Egad. All this information and none on the
Tim Robbins film which is, nevertheless, referenced above (/me rolls up sleeves).
Jacob's Ladder is a bit of work that is quite difficult to classify. I'd say it's everything M. Night Shyamalan (izzat how it's spelled?) wishes he could pull off, late at night, in the throes of self-realization about how much his (derivative) films suck. (So I don't like 'em. Sue me.)
The problem with this film is that it's difficult to discuss without giving away spoilers; so, this, then, is your first, last and ONLY warning: there will be spoilers in this writeup. I will, however, warn you by indicating them with the word of confusion which, even though you can't see it, will warn you off, like this: Spoilers ahead! (That was an example. You're still safe). Note also: user nosce informs me that the IMDb page for this movie spoils it as well, so BE WARNED.
Okay, finally, on to the movie.
The film is a biopic about a Vietnam War veteran named Jacob Singer. When the movie opens, he's a relatively normal New Yorker, holding down a job at the Post office, reading what books he can, and loving his girlfriend (played with verve by Elizabeth Pena). He has some chronic back pains, which he copes with through the chiropractic services of his therapist Louis (Danny Aiello).
The problem is, his life begins to get progressively stranger.
One of the best visual pieces of this movie (for me, the New Yorker) was the faithful reconstruction of the 1970s New York subway. Jacob rides these to get around this his hometown - and it's on these rails, poorly-lit and smelling of (to quote Vinny) "The funk of forty thousand years!" that he begins to lose control of his reality.
As with most good mindgame movies, there are always more than enough plausible explanations for what's happening to him. At one point in the film, he in fact develops an extremely high fever, and comes to his senses in his bathtub, covered in ice, as Jezebel tries to wrest him back to consciousness. Visiting the VA Hospital, he is assured by the docs that it was a near thing; the infection and fever might have killed him had the fever not broken.
Of course, that can't explain what's going on, not to us. We've seen too much of his life to accept that explanation. At this point, reality begins shifting for him wholesale, and in the worst way - not through hallucinations, but through sudden changes in the fundamental basis of his world. It's the 'normal' things that become the dangerous ones, and it's the normal that Jacob learns to fear.
Anyhow, the film (directed by Adrian Lyne, whose CV includes the - IMHO - commercial and weak Fatal Attraction, the cringeworthy Flashdance, and the failed Jeremy Irons version of Lolita) is not a neat package. Whether or not that's by design, I can't say; however, it fits well. Lyne does an amazing job of recreating the New York City of the latter 1970s - the crushing summer heat, the stink of people, trash, vermin and vehicles, the unrelentingly beige sense of style, and more. Speaking as someone who lived through that at an impressionable age, it's entirely possible some of the goosebumps I get from this flick are from its entire visual mood.
There are a raft of folk who later went on to do memorable stuff. Ving Rhames is here. Eriq La Salle as well. Jason Alexander and, as mentioned (I believe), a very young Macauley Culkin who has a small but critical part. S. Epatha Merkerson looks quite at home in the city she'd later protect in Law & Order.
The movie is, at base, an elaborate retelling of a famous short story. I'm not going to tell you which one; you'll know when you see it. It's not a pretty film; it's a dark and seamy one. Not in terms of the evils of man, but the darkness of the psyche, in the parts of the head you don't sweep out and spray with Lemon Fresh Pledge on a regular basis. This film is the Place Under The Stairs in your skull. It doesn't try to scare you; it doesn't even think you're worth that much effort. In fact, it didn't scare me, so much as disturb the hell out of me.
I couldn't stop watching it when I first saw it. I am extremely glad I did see it, and am adamant that it will be a good few years before I see it again, if at all. I do, however, highly recommend it if you enjoy cerebral thrills.
The data:
Thanks to IMDB for the hard factoids!
Hah! Kidding about the spoilers. Had you going, though, didn't I?