Sonny boy’s music was mentioned and played in the movie - and that’s why I was invited to watch the movie for the symbolism analysis.

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Just finished watching Jacob’s ladder. Not so much ‘horror’ after they introduced the hallucinogens at the other half of the movie (as if try to make it seems more ‘logical’ to most audiences who cannot fathom the true meanings of the sceenplay writer) - I will make no comment on the ‘hallucinogens’ part - pointless in fact.

Symbolisms:

1. Orange sky with clouds, we saw helicopters crossing over river/underworld: Hermes: Jacob’s ladder, messengers between sky and earth

2. Scene of soldier dozed off: starting the ‘dreaming’

3. Woke up in a metro running train holding book Camus ‘stranger’ a separative third person perspective of self-viewing

4. Metro station’s name Bergen and its etymology: Bhergh: high; mountain; pyramid

(woman staring: eye; octopus tail: earth real; rat=Egyptian mongoose: Atum’s guardian/ Shu god; water or raindrops: Tefnet; Saw a light coming from train: Ra’s circle. That’s a pyramid from top to bottom and now it’s all the way going down)

5. Station poster: Ecstasy: Plato’s Karthasis insinuating the very start of journey of purgatory in bardo

6. The confusing switching of two lives, one with kids and another with Succubi Jezebel, as it always happens in stories of Bardo, THE Self trying to collecting self.

7. He saw demons tracing him, nurse’s horned head, etc that’s what the Tibetan bardo described as hell. The climax of it resulted a baptism by the ‘witches’. Making him realize gotta climb the ladder up-(looking for lawyers, talking with that chemist etc)

8. His name is Jacob Singer, singer (he is going to praise the god, so eventually he will “make it” ). His job is postman, same as Jez work in the post office both are hermes actually, messengers of the god.

9. Chiropractor Louis Denardo. De Nardo=De BernARDO. (Bardo), Louis here is /lu/ and /yi/ which I shared in several tweets basically it’s same race, descendant of enneads, the Cherubim. (Demons as well, even if appearing as angels)

10. His youngest son had an accident of Bike vs Car, wheels vs wheels. Cherubim ophanim seraphim are all ‘wheelers’ the race of wheel making. Had wars among themselves. Jacob in the passage had to remind self of loss of his son to be the strongest attachment of someone in his life who passed away, oftenly used as the ‘guide’ to lead them out of bardo (end of movie denoting that, with light, staircase- but those are disguises)

11. The pains he had inbetween two parts of life “down the hell” were as if real, once he made peace with the self, (had agreement with the Cherubim) The Self collects self, devil become the Angel in Bardo.

12. The scene of taking last taxi “home”, Sam open the door. Taxi driver name: Garzero, Gar is a town name at western Tibet. As well as see //garpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Gar_(God). Drivers in the movies are all captains of the cars/ships/wheels (same race). So like the “journey to the west” he reached the door of “home” and spoke with Sam the doorkeeper, a Janus type, janitor of the sundoor.- As I’m not very versed in the Bible and qu’ran, but generally speaking it could well be seen as such: after talking with Sam basically he’s now officially “dead” in the sense of experiencing that “ordeals/cleansing” from purgatory.

13. Did he really leave the hell? Bardo is a passage “down there” yet the scenery as if he finished the purgatory passage and made his way out. That’s very religious dogma there(all the -isms), spiritual pilgrimage of Brahma, accept we are sinners and we gotta go through judgement and final day etc (worst brain virus). It gives people a false idea of “l(fā)ight” at the end trying to mean the liberation, which it is not. It is of course not heaven at the last scene either, as Hollywood trying so hard to do the hell vs heaven dualistic moral and desire based judgement same old same old doctrines.

I take the screenplay writer must be very knowledgeable of the Tibetan Buddhism and Christianity. Didn’t focus much on the numeral links though (depends on the director’s knowledge of Gematria), all in all its a work that worthy copied and remake in Hollywood just so that ‘they’ could keep preaching their pyramidal scheme of enneads worshippings, as well as focusing on dualism’s extremities - the very reason of pains generator.

just found our Sam’s name as in Samkrama. Sam here has the value ‘completely’ or ‘a(chǎn)bsolutely’, full, all.

這應該是我最喜歡的片子了，像極了小時候的夢魘，原始而粗野的力量，孤獨絕境時的干渴，誕生新生命的陣痛。

在這苦難境地，本應給人帶來希望的天使下一秒可能變成腐爛肉體的惡毒婦人，剛剛建立的理性可能隨時被神秘力量顛破，除了絕望，還是絕望.....

在這個似乎永遠醒不來的夢中，確實地經(jīng)歷著生老病死......

“如果你抗拒 惡魔會強行把你帶走 如果你平靜 那天使會把你帶向更好的地方”小男孩真的是男主最愛也最痛的記憶 好多次出現(xiàn)男主都落淚了 感受到他作為父親的無盡溫情和自責 前妻總是一閃而過總是出現(xiàn)在照片里也代表了一段青蔥歲月 而女友出現(xiàn)每次都在關心他 醫(yī)生出現(xiàn)每次都在緩解他身體上的疼痛和心理的不適感

那些總是一閃而過的奇幻鏡頭 好像那種每個噩夢里面突現(xiàn)的恐懼 一種說不清道不明的東西 包括他總是下意識地要去找醫(yī)生 找朋友傾訴 找律師 結果每次都出意外 以無厘頭的方式結束 包括突然被拉上車被一頓暴打扔在路邊被圣誕老人發(fā)現(xiàn) 突然發(fā)燒躺在滿是冰塊的浴缸里 突然被送到精神病院 看到光怪陸離的東西……那都是心底的惡魔 都是為了探清他沒有搞懂的秘密 直到化學家出現(xiàn) 揭開了真相 男主也才坦然接受了 他把身上所有錢都給了那個出租車司機 說要回家 這里真的淚目了

