Flatliners is a 1990 American science fiction psychological horror film directed by Joel Schumacher, produced by Michael Douglas and Rick Bieber, and written by Peter Filardi.

The film was shot on the campus of Loyola University Chicago between October 1989 and January 1990,[4] and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Sound Editing in 1990 (Charles L. Campbell and Richard C. Franklin).

A follow-up film directed by Danish filmmaker Niels Arden Oplev was released in September 2017, also featuring Sutherland in a starring role.

[a] Medical student Nelson Wright convinces classmates Joe Hurley, David Labraccio, Rachel Manus, and Randy Steckle to help him discover what lies beyond death.

After arguing with Rachel and out-bidding her of the length of time that they are willing to remain “dead”, David is third to flatline on Halloween and sees a girl, Winnie Hicks, whom he bullied in grade school.

Joe, engaged to be married, is haunted by the women that he secretly videotaped during his sexual dalliances, who taunt him with the same false promises he used on them.

David stops him, and they return to town, where Rachel confronts Nelson about withholding the supernatural nature of the experiments from the rest of them, then storms off.

He apologizes to Rachel, whose guilt over his death is lifted after he reveals he was addicted to morphine and his suicide was related to post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from his tour in Vietnam.

"[11] Critic Roger Ebert praised the film as "an original, intelligent thriller, well-directed by Joel Schumacher" and called the cast "talented young actors, [who] inhabit the shadows with the right mixture of intensity, fear and cockiness".

"[12] Similarly, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine praised the film's young stars, but complained that "by dodging the questions it raises about life after death, Flatliners ends up tripping on timidity.

"[13] Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "D" rating and Owen Gleiberman wrote, "What isn't in evidence is the sort of overheated lunacy that made the William Hurt speed-freak trip movie Altered States (1980) such delectable trash.

Schumacher is too intent on pandering to the youth market to take the mad risks and plunges that make for a scintillating bad movie.

"[14] In contrast, The Washington Post's Rita Kempley loved the film, calling it: "a heart-stopping, breathtakingly sumptuous haunted house of a movie".

[16] On October 5, 2015, a follow-up starring Elliot Page and Diego Luna was announced,[17][18] following the casting of Nina Dobrev, James Norton and Kiersey Clemons.