Great Plot Twist (***** SPOILER *****) But . . .

This movie is utterly preposterous. Even considering the usual Hollywood standard of stretching everything well beyond the possible.

Just off my head:

1. A double-blind experiment where the head researcher and several other cronies know who got the placebo. That’s single-blind, not valid for a medical study.

2. A man scheduled to die is secretly removed by a government team who has the power to save him to use in an experiment without his consent and kill him if he refuses, or any other reason. Any problems there in the real world with judges, a constitution, the press, conspiracy, explaining the subject’s miraculous reappearance (as happens in the film) … ?

3. (My personal favorite) A medical researcher working for a PRIVATE FOR-PROFIT ENTITY can bark orders to federal agents involved in a conspiracy to commit more crimes than I have time to list. Not that the doctor himself and any others working under him wouldn’t face those same crimes + breaking every doctrine of medical ethics, starting with the Hippocratic Oath and basic rules governing patient consent.

Aside from these minor quibbles — i.e., REALITY, if you can find a way to enjoy the plot without being distracted by them there is a great twist in store: the protagonist subject never actually got the dangerous medicine — he got a placebo instead. Meaning, he reformed himself on his own (with the help of some therapists). Suddenly, it’s a different movie with better substance — human redemption. And unlike those previously-mentioned breaks with reality, this one fits everything that came before, including the mad doctor demanding a tripling of the already-proven-deadly experimental pill dose that seemed to be having no effect.

It’s a welcome change-up and one I never saw coming.