Coma

Plot synopsis:
Dr. Susan Wheeler (Geneviève Bujold) is a surgical resident at Boston Memorial Hospital. Wheeler is devastated when a patient, who happens to be her best friend, is pronounced brain dead and ends up in a coma after minor surgery at the hospital.
Looking at the records, Susan finds that over the previous year a number of other fit young people have ended up the same way. She comes across two similarities to the cases: they all took place in the same operating theatre (operating room eight), and all the comatose bodies were moved to a remote facility called the Jefferson Institute. She continues to investigate, increasingly alone, starting to wonder if she can trust even her own boyfriend, Dr. Mark Bellows (Michael Douglas).
Eventually she discovers that the Jefferson Institute is a front for black-market organ sales, where the patients' organs are sold to the highest bidder. Boston Memorial is in on this, purposely inducing comas in patients whose organs match those of potential buyers. The patients are rendered brain dead via covert carbon monoxide poisoning, through a pipe that leads from the basement to the OR.
Susan's investigation then reveals the mastermind behind all of it - Dr. George Harris (Richard Widmark), Chief of Surgery, whom she has been confiding in all along. Dr. Harris tries to stop Susan from exposing the truth, and attempts to render her brain-dead with carbon monoxide in operating room eight, under the pretext of performing an appendectomy. However, Mark, now having realized the truth as well, manages to find and disconnect the pipe before it can poison Susan.
Susan, now awake, is wheeled out of the operating room holding Mark's hand. Meanwhile, Dr. Harris stands defeated in the operating room, as two police officers wait outside to arrest him.

Tags: suspenseful, neo noir, murder

Review:
As a squirrelly doctor at a Boston hospital who smells a rat when her best friend mysteriously goes into an anesthesia-related coma during a routine operation, Genevieve Bujold proves once again what a dynamic presence she is on the screen.
As a mystery-thriller that is so filled with continuity errors, gaps in logic and a final act that gives the audience the satisfying release it needs but at the risk of all credibility, "Coma" shouldn't work (and, indeed, many fans of Robin Cook's wordy book didn't think it did).
The main character who played Dr. Susan Wheeler was perfect as the stern, and cold Doctor who's best friend goes in for a routine operation and then is rendered into a mysterious brain dead Coma.
Michael Douglas is even great, although only in it as a supporting character, as Dr. Wheeler's Doctor boyfriend who she tries to convince something terrible is going on within the hospital.
The other actors did swell, especially Widmark, Torn and Ashley.Bujold gives an energetic performance and is utterly believable as the paranoid yet justifiably suspicious doctor seeking the answer to the question: "There have been 12 cases of unexplained coma in young healthy patients the last year; don't you find that surprising?" And everybody replies: "No." And there's of course the priceless Jefferson Institute.
Yes, I just discovered the picture and enjoyed my 2 hours in company of Geneviève Bujold.The film is set in a Hospital which feels and looks just like the real one, what verisimilitude!
Based on Robin Cook's novel, the story goes that Dr. Susan Wheeler (Genevieve Bujold) a resident in the Boston Memorial Hospital suspects something is wrong when too many patients come out in a coma after minor surgery.
When nobody takes her seriously she starts an investigation of her own and then realizes she is on dangerous ground for someone is trying to stop her even if she has to die.Michael Crichton takes the most from Cook's book and assembles a most enjoyable thriller with tension all along, intrigue and an impacting ending too.
Among the shocking and powerful sequences this movie offers there's the chasing of Wheeler by a hired killer that lasts in the hospital's morgue full with dead bodies hanging from the ceiling in transparent plastic bags in a sort of subrealistic scene; her visit to the mysterious Jefferson Institute where coma patients are held; the "accidental" death by electrocution of a cleaning employee of the hospital that knows to much; and the final discovery by Wheeler of how things are and who is behind them.Genevieve Bujold gives a fine performance as the stubborn Wheeler and Michael Duoglas is alright too as her work partner and lover (not a very demanding role anyway).
And there's finally Richard Widmark very convincing as the Medical Center's Director who shows sympathy for Wheeler although he believes she's just a trouble maker that could ruin the Hospital's reputation.A great thriller that constantly improves as the film goes on.
