Wow! Such a good movie.

Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Medical Thriller from Director Michael Crichton from the Best Selling Novel by Robin Cook. It is a Suspenseful Movie with Realistic Medical Procedures (that may send sensitive souls to the bathroom) with some Dark Upper Corridors and Dark Implications of Rich and Powerful People Playing Fast and Loose with Morally Questionable Control of Body Parts.It seems Folks aren't Dying Fast Enough Naturally for the Needed Transplants so the Doctors Assist Surgery Patients Along the Natural Life Cycle and are Used for Spare Parts for those Wealthy Enough to Write Enormous Checks for Maintenance.Genevieve Bujold and Michael Douglas Star and the Social Commentary is Heavy, not only with the Ethics and Criminal Behavior of the Medical Community but has a Distinctive and sometimes Over the Top Script about a Woman's Need for Liberation.The Domestic and Personal Relationship Dialog is "In Your Face" and Corny at times. Early On during a Lover's Spat Douglas Calls Her Honey and She Replies with a Stern Scorn and says "Don't call me honey!" Later in the Movie He Calls Her "Honey" so many times You Lose Count and the Aforementioned Scolding is Abandoned for more Dangerous Concerns.The Women's Lib Commentary is more Subtle and Effective Regarding Professional Inequality.Overall a Superior Entry in the Conspiratorial Films of the Seventies that Pay Homage to the Previously Unmentionable "Truths" Uncovered by Real Life Investigators of the Abuse of Power from the JFK Assassination to the Flying Saucer Coverups.

Absorbing thriller, with taut direction by Crichton, an outstanding performance by Bujold and yet another spectacular score by Jerry Goldsmith. The notion of harvesting body parts is definitely still Timely (and I'm not talking about the inane fuss kicked up by politicos vying for funds regarding abortion or stem cell research or any of the rest of it): not long ago, former Vice president Dick Cheney needed yet ANOTHER heart replacement and managed, magically, to move to the head of the line of people waiting for heart transplants. What happened THERE...? COMA suggests possibilities. And the remark about hospitals being "the cathedrals of our age" has never been truer. (I had a doctor tell me once that I had six months to live. I divested myself of all the things I'd accumulated over my lifetime that I planned to "sit back and enjoy in my old age": a vintage collection of FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND magazine; scores of collectible comics; books by the hundreds (including a complete run of paperback reprints of THE SHADOW from the late '60s, most in mint condition, and almost every single one of the Robert E. Howard collections from the same era, ALL of them in mint condition), etc. Seven months later, I went back to talk to that same doctor. I wanted to know WHY he told me that I had six months to live. His response: "I don't know WHY I told you that." That was about four years ago. Let that be a lesson for you: ALWAYS get a second opinion.)

This threw out the possibility that at some point, when money talked loudly enough, those who could afford it could bypass the the organ transplant protocols and simply buy their substitute organs. That's a possibility, but like the grave robbers of the 19th Century, with a shortage of lungs and hearts and livers and kidneys, perhaps one needs to harvest them in a whole new way. Genevieve Bujold plays a young doctor who comes to realize that healthy people in her hospital have a high incidence of coma. When she investigates, it becomes obvious that she is being kept from the truth; more than that, her life is probably in danger. This movie was controversial. Robin Cook's book was a big bestseller. Certainly provocative but not as good as it could have been.

Coma is a medical drama about the scary side of the medical profession, the what if this could happen. It still makes the hairs on my neck stand up, one of Crichton's scariest films.The movie takes place at Boston General hospital. The two main characters, Michael Douglas(Dr. Mark Bellows) and Genevieve Bujold( Dr. Susan Wheeler). The two doctor's have a rocky relationship. They love each other, but they can get on each others nerves. Dr. Wheeler is a doctor who is smart and doesn't get the respect from some of her colleagues , because she's female.One day her best friend, Nancy Greenly goes in for a simple procedure, but does not wake up. She is in a Coma, on life support. When Wheeler finds out she is devastated, she wonders what went wrong? She is so upset she tells Mark, he explains to her that something must of happened with the anesthesia. At first you don't know if Bellows is on her side or not, because he doesn't seem that concerned. Then when another patient comes in for knee surgery, Sean Murphy(Tom Selleck) the same thing happens to him. Wheeler does some investigating, and finds out the two surgeries were done in OR 8. It gets around to Dr. Harris( Richard Windmark) about her snooping and she needs to drop it. In order to keep her position at the hospital she must also see a hospital psychiatrist. She is also warned by Bellows and this starts to put a strain on him , and his promotion. Bellow explains that these are powerful people, especially Dr. George(Rip Torn); the head of anesthesiology.She ignores the advice and finds out these coma patients are taken to The Jefferson Institute. A center for long-term coma care, among other things.One day Mark and Susan go away for the weekend, upon returning they pass The Jefferson Institute. Once there Wheeler is already suspicious. There she meets the nurse( Elizabeth Ashley). Susan believe she is getting closer to the truth and the answer lies her at the institute. She also thinks Mark is involved which really drives her into more hysteria. She learns that people are deliberately being put into comas. The next day one of the custodians approaches her, and tells her how they do it. When she goes back to the hospital to find out the mystery, she realizes she is being followed. The fixer( Lance Legault) chases her though out the hospital. She discovers the custodian has been killed, and how they are putting people in coma's. she is getting closer to the truth because of the looks she gets in the doctor' lounge especially by Dr. George. He dislikes her because she independent and nosy. She doesn't know who to trust, that day she arrives at the institute for the tour. Once there she finds out everything, the Jefferson Institute is a front. They are really harvesting and selling human organs to the highest bidder all over the world. Wheeler's next step is to find out who is behind it. Once back at the hospital She and Dr. Harris have a discussion about it. He is the the one who is behind it; and wheeler doesn't realize this until he tries to kill her. He schedules an unnecessary surgery, telling the other staff it's her appendix. He will try to kill her while making it look like an anesthesia reaction. When Mark arrives he doesn't think anything of it until Dr. Harris demands OR 8. It will be up to Mark to try and save her before it's to late.Coma is a classic suspenseful medical thriller. When I had my first surgery in 1998, all I could think of was this movie. We all think doctor's would do their best, when our lives are in their hands. COMA shows the dark side of the medical profession, that we hope never will happen. A great film I would recommend to anyone, a true classic.THX, Kris L. CocKayne