Flatliners (2017 Film)
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''Flatliners'' is a 2017 American
science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
psychological horror Psychological horror is a genre, subgenre of horror fiction, horror and psychological fiction with a particular focus on mental, emotional, and Mental state, psychological states to frighten, disturb, or unsettle its audience. The subgenre freque ...
film directed by
Niels Arden Oplev Niels Arden Oplev (; born 26 March 1961) is a Danish film director and screenwriter. Life and career Oplev was born in Oue, Denmark. His 1996 film ''Portland (film), Portland'' was entered into the 46th Berlin International Film Festival. He d ...
and written by Ben Ripley. A
stand-alone sequel Standalone or Stand-alone may refer to: *Stand-alone DSL, a digital subscriber line without analog telephone service; also known as ''naked DSL'' *Stand-alone expansion pack, an expansion pack which does not require the original game in order to us ...
to and
remake A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the same s ...
of the 1990 film of the same name, it stars
Elliot Page Elliot Page (formerly Ellen Page; born February 21, 1987) is a Canadian actor, producer, and activist. He is known for his leading roles across Canadian and American film and television, and for his outspoken work as an activist for LGBTQ righ ...
,
Diego Luna Diego Dionisio Luna Alexander (; born 29 December 1979) is a Mexican actor, director, and producer, best known for his portrayal of Cassian Andor in ''Rogue One, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story'' (2016) and the Disney+ series ''Andor (TV series), ...
,
Nina Dobrev Nikolina Kamenova Dobreva (; born January 9, 1989), known professionally as Nina Dobrev ( ), is a Canadian actress. She is known for portraying Elena Gilbert and Katherine Pierce in The CW's supernatural drama series ''The Vampire Diaries'' (20 ...
, James Norton, and
Kiersey Clemons Kiersey Nicole Clemons (born December 17, 1993) is an American actress. She is known for her role in the 2015 comedy-drama film '' Dope'', playing Cassandra "Diggy" Andrews. Subsequently, she went on to co-star in '' Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising ...
. The story follows five medical students who attempt to conduct experiments that produce
near-death experience A near-death experience (NDE) is a profound personal experience associated with death or impending death, which researchers describe as having similar characteristics. When positive, which the great majority are, such experiences may encompa ...
s. The film was released in the United States on September 29, 2017 by
Sony Pictures Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio conglomerate that produces, acquires, and distributes filmed entertainment (theatrical motion pictures, television programs, and rec ...
, and was panned by critics, who generally remarked that it repeated the problems of the original in failing to do justice to its interesting premise.


Plot

Courtney is a medical student who is obsessed with the
afterlife The afterlife or life after death is a purported existence in which the essential part of an individual's Stream of consciousness (psychology), stream of consciousness or Personal identity, identity continues to exist after the death of their ...
. She invites her classmates, Jamie and Sophia, to join her in an experiment, in an unused hospital room: using defibrillation to stop her heart for sixty seconds while recording her brain. She assures them they would not be held responsible for any accidents. Sophia is against this, but Jamie does it anyway. After sixty seconds, they are unable to revive her until a fellow student, Ray, steps in to help. Marlo, another medical student, arrives and learns of the experiment. Courtney begins to recall experiences about increased intelligence and euphoria. Envious, Jamie flatlines, and has a disturbing
near-death experience A near-death experience (NDE) is a profound personal experience associated with death or impending death, which researchers describe as having similar characteristics. When positive, which the great majority are, such experiences may encompa ...
as he meets his ex-girlfriend. Marlo and Sophia follow suit, increasing the duration of time they are down. During Sophia’s turn they are nearly caught and flee the hospital. The visions experienced by those who flatlined are: Courtney sees her sister Tessa, who died in a car crash Courtney caused; Jamie sees the baby he begged his ex-girlfriend to abort; Marlo sees a patient named Cyrus, who died when she accidentally mixed up his medication; and Sophia sees Irina, whose life she ruined out of spite, allowing Sophia to become
valedictorian Valedictorian is an academic title for the class rank, highest-performing student of a graduation, graduating class of an academic institution in the United States. The valedictorian is generally determined by an academic institution's grade poin ...
. Everyone keeps their visions to their individual selves. Courtney, traumatized by her visions, records a message apologizing and admitting that her interest in flatlining was due to the death of her sister, not for scientific discovery. She dies having been pushed off a fire escape by the ghost of her sister. The others are devastated. They think they may be implicated if their experiments are discovered. They attempt to clean Courtney's apartment of all evidence. Marlo goes to the morgue to find Courtney’s phone, where she is disturbed by more visions. On his boat, Jamie again hears the cries of a baby and a woman weeping. He falls out of his boat and swims to the dock where a figure stabs his hand. Courtney's recording discloses they all had similar visions. They admit the mistakes they made and come to the conclusion that their haunting experiences are hallucinations owing to guilt from their sins, not the paranormal. The only one who did not flatline, Ray, initially disbelieves what is happening. Sophia's apology to Irina is accepted. Jamie discovers his ex-girlfriend has kept their baby and pledges to provide for his son. Ray and Marlo get into a fight when he uncovers her attempt at hiding Cyrus' cause of death and she refuses to confess. Marlo hallucinates being suffocated while driving and crashes her car. Tired of being haunted by her hallucinations, Marlo flatlines on her own in the hope of asking Cyrus for forgiveness. She sees Courtney, who tells Marlo that she needs to forgive herself. Ray, Sophia and Jamie arrive to resuscitate Marlo. Marlo confesses to the Dean and is held on probation. Marlo, Ray, Sophia and Jamie meet to reminisce about Courtney.


