10 Iconic Video Game Moments You Had NO Idea Were Taken From Movies

Inspired by: Jacob’s Ladder (1990)

Silent Hill has always owed a heavy debt to Jacob’s Ladder, but Silent Hill 2 takes it to another level, especially in the moment you first come face-to-face with Pyramid Head.

That debut encounter, tucked away in a filthy, rusted apartment complex, doesn’t just deliver on atmosphere - it directly mirrors Jacob’s Ladder’s descent into psychological hell. In Adrian Lyne’s cult horror, Vietnam vet Jacob is dragged through a grotesque hallucination inside a mental asylum, where twitching patients, deformed creatures, and industrial grime blur the line between reality and nightmare. Sound familiar?

From the disorienting camerawork to the sound design that grates on your nerves, Silent Hill 2 lifts the vibe wholesale - and Pyramid Head? He’s the physical embodiment of it. A towering butcher of guilt and punishment, his arrival doesn’t just scare, it unsettles. It feels wrong in the same way Jacob’s Ladder made you question every hallway and hospital gurney.

This wasn’t just horror for horror’s sake - it was a psychological dive into grief, trauma, and punishment. And Silent Hill 2’s most unforgettable moment is, quite literally, built off of Jacob’s Ladder's DNA.