Coma

Overview

A feisty, feminist intern uncovers a medical conspiracy in this icy thriller about mysterious goings-on at Boston Memorial Hospital. When her best friend and aerobics partner, Nancy Greenly (Lois Chiles), emerges in a vegetative state from a routine abortion, Dr. Susan Wheeler (Genevieve Bujold) does some digging and discovers an overabundance of anesthesia-induced comas among otherwise healthy young patients. The male authority figures who challenge Susan's technically illegal tampering with medical records include her boss, Dr. Harris (Richard Widmark); the chief anesthesiologist, Dr. George (Rip Torn); and even her boyfriend, Dr. Mark Bellows (Michael Douglas), who doesn't want Susan's shenanigans to get in the way of his shot at chief resident. As Susan continues her crusade, the paper trail leads to the Jefferson Institute, a mysterious, experimental facility in which vegetative patients are stored en masse, suspended from the ceiling by wires threaded through their long bones, in order to reduce the cost of long-term care. A shadowy assailant begins to stalk Susan just as she uncovers the link between the Jefferson Institute and the comas at Boston Memorial, setting the stage for climactic suspense scenes involving morgues, malpractice and endless institutional corridors. Writer/director Michael Crichton adapted his second feature film from Robin Cook's bestseller of the same name. Tom Selleck, who would star in Crichton's Runaway several years later, appears briefly in Coma as another victim of lethal anesthesia.

Product Details

Release Date:	11/09/2010
UPC:	0883929155446
Original Release:	1978
Rating:	PG
Source:	Warner Home Video
Region Code:	1
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	1:53:00
Sales rank:	17,779

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Genevieve Bujold	Dr. Susan Wheeler
Michael Douglas	Dr. Mark Bellows
Richard Widmark	Dr. Harris
Elizabeth Ashley	Mrs. Emerson
Rip Torn	Dr. George
Lois Chiles	Nancy Greenly
Hari Rhodes	Dr. Morelind
Gary Barton	Computer Technician
Frank Downing	Kelly
Richard Doyle	Jim
Alan Haufrect	Dr. Marcus
Lance Le Gault	Vince
Michael MacRae	Chief Resident
Betty McGuire	Nurse
Tom Selleck	Murphy
Charles Siebert	Dr. Goodman
William Wintersole	Lab Technician
Ernest Anderson	Doctor
Harry Basch	Doctor
Maury Cooper	Doctor
Joni Palmer	Dance Instructor
Joanna Kerns	Diane
Kay Cole	Sally
Sarina C. Grant	Woman in Elevator,Woman in Elevator
Hari (Harry) Rhodes	Dr. Morelind
Benny Rubin	Mr. Schwartz
David Hollander	Jimmy
Dick Balduzzi	First Maintenance Man
Gary Bisig	Second Maintenance Man
Mike Lally	Security Man
Duane Tucker	First Man in Shower
Paul Ryan	First Technician
David McKnight	Man in Elevator
Robert Burton	Pathology Resident #1
Ed Harris	Pathology Resident #2
Joe Bratcher	Surgical Resident
Martin Speer	Surgical Resident
Roger Newman	Surgical Resident
Lois Walden	Nurse
Tom Borut	Dr. Cowans
Philip G. Brooks	Dr. Richards
Kurt Andon	First Cop
Wyatt Johnson	Second Cop
John Widlock	Norman
Del Hinkley	Second Man in Shower
Michael Mann	Second Technician
Gerald Benston	Anesthetist
Paul Davidson	Surgical Resident
Amentha Dymally	Nurse
Sharron Frame	Nurse
Sue Bugden	Nurse
Susie Luner	Nurse
Gerald Berns	Security Guard
Edward C. Higgins	Security guard #2
Don Torres	Actor
Jerry Goldsmith	Composer

Technical Credits

Michael Crichton

Michael Crichton	Director,Screenwriter
Joe Day	Special Effects
Martin Erlichman	Producer
Ernie Smith	Special Effects
Sam Christensen	Casting
Joyce Robinson	Casting
Michael Kohut	Sound/Sound Designer
William McCaughey	Sound/Sound Designer
Aaron Rochin	Sound/Sound Designer
Bill Griffith	Sound/Sound Designer
John Riordan	Sound Editor
Harry V. Lojewski	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

One of medical expert/author/filmmaker Michael Crichton's stronger directorial efforts, this taut '70s conspiracy thriller features a button-pushing premise, lots of disturbing imagery, and an appealing heroine played by the sexy, cerebral Genevieve Bujold. The dogmatism of Coma's feminist themes comes directly from Robin Cook's source novel; the fact that the first victim is a sexy woman seeking an illicit abortion is about as subtle as the film's gender politics get. In one of her biggest hits ever, though, Bujold manages to overcome such stridency by simply playing what she plays best: a woman of steely self-determination, strong intellect, and unselfconscious sensuality. Meanwhile, Rip Torn, Richard Widmark, and Michael Douglas provide an early Hollywood example of pervasive male villainy. Douglas' ambitious, arrogant doctor helped build the template for his enduringly sleazy screen persona. One intriguing lapse in the feisty-heroine-vs.-old-boy-network plot comes in the form of Elizabeth Ashley's crisp, sinister medical administrator; the veteran stage actress turns her small role into the very picture of institutional dread. Although Crichton's script proves more capable of suggesting its conspiracy than explaining it, the writer/director does build an effectively escalating sense of dread. A better visual stylist -- for example, David Cronenberg, who must have had Coma in mind when he cast Bujold in Dead Ringers -- could have turned this material into something even more insidiously disturbing. Nevertheless, Coma is an effective thriller whose vision of medicine corrupted by profit is as chilling and relevant as it is heavy-handed.