By Robert Scucci
| Updated 37 seconds ago

Here’s a little word of advice for anyone who’s always hunting for the next thing to watch. When the burnout guitar tech named Zippy (portrayed by Bill Hader) in the 2016 musical mockumentary satire Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping casually mentions that he loves falling into a medically induced near-death experience for the rush, and cites 1990’s Flatliners as his inspiration, it’s not an open invitation to seek the film out and actually watch it. I did, and I have regrets.

My curiosity got the best of me because of a single throwaway joke that made me laugh harder than I care to admit, which ultimately forced me to seek out Flatliners. On paper, it checks a lot of boxes for me. It’s a sci-fi psychological horror thriller built around a pulpy concept, and it’s stacked with a mostly reliable roster of talent, including Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, Kevin Bacon, William Baldwin, and Oliver Platt. This should have at the very least been a solid B-movie, but it doesn’t even satisfy on that level. 

Medical Students Playing God With Each Other

On paper, Flatliners has a great concept, but the execution is anything but desirable. We’re introduced to Nelson Wright (Kiefer Sutherland), a medical student obsessed with experiencing death because he believes glimpsing the afterlife will provide answers to life’s biggest philosophical questions. Joining him are fellow students, including Rachel Manus (Julia Roberts), outspoken atheist David Labraccio (Kevin Bacon), womanizing sexpot Joe Hurley (William Baldwin), and the self important coward and unofficial scribe Randy Steckle (Oliver Platt).

The object of Nelson’s game in Flatliners is simple. He convinces his classmates to force him into a medically induced death, reviving him at the last possible moment so he can come back and report his findings. The first experiment is technically successful, but Nelson is permanently altered by the experience and immediately wants to go under again when given the chance. Joe pushes things even further when he volunteers, letting the clock run longer than is even remotely responsible, and comes back with his own unsettling revelations.

Tensions rise within the group as Nelson and Joe begin acting erratically, but David, the resident atheist, insists there has to be a logical explanation for what they’re seeing. Naturally, David gets flatlined next and experiences similar visions, followed shortly by Rachel, who has her own troubling experience.

The group eventually surmises that they’re being haunted by physical manifestations of their past sins, and resolve to figure out how to atone for their mistakes. The unfortunate reality in Flatliners is that the only way forward involves going under again, for longer and longer periods of time, in order to make peace with themselves and the increasingly hostile specters that follow them back.

Beware The Blue Light Special

Flashbacks and crossover sequences in Flatliners look like stock footage blasted with blue and red lighting as medical students play god with a makeshift death machine, recklessly chasing glimpses of the afterlife and dealing with the consequences later. Those consequences include disembodied kids beating Kiefer Sutherland with a hockey stick, along with other equally ridiculous encounters. Nobody owns furniture. And these deeply irresponsible medical experiments take place in a run-down wing of the university that seems perpetually on the verge of flooding or electrocuting everyone involved.

Listen, I’d like proof of an afterlife too, but there are better ways to go about it is all I’m saying. You could probably get similar results by pounding two Ghost energy drinks back to back and hopping on a Tilt-A-Whirl. You’re still putting your life in a carnie’s hands, sure, but at least afterward you can grab some funnel cake and call it a day.

Despite its cast and concept, Flatliners ultimately falls flat for reasons that still baffle me. For a movie with a reported production budget of $26 million, I genuinely have no idea where that money went, because it never shows up on screen in any way that justifies the expense. I own an LED strip and a phone full of Instagram filters that could recreate the same wobbly, blue soaked experience from my living room without breaking a sweat. None of this makes sense.

If you’re still intrigued by Zippy’s enthusiasm for Flatliners, the film is currently available on demand through YouTube, Apple TV+, Prime Video, and Fandango at Home.

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 10 seconds ago

The latest episode of Starfleet Academy had one of its 32nd-century cadets researching a legendary 24th-century figure: Benjamin Sisko, the captain of Deep Space Nine. While the show’s broad humor threatened to drag things down, this episode succeeded as a love letter to Sisko and the man who played him, Avery Brooks. On a larger level, the episode also works as a tribute to Deep Space Nine, the best Star Trek show ever made.

