Jacob's Ladder

Jacob Singer isn't sure what's real anymore.

The nightmares he keeps having are tearing his life apart, one day at a time. They might be after-effects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder from his term of military service in Vietnam. They might be the side-effects from a secret and illegal drug trial that he and his platoon were unknowingly exposed to. Or they may be a result of his own mind slipping into insanity from the trauma of his young son's death.

But there is one possibility that terrifies him, even though day by day it seems more and more likely. The demons and monsters he keeps seeing- out of the corner of his eye, hiding in the shadows, lurking in his darkest nightmares- might be real. And if they are, then they're coming for him - and there's nothing he can do about it...

Jacob's Ladder (1990) is a psychological Thriller / Horror film directed by Adrian Lyne, based on a screenplay by Bruce Joel Rubin. It stars Tim Robbins, Elizabeth Pena, Danny Aiello, and Jason Alexander. Actor Macaulay Culkin appears briefly in an uncredited performance.

This movie was one of the primary inspirations for the Silent Hill franchise of games.


 * Angel Unaware:
 * Abandoned Hospital: Many of the creepier hospital scenes take place in one of these.
 * Bad Santa: Played straight and Played for Laughs, at the same time.
 * Bittersweet Ending:
 * Broken Masquerade:
 * Dark World: Jacob keeps slipping back and forth between his everyday life and a darker realm inhabited by demons.
 * Evil Is Visceral: During the hospital gurney scene, many organs are shown laying on the floor, some of which get run over by the gurney.
 * Eyeless Face: Many of the creatures haunting Jacob have no eyes.
 * Fan Disservice: Elizabeth Pena, dancing suggestively while sweating? Hot. Elizabeth Pena dancing suggestively while sweating whilist being  Not so much.
 * When you think about it,
 * Hospital Gurney Scene: It gets worse.
 * Ironic Hell: One of several explanations for what the hell is going on in this movie.
 * It Always Rains At Funerals
 * Mind Screw: The whole thing, really.
 * Ms. Fanservice: Jezzie, who spends a lot of time topless.
 * Jacob, who spends even more time shirtless, might count too.
 * Nothing Is Scarier: See Sinister Subway, below.
 * Shout-Out: The artist Francis Bacon, whom the Surreal Horror is based on.
 * Shell-Shocked Veteran : This is what Jacob is implied to be
 * Shirtless Scene: Jacob has a lot of them.
 * Sinister Subway: An early scene has Jacob getting lost in a New York subway station. He doesn't encounter anything overly supernatural there, but it's almost unbearably dark and creepy all the same.
 * Nothing except for demons with glowing eyes staring out of a train.
 * ...The train that almost kills him.
 * : In the end of the film
 * Surreal Horror
 * Through the Eyes of Madness
 * Tomato in the Mirror
 * Under Crank: Used on all the demons. This film pioneered the use of this effect in horror movies.
 * What Could Have Been: According to director Adrian Lyne, the original screenplay contained a much more traditional, Bosch-esque depiction of hell. However, Lyne thought audiences would find such imagery silly.
 * Tomato in the Mirror
 * Under Crank: Used on all the demons. This film pioneered the use of this effect in horror movies.
 * What Could Have Been: According to director Adrian Lyne, the original screenplay contained a much more traditional, Bosch-esque depiction of hell. However, Lyne thought audiences would find such imagery silly.