Jessie Gambardella: The Jacket

Time travel is such a major theme in a lot of films such as Butterfly Effect, Somewhere in Time, and The Jacket. They all have one thing in common theme they have is something has to trigger the time travel. In the Butterfly Effect it is the journals, Somewhere in Time it is objects from the past, and in The Jacket it is being in the jacket, pumped with drugs, and in the morgue. These things were the axis mundi for the people using them. No one else knew of the significance except the people traveling in time.

In class I really found it interested when it was pointed out that Jack’s reason for going back changes. Originally, after he discovers that he has died prematurely, he wants to find out how he dies so he can prevent it. When he finally accepts the fact that it is not going to change he is determined to help Jackie have a better life. Rob Dufour picked up on a line in the movie where Jack says “sometimes life can only really begin with the knowledge of death.” I completely agree with his follow statements. As the Switchfoot song lyrics says as well, “she pretends like she's immortal.” It is funny how it took Jackie’s mom knowing how she was going to die to finally realize she was on a destructive path. When a cancer patient is given a timeline on how long they have left to live is when “the bucket list” is created and yet a perfectly healthy person could have less time to live and not even know it. It takes the slap in the face of knowledge of one’s death to accept it.

I also found it ironic that Jack was the own cause of his death. If he hadn’t wanted to go to Jackie’s mother then he would never have slipped on the ice and it was also his idea to be put back into the morgue box. I like to believe that he really did go into the future right before he died.