"Coma" is an overlooked 1978 film that stars Canadian actress Genevieve Bujold ("Anne of the Thousand Days", "Tightrope") and Michael Douglas, with surprise appearances from Ed Harris and Tom Selleck.
Although some may be disappointed by the weak resolution at the end of the film, an effectively frightening score and edge-of-your-seat suspense make this one of the best thrillers in history, and the film proves that modern special effects and superhuman stunts and action are not necessary to make a movie of this genre a winner.
A few years after directing "Westworld" and a few years before writing "Jurassic Park", Michael Crichton directed this eerie adaptation of Robin Cook's "Coma", depicting sinister occurrences in a Boston hospital.
The general feel set throughout the movie by the directing is similar to Roman Polanski's 'Frantic', where you can feel the tight edge to the film without the help of acting or music.Secondly, the script, also by Michael Crichton, is superb.
Michael Douglas is also brilliant as Dr. mark Bellows, Susan's boyfriend who never completely believes her story until the end.Finally, without the score by Jerry Goldsmith the movie wouldn't be nearly as suspenseful as it is.
Genevieve Bujold plays a young female doctor at fictitious Boston Memorial hospital who loses her best friend in a routine surgical procedure that goes suddenly wrong and leaves her suspended in an irreversible coma.
Genevieve Bujold is excellent as a doctor who feels that something sinister is behind a series of operations whose recipients have emerged comatose.A coma is the last thing that the audience is in danger of succumbing to as Ms Bujold is pursued by the agents of whoever is behind the conspiracy to turn hospital patients into organ fodder for the futuristic and scary Jefferson Institute.One of the things I hate in movies is the cheap suspense creation trick of filming everything in partial darkness or bad light ('Alien' and 'Seven' being notorious exponents of this ploy) to hide the stalker or some disturbing sight from the viewer.
This leads to more sensational aspects that I leave to you to uncover.By her side, either for her or against her (you can't tell after awhile) are two huge Hollywood names, an aging Richard Widmark as the head of the hospital and a young Michael Douglas as another up and coming surgeon (and Bujold's lover).
Dr. Susan Wheeler (Geneviève Bujold) and Dr. Mark Bellows (Michael Douglas) are resident surgeons in Boston Memorial Hospital and are living together.
Susan discovers that all the comas come from one operating room and the patients get transferred to Jefferson Institute for long term care.Michael Crichton directs and adapts the novel by Robin Cook.
When a young female doctor (Geneviève Bujold) notices an unnatural amount of comas occurring in her hospital she uncovers a horrible conspiracy.Maybe I am just too young, but I think of Michael Crichton as really blossoming in the 1990s.
Excellent chemistry between Michael Douglas and Genevieve Bujold, Elizabeth Ashley is cool, and nobody plays a better bad guy than Richard Widmark.
A young doctor at a hospital, Susan Wheeler (played by Genevieve Bujold), starts noticing a pattern of strange occurrences with patients.
Susan Wheeler is a young doctor, whose best friend falls into a coma, and later dies.She discovers that many relatively healthy patients of that hospital have the same faith.She also finds out that those patients are taken to Jefferson Institute, where their bodies are hanging.She realizes she can't trust anyone, maybe not even her boyfriend.Michael Crichton is the director of Coma (1978).Hospital was a familiar environment to Crichton, who sadly passed away last year to throat cancer.Not only was he an author or a director, he worked as a physician.Coma is based on fellow author Robin Cook's novel.Geneviéve Bujold does a great job in the lead.The young Michael Douglas as her boyfriend Mark is great.A magnificent thriller..
It is a cover-up thriller about  Dr Wheeler (G.Bujold), who after her best friend falls into a coma, discovers similar cases at the Boston hospital where she works.
As another reviewer has pointed out, many thrillers make use of dark, claustrophobic settings, so it must have been a challenge to the ingenuity of writer/director Michael Crichton, himself a former doctor, to conjure up an atmosphere of suspense in a cold, clinical, brightly lit hospital.
