A group of medical students decide to come back to the lab after hours so they can take turns killing each other. Nelson (Keifer Sutherland) comes up with the plan by suggesting they kill themselves - coolly, rationally, scientifically. After going brain dead (when the brainwave line of the EKG monitor goes to a "flatline"), they'll be brought back with CPR to see what it's like on the other side. What could have been a scifi/horror or supernatural film, is instead classified by TV Guide as a drama. Leonard Maltin calls it "sophomoric supernatural drama, with touches of horror and humor...slick camerawork and effects can't camouflage the superficiality of the script, which undermines an intriguing idea."One critic said it is visually stunning like Blade Runner, though I don't see the comparison myself.
According to the Internet Movie Database, there is a rather glaring error: During the Gross Anatomy dissection, the medical students are told to remove the ascending colon to the transverse colon, then to continue to the sigmoid colon until reaching the appendix. The appendix is located on the right side of the colon, at the beginning of the ascending colon. The above description would put it on the left side, near the end of the sigmoid (the last part of the colon before the rectum). So there
Directed by Joel Schumacher (The Lost Boys). 105 minutes rate R
Cast includes:
Rachel (Julia Roberts), David (Kevin Bacon), Joe (William Baldwin) and Randy (Oliver Platt)
By the way, this movie is referenced in the scif/horror film Event Horizon (1997), about a spaceship that goes into a black hole and returns from Hell
"Flatliners" availability on video and on DVD from Amazon.com