Jacob's Ladder 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		5.0
Overall		4.0

Jacob's Ladder 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 30, 2025

Note: October's releases from Lionsgate Limited are another variant grab bag of formats and packaging options. Jacob's Ladder 4K offers 4K and 1080 discs in SteelBook packaging, Knock Knock 4K offers only a 4K disc in a DigiPack, and Lionsgate Limited continues with their curation of Vestron Video outings with Hider in the House, offered in 1080 only.

It's probably no great surprise to hear screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin kind of comically recount how an unexpected adventure with a megadose of LSD helped spark what would become Jacob's Ladder. In fact my now pretty ancient Jacob's Ladder Blu-ray review* of Lionsgate's 1080 release from a decade and a half ago (!) overtly calls it "intentionally hallucinogenic" in the opening paragraph. This edition from Lionsgate Limited offers new 4K and 1080 presentations, with one new so- called "Lionsgate Limited Extra" added to previously released bonus content, in that aforementioned SteelBook packaging (covered in more detail below).

As mentioned above, Lionsgate had a relatively early 1080 release on Blu-ray of Jacob's Ladder in 2010, and my above linked review offers a plot summary, list of supplements and my thoughts on the technical presentation.

Jacob's Ladder 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: Screenshots are sourced from the 1080 disc in this package.

Jacob's Ladder is presented in 4K UHD courtesy of Lionsgate Film's Lionsgate Limited etailer with an HEVC / H.265 encoded 2160p transfer in 1.82:1 (as mentioned above, the 1080 presentation in this set is also new). I'm getting to really look forward to restorations by Studio Canal (and/or StudioCanal depending on your orthographical preferences) based on some of their recent efforts, and the good news is this release begins with the Studio Canal masthead and the following information:

This restoration was completed by Roundabout - USA from the original negative scanned and restored in 4K.

The color grading and restoration was supervised by Adrian Lyne.

This project was brought to you by StudioCanal and supervised by Delphine Roussel and Jean-Pierre Boiget.

The first thing some will notice is the unexpected aspect ratio of this release, but here's something that kind of gobsmacked my eyes in going back and looking at the screenshots from my old review (unfortunately only 10 remain from a bad crash we experienced many years ago). That 1080 release was supposedly "correctly" framed at 1.85:1, but in doing a simple comparison between the first screenshot in that review and the first one here, it sure seems to my eyes that the old release was actually slightly anamorphically stretched. Why this is the case is maybe a bit baffling, but as "trippy" as the film unabashedly is, all the humans here look correctly proportioned. That mystery aside, in again comparing the first screenshots in each review, there's noticeable improvement in clarity and detail. This particular vignette (actually just this section of this vignette) is noticeably brighter than the old 1080 release, but that's not always the case, and in fact HDR / Dolby Vision add some impressive depth to the darker ends of the spectrum, including some almost epic blacks in scenes like Jacob's journey through the subway tunnels. I was actually kind of surprised that any "pop" granted courtesy of HDR / Dolby Vision is intermittent at best and tends to be consigned to some of the quick psychedelic cutaways, like a red and purple tinged battle hallucination (memory?) at around the 25 minute mark during Jacob's chiropractic adjustment. Some of the battle material and even some of the bedroom material also have some evocative blue tones in the 4K UHD version that aren't quite as prevalent in the 1080 version, but the film has an intentionally tamped down palette a lot of the time, and some of the material here can be fairly brown and dowdy looking. There are vast sections of this film that intentionally look almost as if they were shot through a scrim that was artificially lit, and as such need to be accepted as the "artistic vision" of the creative crew. This is another very grainy enterprise at times, and as such some may actually prefer the slightly less in your face rendering of grain in the 1080 version. That said, there are really no compression issues, just some fairly swampy grain against brighter backgrounds at times.

Jacob's Ladder 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Jacob's Ladder features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track mirroring the old 1080 release, as well as adding the original theatrical exhibition stereo mix in Dolby Digital 2.0. I was quite enthusiastic about the old 1080 disc's audio element, and as such I'll simply repeat some of my observations about the track. Immersion is precise and very, very effective from almost the first moment of the film, when we hear a battery of helicopters panning over our heads. Even more ostensibly subtle moments, as in the next sequence (aboard the subway) have great attention to detail. The hiss of compression brakes seeps in from the side channels, and once Jacob is trying to get across the subway tunnel and a train suddenly appears, a really impressive rumble of LFE fills the sub-woofer. This is a film filled with excellent effects keeping the listener deliberately off guard with a variety of unexpected surround placements often suddenly bursting into the sound field. Dialogue is extremely clear and crisp, and both the source cues and underscore are well mixed. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are available.

Jacob's Ladder 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• On the Rungs of Jacob's Ladder (HD; 29:03) is a well done new featurette from StudioCanal with some great interviews and background information. Whatever dated source was used for some of the film snippets has some odd stuttering issues.


• Legacy Special Features

Audio Commentary with Director Adrian Lyne




Audio Commentary by Film Historian and Host of The Projection Booth Mike White is the first of several items in this category listed as a "legacy special feature", but which are actually not from a Lionsgate release. This and several others below (not listed in my original review of the Lionsgate 1080 release) are ported over from the Australian 1080 release from Imprint. More information on those can be found in Svet's review of that release.




Building Jacob's Ladder Making Of Featurette (HD; 26:29)




Prepare the Way: An Interview with Screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin (HD; 20:28)




Where Is the Ladder? The Locations of Jacob's Ladder (HD; 17:23)




Hidden in Plain Sight: Spirituality in Jacob's Ladder (HD; 21:50)




Something's Wrong With My Head: Vietnam War Trauma and Jacob's Ladder (HD; 29:43)




Deleted Scenes (HD; 13:25) feature optional commentary by director Adrian Lyne.




Trailer Gallery (HD; 2:56)

SteelBook collectors should be especially excited by this release which offers not just a SteelBook, but a front panel with an embossed image of Jacob and a chain link fence. The front panel also offers a sweet depiction of Jacob's son as seen in the closing moments. The back cover is a depiction of Vietnam with helicopters. Both outer panels are bathed in a kind of copper color. The inner panels offer illustrations of a gruesome survivor and a subway terminal. A Mylar O ring superimposes several other key characters over the imagery of Jacob on the front, and offers credits and a summary on the back.

A digital copy is also included.

Jacob's Ladder 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Jacob's Ladder pre-dated all the infamous "twist" outings by one M. Night Shyamalan, but films like Shyamalan's may have made guessing what's actually going on here a bit easier for contemporary eyes. This is still an unsettling and ultimately rather moving story, and Lionsgate Limited is offering a release with solid technical merits and appealing supplements, all in some very handsome SteelBook packaging. Recommended.