What lies beyond once we shuffle off this mortal coil? Is it heaven, or hell, or earth again in a different body, or just a black inky nothingness? It’s a great question, and perhaps the fact that it cannot be answered is what makes it great. There has been lots of conjecture on the subject over the centuries, and a few people have even claimed to have experienced it and come back. Wouldn’t it be interesting to definitively answer the question forevermore, figure out a piece of God’s puzzle and become more God-like, and in the process get filthy rich?
Wait a minute, this is sounding like a movie plot. Oh yeah, Flatliners! This is now a pretty old movie (it seems weird that a movie made in 1990 would be considered old, but that was 16 years ago), and it is certainly not the only movie made that explores the questions of death and eternity. But an important point is that this movie does not claim to have the answers. Four people “die” in this movie, and they all experience something just a little bit different. This movie is based on the question, not the answer.
It involves five medical students who are like typical medical students: bold, ambitious, competitive, and incredibly arrogant. One of them (Kiefer Sutherland, AKA Jack Bauer) is so arrogant that he takes fantastic risks with his own life and those of others. He proposes an experiment to see the other side of death, an experiment that has great potential to end very badly. The others are reluctant at first, but when it works, most of them are bucking to be the next guinea pig. And they keep up-ing the length of time they’ll be technically dead.
Whether or not this movie is medically plausible, I don’t really care. It thinks it’s medically plausible, and executes the idea with a modicum of competence, so that’s enough. All five of the principal actors are pretty good. This is an all-star cast that would surely command an astronomical budget nowadays, but the movie was filmed when these actors weren’t really the huge names that they are now. Arguably, the star is Kevin Bacon as David. At the beginning he is a professed atheist, but by the end he is the only character to address God directly. He often lets his ambition get the better of him, but he’s good-hearted and passionate, and does something relentlessly till he gets the result he wants. Julia Roberts is ho-hum as Rachel, as she is just supposed to be the token female character who sleeps with the main character and is seen in a bra. She does great things with a character the script doesn’t really have time to develop, though. William Baldwin is very good as Joe, the likable scumbag. He’s a rake, but he’s genuinely sensitive as well. He carries these two character traits with grace and subtlety, and doesn’t over-play them, as would be easy to do.
What eventually happens because they played with death is interesting, but has the potential to be incredibly cheesy. Luckily, the movie avoids this by having all the actors be totally sold out to the idea. I also really liked that as godless and arrogant as these characters are, they cannot escape God. They conduct their experiments in an abandoned church, where stained-glass windows and divine statues are all around, and what started out as their experiment quickly spirals out of control. The religious imagery in this movie is very strong, a little too strong at times, but it brings up a very good point. I’m very glad this movie didn’t do the typical
“Hoka hey.” (today is a good day to die)
“Philosophy failed. Religion failed. Now it’s time for medical science to try.”
“Good thing I didn’t flatline. My 350-pound babysitter would be chasing me for the half-eaten pastrami sandwich I stole from her.”
Particle Man
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