Over the last 19 years, Director Adrian Lyne’s 1990 art house psychological thriller Jacob’s Ladder has garnered a strong cult following for its unusual camera work, surreal nightmarish visions, and infamous twist ending. So it was a bit surprising to learn a few years ago that a remake was in the offing. Judging by the first trailer, this reboot is more of a re-imagining, preserving some of the original elements while offering a fresh twist ending.

The original Jacob’s Ladder, released in 1990, starred Tim Robbins as Vietnam medic Jacob Singer, whose unit is attacked in 1971. Watching his comrades fall, Jacob flees into the jungle and gets a bayonet in the stomach for his trouble. He awakens in a New York City subway and finds he’s now living in Brooklyn with his girlfriend, with no memory of how he got there. But he is increasingly haunted by terrible hallucinations, sudden onset high fevers, and occasionally finds himself in an alternate reality with his first wife and young son, Gabe, who had been killed in an accident before the war. Is it side effects from an experimental army drug known as “the Ladder,” or something more sinister and supernatural?

The 2019 remake is intended to be more of an homage, bringing the story into a contemporary setting with fresh characters and similar themes. Per the official synopsis, “After losing his brother in combat, Jacob Singer returns home from Afghanistan—only to be pulled into a mind-twisting state of paranoia. Singer soon realizes that his sibling is alive but life is not what it seems.”

What this remake won’t do, apparently, is recreate the original twist ending. Screenwriter Jeff Buhler, fresh from Pet Sematary and SYFY’s Nightflyers, shed some light on that departure in an interview with Rue Morgue back in February:

“The concept is really about the experience of coming home and readjusting, which is very present and poignant in the original film. Tim Robbins is a soldier who’s readjusting to life and feels like a stranger in his own city and to his family, so getting those concepts out there and really living in that space in our film was important. Then we came up with a cool twist that’s different from the one in the original, but has that same spirit: You’re following this story with these characters, and then all of a sudden everything gets flipped on its head, and you’re like, ‘Whoa! Things are different than I thought.”

The focus on the relationship between the two brothers is front and center in the trailer. We hear a voiceover of a therapist encouraging Jacob (Michael Ealy) to open up about the issues the two siblings faced—most notably an intense competitiveness. We see Jacob on his wedding day to Sam (Nicole Beharie), and a jealous Isaac (Jesse Williams) taunting that he’d “been there” first and decking his brother. But there is also a fierce love; both served in Afghanistan, and Jacob was devastated when Isaac was killed, blaming himself.

The thing is, Jacob never actually saw his brother’s lifeless body. And then Isaac shows up in the street one night. “We thought you were dead,” an incredulous Sam says when she sees him. Isaac replies, “Maybe I was.” But is it really Isaac? And if so, is it possible that something supernatural followed him back? Because Jacob is having fleeting hallucinations of demons coming after him.

There may be a new twist ending, but the final line we hear in the trailer actually echoes dialogue from Lyne’s original: “The only part that burns in hell is the part of you that refuses to let go. You will see devils tearing your life apart.”

Jacob’s Ladder is slated for release on August 23, 2019.

Listing image by YouTube/Bloody Disgusting

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