Left Behind: World at War
Encyclopedia
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. It was based primarily on the last fifty pages of the novel Tribulation Force
and is currently the concluding film in the Left Behind film series
, as a remake to the entire series in currently in progress.
The movie then cuts one week earlier. The Tribulation Force, consisting of Rayford Steele
, his daughter Chloe Steele
, Buck Williams
, Bruce Barnes
, and Chris Smith, and many other unnamed people, are in the process of stealing Bibles from a Global Community (GC) compound. The GC bursts into the warehouse and shoots Chris Smith wounding while the remaining Trib Force
members escape. The guards ask Chris who he works for to which he replies "The Son of Man," they ask him again and Chris' answer is "God Almighty" at that point the guard executes him. At Washington, D.C., somewhere at a rural lake, the president and his vice-president, John Mallory, are taking some time away from the White House. Mallory informs Fitzhugh of Nicolae's plans and how he has found evidence that Nicolae is planning an attack on American soil. Before he shares the information, a car explodes behind them. Troops storm in attempting to kill the President
.
Another man fires a rocket-propelled grenade and Mallory dies from the ambush attack, but a militia group comes to the aid of the President.
Back at the Trib Force underground headquarters, Bruce Barnes performs a double wedding ceremony: Buck to Chloe, and Rayford to Amanda White, the newest member who once knew Rayford's first wife before the vanishings. After the ceremony is over, Buck heads over to L.A. and Rayford flies to New Babylon. Nicolae meets with Fitzhugh who expresses his deepest concern over the news of Mallory's death, and teams up with Carolyn Miller (Jessica Steen
), who poses as Nicolae's top aide at GC headquarters. Together, they find Nicolae's secret plan of stealing bibles and lacing them with anthrax before distributing them. The GC block their escape, with Fitzhugh killing one of the guards in the process.
Fitzhugh is recruited by Miller's ragtag military team to help take out Nicolae, which he participates in. As Fitzhugh enters the GC building and asks to see the president (it is also revealed that one of the GC guards is really an insider, but is shot by another). Fitzhugh enters Nicolae's office, but Nicolae was already aware of Fitzhugh's assassination attempt and foils it. Fitzhugh tries to shoot Nicolae with three rounds, but isn't affected as they go through him and hit a guard instead. Nicolae turns on all of the TVs in his office revealing that World War III has begun, the screens shows footage of cities being destroyed, bombs being dropped (possibly nuclear) and a wave (from a bomb) destroying an aircraft carrier. Outside in the background of Nicolae's office, air raid sirens are blaring, explosions rise into the sky and machine guns and tank blasts are heard. Using supernatural techniques, Nicolae throws Fitzhugh out of a 20-story window, landing on top of a car. Nicolae goes over to the window to see, in disgust, Fitzhugh getting up and walking away. Nicolae then looks to the sky and say, "That's not humanly possible, is it?". Everyone is shocked when Fitzhugh returns to the militia base and informs them that the plan failed: Carolyn takes this the hardest.
The underground Trib Force HQ is hit as World War III approaches. Bruce and Chloe are infected with the virulent bacteria, but in the end it is Chloe who survives when red wine, used in the communion they just took part of, is revealed to be the antidote.
Buck meets Fitzhugh in a destroyed White House, where he helps the president become a Christian. Fitzhugh then confronts Nicolae where he activates a personal transmitter (and dials Carolyn's cell phone, where she hears the entire conversation), hoping to obliterate the entire GC headquarters, and himself, with a missile locked onto the transmitter's location. The missile hits the GC building and Fitzhugh is killed in the explosion as the building collapses and dust flies from the bottom.
Buck Williams then gets a call in the elevator from Chloe as she tells him about the wine and Bruce's death. Buck promises to come home from his trip soon as the elevator stops and the door opens to reveal an armed Carolyn. She lowers her weapon and Buck states that "we need to talk," implying that they had met before.
Before the credits, what's left of the Global Community Building is burning down, police sirens are wailing in the background and explosions are still going on. Nicolae Carpathia walks out from the flames looking very mad, completely unharmed.
and the first four or five chapters of Nicolae
has events that match up to what is shown in World at War. Recognizable events were the marriages of Buck with Chloe and Rayford with Amanda, the death of Bruce Barnes, and the U.S. president heading an attack, with Britain and Egypt, against the Global Community
.
Major parts of the movie, however, were not in any of the books: the poisoning of Bibles by the forces of Nicolae, and an attempt by Fitzhugh to assassinate Nicolae. Buck's meeting with the president in the books makes it into the movie, but in a totally different form. Also, in the movie Nicolae Carpathia, the main antagonist, is portrayed almost as a supernatural being, displaying supernatural powers against his enemies; this is most clearly shown at the end (having Carpathia walk out completely undamaged from the wreckage of a building that was literally blown into pieces).
by the MPAA
. It is considerably darker and more intense than the first two films. It is also the most violent of the three.
