10 Awesome Movie Twists You Never Saw Coming

Jacob's Ladder is a psychological horror film that begins in 1971 with Jacob Singer serving in the 1st Air Cavalry Division in Vietnam's Mekong Delta. His unit comes under fire, and he watches as several of his comrades are killed, though some of them begin exhibiting abnormal behavior such as catatonia, seizures, and convulsions.

Jacob runs into the jungle, only to find himself on the wrong end of a bayonet. The film then immediately switches to 1975 with Jacob riding on the New York Subway system. He begins seeing strange things that can't possibly be present, including a tentacle extending from a homeless person.

From there, he sees increasingly strange and disturbing visions, many of which are horrific nightmare-inducing psychosis. The narrative begins to suggest that every survivor from Jacob's unit is suffering from a similar form of psychosis, and they may be due to an unknown chemical weapon used against them.

The intensity of the visions and the horror are ramped up, and just as the audience is certain Jacob was succumbing to some kind of chemical warfare, he is taken up a staircase into a bright light.

Immediately, the scene changes back to Vietnam in 1971, and we see Jacob being declared dead. Everything seen between the opening and closing scenes in Vietnam was the result of a fever dream Jacob was suffering from as he lay dying.