Apocalypse Review: The Remaining (2014)

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It's been a while since the last Apocalypse, so here's my review of The Remaining (2014). Warning: SPOILERS.



Skylar and Dan are getting married and their closest friends, Allison, Jack, and Tommy are there to support them in what should've been the happiest day of their lives if a certain omnipotent deity hadn't chosen this particular day to begin the sinner smiting to end all sinner smitings. That's some really inconvenient timing, God.



Like other Hollywood Apocalypses before it, The Remaining begins with the Rapture, which isn't mentioned anywhere in the Book of Revelation (reviewed here). However, it skips the breaking of the seals and jumps right to the Seven Trumpets of DOOM, which means we get freaky weather but no Horsemen. Naturally, no one remarks on this omission, even as Skylar opens a freaking Bible and shows the others the bit about the deadly hail. Why doesn't anyone in these movies ever seem to notice all the missing stuff? And if you're reading specifically from the Book of Revelation, then why the hell is there even a Rapture? Also not featured? The Beasts. I've already got used to them being conflated into one Antichrist, but none of them turns up. And of course, no one wonders about that, either. Instead, there are Biblically accurate locusts who are wisely kept off-screen apart from a scorpion tail and a blurry video frame. The wanton destruction isn't bad, with planes falling off the sky, earthquakes, and the various weather phenomena. This gives it a more Apocalyptic feel than the similarly themed Left Behind, which is also from 2014 (and was reviewed here), and these chaotic first 2 thirds of the movie that see the surviving five friends who are joined by another survivor, Sam, running around looking for shelter and then later medical assistance for Skylar after she's stung by a locust aren't bad. There's even time for some locust mayhem as they manage to get inside the church where the group is hiding. That none of the survivors are evil and they're all shown as helpful and caring makes God look like an egomaniac asshole who cares less about people's goodness and more about their worship. Unfortunately, that's not the message the movie wanted to pass on.



After Skylar dies, Dan is understandably angry and curses God, which leads to him being impaled by a locust's scorpion tail. At this point, Allison, has seen copious amounts of suffering caused by God, both to her friends and to complete strangers, and yet, this last drop is what makes her decide to fully convert and accept her faith? Seriously? This is followed by death by locust, which really should've made the others question the wisdom of her decision. Before this, Allison had asked Sam to film a message for Jack and Tommy in case anything happened to her, and in addition to explaining how she found her faith after seeing God kill a whole bunch of innocent people, she also theorizes that the locusts are demons trying to remove the word of God from the world. Hmm, who does she think sent the locusts? Since the movie used the trumpets, I'm presuming the people behind this know they're being played by angels acting under orders from, you guessed it, GOD. This is probably a good time to check what the Book of Revelation says about the locusts:


- they come from the bottomless pit on the sound of the fifth trumpet and they're led by Abaddon, who is described as 'the angel of the bottomless pit' (Revelation 9:11)


- their orders: 'And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads' (Revelation 9:4), 'And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months' (Revelation 9:4)


- how this will affect their targets: 'And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them' (Revelation 9:6)


Basically the movie got the look of the locusts right and everything else wrong. The group is told about the locusts at the church I mentioned earlier by Pastor Shay, a priest who was left behind because of his lack of faith. He even mentions they turn up in Revelation 9, which means these aren't some random giant locusts with scorpion tails. I had totally forgotten about that last verse until I reread it for this review, so now I'm wondering how the hell did Skylar even die and why did Pastor Shay not say anything about that little detail. According to the Bible, the locusts were sent because God wants the sinners and nonbelievers to suffer. It's as simple as that. However, the movie decided to push Allison's little theory till the end.



Tommy, Jack, and Sam get to a relief centre set by the army, where there's a chapel and a non-Raptured priest. Wait, isn't the fact that he was left behind a sign that he's not a very good priest? Still, that doesn't stop Jack from asking to be baptized, which freaks out Tommy, who just realized the locusts are attracted to manifestations of faith. I wasn't paying attention to the running time, so with this new setting I thought the Antichrist (because, let's face it, we're never getting the 2 Beasts) might turn up. I also spent a good chunk of the movie wondering if there was going to be a twist about Sam, whose addition seemed random and pretty useless. None of that happened because the movie was nearing the end; so, instead, Jack gets killed in front of them by an invisible creature, Sam embraces her faith, and encourages Tommy to do the same. These are no fearful conversions of people terrified of this omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient entity causing mass death and destruction - they just look very serene and blissful, like they've decided to embrace their inner martyr or something.



VERDICT

The Remaining started well, but then it got progressively preachier until it just stopped. It also skipped a lot of the Book of Revelation, which made the direct references to it pretty weird, especially considering how much was changed about the locusts. Another problem, and one that tends to afflict these kind of movies, is how there were no mentions of other religions, or even which Christian sect had been right about Christianity. Because if this God is so picky when it comes Christians, I doubt he'd be nicer when dealing with Hindus. Of course, it's hard to include these unpleasant details when trying to explain why people should willingly and happily worship God...


By Danforth

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