A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

It's easy to see Adrian Lyne's "Jacob's Ladder" as a simple psychological thriller. But I interpreted it as saying that war screws people up. This isn't just PTSD. The protagonist's harrowing experience in Vietnam is causing him to see all sorts of horrifying things. And there's also the issue of gaslight: the lawyer tells the protagonist "you weren't in Vietnam" and the shadowy agents try to muzzle him (despite what we find out at the end).This isn't the scariest movie ever, but it's an intense one. I have no doubt that a number of people lost their grip on sanity after experiences in war (especially one as pointless as the Vietnam War). Tim Robbins achieved one of the high points of his career with this movie, with good support coming from Elizabeth Peña and Danny Aiello, as well as brief appearances by Jason Alexander (George on "Seinfeld"), Ving Rhames (Marsellus in "Pulp Fiction"), Macaulay Culkin (right before he got famous in "Home Alone"), Lewis Black (a comedian who performs in the persona of a man having a nervous breakdown) and S. Epatha Merkerson (a supporting actress in a variety of movies and shows).

This is the first review that I write on IMDb, just for the fact that this is a terribly underrated film, and I couldn't believe that this film scored just a 7.5/10 while films such as The Sixth Sense scored a 8.1/10Jacob's Ladder kept me at the edge of my seat all the time, not knowing what to expect next. This film embodies the core principles of the psychological thriller genre, you don't know if the protagonist is just suffering from PTSD, if is something going wrong for real, if his in hell or something like that, what is real and what is in his mind.The acting of Tim Robbins in this film is really outstanding, you can feel the fear and the pain of the protagonist through the film with each dialog, with each scene, you just want him to have some peace. The movie throws at you many symbolisms, making you guess what's going on.If you like the Silent Hill game sage (which is heavily influenced by this film) you're going to love this film.If you like psychological thrillers but you hate when the plot is really obvious or the plot twist is just a slap on your face, be sure that this isn't that kind of film.Not gonna lie you, the ending can make you feel a little empty, but if you're watching a psychological thriller you're not in for the happy ending.This film is twice as good when you watch it a second time, because you can tie all loose ends and all the symbolisms through the movie. Hope that you enjoy it as much as I did.

one of the best psychological thriller movies about Vietnam veteran "Jacob" experienced weird dream while he was in coma the movie will change your mood and make you ponder deeply about death if you're into philosophical movie here's one for you , don't miss it , if you have watched " The jacket" by John Maybury you may find it similar with this one and finally i'd like to mention a quotation i really believed from this movie "if you're frighting of dying the devil will tear your life apart but if you've made your peace then the devils are really angels freeing you from earth" Enjoy .

This movie is outstanding. It's scary in your creepy, thriller, and psychosis kind of way. However, this movie is also scary in the fact that it reveals that government secrets do exist. They're not just a bunch of jive. In the movie, the main character Jacob is shown in early Vietnam, wounded and winding down to unconsciousness. He eventually wakes up in the "post Vietnam War," to find out his son and his family are okay. He lives a "normal" life as a mailman in New York City. Then, he starts getting these weird visuals, people with tails and foreign body structures. Eventually, they all turn into monsters. Then one day, he wakes up in a bed next to a woman he knew before he met his wife; he's all confused about this. He starts living in two alternate realities, with visions of occurrences that aren't quite clear, or that contain hellish creatures and settings. In one of his realities, he calls all of his Vietnam buddies to see if they're experiencing the same situations he's going through. Lone and behold, they're all experiencing "it." They all thought they would think each individual would think they were nuts if they admitted it, but they soon establish that they're not nuts among each other.Jacob soon finds out through his dream that a chemist had been experimenting with a new drug in order to make super soldiers out of the Army. The test was selected of a small platoon in the Vietnam jungle. It worked alright; so good that the whole platoon killed each other afterwords. it filled everyone with super human rage.You think all of this is fiction, but it's not. Everything that happened was of Jacob's self conscience, unwilling to let go of his family. He's actually dying in a Vietnam medical facility, pumped full of this drug. He is actually living in his self conscience. This movie is very creepy. There is a synopsis at the end that verifies the testing of this drug on Vietnam soldiers during the war. It also states that the Pentagon still tries to deny the authorization of this testing/strategy. The Pentagon doesn't want to take any responsibility (hmmm, sound like American politicians to me). I will let the viewer experience what happens in the end. I don't want to spoil too much. This movie is outstanding. At the end, I was just like...."wow." I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone.