Le film est classé dans la liste des 10 films les plus effrayants de tous les temps(quelle expression à la con!) par de nombreux sites web, il figure aussi dans la liste des meilleurs thrillers  de tous les temps.Il a inspiré toute la saga Silent Hill. En particulier la station de métro de Silent Hill 3, qui a exactement la même architecture et porte le même nom que dans le film, à savoir Bergen Street.

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La critique de James Berardinelli

Warning: Spoilers ahead! After the first paragraph, I begin giving away things, and I talk freely about the ending. If that's not the kind of review you want to read at this point, I suggest you go elsewhere…

Jacob's Ladder belongs to a genre of movies glibly referred to as "mind fucks." That is to say, the movie enjoys toying with the viewer's perceptions and expectations. Anyone approaching this film without preconceived notions of what they're in for is likely to take a wild trip that offers dozens of possible explanations for what's transpiring - a journey into the Twilight Zone. It's weird and surreal, but it ends with most of the holes plugged and all but a few of the loose ends tied into a tidy package. Some argue this is a cheat and the film should have been more open ended. That's a personal choice; I like it the way it is.

The movie opens with a brief sequence in Vietnam. Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins) and his compatriots are whiling away the boredom of waiting by smoking a little weed. He and Paul (Pruitt Taylor Vince), Frank (Eriq La Salle), and George (Ving Rhames) are under the influence when the attack comes and things start to go wrong. In the heat of the battle, Jacob takes a bayonet to the abdomen.

Flash-forward several years. Jacob is a mailman living with his beautiful, wild girlfriend, Jezebel (Elizabeth Peña). But he's haunted by nightmares and strange events, such as getting off a train at a station where all the exits are closed off. But is his life with Jezebel real, or is it a dream? Perhaps, as other scenes suggest, he is living the life of a dutiful husband to his wife, Sarah (Patricia Kalember), and a loving father to three boys. Or maybe the truth is something deeper and darker. Frequent flashbacks to the bayonet attack and its aftermath, in which he is rescued by a helicopter, hint at an unrevealed secret.

The inspiration for Jacob's Ladder is a 1891 short story by Ambrose Bierce called "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." It takes literally the idea that a man's entire life might flash before him in the instant before death. Bierce's work has been used as a frequent inspiration for television and movies. An episode of The Twilight Zone was based on it, and it formed the basis for Jacob's Ladder, Stay, and other films. Jacob's Ladder plays with reality in a way that would become commonplace in the next decade-or-so, especially with the films of David Lynch. However, compared to the likes of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me and Mulholland Drive, Jacob's Ladder is almost straightforward.

The film suggests many possible explanations. Is Jacob's life with Jezebel his "reality," but twisted because of mental and physical illness? Did he ever leave his wife? Have mind-altering drugs administered to him in Vietnam destroyed his grip on reality? Is he really haunted by demons? Or did he perish as a result of the bayonet stab, and everything else shown in the movie is the imagination of a man's dying brain? The film's third-person final scene argues strongly for the final interpretation. One can look for clues to support the alternatives, but director Adrian Lyne and screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin make it clear what their belief is.

Jacob's Ladder invites participation and is an intellectually stimulating experience. Even for those who know the ending, there's still pleasure to be had in piecing together the puzzle and figuring out how everything fits together. Without the final piece - that is provided in the last scene - it can be a frustrating experience, but there are those who will figure out the truth before it is explicitly revealed. The film's tone, with its gothic settings, demonic images, and affinity for darkness and shadows, is more reminiscent of horror than anything else, although some would argue that Jacob's Ladder should be seen as science fiction or even a war movie.

At the time when he made Jacob's Ladder, Tim Robbins was already a known quantity, having rocketed to visibility in 1988's Bull Durham. Robbins isn't an actor with great range, but he can be effective if he's cast properly, and the role of Jacob is within his narrow scope. Robbins pulls off a low-key, haunted performance, allowing us to sense there's something not right about the character, even if it takes us the entire movie to figure out what that "not right" is. As Robbins' leading lady, Elizabeth Peña is incredibly sexy, as might be expected from a woman with the name of Jezebel. The rest of the troupe is comprised primarily of character actors, and none of them have more than a few minutes of screen time. Macaulay Culkin has a small role as one of Jacob's children; this movie was released into theaters a mere two weeks before Home Alone debuted.

With its limited sexuality, Jacob's Ladder is a square peg in a round hole for director Adrian Lyne, who is know for pushing erotic boundaries. While some of Peña's topless scenes are sexy, this is mostly a tale of psychological horror, not what would be expected from the director of Flashdance, Nine 1/2 Weeks, and Fatal Attraction. Lyne followed up Jacob's Ladder with Indecent Proposal, Lolita, and Unfaithful, making Jacob's Ladder a very odd entry on his resume. It is arguably the best movie he has made.