Brand new factory sealed vhs duplicated in the EP mode. Be sure your vcr supports this tape speed. This is the same version as the 'special edition' released on dvd. There is no such thing as a director's cut, this is a myth perpetrated by fandom rumours.

Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins), a soldier in Vietnam in 1971 awakens from a horrific nightmare (flashback?) on a subway train in New York City. Now some four years later, he has apparently survived the war and earns his living as a postman, supporting himself and his Hispanic lover Jezebel (Elizabeth Pena). Their relationship is strained, however, because Jacob is tormented by guilt over a past divorce, the loss of his family, past memories, and--critically--haunted by the accidental death of his young son, Gabe (Macauly Caulkin).

Unable to talk to Jezzie freely about his feelings of loss for his wife Sara (Patricia Kalember), or share memories of his family, Jacob's only real friend is his benevolent chiropractor, Louis (Danny Aiello). Yet there is little commonplace reality in Jacob's life. Amnesiac and dissociated, caught in a spurious world, he is plauged by visions of demons and is pursued by mysterious masked figures.

Discovering that some of his Vietnam platoon buddies are having remarkably similar experiences, Jacob sets out on a path that leads him to a tormented hippie chemist, Michael (Matt Craven), who admits to developing a drug during the war years--code name "Ladder"--to make US soldiers more aggressive in battle.

Apparently the members of Jacob's platoon were chosen as test subjects, and the drug was injected into their food. Yet, this discovery cannot explain away Jacob's continuing demonic visions, and the story marches on to it's eerie but deeply moving conclusion.