He used to have a different, better life before he spent time in the Vietnam War and was discharged after being injured in a chaotic incident that killed many of his unit.
As he goes about his days he has occasional strange visions and casual glimpses of horrible things but it isn't until they escalate that he feels he needs to do something about them. When he finds others of his unit have had similar experiences things start to unravel and sinister figures intervene.
CW: body horror, surgery, strobing effects
This is a 90s classic I missed and going into it cold thought it was going to be more Vietnam than it is.
With Jake flitting between different versions of reality, some grim and sinister, some mundane, some dreamily wholesome it should be more unsettling than it ends up. Instead it's just disjointed. There's an ambiguity about what's real and what's not but in a way that's just like random scenes thrown together.
I can see why this is highly influential, the more horrific parts look great, but as a whole it didn't work for me and the "shocking" ending has been done before but better.
Probably awesome in its day this is one that just feels dated now. 5/10 one of those cult movies which is influential but flawed.