...that the main character was killed in Laos or Vietnam (remember when someone told him the experiment his troop had undergone was in Laos; that he'd never been to Vietnam?) when he was bayoneted by his fellow soldier or shortly thereafter, and that subsequent story told about his sort of redemptive purgatory and closure. He had to come to accept the loss of his son, his wife, his girlfriend, his own life. If this scenario is true I see no reconciliation in terms of the points you are making; so, maybe it's not true. Maybe he survived Vietnam, or Laos, and the after effects of the drug he'd been administered were what were causing all of his problems. But if that were the case why did that one character state that he'd never been in Vietnam? And why did certain characters keep telling him he was dead, and why did he keep asking if he were? Of course, other characters told him he was not dead, that he was very much alive, but this can be the case even for someone dead, see? At the end he's obviously dead, yet he climbs the stairs with his son - both alive hereafter. I agree, it's a movie which demands much study, and I like this kind.