Accordingly, the show threw out DS9 references with almost as much speed and ferocity as Sisko’s fastball. With everything going on (from bar fights to farting fish to literal glitter vomit), it’s easy to miss these cool callbacks. But we’ve got you covered: just keep reading to discover all of the Deep Space Nine Easter eggs you may have missed in this week’s episode of Starfleet Academy!

Baseball, Mitt, And Hat

At one point in her investigation, SAM enters the Sisko Museum, filled with notable artifacts from his life. One of the first things we see is a baseball and a baseball glove, included in the museum because Sisko was such a fan of this outdated American sport. Presumably, the ball in the museum is the same one that was originally given to Sisko by an alien recreation of Buck Bokai, a fictional baseball hero.

Sisko kept that same ball in his office on Deep Space Nine, and he frequently played with it during tense situations like an old-school fidget. At one point, he and his crew engaged in a disastrous baseball game against one of his old Starfleet Academy rivals, a Vulcan whose superior strength meant he was always destined to win. Still, Sisko’s squad came to enjoy the camaraderie of simply playing baseball together, and the museum also houses the hat he wore when leading his team, The Niners.

Typewriter And Glasses

One of the more surprising inclusions in Starfleet Academy’s Sisko Museum is a typewriter; this is a nod to “Far Beyond the Stars,” in which Sisko experiences visions of living as a sci-fi writer named Benny Russell in 1950s America. The episode portrayed Russell as a Black writer held back by the racism of his time period, but this doesn’t keep him from writing a story about a fictional space station, Deep Space Nine. The episode tells a powerful story about race and racism while provocatively suggesting that the entire show Star Trek fans have been watching might all be in the head of a forgotten ‘50s writer.

It’s interesting to see the typewriter (and Benny’s glasses) in the Sisko Museum, especially since it never seemed like the captain filed an official report about what Starfleet would have likely considered a mental break. But he may have confided about Benny to Dax, who was also present when another delusion nearly kept him from opening the Orb of the Emissary. Considering this episode’s revelation that the Dax symbiont is alive and well and teaching at the academy, the presence of the typewriter makes a lot more sense. 

Anslem

In the most recent Starfleet Academy episode, the latest incarnation of Dax hands SAM Anslem, a book written by Jake Sisko. After opening the book, she interacts with what might be an intelligent hologram of the younger Sisko, or maybe he (being technically part-Prophet) simply transcended time and space. But what makes this book so special in the first place, and why was SAM so surprised to discover Jake finished it?

In the Deep Space Nine episode “The Muse,” young Jake comes under the influence of Onaya, an alien creature who feeds off creative energy; basically, she kills people, but only after unlocking their full potential. Under her influence, Jake begins Anslem, his first novel, but he doesn’t finish it because his father drives away Onaya. Deep Space Nine never revealed if Jake had finished Anslem in the main timeline, but Starfleet Academy confirmed that he secretly completed the book but decided against publishing it.

Orb Of The Emissary

When he was first stationed on Deep Space Nine, Benjamin Sisko was very skeptical about the Bajoran religion, but that all changed when their godlike Prophets (which he called wormhole aliens) selected him to become Space Jesus. After that, Sisko quickly learned about all the Bajoran beliefs, including the idea that the Prophets sent down special orbs to help guide and communicate with their chosen people. One of those was called the Orb of the Emissary and, in timey-wimey fashion, it held the Prophet that possessed Sisko’s mother and ensured that he was conceived.

When Sisko finds the orb and releases the Prophet, the powerful alien is able to cast out the evil pah-wraith inside the wormhole; this restores hope to the Bajoran people and makes the wormhole functional again. So, what we see in the Sisko Museum in Starfleet Academy isn’t just any orb. It’s the one that is tied to both the beginning of the Sisko and, ultimately, the end of the Dominion War, making it one of the coolest artifacts in the entire galaxy.

The Return Of Jake Sisko

Jake Sisko shows up in this episode of Starfleet Academy as an adult. He’s only a hologram, but an interactive one, so he talks SAM. Reprising the role is Cirroc Lofton, who also played Jake on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

The Return Of Dax

As mentioned previously, the Dax symbiote shows up on Starfleet Academy, in a new host called Illa Dax (played by Tawny Newsome). This Dax isn’t a Trill; she’s a Cardassian-Trill hybrid.

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