Carole Davis, Darwyn Carson, David Duchovny

Once upon a time, in the 1980s and early 1990s, American independent movies did not seek to merely ape Hollywood formulas. They were more than just feature-length resumes for shrewd, enterprising film...( read more  read more... )makers who had nothing to say, but dreamed of saying it with a big-studio budget. Back then, independent films provided a different kind of movie experience; they challenged and provoked audiences--and none more so than 1991's The Rapture, written and directed by Michael Tolkin, the man who wrote the screenplay for The Player, Robert Altman's scathing anti-Hollywood comedy. Mimi Rogers plays Sharon, a lost soul who gives up her hedonistic life of sex and drugs when she finds God and becomes a fundamentalist Christian fanatic. Her pilgrim's progress, presented in a deadpan, nonjudgmental style, culminates quite literally in the title event--the Second Coming, the Apocalypse, the end of the world, or whatever you want to call it. Rogers's fearless performance becomes all the more provocative when you recall that the actress is a lifelong member of the Church of Scientology. The Rapture is a mind-boggling, wildly ambitious movie that's open to myriad interpretations. But no matter what you make of it, it's sure to leave you engaged and shaken. --Jim Emerson

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64% liked it

1,999 ratings

Critics

70% liked it

23 critics

R, 100 min.

Directed by: Michael Tolkin

Release Date: October 4, 1991

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DVD Release Date: November 2, 2004

Stats: 118 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (118)


  • July 9, 2008
    An exploration into modern spirituality, but don't let that off put you. The violence and sex create an intensity not often seen in American cinema. Like it or hate it (seems to often some religious sects), it will stir up debate and leave a lasting impression.
  • November 6, 2009
    This movie is about Sharron. Sharron is a switch board operator for 411 information. Sharron is a lost soul in darkness, living without God. Sharron is witnessed to by two men. She first shuts the door in their faces but then reopens it and lets them in. They witness to her about...( read more) God. She has many questions that they answer. They tell her to trust in God. She asks about the boy prophet. They tell her there are others like him all around the world. Randy is a guy who Sharron meets through swing dating. She tells him she is trying a new religion and wants to get clean. Randy says there's no God, only chaos. He rejects her idea. He leaves. She picks up a hitchhiker and goes to an area motel. He thinks he's going to get sex but she takes his gun and tells him to leave. She trys to commit suicide's but can't. Instead she picks up a bible and starts reading it. Vick the guy she goes swinging with rejects her idea of God as well. He tells her to call him when that fase of her life is over. She goes to work and starts witnessing to people over the phone. Her boss tells her that he believes but doesn't know when judgment day will come. Six years later Sharron and Randy are married and have a little girl. Randy is the boss of a company and he fires a guy named Lewis. Lewis is an alcoholic that couldn't perform his duties. Lewis gets mad and comes back with a shotgun. He kills everyone including Randy. Sharron fells she is getting a message from God to go to the dessert and wait for his return. Both her and her daughter go. They wait for several days. A cop drives by telling them that they can only stay two weeks at one campsite. Sharron moves to another. The cop checks on the girls. Both of the girls gets hungry and decide to go into town. They drive off without paying. Sharron ends up shooting her daughter so she can go to heaven. Once again Sharron tries but fails at committing suicide. She knows she want get into heaven by killing herself. Sharron gets pulled over for speeding and confesses to killing her daughter. She is sent to jail. While in jail she sees a lady she once met. This lady is a Christian now. Sharron no longer believes in God. She has a dream and in her dream her daughter comes to her. She wants her to love God but Sharron can't. A miracle happens to the jail bars and they think the end is near. The cop comes back and asks her more questions. He now believes but Sharron still denounces God. While on the cops motorcycle they see the horseman who takes them to the river that washes away all sin. On one side is heaven and the other is hell. Gabriel is coming so the cop goes to heaven because he believes but Sharron says no to God. She can't understand why he would let her kill her own daughter. Sharron goes to hell.This story depicts what Christianity is about. Christians believe in heaven and hell, there is no in between. They think the Hindus and Buddhists will go to hell without God. With the Christian faith all one has to do to get into heaven is ask God for forgiveness and love him. Leading a life of purity and obeying the ten commandments is the good deeds God asks for.
  • May 14, 2009
    No thanks - Not interested
  • May 13, 2009
    The rapture sewemz entertaining sort of movie butr who knows if it is a crap or entertainment
  • August 9, 2008
    One of the most thought provoking, harrowing, insightful and daring films ever to be produced. Mimi Rogers deserves attention for her amazing and commanding role. Definitely the best film of its year, if not its decade.
  • May 15, 2008
    A thought provoking
    movie
  • March 6, 2008
    I love this movie!! Mimi Rogers is great in it...
  • February 16, 2008
    maybe one of the strangest movies i have ever seen, the entire time i was pondering 'is this a joke or are they seriously promoting christianity for two hours?'. very very odd.

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The Rapture Trivia


  • Here's one you'll hate. In "The Creature Walks Among Us" (1958, B&W) Marsha is stricken by…   Answer »
  • Before working together on The X-Files, what movie about a metaphysical subject matter showed David Duchovny and Mimi Rogers?  Answer »

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