最后天終于亮了 他看到了小兒子 然后坦然地放棄 坦然面對了死亡 平靜離開了

終于知道了作者的用意 那些幻覺因為是迷幻劑 （難怪一開頭有戰(zhàn)友突然倒地口吐白沫 那里就懷疑是什么毒氣了）因為主角死前的不甘心和憤懣 他在替那些soldiers尋找答案 那些朋友們悄悄落下的淚水 那個律師說“你們根本就沒有去過越南的記錄”原來一切都是罪惡的控訴 這些受害者多么渺小 卑微 他們被操控被實驗被犧牲的一生多么悲慘 可憐 那些人體實驗是多么慘絕人寰慘無人道

我覺得結尾一切主題都升華了 男主微笑地躺在那里 好像如釋重負地獲得了平靜 好像經(jīng)歷了辛苦的掙扎探尋 在這短短的走馬燈時間里卻窺見了一個士兵背后龐大的體系 這部電影是一種禮贊和歌頌 為那些在越戰(zhàn)中莫名犧牲的生命伸張正義 好像是他們的無聲吶喊 又是對他們的無限祝福 他們會通過天梯走向天堂的 ladder不會讓他們滑落 會讓他們的靈魂去向更高的地方。

阿德里安·萊恩是上世紀八九十年代美國香艷電影的大師，他的作品比沙曼京、丁度之流的藝術價值要高，但照著大師那個級別還稍微矮了一截。他導演的《致命吸引力》、《桃色交易》、《不忠》、《新洛麗塔》等都被內(nèi)地影迷廣為傳播，津津樂道。

然而《異世浮生》就像是林恩先生的番外作品，一向帶給大家感官娛樂的他怎么會拍了這么一部恐怖片呢？由于這部電影經(jīng)常被恐怖片榜單中收錄，我注意它很久了，但本片的資源很難找（盜版商也是死心眼），所以我直到今天才得以一見。

故事很簡單，就是男主角蒂姆·羅賓斯在戰(zhàn)場上被重創(chuàng)，他臨死前對自己一生和所愛之人的迷幻回顧，好像一場噩夢，結尾以他的死亡結束?？催^此片我有一種恍然大悟的感覺，原來那么多我曾以為是原創(chuàng)idea的電影都是和老片“偷經(jīng)”來的啊??！如果早就看過《異世浮生》，那《第六感》的結局也算不上驚艷了；《生死停留》也近似于抄襲了。老實說，容易一驚一乍的影迷就是因為看片量太少，才給后世的模仿作品不應得到的高分！

片中的蒂姆·羅賓斯還是鮮肉期，非常白嫩，像個大寶貝，看他被折磨得死去活來，真是我見猶憐。值得一提的是，片中前半部分的感情戲給了萊恩空間干一些sexy的老本行：女主角衣不遮體地在屋里亂逛，還心血來潮地鉆進浴簾里和羅賓斯共浴，讓人看得心神蕩漾；羅賓斯發(fā)高燒，女主角毅然扒光了他，并召集一干鄰居收集冰塊，將羅賓斯鎮(zhèn)在了浴缸里。我感覺由早逝女星伊麗莎白·佩尼亞Elizabeth Pe?a扮演的這個女主角更像羅賓斯的媽媽。

本片也絕不如國產(chǎn)恐怖片（觀眾知道結局后有一種被欺騙、被糊弄的感覺）那種一次性產(chǎn)品，而是通過層層的迷宮似的慢慢剝離，讓觀眾的心理恐懼越來越深，漸漸有了一種不愿相信，但又不得不面對現(xiàn)實的可怕預感，似乎只有死亡才能讓男主角解脫，只有死亡才能讓這一場噩夢結束?？吹阶詈?，我倒替男主角松了最后一口氣。

片中的幾個“魔鬼”形象也被后來者給“繼承”了（如《入侵腦細胞》），所以說《異世浮生》確實不負盛名，我今天看這部電影真有deja vu之感，只是相見恨晚啊。本片的編劇也很有名，他寫的《人鬼情未了》讓他得了一尊奧斯卡獎，此人叫布魯斯·喬伊·羅賓Bruce Joel Rubin。

片中還出現(xiàn)了最可愛時期的麥考利金，忘記他如今的模樣吧，他曾是這個世界上最cute的金發(fā)小男孩！怪不得男主角咽氣前還想著他，真是一個小天使。

《異世浮生》不只是一部經(jīng)典的恐怖片，也是一部值得反復品味的藝術片。片名直譯是《雅各布天梯》，它取自希臘神話，有著深刻的哲學含義，但片中它是一種美國軍隊研制的超強興奮劑的代號，它被使用在戰(zhàn)士身上讓他們在戰(zhàn)場上玩兒命做炮灰。影片最后用字幕揭露了這一真相，但美國國防部堅決否認了這一說法。

據(jù)說二戰(zhàn)期間給士兵濫用藥物的事件就屢屢發(fā)生，如日本的神風敢死隊就濫用過安非他命。那些飛行員在上陣前都吃下超大劑量的興奮劑，變成了一個個瘋子，完全喪失了理智，才敢于沖向?qū)?zhàn)方的軍艦、戰(zhàn)機，飛蛾撲火般同歸于盡。這樣的事情在中國也似乎發(fā)生過（吃大煙），估計在片中所描述的越戰(zhàn)時也不可避免地發(fā)生過。