Flatliners (1990)

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Led by fame-hungry Nelson Wright (Kiefer Sutherland), a group of medical students embark on a daring experiment - to take a peak into the afterlife; but the experiment goes horribly wrong. The team consists of insular Rachel Mannus (Julia Roberts), sceptic David Labraccio (Kevin Bacon), lady-killer Joe Hurley (William Baldwin), and jester/genius Randy Steckle (Oliver Platt). Their arrogant plan involves taking turns to be clinically 'killed' (indicated by the flat lines on the ECG machines monitoring their heart and brain activity) before being resuscitated by the others. But the group's competitive streak takes its toll as each member attempts to stay dead for longer and longer, and resuscitation proves increasingly difficult.

There's also a side effect to the experiment that none of them foresaw. Instead of the calm tunnels of light, commonly described by near-death experience sufferers, each practitioner is transported to the darkest recess of his/her guilty conscience and, on returning to life, is haunted by the physical manifestation of past wrong-doing. Nelson, for example, finds himself hounded by a boy he bullied and accidentally murdered in childhood, while Rachel is tormented by visions of her father's suicide, a tragedy for which she has always (wrongly) felt responsible. It is only by confronting their guilt through atonement or self-forgiveness, that they rid themselves of the disturbing demons.

Described by Variety as, "A strikingly original, often brilliantly visualised film," Flatliners was one of a spate of movies made at the turn of the decade (Ghost, Field Of Dreams, Always), to deal with mortality, that were prompted by the mushrooming threat of AIDS and the insecurity catalysed by global recession. Unlike the others, however, Peter Filardi's "ingenious plot" (The Observer), "starts from a willingness to contemplate death without flinching that is highly unusual in American cinema" (The Independent).

As he had done in archetypal brat-pack movie, St Elmo's Fire, director Schumacher brought together a new generation of promising young actors for Flatliners. Sutherland had starred in the director's previous film, The Lost Boys, while Roberts, red hot after Pretty Woman, joined Schumacher in the following year's, Dying Young.

Flatliners is a Film programme that first aired in 1990 and has been rated 15.

Flatliners is a 3 star programme.

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