Left Behind: The Movie
Encyclopedia
Left Behind is a Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 based film released in 2000 and starring Kirk Cameron
Kirk Cameron
Kirk Thomas Cameron is an American actor best known for his role as Mike Seaver on the television situation comedy Growing Pains , as well as several other television and film appearances as a child actor...

, Brad Johnson
Brad Johnson (actor)
Brad Johnson is an American actor and former Marlboro Man.Johnson's first acting credit was in the low-budget biker film The Nam Angels , and shortly after he had his first co-starring role in a major film when he played the role of Ted Baker in the 1989 film Always, directed by Steven Spielberg...

, Gordon Currie
Gordon Currie
Gordon Currie is a Canadian and American actor. He has also directed, written and produced several films. He works in both the U.S. and Canada in television and film roles. He is probably best known for his role as Nicolae Carpathia in Left Behind-Early life:Currie was born in Vancouver, British...

 and Clarence Gilyard
Clarence Gilyard
Clarence Darnell Gilyard, Jr. is a former American actor and a current college professor who has been featured in movies and television since 1980. He is sometimes credited as Clarence A...

. It was directed by Vic Sarin
Vic Sarin
Vic Sarin is an Indian-born Canadian/American film director, producer and screenwriter. His work as a cinematographer includes Partition, Margaret's Museum, Whale Music, Nowhere to Hide, Norman's Awesome Experience, and Riel. He also directed such projects as Partition, Left Behind, and Wind at My...

. Left Behind was proclaimed by its creators as the biggest and most ambitious Christian film
Christian media
Christian media can either refer to Christians who work in secular media, or media that is Christian. Refers to various aspects of mass media which is primarily targeting the Christian demographic...

 ever made. It is based on the Left Behind book series
Left Behind (series)
Left Behind is a series of 16 best-selling novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, dealing with Christian dispensationalist End Times: pretribulation, premillennial, Christian eschatological viewpoint of the end of the world. The primary conflict of the series is the members of the Tribulation...

 and also the first in a trilogy, followed by Left Behind II: Tribulation Force
Left Behind II: Tribulation Force
Left Behind II: Tribulation Force is a Christian Bible-based apocalyptic/thriller film, and the second in a series of films based on the Left Behind book series written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. It was produced and distributed by Cloud Ten Pictures and Namesake Entertainment. The film was...

 and Left Behind: World at War
Left Behind: World at War
Left Behind: World at War is a Christian Bible-based apocalyptic/thriller film and the third in the series of films based on the Left Behind book series. It was produced by Cloud Ten Pictures. The film premiered in churches on October 21, 2005 before its release on DVD and VHS on October 25, 2005...

. The MPAA
Motion Picture Association of America
The Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. , originally the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America , was founded in 1922 and is designed to advance the business interests of its members...

 rated the film PG-13 for violence
Violence
Violence is the use of physical force to apply a state to others contrary to their wishes. violence, while often a stand-alone issue, is often the culmination of other kinds of conflict, e.g...

. A remake for the entire series is currently in progress by Cloud Ten Pictures.

Plot

Buck Narrates saying, "How do you describe both a beginning and an end? We should have known better, but we didn't. What does it matter what we think we know? In the end there's no denying the truth." A young television journalist for a news network called GNN, Buck Williams, reports from Israel about a new technology with which food will grow almost anywhere, he is interviewing Israeli scientist Chaim Rosenzweig
Chaim Rosenzweig
Chaim Rosenzweig is a fictional character in the Left Behind series of novels. In the Left Behind films he is portrayed by Colin Fox.Dr. Rosenzweig is introduced as a chemical engineer and politician from Israel. The reader first meets Dr. Rosenzweig as he is being interviewed by Cameron "Buck"...

. He calls this a miracle. Suddenly, Arab Mikoyan MiG-29
Mikoyan MiG-29
The Mikoyan MiG-29 is a fourth-generation jet fighter aircraft designed in the Soviet Union for an air superiority role. Developed in the 1970s by the Mikoyan design bureau, it entered service with the Soviet Air Force in 1983, and remains in use by the Russian Air Force as well as in many other...

 fighter jets fly over, attempting to attack Israel with a vicious air raid
Strategic bombing
Strategic bombing is a military strategy used in a total war with the goal of defeating an enemy nation-state by destroying its economic ability and public will to wage war rather than destroying its land or naval forces...

