By Khen Lim
Movie
Review – The Remaining
But this mix is not without its problems. As you might
suspect, it serves up a double-edged sword with thankless overtones.
Hollywood’s titillations with all-things Christian are well noted and disliked
by the faith community and understandably so. With its overt atheism and all
the values counter to Christianity, Hollywood sets itself up to mock, jeer and
taunt. Its ‘best’ effort thus far, Noah, starring Russell Crowe, has been
shambolic at best. A disaster at the box office, Christians deride it for its
complete lack of adherence to biblical truths. When the script called for
Lamech to be cast as Noah’s would-be assassin in the same Ark, you sit up and
want to just turn off the DVD player.
Still, ‘The Remaining’ is, mercifully, nothing like Noah. It
turns out that this is a well put-together, quite polished movie and in that
respect, it exceeds many other Christian films of late though it is not without
some contentious issues. To be fair, most if not all faith-based movies share
the same problem for the simple reason that squeezing Scripture into a two-hour
frame is next to impossible. Any such attempts are prone to inviting
theological criticisms. ‘The Remaining’ is no exception.
The Plot
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The boldness of ‘The Remaining’ is its depiction of the
Revelation and its apocalyptic impact married to Hollywood-style horror
elements. This pairing could be problematic as horror fans might not appreciate
if the movie became too preachy. Similarly the Christian faithful might be put
off if the movie was too slanted towards any semblance of a bloodfest or an
overdose of destruction and demonism.
Impacted by the death of his father, director Casey La Scala
was directed to understand more of his faith concerning matters of life and
death. In his revisiting of his Christian faith, he was inspired to drive home
the message of a purposeful life and the dangers that the end of times portend.
His choice of eschatological theme dovetails nicely with what is happening
today around the world with the Ebola outbreak, terrorism, changing weather
patterns etc. And together with co-writer Chris Downing, La Scala delved deep
into the Bible, pledging to stay true to the telling of the Revelation.
Produced by Sony Affirm Films and released in September 2014
in the United States, ‘The Remaining’ earned US$1.7 million at the box office
including international screenings in the Philippines, Mexico, Bolivia, Ecuador
and Argentina. It is not likely to come anytime soon to Malaysia.
The movie uses six young adults who are close friends. When
two of them, Skyler and Dan, decided to get married, they chose not to do so in
church. While celebrating their wedding at some reception centre, Rapture takes
hold. We see Skyler’s God-loving parents being the earliest to be raptured in
the elevator. Soon many others follow suit, taken up by God. In the
post-Rapture apocalypse, millions of dead bodies are strewn everywhere in
buildings and out on the streets. Plagues as documented by Revelation are
witnessed but the six friends initially survived their deadly effects.
Inevitable each and every one of them faces the decision of their lives to
either accept God or not. In the process, the story takes these friends to a
church, then a hospital and later a shelter run by the military and through it
all, winged demons, fallen angels and locusts threaten their lives continually.
Not Star
Distraction
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While the recast movie ‘Left Behind’ utilised Nicholas Cage’s
star power, ‘The Remaining’ had none to rely on, at least not the five-star
kind. La Scala used young budding stars with passable acting skills to carry
the story in a movie funded by none other than Sony. This is not a bad thing,
actually. In hindsight, the viewer can focus on the content and the plot rather
than get caught up with the celebrity actors’ screen presence.
Without star power, La Scala manages better in telling the
story and letting the script lay out a bold plot correctly and faithfully. And
he does this well enough with a restrained use of graphics. Perhaps Sony’s
budget for the movie might be limited or La Scala preferred a minimised
dependence on special effects but whatever the reason, graphic execution
maintained a commendable quality. You don’t really get to see the details of
the demons or locusts. What you get are fleeting glimpses but often enough to
leave the gory rest to our imagination.
And that’s the point. No celebrity star power. No overbearing
graphics. Just a well written plot carefully cultured to adhere to biblical
texts and woven into a realistic story line carried by six young actors. No
distractions. No veering from the main message. And certainly no dilution of
the directors’ purpose. In that sense, ‘The Remaining’ is thematically
effective – the clever use of the horror element sends home the message that
the post-Rapture apocalyptic impact is not to be underestimated. La Scala wants
the viewer to understand that the tension and urgency created by the horrific
events is what we will encounter if we choose to disbelieve. The immediacy of
the terror is palpable; even scary in several spots.
Granted the movie takes a while to develop a head of steam
but once it gets rolling, the shape of the story becomes increasingly
formidable. The lighting is believable and in most cases, ominous. Those
looking for the theological perspective might pan the movie but before you do,
think carefully if you can even recall a single faith-based movie that is
theologically perfectly in cue with the Bible. There isn’t.
