10 Deleted Scenes That Explain Confusing Horror Movie Moments
4. Jacob's Ladder - The Cure
Jacob's Ladder is a fascinating, highly disturbing film from 1990, starring Tim Robbins as a Vietnam vet who returns home, only to find that all is not well. It is a claustrophobic psychological horror.
Jacob's nightmares stem from a drug that has been fed to him during active duty in the jungle. His hallucinations when he returns home come from this, ripping his mind to pieces. This scene here is a truly great loss to the film, because it shows that despite the hell that he's going through, he does in fact find, at least in his mind, an antidote to what's happening.
The scene is a fever dream. He ingests the cure and descends into a Clive Barker-eque attempt to escape his Demons. He comes through it though, apparently cured.
This compounds the final hell that he finds himself in. Despite taking the only known antidote to his situation, he is unable to escape. That is the point of the scene and although the ending certainly leaves no doubt as to where Jacob ends up, this scene removes any doubt as to whether or not he ever had a chance of heading somewhere else at all.