Cast


Production

In 2008,
Michael Douglas Michael Kirk Douglas (born September 25, 1944) is an American actor and film producer. He has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and the ...
and
Stephen Susco Stephen Susco (born October 24, 1972) is an American screenwriter, producer, and director. He is best known for writing horror films such as '' The Grudge'', '' The Grudge 2'', and '' Texas Chainsaw 3D''. His directorial debut film, '' Unfriended: ...
attempted to reboot ''
Flatliners ''Flatliners'' is a 1990 American science fiction psychological horror film directed by Joel Schumacher, produced by Michael Douglas and Rick Bieber, and written by Peter Filardi. It stars Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, William Baldwin, Oliv ...
'', as a television series. Douglas would produce the series while Susco would handle writing duties. Development would officially shift from a TV series to a feature film in August 2011; ''
Source Code In computing, source code, or simply code or source, is a plain text computer program written in a programming language. A programmer writes the human readable source code to control the behavior of a computer. Since a computer, at base, only ...
'' writer Ben Ripley was attached as screenwriter and
Laurence Mark Laurence Mark is an American film and television producer. His works include ''The Greatest Showman'' (2017), ''Julie & Julia'' (2009), ''Dreamgirls'' (2006), ''I, Robot'' (2004), ''As Good as It Gets'' (1997), and ''Jerry Maguire'' (1996). ...
would co-produce with Douglas. By February 2013,
Niels Arden Oplev Niels Arden Oplev (; born 26 March 1961) is a Danish film director and screenwriter. Life and career Oplev was born in Oue, Denmark. His 1996 film ''Portland (film), Portland'' was entered into the 46th Berlin International Film Festival. He d ...
was slated to direct. Oplev aimed to have a more representative cast than its 1990 counterpart. In October 2015,
Elliot Page Elliot Page (formerly Ellen Page; born February 21, 1987) is a Canadian actor, producer, and activist. He is known for his leading roles across Canadian and American film and television, and for his outspoken work as an activist for LGBTQ righ ...
was cast in the film. In February 2016,
Diego Luna Diego Dionisio Luna Alexander (; born 29 December 1979) is a Mexican actor, director, and producer, best known for his portrayal of Cassian Andor in ''Rogue One, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story'' (2016) and the Disney+ series ''Andor (TV series), ...
was added, with
Nina Dobrev Nikolina Kamenova Dobreva (; born January 9, 1989), known professionally as Nina Dobrev ( ), is a Canadian actress. She is known for portraying Elena Gilbert and Katherine Pierce in The CW's supernatural drama series ''The Vampire Diaries'' (20 ...
joining in April. In May 2016,
Kiersey Clemons Kiersey Nicole Clemons (born December 17, 1993) is an American actress. She is known for her role in the 2015 comedy-drama film '' Dope'', playing Cassandra "Diggy" Andrews. Subsequently, she went on to co-star in '' Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising ...
and James Norton signed on for the film. In July 2016, it was announced that
Kiefer Sutherland Kiefer William Frederick Dempsey George Rufus Sutherland (born 21 December 1966) is a Canadian actor. He is best known for his starring role as Jack Bauer in the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox drama series ''24 (TV series), 24'' (2001–2010, 20 ...
, who starred in the original, would return in the new film. Sutherland later disclosed that he was reprising his role from the original film, adding that the new film is actually a sequel rather than a remake. Despite the announcement, Sutherland played a character with a different name than in the original, with no reference to the specific events of the previous film. In July 2016,
Charlotte McKinney Charlotte Ann McKinney (born August 6, 1993) is an American model and actress who first gained attention as an Instagram personality, eventually achieving wider recognition for her appearance in a Carl's Jr. commercial which aired regionally d ...
also joined the cast.
Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...
began in early July 2016 in
Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
,
Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...
primarily at
Cinespace Film Studios Cinespace Film Studios is a group of film studio facilities in the US and Canada. It was founded in 1988 by Greek-Canadian Nick Mirkopoulos. The studio started with a facility in Vaughan, a suburb of Toronto, which had been in operation since the ...
'
Kipling Avenue Kipling Avenue is a street in the cities of Toronto and Vaughan, Ontario, Vaughan in Ontario, Canada. It is a concession road, 6 concessions (12 km) west from Yonge Street, and is a major north–south arterial road. It consists of thre ...
facility, and concluded on September 7. The film went into post-production on October 4. Additional photography began in Toronto on July 24 and wrapped on August 1, 2017. In his memoir ''
Pageboy The pageboy or page boy is a hairstyle named after what was believed to be the haircut of a late medieval page boy. It has straight hair hanging to below the ear, where it usually turns under. There is often a fringe (bangs) in the front. This s ...
'', Page described an unsafe and toxic work environment on set. During the filming of a car stunt involving Page and Kiersey Clemons, neither were allegedly given any restraints and had their concerns dismissed by the stunt coordinators. Page also detailed instances of racism toward Clemons by a crew member, and queerphobia towards himself, notably from an unnamed head of production.
Nathan Barr Nathan Barr (born February 9, 1973; also known as Nate Barr) is an American film and television composer and musician. His television scores include ''True Blood'', ''The Americans'', ''Carnival Row'', and ''The Great''. He won a Primetime Emmy A ...
composed the film score. The soundtrack was released by
Sony Classical Sony Classical is an American record label founded in 1924 as Columbia Masterworks Records, a subsidiary of Columbia Records. In 1980, the Columbia Masterworks label was renamed as CBS Masterworks Records. The CBS Records Group was acquired ...
.