Check out Russell Crowe’s Noah. That’s probably the most
abysmal example. Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ is of course far better but
there are instances of poetic licences as well that may not be found in
Scripture. Charlton Heston’s epic Ten Commandments also has debatable instances.
None ascribe truly or perfectly. If you get this point, you can at least
consider that ‘The Remaining’ is relatively adherent and reasonably authentic.
The primacy of any movie review is that it is a, first and
foremost, a movie. In the case of one that is biblically based, it is still a movie with a story to tell. The
Bible does not product a blow-by-blow minute-by-minute description at any rate.
There are gaps here and there. And furthermore it is highly unlikely that
anyone can cram the entire Book of Revelation into a two-hour movie. So when
all is said and done, you will find yourself among those who support or
criticise the movie. Before you take your pick, consider some such instances.
Theological
Challenges
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The Plagues
Revelation speaks of the seven-year tribulation but we don’t
see that in the movie except for a sliver or a snippet. The Bible foretells a
far-ranging number of plagues but the movie only shows two and these are the
ones best defined by biblical verses as per below:
“The first sounded and there came hail and fire, mixed with
blood and they were thrown to the earth and a third of the earth was burned up
and a third of the trees were burned up and all the green grass was burned up”
(Rev 8:7, NASB).
“Then the fifth angel sounded and I saw a star from heaven
which had fallen to the earth; and the key of the bottomless pit was given to
him. He opened the bottomless pit and smoke went up out of the pit like a smoke
of a great furnace and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the
pit. Then out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth and power was given them
as the scorpions of the earth have power.” (Rev 9:1-3, NASB).
Here we bear witness to a blistering hailstorm at the first
trumpet but I wasn’t aware of any trees or the grass burning and at the fifth, locusts
do appear to signify the ‘first Woe’ of the three but there is no focus on the ‘fallen
star’ crashing down from heaven. The bottomless pit is not apparent and of
course, with the intentionally restrained graphics, we don’t know if the locusts
do or don’t have scorpion tails.
The locusts themselves come into some questioning also
because the Bible tells us that they do not impact the believers; yet La Scala
used them to terrify even those who believe. Even as one decides to turn to
God, the deadly locusts consume him. John in Revelation tells us that the
believers are those with the ‘seal of God’ emblazoning their foreheads but more
pertinently – in terms of what the movie offers – the feisty demonic locusts
are only to torment but not kill:
“They were told not to hurt the grass of the earth, nor any
green thing nor any tree, but only the men who do not have the seal of God on
their foreheads. And they were not permitted to kill anyone but to torment for
five months; and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it
stings a man.” (Rev 9:4-5, NASB)
Interpreting the Rapture
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Another point of theological debate is in the nature of the
Rapture. The primary fact is that the Bible doesn’t exactly mention or describe
it in much detail but we have a broad understanding that the bodies of
believers are to be wholly taken up, leaving behind the clothes that we wear.
Cage’s ‘Left Behind’ faithfully sticks to this version but ‘The Remaining’
doesn’t. Instead what we see are believers who die and leave the bodies intact
with eyes wide opened. La Scala reasons that it’s the souls – and not the
bodies – that God takes up but we suspect that this interpretation works well
with the horror bit of the movie. With the bodies lying everywhere, the effect
is far more terrifying than seeing only bundles of clothes remaining.
No Antichrist, No Saints
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And if we want to be even more pernickety, we can express our
‘disappointment’ at the missing antichrist or Babylon burning in the lake of
fire or the much anticipated 144,000 saints. There are also many other battles
with strange looking beasts that La Scala had chosen to not include. Any of us
who scour the Revelation can easily come up with more missing bits in their
argument but the fundamental truth is that ‘The Remaining’ does a pretty honest
job while it attempts to remain respectful in terms of biblical authenticity.
“And I heard the number of those who were sealed from the
tribe of Reuben twelve thousand, from the tribe of Gad twelve thousand, from
the tribe of Asher twelve thousand, from the tribe of Naphtali twelve thousand,
from the tribe of Manasseh twelve thousand, from the tribe of Simeon twelve
thousand, from the tribe of Levi twelve thousand, from the tribe of Zebulun
twelve thousand, from the tribe of Joseph twelve thousand, from the tribe of
Benjamin twelve thousand were sealed.
After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could
count, from every nation and all
tribes and people and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb,
clothed in white robes, and palm branches were
in their hands…” (Rev 7:4-10, NASB)
Precious
Lessons
And in the end, there are some useful lessons that can
encourage us to discuss about after viewing the movie. These lessons are
cleverly interwoven into the story and they reveal themselves one at a time for
us to digest. Some are and some aren’t so obvious. I’ll try to talk a little
about some of the ones I have noticed and learned from:
Spiritual Relevance
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The character Allison was seen filming herself using her
smartphone, saying that, “being spiritual is not enough.” She doubled up on
that by affirming that faith was definitely an integral part that we could not
leave behind, as she had come to realise by that stage of the story. This is a
lesson for the contemporary young adult as we find society increasingly getting
entrenched in spiritualism but one that is void of God. We can be seen
worshipping Gaia and the forces of nature and consider ourselves ‘spiritual’
but there is none of that faith element intact. Only by worshipping the God of
Abraham that we talk about investing our faith and love in a Creator who is
alive and commanding.
