Check Out This Forgotten Sci-Fi Thriller Starring Adrien Brody & Keira Knightley

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home January 15, 2025 5 Views 8 Min Read
Check Out This Forgotten Sci-Fi Thriller Starring Adrien Brody & Keira Knightley



Summary

  • The Jacket, a forgotten sci-fi thriller from 2005, offers a unique and eerie psychological experience.
  • Inspired by a Jack London novel, the film follows a Gulf War veteran’s journey through time and a twisted love story.
  • Despite its financial failure, The Jacket features impressive technical aspects and a stellar cast, making it worth a watch.

There’s no such thing as watching too many sci-fi thrillers — it’s a genre that often gets a lot of things right, even if it doesn’t always hit the mark. One hidden gem from 2005 falls into this category, and it’s definitely worth checking out for serious sci-fi fans.

Adrien Brody and Keira Knightley are some of the finest actors working today, but they are typically linked to their post-war survivor or period drama roles, respectively. However, the two of them worked together on the forgotten psychological thriller The Jacket in 2005, which deserves more attention.

winona ryder, keanu reeves and robert downey jr. in a scanner darkly

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What Is The Jacket About?

Time Travel In A Straitjacket

adrien brody and keira knightley in the jacket (2005)

In the sci-fi thriller The Jacket, directed by John Maybury, Adrien Brody plays a Gulf War veteran named Jack Starks. The film begins in 1991 during a mission where Jack is shot in the head by a young boy. He’s presumed dead, but somehow survives with severe amnesia. Fast-forward in time, he returns to the U.S. and becomes entangled in a crime where someone else shoots a cop, but he is wrongly blamed for it.

As a result, he’s sent to a mental institution for treatment, where things quickly become strange and spiral out of control. Jack undergoes a series of unusual treatments, including excessive injections, sensory deprivation, and, most notably, being confined in the titular straitjacket. During the last of these, he discovers that he has the ability to travel into the future.

What Happens In The Jacket?

Psychological Torture & A Twisted Love Story

adrien brody in the jacket

Jack jumps through time and wakes up on Christmas Eve in 2007, where he encounters Keira Knightley’s character, Jackie, who decides to take him in and help him. Jack uncovers a connection to his past when he was framed for murder. This sets off a chain of events, as well as a twisted love story that drives the rest of the film. The result is a distinct and eerie psychological experience, even if it’s not a perfect one. The Jacket ends on a rather ambiguous note, presenting at least three or four possible conclusions to Jack’s storyline.

While the murder mystery aspect may not be entirely solid, the film does a commendable job of keeping the audience engaged with its twists and turns, all while maintaining a tense atmosphere.

What Is The Jacket Based On?

A Jack London Novel & The True Story That Inspired It

The film takes inspiration from a 1915 novel called The Star Rover, written by commercial fiction pioneer Jack London. The book was published in the United Kingdom under the title The Jacket, from which the film borrows its name. However, director Maybury ensured that the story was credited to Marc Rocco and Tom Bleecker. Instead, the film is said to be loosely based on a true story that eventually inspired Jack London’s novel, according to Maybury in a 2005 interview with The Irish Times:

I know you think it is a load of Hollywood nonsense, but it is in fact loosely based on a true story that became a Jack London story.

The true story that inspired The Star Rover is that of Edward Morrell, an American prisoner who became widely known for enduring severe cruelty and torture. In his memoir, The 25th Man, Morrell recounts how he was kept in solitary confinement for five years at San Quentin, where he became known as the “Dungeon Man.” He was subjected to severe physical abuse in prison, but author Jack London helped him receive a pardon, and used his story as the basis for a character in his novel.

Why Did The Jacket Fail?

adrien brody in the jacket (2005)

The Jacket had some high-profile names attached as producers, including George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh. However, it turned out to be a financial loss, grossing only $21.1 million against a budget of $28.5 million. It wasn’t one of those films that found critical success despite underperforming financially either. As it stands, The Jacket holds middling ratings and reviews, with a 44% score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.1 out of 10 on IMDb.

Why You Should Watch The Jacket

adrien brody in the jacket (2005)

The Jacket redeems itself with several factors, especially its technical aspects. The moody cinematography by Peter Deming, known for Mulholland Drive and Evil Dead, captures the essence of the thriller. The background score of The Jacket was composed by the experimental legend Brian Eno, who is renowned for redefining the conventions of electronic music. Moreover, the movie features some big names in its cast in addition to Brody and Knightley, including Kris Kristofferson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kelly Lynch, and a standout performance from Daniel Craig.

Who Should Watch The Jacket?

The Jacket is a great pick for anyone’s watchlist who craves a sci-fi thriller with borderline horror elements. People who are newcomers to the genre or prefer substance to style may want to skip this film. The film’s repetitive time-travel aspect works both to its advantage and disadvantage.

While it might feel tiring to a mainstream audience, the whiplash effect, if embraced, actually aligns with Adrien Brody’s character’s weariness and depression. The actor embodies all the horrors endured by Jack Starks, including multiple states of repetitive death, confinement, and torture.

Where To Watch The Jacket

The Jacket is available for rent on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+ and Microsoft Store.

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