As weird as it may sound, I love movies with endings that slap its viewers across the face.
I don’t know if I can describe it, but I love the moments after the credits roll and you sit back in your chair in the midst of a WTF moment. I enjoy having to research the ending of the story in order to get a better idea, and the satisfaction of discovering chatroom threads of people with the same confusion and desire for clarity is immense.
I have watched many movies that have brought on these emotions, some of the big ones being Enemy (starring Jake Gyllenhaal), Shutter Island (Leonardo DiCaprio), and DO NOT even get me started on Inception. I’m still not quite sure I understand it.
But the only movie that I constantly find myself going back to rewatch time after time is Jacob’s Ladder, one of the biggest mind trips of all time. It’s one that I both love and hate at the same time, and I hope at least one person reading this has seen it.
But for those of you who have not, I will give you the benefit of the doubt and give you a brief run-down. The movie revolves around Jacob Singer, a veteran from the Vietnam War who struggles to maintain a grip on reality. He is plagued by hallucinations and flashbacks from his time as a soldier, which twist and morph his world into something completely unrecognizable.
I’m not one to shy away from gruesome horror films or graphic clips, but certain scenes from the movie were so disturbing that although I did not avert my eyes, I wish I had. Viewers are taken inside the world of Jacob’s dark mind and horrific past, and it’s truly an experience to say the least. The nearly two-hour film brilliant with its elements of suspense and plot… right up until the very end.
*SPOILER ALERT AHEAD*
The movie ends with Jacob being told by a chemist from the army’s chemical warfare division that he and his troops had been given a drug called “The Ladder” to increase aggression in soldiers, but that it backfired when some of the men began suffering with sudden seizures and frenzy outbreaks. The drug has stayed in Jacob’s system since the war, and it explains why he keeps having the hallucinations.
The directors could have easily ended the movie with such a reveal, a perfect wrap up to the story, but then we have to find out that Jacob has actually ALSO been dead the whole time (a classic movie ending). He died iin battle after the initial attack at the start of the movie…
And that’s how it ends. To say I was disappointed is an understatement.
I decided to blog about my frustrations when it comes to this movie because I recently began to watch it again, and all the old emotions resurfaced. It is times like this when I wish I could sit down with the movie’s director and just ask, “why?”.