Character Realities
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La Scala’s choice of the six friends is very interesting
because on closer study, we see each of them possessing traits and
characteristics that are unique but they provide a good cross-section of what
we see today in people. Each of these friends bring to the story his/her own
attitude towards God. Some know of God but can hardly be considered accepting
of Him. Some were close to God but lost the plot in their later years. Some
have no idea and mock Him, believing that He doesn’t exist. All of these cut a
large swathe across a society that is both hedonistic and materialistic where
many serve a god that is not God Himself.
We are invited to invest our interest in trying to understand
these different characters and perhaps learn to minister to them as the movie
reveals their vulnerabilities. In actual fact, do not be surprised – as the
movie also uncovers – that we see many of these characters lurking in our very
own churches. And if the character Pastor Shay can find himself not raptured,
we can also expect many church members whose acceptance of God may not be what
we think. And unless we deal face-on with this issue, we can always be too
presumptuous.
Purposeless Faith
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The topic of faith is handled in the movie in quite a subtle
manner. Often, as many of us know, faith is only properly tested when things
get very rough, certainly no rougher than being caught up in the middle of an
apocalypse. Here some find themselves renewing their faith but as we understand
from the movie, being a Christian does not mean that faith is necessarily real.
Even as many of us pray, that doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re a genuine lot
also because like what Pastor Shay said in the movie, “we can go walking around
with our souls asleep.”
Pastor Shay in the movie plays up this point very poignantly
as he eventually discovers that in the final preaching of his life, he had
ultimately found a sense of purpose and fully embraced his faith. A character
such as Pastor Shay exemplifies to us that faith isn’t about being comfortable
in our lives. It isn’t about sitting in the same pew for the next few decades
and getting cosy.
Faith is to be impacted by life’s many challenges and knowing
what part of us that we need to get fired up. Our church pastor likens faith to
be both belief and unbelief but acting on the belief and if you accept this
rather unusual definition, then perhaps you can understand that in our human
vulnerabilities, we must choose well, which is what confronts these six friends
in the movie.
Good is Not Enough
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In the movie, we also face another very interesting
proposition – one that typifies the usual atheist. We are constantly explained
to by unbelievers that it is good enough to just be a “good person.” We care
about the poor and needful. We defend the defenceless. We do great charity
works to help others. We always avail ourselves to those who need our hand. We
are also courteous, good natured, generous and sacrificial. What is there not
to like about such a person. What is there in such a person that he should even
need God to tell him how to behave?
The movie inspires us to understand never ever to be caught
outside the net of God’s true saving Grace. We are foremost, sinners who have
never put a flawless foot in our entire lives. We think we have but we haven’t.
When was the last time any of us use the Ten Commandments as a checklist
against our own behaviour for all the years of our lives? If you have, you will
understand that in our taintedness, being good alone is never going to be
enough because it won’t save us. We can never do enough to qualify without
seeking God’s Hand to save us. However in God’s Grace is His promise of
salvation and that alone is the one and only solitary way we can get away from
our own mess.
Lack of Commitment
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The Allison character is seen very early in the story
disappointed with her boyfriend. She says they’ve been together for seven years
and not once has he taken the commitment to anything resembling a matrimonial
promise. When she catches the bouquet from the bride, she also catches him
rolling his eyes. What is interesting about this part of the story are two
things.
Seven also happens to be the number of years of tribulation. According
to the Bible, the first six trumpets signal the final opportunity for unbelievers
to reconcile with God. It’s a wake-up call to repentance and through all the
six calling trumpets, plagues will come in waves. However the seventh and last trumpet
brings no plague but is sounded to witness God and His kingdom are showered in
glory.
Called the Great Tribulation (θλίψις μεγάλη), this is a period in time
described as follows:
“I said to him, ‘My lord, you know.’ And he said to me,
‘These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed
their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” (Rev 7:14, NASB)
“For then there will be a great tribulation such as has not
occurred since the beginning of the world until now nor ever will.” (Matt
24:21, NASB)
“But immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun
will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light and the stars will fall
from the sky and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” (Matt 24:29, NASB)
Also called the Day of our Lord (Isaiah 2:12, 13:6-9), this
is the time when the church will be removed from earth when Rapture comes. The
seven-year period is explained in Daniel 9:24 as a period of fulfilment “to
finish transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to
bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to
anoint the most holy place” (NASB).
