Coming attractions

This week's installment of Left Behind Friday will be posted shortly. Meanwhile, here's what seems to be a trailer for the Rapture, as foretold in Jerry Bruckheimer's Apocalypse. (I honestly can't tell if this is intended as parody or as an earnest statement.)

Warning: This video contains the tastelessly exploitative use of footage of real world tragedies, mixed in with the Hollywood versions. Assuming this isn't intended as some kind of parody, I have to wonder if the video's editor(s) really appreciate the difference. The sense one gets here, as in Left Behind, is of people who find the prospect of mass destruction and apocalyptic suffering titillating.

I'm always creeped out when End Times prophecy maniacs regard things like 9/11, Katrina and the Boxing Day Tsunami with enthusiasm as signs of the hoped for apocalypse. Ethan Rayne talked a good game about "worshipping chaos," but he had nothing on these people.

Comments

[hapax]

All right, now I know I'm gonna be Left Behind. Because I kept seeing the typos in the placards and quotations and thinking, "God can't afford a spellchecker?"

[nieciedo]

Could that be more tasteless? Probably, but it would be hard to top. The guy jumping from the World Trade Center -- I was almost sick.

It's also rather stupid. It gives the impression that the Rapture is a bad thing, that it is the Rapture that will cause all the destruction and the rise of new Fourth Reich led by Bush the Elder and enforced apparently by the LAPD. It doesn't make the Rapture seem like something one should look forward to and hope to be included in.

Unclever parodies tend to be rather obvious. I think this was probably a sincere message that was just devoid of any talent or taste.

[Kevin]

Uh.... wow.

[Steven S.]

No indication that it's a spoof, looking at the page of the guy who put it up, I fear.

Captures from various films/real events -- sort of a do-it-yourself video Chick tract.

[damnedyankee]

It doesn't make the Rapture seem like something one should look forward to and hope to be included in.

"Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company." - Mark Twain

[Lisa]

Could that be more tasteless? Probably, but it would be hard to top.

Cloud Ten Pictures managed to make an entire film about the end times using mostly real news footage (and Jack VanImpe shows). Footage of planes crashing, riots, people sobbing for their loved ones are used to represent the Rapture and it's aftermath. It's pretty sick.

[Steve]

And if this stuff does come about (massive severe weather changes and another world war), it will most likely be because of the ineptitude of leaders like Bush Jr. and Cheney who are ignoring the global warming crisis, and picking fights all over the middle east.

And the right wing people who believe the stuff in the video will be responsible for these things coming to fruition, by blindly supporting these leaders.

[damnedyankee]

What else to call it other than "disaster porn"? I remember one of the blogs that I normally check (maybe even this one) documenting the RTCs' online reaction to Israel's incursion into Lebanon. To a one they were ecstatic over the death and suffering, because it was a sure sign that any minute now they were gonna get themselves Raptured.

Now me, I'd set the entry bar for the hereafter pretty low, but behavior like "giggling over the sight of civilians getting shelled" wouldn't quite make the cut.

[Craig]

A one-world governemt does sound pretty disconcerting.

I always find it funny how the raptureheads tend to be the most smugly self-righteous members of the religious right when, as was mentioned, they're basically looking forward the near-annihilation of the human race. Then they turn around and complain about violence in media without a trace of irony.

[Drak Pope]

It's not disaster porn, it's disaster erotica.

That's much more classy.

[Daniel]

Hm. That's excruciating. Fortunately, IMDB has nothing. (Not to say that this won't be made into a movie, but...)

[NewsCat]

I think on a theoretical level, yes, the concept of a post-Apocalypse world can ben tittilating. But only on a fictional level.

http://bitchkittie.blogspot.com/2005/08/third-post-or-why-post-apocalypse.html

[damnedyankee]

Nah, disaster erotica is something more to the tune of Showgirls. This is just quick, dirty, and ugly.

[Geds]

This is just quick, dirty, and ugly.

And it doesn't have much of a plot...

[damnedyankee]

Well, to be entirely fair, neither did Showgirls...

[Kate]

I don't know what's worse, being made to watch a single man plunge to his death or watching the plane impact the tower knowing that it will cause the deaths of 3,000 people. Either way it's absolutely revolting!

I don't think that I could live with myself if I found joy in the deaths of others, and when you consider that many of those deaths were particularily terrible (which do you choose, the fire or the fall?).... well, those who take pleasure in those thoughts aren't what I'd call Christian. Not by any stretch of the definition.

[Geds]

Kate:

The problem is, I don't think that any of the people who would make such videos make the connection that the person jumping out of the WTC was, in fact, a person. I think to them it is just a movie. A movie wherein they're the hero and everyone else is "Anonymous Henchman #154."

It's sick and wrong, but I can't come up with any other explanation.

[damnedyankee]

I think to them it is just a movie. A movie wherein they're the hero and everyone else is "Anonymous Henchman #154."

