Jacob's Ladder

After coming home from the Vietnam War, Jacob Singer finds his grip on reality slipping. The world around him keeps shifting into unsettling, dreamlike scenes, and painful memories keep intruding at the most inopportune moments. Jacob's nights are filled with fragmented flashbacks, eerie apparitions, and a sense that danger hides in ordinary places. Jacob's relationships fray as he resists comforting explanations and questions what is real. Jezzie, his girlfriend, and Sarah, his ex wife, stand by, offering patience and fear, while Louis, a chiropractor friend, reaches out with concern but struggles to penetrate the fog of his mind. The story follows his struggle to endure this spiral without losing himself. Tension grows as clues hint at something beyond memory itself.

Directed by Adrian Lyne, Jacob's Ladder premiered in 1990 with a screenplay by Bruce Joel Rubin. It pairs moody drama with mystery and horror as it follows a Vietnam veteran whose mind fractures under disorienting visions.

Jacob's Ladder earned a reputation for its unsettling atmosphere and dreamlike imagery that loomed over late 80s and early 90s thrillers. Its sharpened sense of subversion and unreliable perception influenced later psychological horror films and remains a touchstone for discussions of trauma, memory and the costs of belief, critics alike.

Critics generally praised Tim Robbins's performance and Lyne's willingness to blend intimate drama with hallucinatory visuals. The film centers on trauma from service and the fragility of perception, raising questions about what constitutes reality, the weight of guilt, and the human toll of bearing witness to violence in modern cinema.

Box Office: The movie earned about 26.1 million worldwide against a 25 million budget, leaving its financial performance modest though not disastrous. Its cult status has grown over time and helped cement Tim Robbins's reputation beyond his dramatic work subsequently.