As verse 27 adds to the description, this is also a very foreboding period
where many things that are hard to understand will take place. We can sum up
Tribulation as a seven-year eschatological period in which man’s unbroken
cycles of repetitive decadence and depravity will come to an end wherein God
will now judge accordingly.
La Scala brings Allison’s seven-year relationship with her
boyfriend into sharp perspective here. By using the same number, he directs us
to come to terms with where our commitments lie and whether or not we find
reason enough to reconcile with God by laying down our sinful nature. As John
12:25 puts life into perspective, he says:
“He who loves his life loses it and he who hates his life in
this world will keep it for life eternal” (NASB).
Consider 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 (NASB):
“For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who
are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who
have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descent from heaven with a shout,
with the voice of the archangel and
with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who
are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet
the Lord in the air and so we shall always be with the Lord.”
As well as 1 Corinthians 15:51-53 (NASB):
“Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep but we
will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last
trumpet; for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable
and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable and
this mortal must put on immortality.”
Those who finally give up their life of sin and accept God’s
offer of salvation will finally get the ticket to go home to where we belong.
Hebrews 13:14 (NASB) reminds us, saying, “For here we do not have a lasting
city but we are seeking the city
which is to come.” Those who are raptured have the first opportunity to return
to this glorious city that awaits those who believe.
Futility of Human Response
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Other less obvious visuals in the movie are also credible in
what they may say to us. Hollywood treatment of human calamities or
catastrophic threats (think Godzilla, King Kong etc) usually involve lots of
banal shooting and the deployment of fully armed – but ultimately useless –
military fighter planes. You’ll notice that with ‘The Remaining,’ there are no
such responses. What we see instead are people doing a lot of thinking (and
rethinking), plenty of lamenting, mourning and even questioning. The guns are
silenced as man discovers that there is nothing in its armoury that can take on
God.
Just as a church that is emptied of is spirit remains just a
hollowed building, so it is with a hospital that has no medicine to fight off
the apocalypse or even a toothless military that has set up a refugee camp.
Even as the unbelieving man struggles to understand what is happening in and
around, innocent children are unquestionably saved as God has reserved a
special place for them.
Six friends whose lives were basically about fun and freedom
suddenly find themselves between a rock and a hard place. As they fight for
their lives, struggling to come to terms with the end of the world, we remind
ourselves that when we take God out of our presence (like holding a wedding out
of church), God will remind us that He can also take us away from
Him…permanently.
None will
be spared
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By the end of time, the whole world will be presented with
the same apocalyptic evidence. That also means the Middle East where all the
senseless terrorisms are happening. It also covers Russia, China, North Korea
and some of the most atheistic places in the world. Nobody will be spared the
Tribulation that is to come. While the movie focuses only on what was happening
in America, we must understand its global implications for everyone will be a
witness to this. And in that sense, it is what we do (or not do) with the
evidence that finally matters. In other words, it has never been about how well
we started but always about the ending we choose that ultimately defines us.
Needless to say, the liberal and atheistic media panned the
movie. The Variety magazine belittled
La Scala’s effort, calling it a “small budget indie” and then accused it of
speechifying and proselytising. They said the dialogue was ‘ham-handed’ and the
use of the ‘found footage’ segments was too clichéd. Commonsensemedia gave it a half star while The Washington Post said that the message of dying was unacceptable
and that it was too hinged on the instinctive human fear of death.
None of that can be said to be surprising or unexpected. The
world remains hoodwinked by sin. Blinded and totally out of touch, a movie like
‘The Remaining’ can only appeal to those who fear God and know the
repercussions that are to come. If you are one of them, then the underlying
themes of ‘The Remaining’ would be sufficiently effective and intelligently
played out that you would want to go and see.
Image Source: theremainingmovieonline.blogspot.com
Filmography
Director: Casey La Scala
Producers: Marc Bienstock, Brad Luff
Screenwriters: Casey La Scala, Chris Downing
Original Script: Casey La Scala
Main Casts: Johnny Pacar (Tommy), Shaun Sipos (Jack), Bryan Dechart (Dan), Alexa Vega (Skyler), Italia Ricci (Allison), John Pyper-Ferguson (Pastor Shay)
Music Score: Nathan Whitehead
Cinematographer: Doug Emmett
Editor: Paul Covington
Production: Sony Affirm Films
Distributor: Triumph Films, CanZion Films
First Release Date: September 5 2014
Duration: 88 minutes
Box Office: US$1.7 million
Availability
As far as we understand, the movie is not slated for commercial screening in Malaysia but appears to be available via live streaming on the Internet via several sources including YouTube. It is also purchasable online at christiancinema.com and christianfilmdatabase.com.
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