Release

''Flatliners'' was released by
Sony Pictures Releasing Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group (formerly known as the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group until 2013, and abbreviated as SPMPG) is a division of Sony Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment to manage its motion picture operatio ...
on September 29, 2017. It was previously scheduled to release on August 18, 2017.


Home media

''Flatliners'' was released on
Digital HD A digital copy is a commercially distributed computer file containing a media product such as a film or music album. The term contrasts this computer file with the physical copy (typically a DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, or Ultra HD Blu-ray disc) with ...
on December 12, 2017, and on
Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...
and
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...
on December 19, 2017 in Canada, and on December 26, 2017 in the United States.


Reception


Box office

''Flatliners'' grossed $16.9 million in the United States and Canada, and $28.1 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $45.2 million, against a production budget of $19 million. In North America, the film was released alongside '' American Made'' and '' 'Til Death Do Us Part'', as well as the wide expansion of '' Battle of the Sexes'', and was projected to gross $8–12 million from 2,552 theaters in its opening weekend. It ended up debuting to $6.6 million, finishing 5th at the box office; even before factoring in inflation, the number was lower than the $10 million opening of the original film in 1990. In its second weekend the film dropped 42%, grossing $3.6 million.


Critical response

Audiences polled by
CinemaScore CinemaScore is an American market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts from the data. Background Ed Mintz, who ...
gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale, while
PostTrak PostTrak is a U.S.-based service that surveys film audiences for film studios. History The service conducts surveys in the top 20 markets in the U.S. and Canada with the use of polling cards and electronic kiosks. A PostTrak report for a fil ...
reported filmgoers gave it a 66% overall positive score and a 46% "definite recommend". Criticizing the repetitiveness of the scenes and lack of tension,
Peter Travers Peter Joseph Travers (born June 27, 1943) is an American film critic, journalist, and television presenter. He reviews films for ABC News and previously served as a movie critic for ''People'' and ''Rolling Stone''. Travers also hosts the film i ...
of ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...
'' called the film "even more witless and stupefyingly dull than the original." He gave it one star. Ryan Porter gave it one-and-a-half stars in '' The Star'', saying that like the original, it takes a solid premise and fails to develop it in an interesting or exciting way. He said the film's one positive is the unintentional humor which results from the stupidity of several scenes and the earnestness with which the actors approach them.
Matt Zoller Seitz Matt Zoller Seitz (born December 26, 1968) is an American film and television critic, author and filmmaker. Career Matt Zoller Seitz is editor-at-large at RogerEbert.com, and the television critic for ''New York'' magazine and Vulture.com, as w ...
similarly said that " hepremise f the original ''Flatliners'' which could have opened the door to a visionary work of sci-fi horror, settled into a sort of gothic self-help drama groove, with the medical students realizing that the seemingly supernatural goings-on triggered by their experiments in 'flatlining' were manifestations of their past misdeeds. Director Niels Arden Oplev's remake ... sticks to that template, changing key details here and there while embracing a style that stirs every current horror movie visual cliche into a jagged paste." He also remarked that the obvious effort given by the entire cast could not overcome the contrived and clichéd scares and melodrama. Both Travers and Porter derided the visual effect of the afterlife scenes as cheap-looking and silly.


See also

* '' A Thousand Deaths''


Notes


References


External links

* * * {{Authority control 2017 films 2017 horror films 2010s psychological drama films 2010s science fiction drama films 2017 science fiction horror films 2010s psychological horror films 2017 psychological thriller films 2010s supernatural horror films American sequel films American psychological drama films American psychological horror films American psychological thriller films American science fiction drama films American science fiction horror films American science fiction thriller films American supernatural horror films American supernatural thriller films Columbia Pictures films Cross Creek Pictures films Films about death Films directed by Niels Arden Oplev Films set in 2008 Films set in 2017 Films produced by Laurence Mark Films produced by Michael Douglas Films produced by Peter Safran Films scored by Nathan Barr Films shot in Toronto Horror film remakes Science fiction film remakes Thriller film remakes Medical-themed films Films about near-death experiences 2017 drama films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films English-language science fiction horror films English-language science fiction drama films English-language science fiction thriller films