. The sun disappears even though it is still in the mid-day. A missile hits near Buck and Chaim as they retreat to a military bunker. The jets start exploding and crashing down even though Israel forces
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...

 didn't fire a single shot and a commander states they how Israel, "can't get those planes up". Buck runs outside with the news camera and records the drama as some GNN executives and reporters watch back in Chicago. The jets explode and crash to the ground and the entire force is destroyed.

The story shifts to Pilot Rayford Steele, who has been called in for an emergency flight from Chicago to London, thus forcing him to abandon his son's, Raymie, birthday party. Despite his wife's and his daughter's protests, he sets out on the flight, leaving his family behind. Rayford's daughter, Chloe Steele, is leaving for her college exams. Buck, having decided to go to London for an investigation of the attack, boards Steele's plane.

On the flight a flight attendant, Hattie Durham, walks into the cockpit and asks who wants coffee and reveals she's taking a job at the UN and this is her last flight. Rayford ends up kissing Hattie outside the cockpit. Later during the flight some passengers awaken to realize that several of their fellow passengers are missing. Panic sets in as Steele and his crew try to contain this situation. Buck helps the flight attendant Hattie Durham. Upon returning to the flight cockpit, they discover that people (later revealed to be Christians) are mysteriously disappearing worldwide and even planes are down from missing flight crews, and crashes everywhere. He is forced to turn the plane back to Chicago.

Shortly after landing, Buck locates Steele and asks him to fly him to NYC. Steele refuses, saying that he has to be with his family. He asks Buck to go with him and they drive to his suburban home.

Meanwhile, Chloe, Ray’s daughter, is driving to her college exam when she encounters a large traffic accident. She goes to check on a crashed semi, whose driver vanished. People are reporting abandoned cars and children missing from their seats. While Chloe is inspecting the carnage, her car is stolen by a hurt man and she is stranded on the wrecked highway. She eventually starts walking down the highway.

Steele returns home and discovers that his wife and son are missing. He and Buck are forced to stay in Steele's house because of a military-enforced curfew. Steele starts crying, he starts to get upset that he smashes a mirror with his wife's Bible, which later he starts to read.

Chloe returns home and reunites with her father. Soon Chloe goes downstairs and discovers Buck sleeping on the couch. Chloe drives Buck to the Airport and goes to look for her younger brother. Steele finally finds her in an elementary school and scolds her for running away. He apologizes and suggests they search the church because that's is where they were most happy. Chloe refuses and says that she was happiest when he was home.

After Chloe returns home, Steele goes to New Hope Village Church (the church his wife and son attended) and finds a pastor who knows Jesus from when they were kids but who has not been raised to heaven because of his lack of faith in God. He complains that he preached all his life but was never rewarded properly, because there's a difference between knowledge of God and belief in God.

Later, he begs God for another chance, and Steele assures him that God will. They watch a videotape left by another pastor, which tells us the true meaning of Rapture, in which all the believers are taken to heaven, while the rest are left behind to endure the tribulation.

When Buck gets to New York City and finds his contact has been killed, he takes a computer disc, and is almost shot by a sniper. Buck decodes the computer disc and finds that someone is trying to bankrupt the UN in order to control the world's food supply. After meeting with a UN member, a car bomb explodes and kills the UN member and something that hit Buck in the explosion leaves him wounded. He returns to the Steele's.

Steele tells Chloe about God and she says she believes. Buck, however, does not. He goes to the UN to warn the delegates. Steele attempts to stop him by saying "anything other than God will not work." Buck ignores Steele's advice and goes to the UN anyway. After his departure, Steele and his daughter pray for him.

At the UN, Buck warns the officials, but to little avail. Before the meeting Buck finally accepts God and asks Him to show him The Way. When God complies, he realizes that UN Secretary-General Nicolae Carpathia is the Antichrist when he reveals his plan for world domination. His plans for rebuilding the temple of Israel are a logical first step to this end. He shoots the two bankers behind the plot to bankrupt the UN and then he brainwashes them into thinking the two bankers rushed the guard and committed suicide, everyone, even the press, believes him except Buck. Buck later asks Chaim what he saw and Chaim says he saw the bankers shoot each other. Hattie states it's terrible because Nicolae was such good friends with them. Buck runs off stating he has to leave.

Buck finally returns to the church, knocks on the door, and Chloe hugs and lets him in and Rayford and Bruce smile and shake his hand. Narrating, Buck says the "seven years of peace" declared by Nicolae will be the seven worst years mankind has ever seen, and that faith is all we need.