Some of the suspense sequences in "Coma" have a particularly macabre quality to them, especially the scene where Susan is menaced by a villain in a refrigerator filled with corpses in body-bags.Michael Douglas (in one of his earliest starring roles as Mark) is adequate but seldom more than that.
Genevieve Bujold, however, is rather better as Susan, making her an attractively determined heroine, and there are good supporting performances from Richard Widmark as Dr Harris, Susan's paternalistic boss who may not be all he seems, and from Elizabeth Ashley as Mrs Emerson, the weird, zombie-like nurse (a sort of Stepford Wife of the medical world) at the sinister Jefferson Institute where the coma patients are taken.
One can also spot a few stars of the future in minor roles, such as Tom Selleck, Ed Harris and Bond-Girl-to-be Lois Chiles as Nancy.There are (as others have pointed out) a number of holes in the plot- I could not, for example, understand why the medical establishment of the hospital were so complacent about the number of patients they were losing to coma.
The film's plot follows the mysterious goings on at a hospital after several patients slip into comas.
Director / screenplay writer, Michael Crichton's "Coma" is a glum medical thriller with a very scary idea and builds suspense and intrigue up like Hitchcock flick.
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..
Genevieve Bujold plays a young doctor who comes to realize that healthy people in her hospital have a high incidence of coma.
A surgical resident in a large Boston hospital, Dr. Susan Wheeler (Genevieve Bujold), becomes suspicious when she investigates why her best friend, a healthy young woman, becomes brain dead after minor surgery.
She must also wonder about her boyfriend Mark Bellows (Michael Douglas), a fellow doctor, and how much she can trust him.Crichton knows how to craft an engaging thriller, one that moves along so steadily one may hardly notice that it takes up the better part of two hours.
It's a good thing for her the Jefferson Institute can't boast the worlds' most efficient security staff.Scored effectively by Jerry Goldsmith (whose music supplements the movie without automatically calling attention to itself), "Coma" is thoroughly engaging.
Even though there's much medically-oriented dialogue that would go over the head of the layperson, Crichton still gets all of the salient points across.Douglas is good as the boyfriend, Rip Torn glowers superbly as a haughty anesthesiology expert, and Richard Widmark remains great value as Susans' superior, who tries to be supportive of her.
Bujold & Douglas are young residents in a respected Boston hospital who discover that many young, healthy patients who go in for routine operations, are coming out in ireversable comas for no reason.
After watching this film you will be able to recognise all the other films that are based on Robin Cook stories: they are pretty formulaic.The plot starts off slowly, and then gathers pace towards the end, which is just as well, or else we would notice the holes in the plot.Why does Susan Wheeler, a doctor, get hysterical about a refrigerated room full of corpses in body bags?
Michael Douglas does not have a very good part, but Bujold, Ashley and Widmark make the best of the script.This film is like a dish of rotting meat that is heavily spiced to disguise the bad taste..
i was somewhat disappointed in this medical thriller.for one thing,except for 2 or 3 scenes,i didn't find it all that thrilling.i also thought it sure took a long time to get where it was going.it wasn't boring.it was just interesting enough to keep watching.and i did like the dark look and tone of the movie.and the movie definitely had its creepy moments.there's even a scene that's reminiscent of The Stepford Wives,the original version,not the remake.however,i didn't like the ending.i just found it made the movie seem unfinished.there was no resolution.the acting was pretty good from all concerned.i thought Richard Widmark was the best of the bunch though.anyway,for me Coma is a 5.5/10.
The movie also has a very solid supporting cast, with lots of actors that later grew out to be big ones, such as of course Michael Douglas but also Rip Torn, Tom Selleck and Ed Harris, who portray some much smaller roles.Overall this still is one fine typical '70's thriller.
Based on Robin Cook's novel, adapted and directed by author Michael Crichton, this hospital thriller has Genevieve Bujold and Michael Douglas as doctors and intimates who become involved in an apparent conspiracy after a series of mysterious deaths plague their hospital.
