| Left Behind: The Movie | |
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DVD cover art |
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| Directed by | Vic Sarin |
| Produced by | Joe Goodman Paul Lalonde Peter Lalonde Ralph Winter |
| Written by | Reverend Tim LaHaye Jerry B. Jenkins Alan B. McElroy Paul Lalonde Joe Goodman |
| Starring | Kirk Cameron Brad Johnson Gordon Currie Janaya Stephens Clarence Gilyard, Jr. Chelsea Noble Colin Fox |
| Music by | James Covell |
| Cinematography | George Tirl |
| Editing by | Michael Pacek |
| Studio | Namesake Entertainment |
| Distributed by | Cloud Ten Pictures |
| Release date(s) | September 4, 2000 (video), February 2, 2001 (theaters) |
| Running time | 96 minutes |
| Country | Canada United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $4,000,000 |
| Box office | $4,224,065 |
Left Behind is a Christian based film released in 2000 and starring Kirk Cameron, Brad Johnson, Gordon Currie and Clarence Gilyard. It was directed by Vic Sarin. Left Behind was proclaimed by its creators as the biggest and most ambitious Christian film ever made.[1] It is based on the Left Behind book series and also the first in a trilogy, followed by Left Behind II: Tribulation Force and Left Behind: World at War. The MPAA rated the film PG-13 for violence. A remake for the entire series is currently in progress by Cloud Ten Pictures.
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Buck narrates saying, "How do you describe both a beginning and an end? We should have known better, but we didn't. What does it matter what we think we know? In the end there's no denying the truth." A young television journalist for a news network called GNN, Buck Williams, reports from Israel about a new technology with which food will grow almost anywhere, he is interviewing Israeli scientist Chaim Rosenzweig. He calls this a miracle. Suddenly, Arab Mikoyan MiG-29 fighter jets fly over, attempting to attack Israel with a vicious air raid. The sun disappears even though it is still in the mid-day. A missile hits near Buck and Chaim as they retreat to a military bunker. The jets start exploding and crashing down even though Israel forces didn't fire a single shot and a commander states they how Israel, "can't get those planes up". Buck runs outside with the news camera and records the drama as some GNN executives and reporters watch back in Chicago. The jets explode and crash to the ground and the entire force is destroyed.
The story shifts to Pilot Rayford Steele, who has been called in for an emergency flight from Chicago to London, thus forcing him to abandon his son's, Raymie, birthday party. Despite his wife's and his daughter's protests, he sets out on the flight, leaving his family behind. Rayford's daughter, Chloe Steele, is leaving for her college exams. Buck, having decided to go to London for an investigation of the attack, boards Steele's plane.
On the flight a flight attendant, Hattie Durham, walks into the cockpit and asks who wants coffee and reveals she's taking a job at the UN and this is her last flight. Rayford ends up kissing Hattie outside the cockpit. Later during the flight some passengers awaken to realize that several of their fellow passengers are missing. Panic sets in as Steele and his crew try to contain this situation. Buck helps the flight attendant Hattie Durham. Upon returning to the flight cockpit, they discover that people (later revealed to be Christians) are mysteriously disappearing worldwide and even planes are down from missing flight crews, and crashes everywhere. He is forced to turn the plane back to Chicago.
Shortly after landing, Buck locates Steele and asks him to fly him to NYC. Steele refuses, saying that he has to be with his family. He asks Buck to go with him and they drive to his suburban home.
Meanwhile, Chloe, Ray’s daughter, is driving to her college exam when she encounters a large traffic accident. She goes to check on a crashed semi, whose driver vanished. People are reporting abandoned cars and children missing from their seats. While Chloe is inspecting the carnage, her car is stolen by a hurt man and she is stranded on the wrecked highway. She eventually starts walking down the highway.
Steele returns home and discovers that his wife and son are missing. He and Buck are forced to stay in Steele's house because of a military-enforced curfew. Steele starts crying, he starts to get upset that he smashes a mirror with his wife's Bible, which later he starts to read.
Chloe returns home and reunites with her father. Soon Chloe goes downstairs and discovers Buck sleeping on the couch. Chloe drives Buck to the Airport and goes to look for her younger brother. Steele finally finds her in an elementary school and scolds her for running away. He apologizes and suggests they search the church because that's is where they were most happy. Chloe refuses and says that she was happiest when he was home.
After Chloe returns home, Steele goes to New Hope Village Church (the church his wife and son attended) and finds a pastor who knows Jesus from when they were kids but who has not been raised to heaven because of his lack of faith in God. He complains that he preached all his life but was never rewarded properly, because there's a difference between knowledge of God and belief in God.
