6 intense (and sometimes funny) films and series about the Rapture, from A Thief in the Night to ...

As rapture fever proliferates on social media, here's some entertainment to drown out the noise. 6 intense (and sometimes funny) films and series about the Rapt

As rapture fever proliferates on social media, here's some entertainment to drown out the noise.

6 intense (and sometimes funny) films and series about the Rapture, from A Thief in the Night to The Leftovers

As rapture fever proliferates on social media, here's some entertainment to drown out the noise.

By Randall Colburn

Randall Colburn

Randall Colburn is a writer and editor at **. His work has previously appeared on *The A.V. Club, The Guardian, The Ringer*, and many other publications.

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September 23, 2025 6:27 p.m. ET

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Colin Fox and Kirk Cameron in 'Left Behind: The Movie'; Mimi Rogers in 'The Rapture'; Justin Theroux on 'The Leftovers'. Credit:

Courtesy Everett; Fine Line Features/Courtesy Everett; Van Redin/HBO

*How will it end? *

It's a question we've all pondered at some point. For T.S. Eliot, the world is bound to end not with a bang, but a whimper. More exciting? The Book of Revelation, which promises an epic battle and loads of disquieting imagery involving falling stars, horned beasts, horses in the sky, and trumpet-wielding angels.

Some people, including the authors of the hugely popular *Left Behind* book series, believe the End Times as prophesied in Revelation will begin with a "Rapture," in which believers are swept to the skies and the faithless are left behind. "Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord," reads 1 Thessalonians 4:17, a verse often cited by those who think the end is near.**

Apocalyptic visions have never been in short supply, especially in our modern times. In 2012, it was said that the end of the Mayan calendar meant the world, too, would come to an end. That theory went viral on social media, and now TikTok is consumed with talk of a Rapture event set to occur on Sept. 23, 2025. Per the *New York Times*, the hashtag #rapturenow consists of over 311,000 videos, with the date's origins attributed to a South African man and supposed prophet named Joshua Mhlakela.

Several religious artists have sought to depict the Rapture in art, but more agnostic ones have also investigated the phenomenon — and what it says about faith and humanity. Below, we dig into some of the more prominent explorations of the Rapture in film and on television.

A Thief in the Night (1972–1983)

Patty Dunning in 'A Thief in the Night'.

Mark IV Pictures

Released two years after Hal Lindsay's influential book *The Late Great Planet Earth *helped popularize ideas regarding a Christian rapture, Donald W. Thompson's 1972 film *A Thief in the Night* dramatized such an event.

The movie follows Patty Myers (Patty Dunning), a casual Christian belonging to a theologically liberal church who's left behind after millions are raptured. On Earth, a one-world government emerges, and the remaining citizens are forced to renounce their faith in Christ and take "the mark of the beast."

A brief history of the cinematic apocalypse

Damon Lindelof admits 'The Leftovers' wasn't accessible for everyone: 'Stop f---ing watching'

*A Thief in the Night*, which references 1 Thessalonians 5:2, in which it's said that "the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night," was the first in a series of four films. In the sequels — *A Distant Thunder* (1978), *Image of the Beast* (1981), and *The Prodigal Planet* (1983) — believers are forced to live in secret amid natural disasters and nuclear war.**

Modern retrospectives on the series often come from those who were traumatized by it as children. In 2012, *Christianity Today* described *A Thief in the Night* as a film that "wreaked havoc on the sleep of millions of souls in America and around the world, a film that combined religious themes with the chills of a horror film."**

The Rapture (1991)

Kimberly Cullum and Mimi Rogers in 'The Rapture'.

Fine Line Features/Courtesy Everett

A subversive and more complex take on Armageddon arrived in Michael Tolkin's 1991 drama* The Rapture*, which stars Mimi Rogers as an L.A. swinger who, jaded by her libidinous existence, leaps into the deep end of Christian faith. A story of extremes, it finds Rogers' convert absconding to the desert with her daughter to await what she believes is the coming Rapture.

*The Rapture* is admirable in how it explores human fallibility and the contradictions baked into Christian fundamentalism. But, in a twist that tends to divide critics, it also engages head-on with the Bible's supernatural vision of the apocalypse. The final stretch is truly something to behold.

At the time, **'s critic called it "the first true end-of-the-century movie, a zeitgeist morality play that rides the wave of religious faith that's been building in this country for more than a decade."

The review continues, "*The Rapture* is genuinely original and genuinely gonzo: You may not believe a minute of it, but it's not every movie that dares to turn the Christian apocalypse into show biz."**

Left Behind (2000–2023)

Colin Fox and Kirk Cameron in 'Left Behind: The Movie'.