Though Bujold tries to convince her boss(played by Richard Widmark) of her concerns, he just says that its all just unfortunate coincidences, though she remains unconvinced, and as it turns out, with good reason...High concept thriller about unethical surgery and the value of human life wrapped up in a vast conspiracy thriller fails to come off, though it has an interesting premise, there is little interest in Bujold's character, and the film remains an unconvincing potboiler.
A lady doctor discovers a series of inexplicable comas in the fame Boston Memorial Hospital and begins an investigation with macabre results.Based on a bestselling book; this cold, humourless, generally thrilling, often frightening medical thriller in the best Hitchcock style was definitely at the centre of fashion on its release and started a minor cult following.
Dr. Susan Wheeler (Genevieve Bujold) wants to know why much to the disappointment of her doctor boyfriend (Michael Douglas).
He's very much attuned to hospital politics and there's as much of that in the medical field as any other.Michael Crichton's novel is turned into one creepy movie that gets creepier by the minute as Bujold uncovers more and more of the story.
Bujold for instance, scared as she is, proves quite the match for Lance LeGault who's trying to kill her.Some others in the cast are Richard Widmark, head of the hospital medical staff where she works in Boston, Rip Torn the very well connected head of anesthesiology which seems to be where the problem lies and Lois Chiles whose case sparks Bujold's interest.Making early film bit appearances are Ed Harris and Tom Selleck.
There's a wonderful stalking sequence in which Bujold finds herself being chased by a murderous mystery man, which makes the best use of a hospital I've yet to see in a movie - forget the gory, boring HALLOWEEN 2, this is the real stuff and with not a drop of blood to be seen.
The story of Coma is about a hospital where something suspicious is going on, as discovered by our lead character – Dr. Susan Wheeler.The movie then shows how her suspicions prove to be right but she gradually discovers the complexity of the plot and is then faced with a dilemma as to who can be trusted and who cannot be trusted.
The suspense is highlighted by a typically brilliant Jerry Goldsmith score.Things To Look Out For - one of the doomed patients is a young Tom Selleck ( future 'Magnum P.I.' ).Film versions of books are often inferior, but 'Coma' does not dumb down the story.
Spunky and determined Dr. Susan Wheeler (a terrific performance by Genevieve Bujold) suspects that something is amiss at the hospital she works at after a large volume of healthy patients develop complications while undergoing routine operations that cause them to slip into comas.Writer/director Michael Crichton relates the gripping story at a constant pace, expertly crafts a considerable amount of nerve-wracking suspense that develops in a gradual, yet steady manner, and wisely puts a pronounced enhance on the story and characters over any fancy gimmicks or loud fireworks.
The two main characters, Michael Douglas(Dr. Mark Bellows) and Genevieve Bujold( Dr. Susan Wheeler).
Coma is set in Boston where Dr. Susan Wheeler (Genevieve Bujold) & her boyfriend the chief resident surgeon Dr Mark Bellows (Michael Douglas) work at the flagship Boston Memorial Hospital.
Susan's investigations take her to the Jefferson institute where the coma patients are taken & where she finds out the horrible truth...Written & directed by Michael Crichton this is a pretty decent thriller.
The character's are good, the dialogue is OK & the story is interesting but I just couldn't help but feel a little bored while watching it.Director Crichton is usually better known for his big budget screenplays like Jurassic Park (1993) but he turns in a relatively tight & taught thriller even if it's a little slow going at times.
The cast do a good job & the acting is fine, this was an early role for Michael Douglas & as such isn't the star while Tom Selleck has a small role & loses his kidneys.Coma is a decent thriller that entertains to an extent, there are some interesting ideas & notions but it's all just a little bit too slow going & unspectacular for my liking.
That was just the absolute worst stuff of horror one could imagine if you were somebody like Dr. Susan Wheeler (Genevieve Bujold) investigating the sudden 'deaths' of patients coming out of Operating Room #8.So with all the possible nightmare conspiracy thoughts going through Wheeler's head, I was rather surprised that the story reverted back to a 'keep it simple' strategy by the outlaw doctors running this little medical scam.
Plot : Geneviève Bujold investigates shady goings on in a Hospital and finds her life in danger.Acting : Serviceable, Richard Widmark was my fave performance, big fan of his movies from the 50's.