Left Behind (2014)

Left Behind, the first in the popular series of Evangelical end-times novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins has been made into a movie before, and not that long ago. In the year 2000 Left Behind: The Movie staring born again former child star Kirk Cameron was released, and it  was successful, at least in the Evangelical community, and spawned several sequels based on later novels in the LaHaye/Jenkins book series. Exactly why one would remake the film now, and do it the way those involved chose to do it, is a mystery.

The new, 2014 version of Left Behind differs in a number of ways from the novels first film version. For starters this movie was given a traditional theatrical release, whereas the original Left Behind movie was released first on home video and then given a limited theatrical showing. The new version of Left Behind also differs in story, for one it covers maybe a third of the plot from the original film, and characters that were minor or non-existent in the first version are here given center stage. This Left Behind is basically an airplane in crises disaster film, even stealing plot elements form the original Airport movie, only the disaster here just happens to be the rapture.

Nicholas Cage of all people is the star, playing Rayford Steele, a commercial airline captain in the early stages of cheating on his wife (played briefly by a still lovely Lea Thompson), who has driven him to stray by her newly found religious zeal (for a film that's suppose to be a kind of theological recruiting tool, most of the 'Christian' characters in this film don't come off that great).  Rayford is about to embark on a flight from New York to London with a pretty young stewardess he's been seeing on the side, when at the airport he is confronted by his college age daughter Chloe (Cassi Thomson) who came into town to surprise her father for his birthday. The two have an awkward conversation, and then Ray leaves for his flight, while Chloe leaves having figured out that her father is (or plans to soon be) cheating on her mother, and although Chloe is no fan of her mothers new religiosity, she is hurt by this discovery.

The scenes at the airport also serve to introduce us to the man who was the main character in the earlier Left Behind films, Cameron "Buck" Williams, here played by Chad Michael Murray, a world famous adventurer/reporter who in his brief time around Chloe becomes quite taken with her, and is also to be a passengers on Rayford's plane. Anyway if you know anything about Left Behind you know what comes next, The Rapture does, mysteriously disappearing a number of people on the plane, including Ray's co-pilot, and untold millions on the ground. Ray and Cameron team up to keep order on the plane, calm the passengers, and try to figure out what's going on. The plane reroutes back to New York and then develops mechanical issues that could prevent a safe landing, especially since no one seems to be manning the ground control anymore.

The film goes through a number of standard, seen it before troupes of both 'the rapture' and 'airplane in peril'  genera's. In the end it is of course Chloe, contacted via conveniently off-and-on cell phone service, who must help Buck and Ray find a place to land the jet, in this case a stretch of Long Island freeway that is still under construction. This Left Behind is not as bad as it could have been, granted much of it doesn't make a lot of sense, and I've always been puzzled how next to no one who isn't already a 'Christian' in these films seems to know anything about what 'the rapture' is, but in a paint-by- numbers way all the key points are hit and the film is at least watchable. As to whether there will be any further films in this new Left Behind outing, the box office does not bode well, but then again it didn't make much since to remake this film in the first place, so who knows. **