All right, Flatliners! A 1990s ‘thriller/horror’ about what lies beyond. I can’t keep you in such suspense (especially knowing that whatever suspense you’re feeling right now is guaranteed to be more than what I felt during this film), so let’s get started.
The film follows a group of medical students who have more than a passing interest in what happens after you die. I’d like to point out that this cast is pretty incredible, always fun to see some of today’s greatest talent back when they were young and not as picky about scripts (insert winking emoticon here). Kiefer Sutherland is Nelson, a young doctor who comes up with a crazy (I CANNOT stress this enough) plan to figure out what exactly happens to you when you die. Nelson doesn’t feel that potentially screwing up just his career and life is enough though and starts nagging his friends to join in. One by one he manages to convince them; Dr. Rachel Manus (Julia Roberts), David Labraccio (Kevin Bacon), Dr. Joe Hurley (William Baldwin, pre-gravelly Baldwin voice), and Dr. Randy Steckle (Oliver Platt).
Nelson’s idea isn’t just crazy…it’s insane. I seriously cannot stress how dumb this is going to sound: He wants his fellow students to put him under and induce a flatline situation where he is technically ‘dead’ for at least a minute before attempting to revive him with a crash cart and hope that he doesn’t actually die on their watch. It’s clear that his friends are skeptical; it is unclear how he ended up convincing them to do it. So, amidst a lot of complaining and mini-meltdowns, they sneak into their hospital at night to pull off the experiment.
Now this hospital seems…outdated. Creepy stone statues everywhere and extremely poor
lighting. It’s like the real life version of the Beast’s castle in Beauty and the Beast; the forbidden ‘west wing’ that Belle is forbidden to visit so of course she does. Would you want to have a controlled yet hopefully temporary ‘death’ in a place like that? No, not even a tiny bit. But brave/stupid Nelson is pretty set on dying for a little bit, and so they pull it off. He experiences strange flashbacks to his childhood, focusing on a kid he had bullied. When he is brought back, Nelson can’t really explain what happened to him, only that there really is something out there in the moments after death. Intrigued, the other doctors want to try it as well. Except Randy. Randy has a pretty good head on his shoulders and decides he is just going to be an accomplice here.
When Joe experiences death he sees a series of women, most of them giving him googly eyes – it’s downright 90’s-erotic. David sees images of a young girl he also bullied during child. These boys were mean. Not cool. Especially since David and Nelson grew up to have ridiculous hair that is just asking for some mockery. Rachel is last and the men are very reluctant to let her try, especially David who seems to have a budding relationship with Ms. Rachel. When at last she is in the temporarily dead state, Rachel sees images of her family, specifically events leading up to and immediately after her father’s suicide. While this is happening the power goes out (oh my goodness how is this place a hospital?), and she very nearly stays dead. The other doctors barely save her and everyone is pretty shaken up.
Now everyone who has flatlined has experienced hallucinations of events in their life that still haunt them. The group struggles to deal with these vivid memories, until David decides that he needs to confront the cause. He tracks down the girl he bullied as a kid and apologizes. He is a bit surprised to learn the bullying had a much more long term effect on him than her, but is relieved when the confrontation brings him peace. Joe is also struggling with his past and it is revealed that his dying visions are directly related to his secret tapings of trysts with many an unsuspecting woman. Joe is kind of a jerk. But when his fiancé suddenly dumps him after finding out about these ‘secret’ videotapes, Joe feels at peace as well. Nelson and Rachel are still having a hard time moving on from their hallucinations though. While David helps Rachel cope and start to move on, Nelson seems to lose it and finally confesses that the kid he used to bully ended up dying because of an accident Nelson caused.
Nelson decides the only way to move on from his guilt is to flatline again and apologize to the ghostly specter of the little boy he inadvertently killed. He gets a head start on his friends and races off to the poorly-lit hospital to flatline himself again, but they (like you and I) think this is really stupid and run off to stop him. However, Nelson is just too quick on his feet with these bad decisions and is flatlined by the time they arrive. His crazy plan works though; he confronts the young boy who died and apologizes and is finally at peace when his friends revive him.
So that’s pretty much it. A very quick resolution to a slightly drawn out plot. While I can appreciate this as a 90’s film and admit it might have even freaked a few people out when it was new, I wasn’t very impressed. I feel like the plot gets lost in all the sepia-toned film stock shots of creepy hospital statues. I will say that the eyewear worn by the characters was very ahead of its time; I see hipsters wearing those glasses every day. Until next time.
Flatliners, Rated R, 1990
Starring Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, Kevin Bacon
Directed by Joel Schumacher
Written by Peter Filardi
-Jess D (guest film reviewer)
