighting his demons. I don't know if there are other threads taking about Louis. I think he was God (not that I believe in God) who was always reassuring and positive about life and wanted so much to help Jacob - Louis saves him from the hospital, for instance. Jacob remembers reading about the philosopher Louis talks about (I don't think we learn what his PhD was in - maybe philosophy?) and weaves that into his dreams. As he's dying, the music of his "life" with Jezzy after the war would be the music he was familiar with.

That's my take anyway.

[–] essex9999 10 years ago

As he's dying, the music of his "life" with Jezzy after the war would be the music he was familiar with.

I mostly agree with your interpretation, except this part. Singer can't have been familiar with "Lady Marmalade" (recorded 1974) or seen the completed World Trade Center (opened 1973) or seen various mid-70s vintage cars. He died in October, 1971. That's the most obvious mystery of the movie.

Otherwise, I think you've got it about right. He dreamed/hallucinated an explanation for being stabbed by a fellow American soldier. The drugging may or may not have happened. He might have been divorced before going to Viet Nam or might have dreamed that part out of guilt. We don't know.

Lots to think about in this film. It rewards a second (or third) viewing, although nothing can quite match the impact of seeing it for the first time, realizing that things are not quite right - everything seemed slightly off to me long before worst of the hallucinations - and then the at-the-time shocking ending. Since 1990, there have been so many films where the twist ending is that the main character or characters is dead that audiences today would probably guess much sooner than they did when the film was first released.

[–] pullman1881 10 years ago

I never made that connection - about the 1970s music after he "died" if he died in, what? 1968-69? until you and a couple of others mentioned it. This is just such an intriguing movie! So many layers so open to interpretation. I'll have to read through all the comments here and watch it again...for maybe the fourth time. Thanks for the comments.

[–] kylopod 10 years ago

A while back I posted about the "Lady Marmalade" thing on one of the TV Tropes pages for this movie, and someone responded that in the original script, the song playing at the club was Sly & the Family Stone's "Dance to the Music." I haven't checked this out, but it would make sense. It isn't always easy for filmmakers to secure the rights to the music they want on the soundtrack, and the use of "Lady Marmalade" could have been studio meddling.

As for the other details--the cars, the World Trade Center (none of which I have enough knowledge about to have noticed)--remember that anachronisms are very common in movies set in the past, and these are probably just a variant of that type of error. The "Lady Marmalade" sticks out for me because it's a song so closely identified with the early disco period, but beyond that, I think the primary intended explanation is that Jacob did die in Vietnam. If the filmmakers consciously allowed these little things in, it could mean that they enjoyed leaving open a smidgeon of doubt--but I don't think it was their prime intent.

[–] pullman1881 10 years ago

And it gets even more open to interpretation! I'm going to assume you're correct about the music (kind of still in the same era so who would notice?), accidentally getting the WTC in shots, so I'm sticking with the idea that everything was a flashback as he lay dying. It just makes more sense to me. The "dreams" of his life with his wife and Gabe are kind of the good side of the hallucination. Jezzy was the devil luring him to Hell. Maybe he thought he should go to Hell because of Gabe's death. I still think Louis was God, helping him to heaven. It's ultimately the fight between good and evil. I still need to watch it again. Thanks for the input.

[–] kylopod 10 years ago

The theory that he didn't die in Vietnam has one main advantage: the events of the film look a lot like a man having a schizophrenic breakdown.

But even under the assumption that he did die, it is still entirely up to the audience whether to interpret it as supernatural or not. Since he's dying rather than dead when the dream takes place, it could all be explained psychologically. Yet there is certainly a religious dimension to what he experiences. (Personally, I saw Louis as an angel rather than God, and Jezzie as a demon rather than the Devil, but the principle is similar.)

[–] darkness_surroundz 9 years ago

the original book suggested such and more-a non cliched version of the end of the world-things become disturbing and frightening Demons DO come out of the walls for EVERYBODY=not just Jacob

[–] kylopod 9 years ago

Original book? What are you talking about? As far as I can tell it wasn't based on a book.

[–] Drooch (5333) 4 years ago

Shhhh 🤫

[–] essex9999 10 years ago

I'll buy that the cars are just Hollywood anachronism, and maybe the WTC, but not the music. Lady Marmalade was a number one hit in March, 1975. It was hugely popular and very much an early disco song, as you say. Anyone around back then (and remember the movie was released in 1990, so it's wasn't that far in the past) would recognize it from that era. If they wanted a song from 1970ish and couldn't get the original choice, there were dozens of others to choose from. In this case, I think the anachronism had to be intentional - perhaps just something to keep the audience guessing, but still done on purpose, not by accident.

[–] kylopod 10 years ago

That may be. But I still can't discount the possibility that it was a studio faux pas done post-production without the filmmakers' consent.

[–] normkerr123 10 years ago

all beautiful misdirection

It adds so much to the power of the story, do be left wondering about that.

THAT's great film making (and risky, too, since those things could so easily be construed as mistakes, if not handled just right)

[–] lexp2005 9 years ago

Pullman1881 I respect your belief about God but if you were to read the book "One Light",Author Jon Whistler and published by Light Pulsations.You will no doubt be enlightened(no pun intended).



[–] marcels81 10 years ago

Jacob was a doctor and is extremely intelligent, so it is possible he figured it all out in his hallucination and put all the pieces together pretty close to the reality after being stabbed by his squadmate.

[–] mider2009 9 years ago

Just go with it bro...it's a very good film.

[–] prplayer 8 years ago

the whole movie is just his subconsciousness or hallucination at the moment of his death (during the Vietnam war), possibly due to some drug given to soldiers

that's how i understood the movie

so many movies, so little time

[–] subratjain1 (203) 3 years ago

The answer is simple. Its one of those movies where everything happens in the "head". Such movies generally take non-sense liberties and try to shock. Most of them, like this one, fall flat at the end.

For me there was ablusultely no logic to most of what happens in the movie. It is not even clear if he has been drugged.

I think its the director/writer hallucinating.

[–] Drooch (5333) 2 years ago

Jacob’s Ladder certainly doesn’t fall flat. For an abstract horror film it actually wraps up pretty neatly in the end - the guy is resisting dying and this creates inner turmoil which manifests as a confusing ‘reality’ filled with demons.

Whether the drug stuff actually happened isn’t concrete, but I think the most plausible explanation is that it did, and because he had one foot in the grave he was no longer bound by the limitations of mortal existence and had access to wider knowledge.

[–] bsantosu (156) 3 years ago

Was Jacob a Doctor, a Chemist, a Postal worker? This movie was a projection into a future he wouldn't see so maybe he could have led any of those lives: with Sara, with Jesabel, etc.