Jacob’s Ladder – Review

Helicopters soar over orange lit Vietnam skies. This is the Mekong Delta, in October 1971, deep in the heart of war. Soldiers share smokes, and wait for orders, or action. Jacob Singer (Robbins), who squad mates call The Professor due to his glasses, finishes taking a dump in the jungle and is teased by the men over his constant active bowels.

Then… movement in the tree line. At the same time, the soldiers suddenly start having violent headaches, and convulsions. What is happening!? Calls for medics come immediately, as gunfire erupts all around. A tense shootout occurs, instilling trauma into the soldiers.

The ones not sick try to return fire in the chaos, but things are not right. Jacob tries to save who he can, as explosions ruin limbs and lives. As Jacob slips away through the trees, his fear intensifies. Unfortunately, an enemy combatant catches up with him and runs an attached rifle blade into his chest.

This memory shakes Jacob out of his dream, and awful memories of Vietnam. While he made it home, so did the everlasting PTSD associated with war and traumatic injury. Jacob has been trying to reacclimate to New York life as a postman, but some days he just can’t get there. His falling asleep on the subway makes him miss his stop.

Such is life now in the states, where Jacob tries to ignore crazy haunting flashes of insanity, likely fallout from war memories. His girlfriend Jezzie (Peña), dog Chester, and chiropractor/masseuse friend Louis Denardo (Aiello) try to keep him on the rails, but his life keeps getting weirder, and these troubles impact his ability to sleep. His ex-wife Sarah (Kalember) and money troubles do not help, and his memories keep taking him back to that strange sickness his squad was hit with before their attack.

What will happen when he starts having strange and entirely horrific events occur, on top of his bad war dreams? As his life gets weirder and weirder, it is all he can do to hang on and process his emotions. Will Jacob find his post-war sanity again, or will the monsters lurking in his visions catch up with him?

Jacob’s Ladder is a haunting trip of a film, which deals with PTSD stress, chemical warfare, life after the service, and extremely chilling inexplicable events. The surreal and scary sights Jacob sees will always creep me out…

This movie is flat-out good at what it tires to accomplish. A deep cast drives home even the smaller roles, and complex themes hit hard as the film goes on. There are nice nuances sprinkled into the nightmare story, and plenty of tense moments. Part horror, part mystery, part drama, and all psychological, Jacob’s Ladder is great.

The remake somehow does not share the same plot/resolution, and that does not make it a worthy watch unfortunately, as it was only so-so.