Jacob's Ladder

*Spoiler Alert.

Secret army experiments covertly composed and athletically executed, leading oblivious hardboiled soldiers to wanton acts of outrageous cruelty. 

Alone and isolated wasting their time with harmless shenanigans and lighthearted horseplay, the chosen unit suddenly erupts with insane bellicose bloodthirsty determinacy. 

A soldier's hit, a bayonet to the chest, and he wakes up back on the subway, years later in a different life with sights unfamiliar and newfound trajectories.

Things go well a lot of the time as his supportive partner seems chill and helpful, and things typically run well at work, his life advancing without hindrance or incident. 

But he starts to notice odd random things that look like demons spawned in hell, his mind unable to rationally explain them as their frequency intensifies.

At other times, he gleefully awakes in an alternative life he once closely knew, where he's married with three nimble sons who sincerely care for his clever witticisms.

As he drifts from one realm to the next he distressingly starts to lose touch with reality. 

Until he meets up with old friends from the army.

Who have been experiencing the same freakin' thing.

A fine example of a chilling psychological thriller effectively blending religion with reality, as a soldier ventures through ye olde purgatory after having been seriously wounded.

It isn't preachy or overly sentimental it just presents a man's life as it is, as he wildly contends with heaven and hell as his fluid mortality grotesquely fluctuates. 

In a rare class of religious films that aren't sensational or over-the-top, the grim world it slyly presents gradually unreeling while seeming quite real (like The Omen or on television, The X-Files).

Definitely a shame to see experimental drugs blindly field tested on faithful soldiers, who had no idea they were part of an experiment clandestinely conducted by the army.

A different time when the soldier's viewpoint mattered as much as higher ranking authorities. 

With democratic vision.

And wholesome subjectivity. 

Exuberant life.

Universal calculi.