Cast

  • Kirk Cameron
    Kirk Cameron
    Kirk Thomas Cameron is an American actor best known for his role as Mike Seaver on the television situation comedy Growing Pains , as well as several other television and film appearances as a child actor...

     as Buck Williams
    Cameron "Buck" Williams
    Cameron "Buck" Williams is a fictional character in the Left Behind series of novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. Buck is a celebrated news reporter who, after being left behind following the Rapture, becomes one of the founding members of the Tribulation Force.-Pre-Rapture:Buck was born 30...

  • Brad Johnson
    Brad Johnson (actor)
    Brad Johnson is an American actor and former Marlboro Man.Johnson's first acting credit was in the low-budget biker film The Nam Angels , and shortly after he had his first co-starring role in a major film when he played the role of Ted Baker in the 1989 film Always, directed by Steven Spielberg...

     as Captain Rayford Steele
    Rayford Steele
    Rayford Steele is a fictional character and the de facto protagonist in the Left Behind series of novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. He is the leader of the group known as the Tribulation Force, and is the most elaborated character in the series....

  • Gordon Currie
    Gordon Currie
    Gordon Currie is a Canadian and American actor. He has also directed, written and produced several films. He works in both the U.S. and Canada in television and film roles. He is probably best known for his role as Nicolae Carpathia in Left Behind-Early life:Currie was born in Vancouver, British...

     as Nicolae Carpathia
  • Chelsea Noble
    Chelsea Noble
    Chelsea Noble is an American actress who is best known for her role as Kate MacDonald on the American television sitcom Growing Pains...

     as Hattie Durham
    Hattie Durham
    Hattie Durham is a fictional character in the Left Behind series, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins.Hattie was a senior flight attendant, young and beautiful, working for Pan-Continental Airlines. She seemed to be attracted to Pan-Con pilot Rayford Steele, perhaps wanting an affair with him...

  • Clarence Gilyard
    Clarence Gilyard
    Clarence Darnell Gilyard, Jr. is a former American actor and a current college professor who has been featured in movies and television since 1980. He is sometimes credited as Clarence A...

     as Bruce Barnes
    Bruce Barnes (Left Behind)
    Bruce Barnes is a fictional character of the Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins He is pastor of the New Hope Village Church in Chicago.-Fictional Biography:...

  • Janaya Stephens
    Janaya Stephens
    Janaya Stephens is a Canadian film actress prominently featured in the Left Behind series of films as Chloe Steele. She is currently on the TV series Flashpoint, playing the character Sophie Lane....

     as Chloe Steele
    Chloe Steele
    Chloe Steele, a fictional character from the Left Behind series of novels, was a Junior at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California until the disappearance of millions of people worldwide.-Fictional Biography:...

  • Colin Fox
    Colin Fox (actor)
    Colin Fox is a Canadian actor. His acting credits include playing Jean Paul Desmond and Jacques Eloi Des Mondes in Strange Paradise , as well as voice work in various animated series, and in other roles in film, television and on the stage...

     as Chaim Rosenzweig
    Chaim Rosenzweig
    Chaim Rosenzweig is a fictional character in the Left Behind series of novels. In the Left Behind films he is portrayed by Colin Fox.Dr. Rosenzweig is introduced as a chemical engineer and politician from Israel. The reader first meets Dr. Rosenzweig as he is being interviewed by Cameron "Buck"...

  • Daniel Pilon as Jonathan Stonagal
    Jonathan Stonagal
    A fictional character in the Left Behind series of novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, Jonathan Stonagal is a powerful and highly influential American financier with links to Viv Ivins' Luciferian organization...

  • Tony De Santis as Joshua Todd-Cothran
    Joshua Todd-Cothran
    Joshua Todd-Cothran is a fictional character in the Left Behind series of novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. He is the head of the London Stock Exchange and, like his colleague Jonathan Stonagal, is a highly influential financier...

