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It’s the go-to explanation for every movie that makes no sense: the entire inexplicable film is actually a crazy vision flashing through the mind of the protagonist as they slowly die. If you’re a devotee of the podcast How Did This Get Made?, then you know that theory… is called a Jacob’s Ladder.
Named after the 1990 film of the same name, podcast co-host Jason Mantzoukas has applied that theory to dozens of the cinematic disasters discussed on the show. The theory was first floated after discussing Jack Frost, a family film where Michael Keaton spends time in purgatory (which, for him, is living as a snowman and hanging out with his son). The theory has become so popular that now audience members get in on the action, asking if that week’s film could be a “Jacob’s Ladder situation” during every live episode. If a movie could be a mascot for a podcast, then Jacob’s Ladder would be HDTGM‘s mascot.
If you’ve never seen Jacob’s Ladder, then odds are your curiosity is piqued every time it’s brought up on the podcast. The movie was only a modest box office success when it was released 27 years ago, so odds are most people know more about the Jacob’s Ladder theory than Jacob’s Ladder itself. That’s where Hulu comes in! Starting today, Jacob’s Ladder is available to stream on the service, thus allowing for all HDTGM fans to finally see the first ever Jacob’s Ladder type situation (that is if you don’t count high school English class staple “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”). You’ve obviously already had Jacob’s Ladder’s ending spoiled by literally dozens of podcast episodes, but still! You can now spend 113 watching Tim Robbins slowly die!
In fact, I think I’ll do that tonight–wait, unless getting the word out about Jacob’s Ladder was my unfinished business and I actually never made it to work this morning! Whoah….
