MovieChat Forums > Jacob's Ladder (1990) Discussion > Trying to make sense of this movie...

Trying to make sense of this movie...

posted 13 years ago by CaliManDan35
9 replies | jump to latest

This is the way I feel about the movie....have I understood it correctly?

Jake gets stabbed in Vietnam and is close to dying and on his "death-bed". While on his death-bed his mind starts having all of these hallucinations. These are almost like dreams when someone is sleeping. His chiropractor tells him something like "When you are dying, if you try to fight it, you will see demons that try to take you to hell. But only after you accept it and let it happen, angels will take you to heaven."

Is this why Jake keeps seeing demons? Because he is really over in Vietnam dying from the stab wound but he is fighting it, so his mind is hallucinating and making up demons? But in the end when he finally accepts it and dies, that is when he sees his dead son and the two of them walk hand-in-hand up the staircase. This is a metaphor for an angel leading him to heaven. That is also why when that happens it shows him in Vietnam dead and the doctor says he almost looks happy and it shows Jake's face smiling.

Do I have it down pretty good up to this point? Also some things I'm curious about....I believe all of the Vietnam scenes are actually real. Everytime we see what we think is a flash-back from his current life to Vietnam, did all of those scenes actually happen? (the troops carrying him out of the jungle to safety and lifting him up on the chopper)?

Did the drug 'The Ladder' even exist? If the Vietnam scenes are real then I would think yes, because the guys start acting weird during the battle and obviously something is wrong with them. But then later in the movie Jake meets that chemist who tells him all about the drug. If everything after the Vietnam scene is just in Jake's head then that chemist doesn't exist and that conversation between the two of them never happened and therefore the drug doesn't exist? Unless they really were drugged and now this is Jake's mind's way of making sense of the Vietnam battle.

Did anything we see after the Vietnam war actually happen? His girlfriend Jessie or whatever her name was....did she even exist? Did he actually work at a post-office?

If nothing we see after the Vietnam scene is real and just in his head then what is the significance of showing his old Vietnam buddies and showing one of them getting blown up in his car?

[–] rogerwatersfan3 13 years ago

You should really put a spoiler tag on your post :)

Here are some answers to your questions:

*SPOILERS*

They really were drugged, though whether it was The Ladder as Jacob understands it is debatable, and depends on whether you think there are angels visiting his death dream (and the chemist is an angel), or he is "making up" the drug to try and make sense of things. There is a deleted scene where Michael the chemist is photographed with a beam of light, suggesting he may have supernatural qualities. It is on the bonus features of the DVD. And yes, the Vietnam scenes are "real time", the rest is a death dream.

[–] CaliManDan35 13 years ago

Thank you for your response. I really did like this movie a lot and want to watch it again soon.

As far as putting spoilers in my post. If this movie just came out last week then I could understand doing that. But I'm sorry, when a movie has been out for 22 years, I don't think I should put "spoilers" in my post. IMDB is a place to discuss this movie, obviously people are going to be discussing everything about the movie, so if someone hasn't seen the movie, they shouldn't be reading through the message board of that movie. And if they are, they should absolutely expect to see tons of spoilers.

[–] jfemaleder 12 years ago

Like most things in Hollywood, this story was already done. Although, I do love the movie and think it is great. In short, though, you've got the just of the story line. Jacob was only alive for about the first 15 minutes of the movie.

Read Ambrose Bierce's story "Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge". It's the same story as Jacob's Ladder, minus the government drugs & demons. The premise is the same. Just like the movie, the last five minutes make you go "Whoa, did that just happen?" The story ends and makes you think twice about everything you just read. A great work.

On the same note, if you like the movie Predator, read Ambrose Bierce's "The Damned Thing".

Just remember, Bierce wrote these things in the mid-1800's. Pretty cool.

[–] PunchB 12 years ago

Just because the movie was made 22 years ago, doesn't mean everybody has seen it. Just like one might look up a new movie on IMDb before watching it, one might look up an old movie on IMDb before watching it.

[–] CaliManDan35 12 years ago

My subject title was "trying to make sense of this movie...." obviously that means I am going to be discussing the movie. So I'm not going to put a spoiler tag in the post. Anyone who hasn't seen this movie but decides to read through the discussion topics anyways is just asking to have the movie spoiled for them. I could see putting a spoiler tag in the title if I gave something away in the title but I did not.

It is common sense.

[–] PunchB 12 years ago

I was just commenting on the general idea that you never need to use spoiler warnings if the movie is old. I do agree with you that *your* subject title already suggests that there will be spoilers in this thread.

You should never have spoilers in titles in any case. If your post contains spoilers and the title is something like "why this movie is good/bad" you should definitely have a spoiler warning, no matter how old the movie is.

[–] jfemaleder 12 years ago

Sure, but as soon as someone puts spoilers in the subject line and everyone else just hits reply, then the subject goes on.

Back to the initial point, from your summary and the way I view the movie, you've got the right ide about what happened.

[–] wild_cobra427 11 years ago

No need to explain yourself. It's only the uneducated people that will go to IMDb message boards before watching a movie. And it is only the really uneducated people that try to excuse the practice of doing it. Like you said previously, anyone coming to IMDb message boards prior to watching a movie is just asking to be spoiled. There's nothing wrong with coming to IMDb to look at the rating and maybe the synopsis. Anything else is tempting fate. Even just looking at the plot keywords can spoil a movie. This subject has been debated many times on IMDb. Each time, we end up proving how stupid these morons really are.

Example of senility.http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/2779/paintx.png

[–] CaliManDan35 11 years ago

That is exactly what I do when looking at a movie on IMDB that I have not seen yet. I look it up on IMDB and check out two things: 1) the movie's rating. And 2) The synopsis. After I see those two things I get off the page and don't come back on until I've seen the movie.

I understand that everyone is going to be discussing it in the message boards and I could see spoilers in the titles or the posts or anything else so I do not read through those. I think that would be common sense but I guess not.