‘Left Behind’ Lands Full-Length Trailer

Today Yahoo Movies debuted the evangelical end-times film’s full-length trailer.
on Aug 5, 2014 · 4 replies
leftbehindtrailer_chloecrash

An onscreen Rapture you can believe in?

The bestselling 1995 end-times novel by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins gets an evangelical-tested, author-approved film remix for 2014. Today Yahoo Movies debuted the evangelical end-times film’s full-length trailer.1

A few personal observations2:

  • The trailer shows actual disastrous consequences of the Rapture — instead of, say, a few piles of clothes and a single car-crash scene as shown in the 1999 direct-to-video film starring Kirk Cameron.3
  • But still no flashbacks and/or videos of the actual moment of the vanishing. I want to see this.
  • No burgeoning Antichrist and one-world-government movement to see here. The film’s FAQ page specifies that this film will cover only the day of the Rapture. Interesting.
  • It appears that in this film version, pilot Rayford Steele’s daughter Chloe will be in Chicago the whole time and the story will follow her experiences on the ground — similar to the Left Behind dramatic audio series by GapDigital that went beyond the first novel to follow some of Chloe’s emergency journey from California to Chicago.
  • Did I also see newspaper-turned-TV/web journalist Cameron “Buck” Williams in the co-pilot’s seat? It appears in this version the copilot also vanishes and puts the whole plane in danger, meaning the series’s two heroes meet earlier. Could be a great change.
  • With a little work, airline captain Rayford Steele could look like Nicolas Cage (instead of Brad Johnson, The Marlboro Man). And God bless Kirk Cameron, but Chad Michael Murray better resembles globetrotting journalist Cameron “Buck” Williams.
  • Only the requisite non-action-film-esque evangi-pop song gives away the fact that this isn’t a standard secular action film.

Left Behind releases in theaters Oct. 3.

  1. It’s also been reposted by these chaps on YouTube, thus the above embed. ↩
  2. I re-confess to being a non-ironic, unrepentant Left Behind series fan, even though I recognize the criticisms of the novels and also now reject the series’ view of the end times. ↩
  3. The film later released in theaters in February 2000, with lackluster results. ↩
E. Stephen Burnett explores fantastical stories for God’s glory as publisher of Lorehaven.com and its weekly Fantastical Truth podcast. He coauthored The Pop Culture Parent and creates other resources for fans and families, serving with his wife, Lacy, in their central Texas church. Stephen's first novel, the sci-fi adventure Above the Circle of Earth, launches in March 2025 from Enclave Publishing.

Share your thoughts, faithful reader (and stay wholesome!)

  1. John D. Chitty says:
    August 5, 2014 at 10:25 pm

    My favorite part is when the title of the movie gets raptured at the last moment of the trailer.

    Reply
    • E. Stephen Burnett says:
      August 6, 2014 at 10:49 am

      I missed that the first time. Will re-watch that. I hope that’s the case and you aren’t joking. That’s the trick of this whole thing: the fans can take it as seriously as they like, but the film itself to be any good should have far more fun with the notion even while taking it somewhat seriously. I hope I detect this in the trailer, even alongside the requisite evangelical-movie-giveaway elements such as the obligatory pop song that sounds like “your hip megachurch band meets The CW.”

      Reply
  2. John D. Chitty says:
    August 6, 2014 at 1:30 pm

    I’m not joking, but I am laughing about it.

    Reply

What say you?