Rapture, The (1991)

The Book of Revelation is rich fare for those with a taste for weird visions of catastrophe and many films have referenced it. But none have taken it quite so literally as Michael Tolkin’s The Rapture, which concludes with scenes which come straight from the pages of the Bible.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse appear, the shackles of prisoners fall, the trumpets sound and darkness falls upon the world . . .

The film is blisteringly powerful and disturbing, centred almost entirely upon a painfully credible performance from Mimi Rogers as Sharon, a former swinger who becomes a born-again Christian upon being told that the final judgement is nigh.

But things go wrong and we’re left with a film that raises more questions than it answers.

The final scene, showing spiritual and physical desolation, is cruelly logical in its implications about exactly who “the chosen ones” might be.

Sharon
Mimi Rogers
Randy
David Duchovny
Vic
Patrick Bauchau
Mary
Kimberly Cullum
Paula
Terri Hanauer
Henry
Dick Anthony Williams
Angie
Carole Davis
Foster
Will Patton
Maggie
Darwyn Carson
Diana
Stephanie Menuez
Wayne
Sam Vlahos
Conrad
Rustam Branaman
Faithful
Victoria Williams
Louis
Douglas Roberts

Director
Michael Tolkin