Late great visual stylist Joel Schumacher’s death-defying science fiction thriller Flatliners (1990) turns 30 today. It’s a classic, positively Frankenstein-ian examination of ambitious innovators prioritizing their careers in science over their own safety.
Five enterprising Chicago medical students push themselves beyond the normal confines of mortality in a series of “flatlining” experiments, wherein one student at a time lets the others level their heart rate for increasingly more insanely extended durations. These arrogant doctors-in-waiting discover that, upon resuscitation, each of them has brought something back with them: a haunting childhood trauma that, though invisible to anyone else, eventually poses a very tangible physical threat to that particular character’s well-being.
For Nelson Wright (Kiefer Sutherland), that trauma manifests itself as a schoolmate (Joshua Rudoy) he and his friends bullied into a horrific accident. For Rachel Manus (Julia Roberts), it’s her father (Benjamin Mouton), a Vietnam War vet who committed suicide in her youth.
Five enterprising Chicago medical students push themselves beyond the normal confines of mortality in a series of “flatlining” experiments, wherein one student at a time lets the others level their heart rate for increasingly more insanely extended durations. These arrogant doctors-in-waiting discover that, upon resuscitation, each of them has brought something back with them: a haunting childhood trauma that, though invisible to anyone else, eventually poses a very tangible physical threat to that particular character’s well-being.
For Nelson Wright (Kiefer Sutherland), that trauma manifests itself as a schoolmate (Joshua Rudoy) he and his friends bullied into a horrific accident. For Rachel Manus (Julia Roberts), it’s her father (Benjamin Mouton), a Vietnam War vet who committed suicide in her youth.
- 8/10/2020
- by Alex Kirschenbaum
- Trailers from Hell
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