Later, he begs God for another chance, and Steele assures him that God will. They watch a videotape left by another pastor, which tells us the true meaning of Rapture, in which all the believers are taken to heaven, while the rest are left behind to endure the tribulation.
When Buck gets to New York City and finds his contact has been killed, he takes a computer disc, and is almost shot by a sniper. Buck decodes the computer disc and finds that someone is trying to bankrupt the UN in order to control the world's food supply. After meeting with a UN member, a car bomb explodes and kills the UN member and something that hit Buck in the explosion leaves him wounded. He returns to the Steele's.
Steele tells Chloe about God and she says she believes. Buck, however, does not. He goes to the UN to warn the delegates. Steele attempts to stop him by saying "anything other than God will not work." Buck ignores Steele's advice and goes to the UN anyway. After his departure, Steele and his daughter pray for him.
At the UN, Buck warns the officials, but to little avail. Before the meeting Buck finally accepts God and asks Him to show him The Way. When God complies, he realizes that UN Secretary-General Nicolae Carpathia is the Antichrist when he reveals his plan for world domination. His plans for rebuilding the temple of Israel are a logical first step to this end. He shoots the two bankers behind the plot to bankrupt the UN and then he brainwashes them into thinking the two bankers rushed the guard and committed suicide, everyone, even the press, believes him except Buck. Buck later asks Chaim what he saw and Chaim says he saw the bankers shoot each other. Hattie states it's terrible because Nicolae was such good friends with them. Buck runs off stating he has to leave.
Buck finally returns to the church, knocks on the door, and Chloe hugs and lets him in and Rayford and Bruce smile and shake his hand. Narrating, Buck says the "seven years of peace" declared by Nicolae will be the seven worst years mankind has ever seen, and that faith is all we need.
Cloud Ten Pictures licensed the rights to the first two Left Behind novels from Namesake Entertainment, which had licensed them from the books' authors. Filming commenced in early May 2000 and continued for a total of 31 days.
An Ontario quarry was used for the scenes of Israel. Bowmanville Zoo's Mike Hackenberger commented, "Camels sell the look.... As a prop, camels are great. You can move 'em around, you can stick 'em there, and you see a camel on sand, you know it's desert. . . They might not fit through the eye of the needle, but without them, this movie would have been a disaster. There should be at least one camel in every movie."
Before Janaya Stephens took the role of Chloe Steele, it had been given to Lacey Chabert, who dropped out due to scheduling conflicts.
Some of the extras who played the saved were various Christian ministers, most notably Jack Van Impe and John Hagee (who are featured on the airplane shortly before the mass disappearance, and who was also very instrumental in the movie's promotion) and T.D. Jakes (who appears in the video that the group watches, telling them what to expect). Christian Musicians were also used as extras, Bob Carlisle and Rebecca St. James who appear as news anchors, and the Christian group Jake, who appear as police guards towards the end of the movie.
The film received very negative reviews. It received a 12% positive rating among reviewers on the Rotten Tomatoes website.[2] The Washington Post's Desson Howe, described it as "...a blundering cringefest, thanks to unintentionally laughable dialogue, hackneyed writing and uninspired direction. The more this movie tries, the worse it gets. Its sincerity ends up becoming a bulging bull's-eye for rotten-tomato throwers."[3]
Owing to dissatisfaction with the quality of this movie and its sequels, LaHaye filed suit against Namesake Entertainment and Cloud Ten Pictures in July 1999, claiming breach of contract.[4] On July 3, 2008, Tim LaHaye and Cloud Ten settled legal disputes on the film adaptations of the book series.[5] Part of the agreement grants LaHaye an opportunity to remake the series. He asserts:
My dream has always been to enter the movie theater with a first-class, high-quality movie that is grippingly interesting, but also is true to the biblical storyline -- and that was diluted in the first attempt. But Lord willing, we are going to see this thing made into the movie that it should be, and that all the world sees it before the real Rapture comes.[6]
As of October 1, 2010 the rights to the Left Behind film series have officially been reclaimed by Cloud Ten Pictures.
It has been confirmed that a remake to the Left Behind film series is currently in the works by Cloud Ten Pictures. The article on the Cloud Ten website states, "Cloud Ten Pictures plans on producing a big-budget, wide theatrical release based on the ground-breaking original LEFT BEHIND novel". According to the article, Cloud Ten is aiming for production to begin in late 2011.[7]
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