rab nations have launched a massive attack against Israel while television news correspondent Buck Williams (Cameron) reports from the front lines. Just as it seems the Arabs will prevail, a mysterious force decimates the invaders--and a weird old man appears to Cameron warning of the End Days.
Airline pilot Ray Steele (Johnson), meanwhile, must rush off to fly a jumbo jet from his hometown of Chicago to London over the protestations of his devout wife and innocent son. His troubled daughter, Chloe (Stephens), chides him for not spending more time with the family. Williams is also on that airplane when something amazing happens: People vanish, quite literally, into thin air, leaving behind only their clothes, jewelry and glasses. Near-panic ensues onboard Ray's aircraft, and only with the help of Williams and flight attendant Hattie Durham (Noble) is he able to calm the passengers.
Once on the ground in Chicago, Ray and Williams discover that millions of people have vanished, including Ray's wife and son.
Elsewhere, international bankers Jonathan Stonagal (Daniel Pilon) and Joshua Cothran (Tony de Santis) are close to sealing a massive deal concerning 10 tracts of Middle East land. They enlist the help of the United Nations, freelance do-gooder Nicolae Carpathia and Israeli scientist Chaim Rosenzweig. Rosenzweig--a friend of Williams'--has developed a miracle formula that will cure world hunger.
Williams sets out to figure out what has happened. An informant told Williams he has the key. But when Williams tries to contact him, he finds his friend dead--and becomes a target himself. Ray, meanwhile, begins to realize that the events around him were predicted by his wife and other Christians. He begins to believe perhaps there's more to this than he originally thought.
The plot leaves the audience behind
Left Behind is the feature-film version of the best-selling series of Christian-themed novels from evangelist Tim F. LaHaye and novelist Jerry B. Jenkins. It unfolds events of the so-called End Times as prophesied in the Bible and Book of Revelation, at least as interpreted by modern-day fundamentalist adherents. As such, Left Behind is more a filmed religious tract than an actual movie, though pains have been taken to make it entertaining and engrossing.
As a bit of religious propaganda, it will not alienate any true believers and will no doubt reinforce the expectations of those who are waiting for the Rapture any day now. Non-believers will have a more difficult time, though Left Behind is not as silly and objectionable as the similarly themed Omega Code of a few years back.
The first act, in particular, starts out strong, with a computer-generated all-out attack on Israel, and the profound mystery of the Rapture itself, when the faithful are called up to heaven. One can easily feel how disquieting it might be to be "left behind."
But budget limits force the movie to squander the chance to show the resulting chaos of the vanishing, and it settles instead for the confusion in an airplane cabin and airport, not to mention the traffic accidents caused by drivers who are called to their reward without warning. That's about it, though, and we are left to imagine how the rest of the world must look when 142 million people suddenly disappear.
The movie's biggest weakness, though, is its middle section, which drags interminably. It alternates a movie-of-the-week story of Ray's family turmoil with Buck's cloak-and-dagger attempts to get at the root of the mystery. Since the audience already knows what happened, there's precious little suspense in Buck's search, though he must dodge bullets and exploding cars along the way to unraveling a byzantine and wholly incomprehensible conspiracy.
One other thing. The movie is clearly designed to reinforce a particular set of beliefs, but one can't help feeling a little uncomfortable about the implicit messages it holds for the various Jews, Muslims, agnostics and (implied) Hindu lesbians in the movie--namely, that you're all wrong, but at least you have an opportunity to convert.
