Earlier this year, Kiefer Sutherland revealed during an interview that he’d be reprising his role from the original Flatliners for director Neils Arden Oplev’s Flatliners, essentially making this year’s film more of a sequel than a straight up remake.
In the finished cut of the film, however, you may have noticed that Sutherland’s character has a different name and doesn’t actually appear to be the same character from the 1990 film. But make no mistake, Sutherland is playing Nelson in the Flatliners remakequel, and a deleted scene was originally going to make that crystal clear.
Oplev spilled the beans on the deleted scene to Collider.
“There was a scene with Kiefer [Sutherland]… it was in the very end of the film, and he told this long, strange story about a famous doctor, that had death as his Godfather,” the director told the site. “And he does it super well and it like two minutes long, and Diego [Luna] and Kiersey [Clemons] and James [Norton] are sitting there, as their characters, staring at him thinking ‘what the fuck is going on with him.’”
“And he kinda ends up saying you, ‘You can’t cheat death, and believe me, I know.’ Which… ‘Trust me, I know.’ Which was a scene that the older audience liked,” Oplev continued. “Because, it was like, ‘Oh, he is, he has changed his name but he is Nelson from the old film.’ But the younger audience didn’t understand diddly-squat of that scene. They were like, ‘Why… What the hell is this guy talking about?’ So in the end, it slowed down the ending and I just decided that the younger audience, the new generation of Flatliners is mainly who this film is for. And the older audience who can remember the old film, they would you know who Kiefer’s character is, maybe. It’s ambiguous but they’ll think that he is him anyhow.”
In the new Flatliners, which bombed at the box office over the weekend, “five medical students, hoping to gain insight into the mystery of what lies beyond the confines of life, embark on a daring and dangerous experiment. By stopping their hearts for short periods of time, each triggers a near-death experience. As the investigation becomes more and more perilous, they are forced to confront the sins of their pasts, as well as contend with the paranormal consequences of trespassing to the other side.”
