Left Behind (2000)

Synopsis (spoilers): The world faces a food shortage problem. A scientist named Rosenzweig has come up with a new agricultural technology which offers a solution. Concurrently, the world is taken aback by the sudden vanishing of millions of people for no apparent physical reason. In order to stop the chaos that threatens to take over the world, the United Nations appoint a new secretary-general, named Carpathia, who establishes an emergency government of UN delegates. He has power plans of his own which involve using Rosenzweig's technology to control the world's food supply. Carpathia is backed by two bankers which are planning to lead the UN to bankruptcy by executing its huge debt. Carpathia shoots the bankers point blank in the presence of all the UN delegates. A TV journalist investigates these events. Another character is a plane pilot whose wife and youngest son have vanished, leaving him only his daughter. He visits the church his wife used to attend, and over there he is shown a videotape wherein a preacher, now vanished, explains the vanishings in terms of supernatural eschatology. The pilot is convinced by it and starts taking religion seriously. A little later, the journalist becomes a convert too.

Appraisal: It is an interpretation and fictionalization of some biblical passages in Matthew 24 (or Luke 17), several epistles, and Revelation. The film's premise is insane enough, but it is also tremendously ill-conceived in its narrative proceedings. There is some basic dishonesty at the core of all films which propose a demented concept and have their own characters echo our very thoughts by remarking that it's all very insane. Secondly, there is a total absence of rules, which is a narrative no-no in my opinion since it makes anything possible; thus, an entire air fleet is wiped out and the only explanation is that something supernatural was at play; at another instance, a man commits a double murder and hypnotizes an entire audience into thinking he didn't actually do it. But worst of all is the ultimate rationale behind this kind of fiction, which is an unhealthy, obscurantist worldview.

Rating: 0