Möbius Strip logic in Jacob's Ladder - Untagged Spoilers in 1st Post!

The ending shows that Jacob died in Vietnam from his wound. He could not be living in NYC afterwards. The whole "after Vietnam" does not really exist for Jacob.

There are many reasons that the plot is flawed -- you correctly point out one. There are others. The plot has been argued to death on other forums and media platforms, with not much agreement.

I think I prefer to interpret that we are lost in the maze with Jacob, that our attempt to force epistemic closure on the text only takes us back into the labyrinth.



Ultimately, we are only released when Jacob is released. Jacob's release is death and/or transcendent release. For us, the film merely ends (roll credits) and we're released from the nightmare.



Part of the terror of the film is the lack of logical coherence, and this brings with it the terror of the world fundamentally not making sense, at bottom (which is a scary thought). This film is unique in that other horror films in that they try to get us to turn off our rational minds to embrace primal terror, but for this story our rational detective work is part of the source of the terror. To escape the nightmare we must turn our rational minds off, accept that we don't know, and accept the charity of release that comes at the end.

This plot hole always drove me nuts too and I feel it would have probably just been a better movie if it didn't have the ending. But then again the movie is actually very effective in generating suspense and atmosphere so it's tought to judge for sure.