  • Jack Langedijk as Dirk Burton
  • Krista Bridges as Ivy Gold
  • Thomas Hauff as Steve Plank
  • Neil Crone
    Neil Crone
    Neil Crone is a Canadian voice actor and comedian who does the voices of Gordon the Big Engine, Splatter and Diesel 10 from the film Thomas and the Magic Railroad. He does Phillip the Concierge in the My Secret Identity episode "Sour Grapes"...

     as Ken Ritz
  • T.D. Jakes as Pastor Vernon Billings
  • Rebecca St. James
    Rebecca St. James
    Rebecca St. James , is a Christian pop rock singer, songwriter, musician, author, and actor. She began performing in Australia in the late 1980s and released her first full-length studio album in 1991. In 1993 she was signed to the record label ForeFront Records and released her major label debut a...

     as Buck's Assistant
  • Bob Carlisle
    Bob Carlisle
    Bob Carlisle is a Grammy Award and Dove Award-winning American musician who performs Christian music. He performed with several bands, most notably Allies and Billy Thermal, before launching a solo career...

     as GNN Reporter
    United States cable news
    Cable news refers to television channels devoted to television news broadcasts, with the name deriving from the proliferation of such networks during the 1980s with the advent of cable television. In the United States, early networks included CNN in 1980, Financial News Network in 1981, and CNN2 ...


Production

Cloud Ten Pictures licensed the rights to the first two Left Behind
Left Behind
Left Behind is a series of 16 best-selling novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, dealing with Christian dispensationalist End Times: pretribulation, premillennial, Christian eschatological viewpoint of the end of the world. The primary conflict of the series is the members of the Tribulation...

 novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

s from Namesake Entertainment, which had licensed them from the books' authors. Filming commenced in early May 2000 and continued for a total of 31 days.

An Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

 quarry
Quarry
A quarry is a type of open-pit mine from which rock or minerals are extracted. Quarries are generally used for extracting building materials, such as dimension stone, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, and gravel. They are often collocated with concrete and asphalt plants due to the requirement...

 was used for the scenes of Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

. Bowmanville Zoo's Mike Hackenberger commented, "Camel
Camel
A camel is an even-toed ungulate within the genus Camelus, bearing distinctive fatty deposits known as humps on its back. There are two species of camels: the dromedary or Arabian camel has a single hump, and the bactrian has two humps. Dromedaries are native to the dry desert areas of West Asia,...

s sell the look.... As a prop, camels are great. You can move 'em around, you can stick 'em there, and you see a camel on sand, you know it's desert. . . They might not fit through the eye of the needle, but without them, this movie would have been a disaster. There should be at least one camel in every movie."

Before Janaya Stephens
Janaya Stephens
Janaya Stephens is a Canadian film actress prominently featured in the Left Behind series of films as Chloe Steele. She is currently on the TV series Flashpoint, playing the character Sophie Lane....

 took the role of Chloe Steele
Chloe Steele
Chloe Steele, a fictional character from the Left Behind series of novels, was a Junior at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California until the disappearance of millions of people worldwide.-Fictional Biography:...

, it had been given to Lacey Chabert
Lacey Chabert
Lacey Nicole Chabert is an American actress and voice actress, known for her roles as Claudia Salinger in the television drama Party of Five and as Gretchen Wieners in the movie Mean Girls...

, who dropped out due to scheduling conflicts.

Some of the extras who played the saved were various Christian ministers, most notably John Hagee
John Hagee
John Charles Hagee is an American founder and senior pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, a non-denominational charismatic megachurch with more than 19,000 active members...

 (who is featured on the airplane shortly before the mass disappearance, and who was also very instrumental in the movie's promotion) and T.D. Jakes (who appears in the video that the group watches, telling them what to expect). Christian Musicians were also used as extras, Bob Carlisle
Bob Carlisle
Bob Carlisle is a Grammy Award and Dove Award-winning American musician who performs Christian music. He performed with several bands, most notably Allies and Billy Thermal, before launching a solo career...

 and Rebecca St. James
Rebecca St. James
Rebecca St. James , is a Christian pop rock singer, songwriter, musician, author, and actor. She began performing in Australia in the late 1980s and released her first full-length studio album in 1991. In 1993 she was signed to the record label ForeFront Records and released her major label debut a...

 who appear as news anchors, and the Christian group Jake, who appear as police guards towards the end of the movie.

Left Behind: The Movie Soundtrack (2000)

  1. Left Behind (Main Theme) – Bryan Duncan
    Bryan Duncan
    Bryan Duncan is an American CCM musician. he is best known for his role in the Sweet Comfort Band and subsequent solo career that, combined, spanned more than twenty-five years...

     & SHINEmk
    SHINEmk
    -External links:***...

  2. Never Been Unloved (Bruce’s Song) – Michael W. Smith
    Michael W. Smith
    Michael Whitaker Smith is a Billboard top ten Billboard Hot 100 recording artist and Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. He is one of the best-selling and most influential artists in Contemporary Christian music. Smith also has achieved a considerable amount of...

