The Best Movie to Watch If You Love Lost
Lost fans craving mystery and emotional depth should start with Jacob's Ladder. Here are the best movies to watch next.
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Matthew Fox as Jack Shephard and Madison as Vincent in Lost. Credit: Courtesy of ABC.
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It’s been more than 15 years since Lost went off the air, ending a legendary run on broadcast television. Though the show could be frustratingly slow to reveal its secrets, it remains one of the best TV shows of the modern era—and one of the most influential, with a host of other series playing off a similar “mystery box” premise and shuffled timeline.
Fans of the show have never stopped looking for a viewing experience that matches it in terms of surprise and heartfelt, emotionally rich storytelling, so allow me to suggest the one movie that fits the bill perfectly: Jacob’s Ladder, a 1990 psychological thriller starring Tim Robbins.
Why Jacob’s Ladder Has Lost Vibes
On the surface, Jacob’s Ladder might not seem like an immediate match for the heady sci-fi-tinged, character-based storytelling of Lost—but once you dig deeper, the narrative and tonal parallels become clear. In the film, Jacob Singer (Robbins) is a struggling Vietnam veteran living in Brooklyn in 1975, four years after a disturbing incident with his unit that ended with Jacob being stabbed by a bayonet. Haunted by his dead son and his wartime experiences, Jacob descends into a living nightmare filled with hallucinations of monstrous figures. But something far more mysterious is happening, and while the ending is a clear antecedent to Lost’s infamous finale, there are many visual echoes as well.
Jacob’s Ladder is arguably a horror movie, and is certainly more frightening and disturbing than Lost, which was more philosophical and even optimistic in its approach. But the way Jacob’s reality is plagued by a mounting sense of mystery and dread will remind you a lot of the early seasons of Lost, when the Others and the Hatch were ominous mirages hiding in the shadows of that mysterious island. And the film’s ultimate payoff—and its message that sometimes, the devils we perceive to be attacking us are actually angels trying to save us—will resonate with anyone who was all-in on Jack Shephard’s inner struggles and Lost’s overarching themes of atonement and redemption.
Finally, there’s the non-linear way Jacob’s Ladder deals with time, which echoes the flashbacks, flash-forwards, and flash-sideways moments in Lost. As Jacob’s life dissolves into an increasingly hellish chaos, his experience of time becomes shuffled and blurred, with the past (and alternate futures) intruding on the present in disorienting ways. Just like in the show, these flashes of Jacob’s life slowly paint a picture of his true present and his ultimate fate. It’s an intense and often frightening film, but fans of Lost will love it. Stream Jacob’s Ladder on Fubo or rent it on Prime Video.
More Movies to Watch If You Love Lost
Need more mysterious islands, heavy sci-fi concepts, and stories of survival against supernatural forces? Here are a few more movies for Lost fans.
Sweetheart (2019)
Deserted island? Check. Mysterious monster? Check. Flawed people hiding secrets? Check. When her boat sinks, Jenn (Kiersey Clemons) washes ashore on an island where the only sign of humanity is a set of old graves. At night, she’s attacked by a terrifying sea monster. When some of her friends wash up on the beach, having also survived the disaster, they don’t believe Jenn’s warnings—and she begins to wonder if she can trust them. If you loved the survival aspect of Lost’s story combined with the complex (and often hidden) relationships between the characters, Sweetheart will go down easy.