The Jacket (2005)

R
102 min
Drama
March 4, 2005

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Movie Details

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Evan JacobsMay 30, 2015

L.A. readers! Win tickets to a special screening of The Jacket!

...starring Adrien Brody and Keira Knightley

Brian B.Feb 23, 2005

The Jacket site is up!

..get into the creep with Adrian Brody and Keira Knightley

Evan JacobsFeb 9, 2005

New posters from The Jacket

...we've got your first look at the two character posters

Brian B.Jan 14, 2005

27 new photos from The Jacket!

...starring Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kelly Lynch, Kris Kristofferson, Daniel Craig, Keira Knightley and Adrien Brody

Brian B.Sep 8, 2004

Mackenzie Phillips to star in THE JACKET

...alongside Adrien Brody and Keira Knightley

Brian B.Feb 18, 2004

Brad Renfro joins the cast of THE JACKET

...starring opposite Adrian Brody & Keira Knightley

Brian B.Dec 29, 2003

4 more join THE JACKET

Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kelly Lynch, Kris Kristofferson and Daniel Craig...

Brian B.Nov 6, 2003

Keira Knightly joins The Jacket

...alongside Adrien Brody

Brian B.Sep 10, 2003

If the JACKET fits

give it to Adrien Brody...

Brian B.Aug 6, 2003

Critics Score

44%

Release Date

March 4, 2005

Director

John Maybury

Writers

Tom Bleecker
Marc Rocco
Massy Tadjedin

Cast

Official Website

thejacketmovie.com

The Jacket Synopsis

1991: Jack Starks, a U.S. Marine Sergeant serving in the Persian Gulf War, receives a near-fatal gunshot wound to the head. Although he recovers, the incident leaves him with shock-related amnesia. After his release, with nowhere to go, Starks, who has no relatives, returns to his native Vermont.

Nine months later, hitchhiking along a snowbound Vermont highway, Starks encounters a broken down pick-up truck. The driver, a drunken, disoriented mother named Jean, and her eight-year-old daughter, Jackie, are stranded at the roadside. With Jean too drunk to speak with him, Starks approaches Jackie and offers his help and gets the truck started.

Starks continues hitchhiking, and is picked up by a station wagon driven by a young man headed for the Canadian border. Shortly afterward, the car is pulled over by the police and Starks blacks out. When he awakens, he finds himself on trial for murder in a small town court.

Found not guilty by reason of insanity, Starks is committed to Alpine Grove, a state institution for the criminally insane. There a staff physician, Dr. Becker subjects Starks to a jarring experimental treatment involving mind-altering drugs and claustrophobic physical restraint. Once medicated, Starks is wrapped in jacket-like restraints and left alone for hours at a time in a corpse drawer located in the hospital’s basement morgue.

And in the drawer, in the dark and under the influence, Starks initially experiences flickers of memory from the war and the shooting of the police officer. Under this regimen, he begins putting together bits of his past and tries to make sense of his circumstances.

The past gives way to the future when he is suddenly transported to a diner in Vermont where he meets Jackie, a waitress who takes pity on him and tries to help him find a place to sleep for the night. It is Christmas Eve, and all of the local homeless shelters are full, so Jackie allows Starks to sleep on her couch. In these hours, Starks begins to realize that the drawer he’s been confined to is the secret to his recovery and that his future and well-being lie in the hands of the girl he’s just met.