The Jacketis a 2005 psychological thriller film directed by John Maybury that is partly based on the Jack London novel of the same name, released in the US asThe Star Rover. Massy Tadjedin wrote the screenplay based on a story by Tom Bleecker and Marc Rocco. The original music score is composed by Brian Eno and the cinematography is by Peter Deming .

After miraculously recovering from a bullet wound to the head, Gulf War veteran Jack Starks ( Adrien Brody ) returns to Vermont in 1992, suffering from periods of amnesia . While traveling, he sees a young girl, Jackie, and her mother in despair from a broken down truck, he helps them and moves on. A man driving along the same highway gives Jack a ride and they get pulled over by the police. Suddenly Starks is found on the deserted roadside with a dead policeman, the murder weapon, and a slug from the policeman's gun in Starks' body. Although he testifies there was someone else at the scene, his amnesia makes him unbelievable. Starks is found not guilty by reason of insanity, and is incarcerated in a mental institution.

Starks becomes subject to the experiments of Dr. Thomas Becker ( Kris Kristofferson ), a psychiatrist. In December 1992 Starks is injected with an experimental drug, bound in a straitjacket and placed in sensory deprivation within a morgue drawer. While in this condition, he is able to travel 15 years in the future. He meets an older version of Jackie at a roadside diner where she works because it is the only memory he can ever fully hold on to. While in the future, Jackie tells him that Jack Starks died on January 1st, 1993 and so he couldn't be who he says he is. After earning her trust, Starks goes back to the future numerous times to see her and together they try to figure out what causes the travesty.

With his time running out on January 1st, 1993, Starks writes a letter explaining Jackie's bleak future and takes it to her mother early that day, warning her that she will later orphan Jackie when she falls asleep with a cigarette and is burned to death. When he returns from delivering the letter, Starks slips on the ice and hits his head; bleeding profusely, he convinces the hospital workers to put him in the jacket one last time.

Starks returns to 2007, where Jackie has a better life than in the previous version of 2007. Reprising their first 2007 meeting, except this time, she's dressed in a nurse's uniform. She sees Starks standing in the snow and drives past him, but backs up when she notices his head wound. She stops and offers to take him to the hospital where she works. While in the car, Jackie receives a call from her mother -- still alive and well. They drive on, the screen fades to white, and a voice-over reveals that the link to the "previous" future is not lost when Jackie says "How much time do we have?" and the credits start to roll.