Courtesy Everett

If you've spent any time in evangelical spaces, you've heard of *Left Behind*.

Created by prolific Christian writers Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins — with a healthy dose of inspiration from the *A Thief in the Night* series — *Left Behind* is a rollicking, years-spanning action-adventure series. The story follows Christian converts mounting a rebellion against the Antichrist after a Rapture begins what religious scholars have dubbed the "Great Tribulation," a period of hardship and persecution before the Second Coming of Christ.

The books are the real attraction, with 16 titles and numerous spinoffs having been released between 1995 and 2007. But a scattered assortment of film adaptations is available for true believers.

The first three films — *Left Behind: The Movie* (2000), *Left Behind II: Tribulation Force* (2002), and* Left Behind: World at War* (2005) — grow increasingly more chintzy and disconnected from the books as they unfold. They do, however, sport a handful of impressive names, including Clarence Gilyard Jr. and Louis Gossett Jr., which helps to compensate for the poor production values.

In 2014, amid a rising tide of successful faith-based films, a reboot was released starring Nicolas Cage, Chad Michael Murray, and Lea Thompson. "I've always been attracted to movies not afraid to face extraordinary circumstances," Cage said at the time. "My brother Marc is a Christian pastor. He said, 'Nicky, you've really got to do this.' When I saw how passionate he is, I wanted to do the film for my brother, too."

The film was met with tepid reviews and a lackluster box office return. As such, it took nine years for a sequel, 2023's *Left Behind: Rise of the Antichrist,* to manifest, this time with all the major roles recast. Cage's Rayford Steele, for example, was played by *God's Not Dead* star and conservative entertainer Kevin Sorbo.**

Rapture-Palooza (2013)

Anna Kendrick and John Francis Daley in 'Rapture-Palooza'.

Ed Araquel/Lionsgate

*Rapture-Palooza *was born in the shadow of 2012's apocalyptic fervor, and cast Craig Robinson, one of the stars of the end-of-the-world comedy *This Is the End,* as the Antichrist.

Set in the aftermath of the Rapture, Paul Middleditch's raunchy flick attempts to squeeze laughs from Biblical prophecy — mouthy locusts abound — as Anna Kendrick's character is forced to decide if she wants to marry the Beast and birth his monstrous spawn.

*Rapture-Palooza* is relentlessly crass and decidedly blasphemous, which gives it an edge you won't find in other rapture-focused projects. But it's not as funny as you'd hope from a movie with John Michael Higgins, Ana Gasteyer, and Rob Corddry in the ensemble.**

The Remaining (2014)

Johnny Pacar in 'The Remaining'.

Faith-based films are often horrific — see: *Passion of the Christ* — but an honest-to-goodness faith-based *horror* movie is a rare breed. *The Remaining *is one of the few.

Directed by Casey La Scala, it stars Alexa Vega and Shaun Sipos as friends who find themselves among the un-raptured at a wedding. Structured like a slasher, the film rounds up an ensemble of sinners who are picked off by winged creatures and other demonic entities before realizing the path to salvation.

In a 2014 interview, La Scala said that he sought to make the movie "biblically accurate" by having it "[follow] the rules of Revelations." That dedication helps to distinguish *The Remaining* from other low-budget horror flicks of the era, making it worth a watch for those desiring a new spin on the traditional slasher.**

The Leftovers (2014–2017)

Justin Theroux on 'The Leftovers'.

HBO's *The Leftovers* is based on Tom Perotta's fantastic 2011 novel of the same name. The premise is compellingly agnostic, featuring a Rapture-like event known as the "Sudden Departure" in which 2% of the world's population disappears with no apparent religious justification (or any explanation at all).

The series, which ran for three seasons between 2014 and 2017, extends beyond the novel in seasons 2 and 3, embracing the fantastical and elaborating on themes of how one moves on following a random, inexplicable tragedy. In that vacuum, religious zealots and cults manifest, nihilism thrives, and families are torn apart.

In EW's review of the finale, our critic wrote that *The Leftovers* sought to explore "an existential condition marked by confusion, anger, guilt, and grief," one that viewed life as a "mystery to suffer and survive."

It continued, "The stories gave us people trying to move on (or not) and thrive anew (or not) by putting their trust in the darndest things — or refusing to believe in anything at all. The perspective on the characters took seriously the idea that we possess a God-shaped hole — we need to believe in *something* — but the perspective on epistemology was such that it distrusted anyone or anything that claimed to have certain truth."**

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