I agree. It's the kind of detachment and dehumanization of others that you see in serial killers. Likely the maker of this video has it to a lesser degree (I hope), but it's still there.

[ohiolibrarian]

So, it's a rapture snuff film? Taking pleasure in real death?

[cjmr's husband]

A pause to recall the morning of 9/11, everyone in the office going in and out of the kitchen to watch the TV... at least three different people commented "man, that looks just like a movie..."

[Jeff]

Hm. That's excruciating. Fortunately, IMDB has nothing. (Not to say that this won't be made into a movie, but...)

Considering there's no credit card (the one that lists actors, producers, directors, etc), I think it's more of a pitch than an in-production movie. Even Fox may have the class to skip this one (but I doubt it).

[Josh D]

Here's a website that I discovered a while back.
http://www.raptureready.com/rap2.html
Easily one of the most bizarre things I've ever seen.
You'd almost think they were joking, but it doesn't seem so.

[Frohergeist]

Can't wait for the director's cut widescreen DVD of the Rapture. The special features are going to be amazing!

[Zonko_TM]

The use of real disaster footage was completely tasteless and revolting, but when one of the placards came up with "A ONE WORLD GOVERNEMT" I just burst out laughing. The whole thing seemed like it was a farce by someone with no sense of humor.

[Rich]

I have 3 comments:

1) That video is disturbingly well made. I'm mainly impressed with the transitions from one "scene" to another and even more so by the way blackmovieguy shows the "before" of some of the real footage rather than just the climax (mainly in the airplane hitting the WTC shot and the tsunami shot).

2) Like Fred, I have no idea if the video is meant to be a parody or not. One thing is clear, based on the comments nobody who bothered to comment saw it as parody.

3) The comments section of the clip is pure gold. It's got pre-trib, post-trib, and non-trib Christians battling it out with each other and with atheists. It's pretty much how slacktivist would be if there were a bunch of regulars who were big Left Behind fans.*

* - Note: It would suck if a bunch of regular commenters were Left Behind fans, the normally interesting and civil comment threads on this blog would be ruined. It would probably be pretty funny for the first few posts though.

It really is hard to tell whether it's from a believer or not. I'm going to guess yes...there's a certain earnestness to the talk about the so-called "Mark of the Beast" and in the Jesus imagery at the end. Still, if the Rapture and tribulation actually happens, I look forward to seeing the movie version after. Hollywood has made the Vietnam War and 9/11 much more interesting...I expect the same for the End of the Christians.

As for "worshipping chaos"...THEY ARE DOING IT WRONG. So was Ethan. The key to knowing chaos is knowing that order always rises from it. Chaos tends to Order, else we wouldn't be here.

[hapax]

"As for "worshipping chaos"...THEY ARE DOING IT WRONG. ... The key to knowing chaos is knowing that order always rises from it."

Entropy, Entropy, All Winds Down...

[willie lee]

"Entropy, Entropy, All Winds Down..."

And to preempt the inevitable thought, Evolution and life can occur without upsetting Entropy thanks to the prodigious energy being pumped into the Earth (our system) by the Sun. Thermodynamics and Evolution get along well. But one day even the Sun will go dark.

"Entropy, Entropy, All Winds Down..."

[hapax]

@willie lee: No dispute there. It's just that my inner geek couldn't quell the Howard the Duck reference.

[Buhallin]

Did anyone but me appreciate the irony of the video using the soundtrack from a story about an entirely fictional Great Evil?

The Fellowship = Tribulation Force?

[magistra]

A nasty bit of work and I wonder what on earth the purpose of this is. Is it just to show off to other True Believers? As an attempt to convert others it would be bizarre. Aside from putting off all those believe in spelling and grammar ('Chaos will unleash' ?!), I found that the image of Christ on the cross at the end had lost its impact. Amid all those images of suffering, one more man getting killed (even nastily) no longer seems particularly significant.

[cjmr's husband]

Interesting how 'video' is an acceptable form of 'graven image'.

[Tim Lehnerer]

@Hapax: Good grief, is there another Stever Gerber fan on Slacktivist?

[hapax]

@Tim Lehnerer: Guilty as charged, from DEFENDERS on. I even own all the DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS DVDs.

And if this stuff does come about (massive severe weather changes and another world war), it will most likely be because of the ineptitude of leaders like Bush Jr. and Cheney who are ignoring the global warming crisis

The ironic thing is that almost all of the Hollywood clips are from The Day After Tomorrow.

[Tim Lehnerer]

@Hapax: Hot damn. I feel cool just for knowing what you were referring to. And I wish to hell they were having Gerber do the new FOOLKILLER limited series at Marvel, but they have someone else.

[GreyDuck]

What I find most amusing is that I'm pretty sure that fiery city bit (at around 2:02 remianing) is from the movie Constantine. I like the idea of a RTC Rapture Nut watching Constantine...

[Better Dead Than Red]

Buffy!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Denizen]

Geez, I could do so much better.