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...
Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
-based apocalyptic/thriller film and the third in the series of films based on the Left Behind
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...
book series. It was produced by Cloud Ten Pictures
Cloud Ten Pictures
Cloud Ten Pictures is a film production and distribution company located in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, specializing in Christian-themed films.- Overview :Cloud Ten was formed by brothers Peter LaLonde and Paul LaLonde in 1994...
. The film premiered in churches on October 21, 2005 before its release on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
and VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
on October 25, 2005. It was based primarily on the last fifty pages of the novel Tribulation Force
Tribulation Force
Tribulation Force: The Continuing Drama of Those Left Behind is the second novel in the Left Behind series, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins.-Plot introduction:...
and is currently the concluding film in the Left Behind film series
Left Behind film series
The Left Behind film series is a series of films based on the Left Behind best-selling book series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. They were produced by Cloud Ten Pictures, and directed by Vic Sarin , Bill Corcoran , and Craig R. Baxley...
, as a remake to the entire series in currently in progress.
Plot
Set 18 months after the events of the second movie, an attack is taking place in Washington DC, explosions, helicopters and machine guns firing. A man runs through a burning White House to the Oval Office. United States President Gerald Fitzhugh (Louis Gossett Jr.) videotapes his confession in the oval office of The White House. Afterwards, he looks out the window as a shadowy figure arrives in the background.The movie then cuts one week earlier. The Tribulation Force, consisting of 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....
, his daughter 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:...
, 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...
, 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:...
, and Chris Smith, and many other unnamed people, are in the process of stealing Bibles from a Global Community (GC) compound. The GC bursts into the warehouse and shoots Chris Smith wounding while the remaining Trib Force
Tribulation Force (group)
The Tribulation Force is a fictional Christian-based group composed of those left behind after the Rapture, as portrayed in the fiction series Left Behind by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B...
members escape. The guards ask Chris who he works for to which he replies "The Son of Man," they ask him again and Chris' answer is "God Almighty" at that point the guard executes him. At Washington, D.C., somewhere at a rural lake, the president and his vice-president, John Mallory, are taking some time away from the White House. Mallory informs Fitzhugh of Nicolae's plans and how he has found evidence that Nicolae is planning an attack on American soil. Before he shares the information, a car explodes behind them. Troops storm in attempting to kill the President
President
A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
.
Another man fires a rocket-propelled grenade and Mallory dies from the ambush attack, but a militia group comes to the aid of the President.
Back at the Trib Force underground headquarters, Bruce Barnes performs a double wedding ceremony: Buck to Chloe, and Rayford to Amanda White, the newest member who once knew Rayford's first wife before the vanishings. After the ceremony is over, Buck heads over to L.A. and Rayford flies to New Babylon. Nicolae meets with Fitzhugh who expresses his deepest concern over the news of Mallory's death, and teams up with Carolyn Miller (Jessica Steen
Jessica Steen
Jessica Steen is a film and television actress, noted for her roles in Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future, Homefront, Earth 2, Armageddon, Left Behind: World at War, NCIS, and Flashpoint....
), who poses as Nicolae's top aide at GC headquarters. Together, they find Nicolae's secret plan of stealing bibles and lacing them with anthrax before distributing them. The GC block their escape, with Fitzhugh killing one of the guards in the process.
Fitzhugh is recruited by Miller's ragtag military team to help take out Nicolae, which he participates in. As Fitzhugh enters the GC building and asks to see the president (it is also revealed that one of the GC guards is really an insider, but is shot by another). Fitzhugh enters Nicolae's office, but Nicolae was already aware of Fitzhugh's assassination attempt and foils it. Fitzhugh tries to shoot Nicolae with three rounds, but isn't affected as they go through him and hit a guard instead. Nicolae turns on all of the TVs in his office revealing that World War III has begun, the screens shows footage of cities being destroyed, bombs being dropped (possibly nuclear) and a wave (from a bomb) destroying an aircraft carrier. Outside in the background of Nicolae's office, air raid sirens are blaring, explosions rise into the sky and machine guns and tank blasts are heard. Using supernatural techniques, Nicolae throws Fitzhugh out of a 20-story window, landing on top of a car. Nicolae goes over to the window to see, in disgust, Fitzhugh getting up and walking away. Nicolae then looks to the sky and say, "That's not humanly possible, is it?". Everyone is shocked when Fitzhugh returns to the militia base and informs them that the plan failed: Carolyn takes this the hardest.
