"Coma," directed by Michael Crichton and based on the novel by Robin Cook, is a refreshingly straightforward hospital thriller starring Geneviève Bujold as Dr. Susan Wheeler and Michael Douglas as her partner ("boyfriend" seems a bit trite), Dr. Mark Bellows. There is a great casual exchange between the two toward the beginning of the film, where Mark says he's tired after a long day of work and wants her to have dinner ready for him, and Susan, from the shower, informs him that she's had a long day of work, too, and would wouldn't mind if he had dinner ready for her. Love it!
They both work at the same hospital, under Chief of Surgery Dr. Harris (portrayed chillingly by Richard Widmark). Susan notices that several seemingly healthy patients undergoing "routine" procedures are coming out of surgery in inexplicable comas and grows suspicious, especially when it happens to one of her girlfriends.
These hapless victims are sent to the Jefferson Institute, a high tech facility that keeps them suspended and carefully monitored... until their organs can be plundered for big bucks. I knew that a young Tom Selleck was one of the suspendees(?), but - according to good ol' IMDB - apparently Christoper Reeve and Ed Harris have bit parts as well.
Anyhow, nobody, of course, believes Susan and they chalk it up to women's histrionics or some such, but in the end she's proven right, nearly at the cost of her own life.
(Funny - I thought of comparing it to "ER," and it turns out that Crichton directed "ER" from 1994 to 2009!)
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