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Geneviève Bujold, Michael Douglas, Elizabeth Ashley

Something is awry at Boston General Hospital. Dr. Wheeler's (Genevieve Bujold) friend Nancy goes in for a routine procedure, but never comes out of the anesthesia and slips into a coma. Wheeler lear...( read more  read more... )ns that a tissue sample from the young woman went to the lab, then soon finds out that a high number of patients have become comatose recently. She digs a little deeper and finds a conspiracy mired in hospital politics, running afoul of the head of anesthesia, Dr. George (Rip Torn) and the head of surgery, Dr. Harris (Richard Widmark). Nobody believes the young MD, not even her boyfriend Dr. Bellows (Michael Douglas), but she soon uncovers a black-market trade in body parts, conducted offsite at the Jefferson Institute, a state-of-the-art coma-care facility. As a thriller, Coma certainly has its moments (the scene where a hit man is buried under a pile of frozen-stiff cadavers is an inspired touch), but it's not without its problems. Director Michael Crichton is an MD himself, and the film has a seamless, almost mechanical structure and plotline (taken from the Robin Cook novel). However, the movie's cold, detached feel works against it at times, making the suspense scenes oddly more effective but rendering the emotional content of the characters rather flat. Douglas in particular seems to not put much into his performance; Bujold, on the other hand, is strong and resourceful as the movie's protagonist. More telling, perhaps, is the way that the story shows its age in a time when medical ethics have changed and the phrase "organ harvesting" has made its way into our lexicon. --Jerry Renshaw

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54% liked it

6,267 ratings

PG, 113 min.

Directed by: Michael Crichton

Release Date: January 6, 1978

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DVD Release Date: January 29, 2008

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Stats: 196 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (196)

  • clooneyfan
    March 17, 2008
    clooneyfan
    This will make you think twice before having surgery!
  • flynnparadox
    September 19, 2006
    flynnparadox
    Tense thriller with the very good and underused Genevieve Bujold in the lead. Supporting performances are quite good, too.
  • YouTookPossessionOfMyLife
    August 23, 2009
    YouTookPossessionOfMyLife
    you got me in a comaaa :p i love GNR
  • grayavec
    August 18, 2009
    grayavec
    Interesting concept. Decently acted. Oddly enough, the only downside to the movie is the scenes of tension. They last a little bit too long without enough scare, and at the end of the scene, the conclusion goes 'pfft'. The only thing that turned my stomach was the idea that t...( read more)hey drilled the hooks into their bones in order to suspend the coma patients. Ouch.
  • sleepykiss
    July 21, 2009
    sleepykiss
    I really enjoyed this flick as a kid & it still holds up today. Watch for Tom Selleck as one of the coma patients.
  • Soundsofmadness
    April 9, 2009
    Soundsofmadness
    No thanks - Not interested.
  • azidicbunny
    April 8, 2009
    azidicbunny
    Good story line... Gotta cut it some slack for being cheesy since it is from the late 70's.. but then again, there is a lot of bad acting. Though, not on Michael Douglas' part.
  • louisa2466
    December 21, 2008
    louisa2466
    Better than I expected.
  • tallo2
    November 29, 2008
    tallo2
    Not many people know that docters are killers too. They are harvesting people organ in the state of coma for rich buyers.
    bonikingv
  • cycleman343
    August 16, 2008
    cycleman343
    they cut too much of the book

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Coma Trivia

  • Which movie did Reese Witherspoon play a ghost whose body was in a coma?  Answer »
  • What actor was in Men in Black, ,Men in Black II, Dodgeball, Her Own Story, RoboCop 3, Coma, Cold Feet, Baby Doll, and Tropic of Cancer?  Answer »
  • In which movie did brendon fraser play a comic writer in a coma?  Answer »
  • In what movie did Reese Witherspoon go into a coma and mingle with a man who was living in her apartment while she was in the coma?  Answer »
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