The underground Trib Force HQ is hit as World War III approaches. Bruce and Chloe are infected with the virulent bacteria, but in the end it is Chloe who survives when red wine, used in the communion they just took part of, is revealed to be the antidote.
Buck meets Fitzhugh in a destroyed White House, where he helps the president become a Christian. Fitzhugh then confronts Nicolae where he activates a personal transmitter (and dials Carolyn's cell phone, where she hears the entire conversation), hoping to obliterate the entire GC headquarters, and himself, with a missile locked onto the transmitter's location. The missile hits the GC building and Fitzhugh is killed in the explosion as the building collapses and dust flies from the bottom.
Buck Williams then gets a call in the elevator from Chloe as she tells him about the wine and Bruce's death. Buck promises to come home from his trip soon as the elevator stops and the door opens to reveal an armed Carolyn. She lowers her weapon and Buck states that "we need to talk," implying that they had met before.
Before the credits, what's left of the Global Community Building is burning down, police sirens are wailing in the background and explosions are still going on. Nicolae Carpathia walks out from the flames looking very mad, completely unharmed.
Production
Filming took place in Toronto, Ontario during 2005. Clarence Gilyard Jr. was originally signed to reprise his role of Bruce Barnes, but couldn't return due to a scheduling conflict. As a devout Catholic he has also admitted his priest was happy he didn't reprise the role, as the films portray a premillennial rapturist theology that is in opposition to the Catholic Church's amillennial teachings.Differences from the novel
The final two chapters of the book Tribulation ForceTribulation Force
Tribulation Force: The Continuing Drama of Those Left Behind is the second novel in the Left Behind series, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins.-Plot introduction:...
and the first four or five chapters of Nicolae
Nicolae
Nicolae: The Rise of Antichrist is the third book in the Left Behind series. It was written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins in 1997.It takes place 18 months into the Tribulation, and at the start of the book 2 years since the rapture-Plot:...
has events that match up to what is shown in World at War. Recognizable events were the marriages of Buck with Chloe and Rayford with Amanda, the death of Bruce Barnes, and the U.S. president heading an attack, with Britain and Egypt, against the Global Community
Global Community
The Global Community is a the fictional world government/state described in the Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. The Global Community was established as the successor of the United Nations by Nicolae Carpathia, the series' main antagonist.At its territorial peak, the GC...
.
Major parts of the movie, however, were not in any of the books: the poisoning of Bibles by the forces of Nicolae, and an attempt by Fitzhugh to assassinate Nicolae. Buck's meeting with the president in the books makes it into the movie, but in a totally different form. Also, in the movie Nicolae Carpathia, the main antagonist, is portrayed almost as a supernatural being, displaying supernatural powers against his enemies; this is most clearly shown at the end (having Carpathia walk out completely undamaged from the wreckage of a building that was literally blown into pieces).
Cast
- Louis Gossett Jr.: President Gerald Fitzhugh
- Kirk CameronKirk CameronKirk 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...
: Buck WilliamsCameron "Buck" WilliamsCameron "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 JohnsonBrad 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...
: Rayford SteeleRayford SteeleRayford 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.... - Jessica SteenJessica SteenJessica Steen is a film and television actress, noted for her roles in Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future, Homefront, Earth 2, Armageddon, Left Behind: World at War, NCIS, and Flashpoint....
: Carolyn Miller - Gordon CurrieGordon CurrieGordon 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...
: Nicolae Carpathia - Janaya StephensJanaya StephensJanaya 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....
: Chloe SteeleChloe SteeleChloe 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:... - Chelsea NobleChelsea NobleChelsea Noble is an American actress who is best known for her role as Kate MacDonald on the American television sitcom Growing Pains...
: Hattie Durham - Arnold Pinnock: Bruce Barnes
- Charles Martin SmithCharles Martin SmithCharles Martin Smith is an American film actor, writer, and director.-Early life:Smith was born in Van Nuys, California. His father, Frank Smith, was a film cartoonist and animator, while his uncle Paul J. Smith was an animator as well as a director for the Walter Lantz Studios...
: Vice President John Mallory - David Eisner: Chief of Staff Allan Campbell
- Richard FitzpatrickRichard FitzPatrickGeneral Richard FitzPatrick , styled The Honourable from birth, was an Anglo-Irish soldier, wit, poet, Whig politician and ‘sworn brother’ of the illustrious statesman of Charles James Fox...
: Major Kent
MPAA
Left Behind: World at War was given a PG-13 rating for violenceViolence
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...
by 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...
. It is considerably darker and more intense than the first two films. It is also the most violent of the three.