  3. I Believe In You – Joy Williams
    Joy Williams
    Joy Williams is an American singer-songwriter and a member of the folk duo The Civil Wars.-Studio albums:* Joy Williams, 2001 [Reunion]* By Surprise, 2002 [Reunion]* Genesis, 2005 [Reunion]...

  4. Sky Falls Down (Israel Is Attacked) – Third Day
    Third Day
    Third Day is a Grammy award-winning Christian rock band formed in Marietta, Georgia during the 1990s. The band was founded by lead singer Mac Powell, guitarist Mark Lee and former member Billy Wilkins. The other band members are bassist Tai Anderson and drummer David Carr...

  5. I Need A Miracle – Plus One
    Plus One (band)
    Plus One was an American Christian pop band from the 2000s.Plus One enjoyed their greatest success with the release of their debut album, The Promise, which featured the hits "Written on My Heart" and "God Is in This Place"....

  6. Hide My Soul – Avalon
    Avalon
    Avalon is a legendary island featured in the Arthurian legend. It first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's 1136 pseudohistorical account Historia Regum Britanniae as the place where King Arthur's sword Excalibur was forged and later where Arthur was...

  7. Can´t Wait For You To Return – Fred Hammond
    Fred Hammond
    Fred Hammond is a gospel music singer, bass guitar player, and record producer.-Musical career:Hammond has been active both as a member of the gospel performing group Commissioned, and as a solo artist...

  8. Midnight Cry (Closing Theme) – Various Artists
  9. Fly (Chloe’s Song) – LaRue
    LaRue
    LaRue is a French topographic name for someone who lived beside a road, track, or pathway, Old French rue , with the definite article la. It literally means "the street" in French.LaRue or Larue may refer to:...

  10. Believer (Buck’s Song) – Jake
  11. Come Quickly Lord – Rebecca St. James
    Rebecca St. James
    Rebecca St. James , is a Christian pop rock singer, songwriter, musician, author, and actor. She began performing in Australia in the late 1980s and released her first full-length studio album in 1991. In 1993 she was signed to the record label ForeFront Records and released her major label debut a...

  12. After All(Rayford’s Song) – Bob Carlisle
    Bob Carlisle
    Bob Carlisle is a Grammy Award and Dove Award-winning American musician who performs Christian music. He performed with several bands, most notably Allies and Billy Thermal, before launching a solo career...

  13. Live For The Lord (Irene’s Song) – Kathy Troccoli
    Kathy Troccoli
    Kathleen Colleen "Kathy" Troccoli is a contemporary Christian singer, author, and speaker.-Personal:Born in Brooklyn, New York, on June 24, 1958, Troccoli moved at age three and was raised in Islip Terrace, Long Island, New York, graduating from East Islip High School. At 15, she lost her father...

  14. All The Way To Heaven – V*Enna
  15. No Fear (Panic In The City) – Clay Crosse
    Clay Crosse
    Clay Crosse is a Dove award winning CCM artist. He is probably best known for the single "I Surrender All."-Music career:...


Reception

The film received very negative reviews. It received a 12% positive rating among reviewers on the Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

 website. The Washington Posts Desson Howe, described it as "...a blundering cringefest, thanks to unintentionally laughable dialogue, hackneyed writing and uninspired direction. The more this movie tries, the worse it gets. Its sincerity ends up becoming a bulging bull's-eye for rotten-tomato throwers."

Legal dispute

Owing to dissatisfaction with the quality of this movie and its sequels, LaHaye filed suit against Namesake Entertainment and Cloud Ten Pictures in July 1999, claiming breach of contract. On July 3, 2008, Tim LaHaye and Cloud Ten settled legal disputes on the film adaptations of the book series. Part of the agreement grants LaHaye an opportunity to remake the series. He asserts:


My dream has always been to enter the movie theater with a first-class, high-quality movie that is grippingly interesting, but also is true to the biblical storyline -- and that was diluted in the first attempt. But Lord willing, we are going to see this thing made into the movie that it should be, and that all the world sees it before the real Rapture comes.


As of October 1, 2010 the rights to the Left Behind film series have officially been reclaimed by Cloud Ten Pictures.

Remake

It has been confirmed that a remake to the Left Behind film series is currently in the works by Cloud Ten Pictures. The article on the Cloud Ten website states, "Cloud Ten Pictures plans on producing a big-budget, wide theatrical release based on the ground-breaking original LEFT BEHIND novel". According to the article, Cloud Ten is aiming for production to begin in late 2011.
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