Left Behind (2014)

When putting my master movie watchlist together, not only did I make a note of every movie appearing on the "list of movies considered the worst" Wikipedia article, which is pretty much my reference guide for the entire blog, not only did I run though the bottom 100 on IMDB, I also combed through the list of movies with 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is where this week's movie choice finds itself: Left Behind, the 2014 "Sci-Fi Thriller" staring Nicholas FUCKING Cage(!) about a Pilot saving the crew after people randomly disappear from Earth! How can Nicholas Cage be in a 0% movie?! I don't buy that for one second... Hopefully he is so crazily over-the-top that it just goes beyond ridiculous. Let's find out!

We find ourselves in an Airport lounge, unsurprisingly, as Chloe Steele (Cassi Thomson) hopes to surprise Pilot Dad, Rayford Steele (Nicholas Cage) for his birthday, but unfortunately Captain Steele has to go fly an airplane but promises to catch up with his daughter later who just so happens to catch the attention of Reporter Cameron 'Buck' Williams (Chad Michael Murray - who is far too handsome to play any journalist I've ever seen... except maybe Anderson Cooper...) and they have a probably a bit too intense deep and meaningful conversation over a takeaway coffee. Despite his best efforts, and almost missing his flight, Buck doesn't get her number and leaves empty handed, save for some tickets to see U2 that he needs to give to Captain Steele... dude, you should have left them behind... Meanwhile we have some filler as Chloe arrives home, and immediately argues and falls out with her mum, storming off. Then some more filler as Chloe takes her brother shopping... meanwhile back on the plane Captain Steele shows his on-off fiancee Flight Attendant Hattie Durham (Nicky Whelan), the U2 tickets, wow bad luck girl, but it looks like he's already having second thoughts about cheating on his estranged wife... but that's enough of that because just as Chloe was hugging her brother in the shopping centre, he vanishes mysteriously in her arms leaving all his clothes behind in her grip! And back on the flight chaos ensues as a handful of passengers and crew also vanish including the Co-Pilot leaving Captain Steele to wrestle control of the aircraft back himself. Back on the surface absolute pandemonium appears to broken out in literally seconds as everybody goes crazy looting shops and crashing their cars and generally acting super over-the-top aggressive, and had this been 2 years ago I'd have considered that completely irrational behaviour, but I lived through the Coronavirus pandemic and it's a 100% accurate portrayal of society. Anyway back to the film; and after gaining control of the aircraft and the crew Captain Steele promises to try and find out what happened whilst Buck just walks around filming everybody like a dick (tbf, as a Photographer, it's exactly what I would do...) and later, the Captain announces they are turning the flight around back to New York, only to then nearly run head on into a pilotless airplane, damaging their aircraft. Meanwhile back on the surface, despite knowing that everybody on the planet has just lost somebody they know, Chloe somehow thinks her brother might be at the hospital... for some reason... so she makes her way there... which is ultimately fruitless but she does learn that every single child on the planet has vanished. On the aircraft things are going from bad to worse as the clip with the other plane ruptured a fuel line that catches fire, dramatically reducing the mileage the plane can cover... Chloe makes it back home and discovers her super religious mother has vanished, and Captain Steele begins to connect the dots when he discovers his Co-Pilot and other missing Flight Assistant were both deeply religious (yes, see where were going with this yet?...) and reaches the conclusion that all the missing people have gone to heaven... oh boy, yup we are going there. Back on the surface Chloe begins to reach the same conclusion, whilst on the plane Captain Steele and Hattie's relationship breaks down when he reveals he has a wife. Buck defuses a potentially lethal situation in first class after a woman threatens to shoot herself, and Captain Steele learns from the ground that people across the planet have vanished, and he has no runway to land on... On... almost solid ground Chloe makes the decision to end it all, climbing to the top of a bridge pier, delivering a soliloquy, and is just on the verge of jumping when Buck gets through to her on the phone... despite... not having her number... and Chloe gets to speak to her dad just before the phone cuts off, changing her mind. Captain Steele proceeds to put the fear of god... pardon the expression.. into all the passengers by informing them they have no fuel and nowhere to land and "now would be a good time to prey", great work Captain... deciding to ditch the plane in the water. Meanwhile Chloe commandeers a motorbike and then a truck and proceeds to clear away a section of highway under repair for the plane to land on, instructing Buck and her dad in the process, and setting a fire so they know where to land. Running out of fuel Captain Steele begins to bring the plane down, fast, making the landing with just millimetres to spare and everybody has a big cry and hug and apology-fest at the end.

Phew! I feel a bit like I've been on the flight with them! I, for the most part, enjoyed this. Nic Cage wasn't his trademark over-the-top self but he was the level headed American Dad going through a mid-life crisis kind of character and it suited him well, but more on that shortly, so yes whilst I did enjoy this, I didn't really care for the preachy, holier-than-thou undertale to the whole events; that all the good people had been taken to heaven and left the sinners behind. It particularly hit a sour note with me because one of the passengers onboard was a devout Muslim man so like, what, that's the wrong religion then? I am not a religious guy, but I'm at least open minded to the concept of religion and can appreciate why people are religious, but I absolutely didn't care for it, and it really tainted and damaged what was otherwise a decent, credible little action movie.

It was a bit a slow burn with this one, it's 33 minutes in before Chloe's brother goes missing, and I guess you have to build the background to a degree and set the stage. But I feel like it could have maybe been trimmed a bit, a I felt they were really pushing the whole family relationships a little bit too hard. If they had gone in more casual with the conversations instead of immediately and repeatedly mashing the "build pathos" button with every conversation I think it would have settled the film down a bit. Instead every character, well, just Chloe really... pours their heart out in every conversation and it was just a little bit intense. As a result the dialogue between characters got a little bit silly and unrealistic. People just don't talk to each other like that in real life. And it was so obvious.

I can't fault any of the acting though. Nicholas Cage was good as Captain Steele and did everything that was asked of him. Cassi Thompson as Chloe did a great job at being genuinely distressed and absolutely sorrowful right the way through to the driven, determined character she became at the end. Chad Michael Murray as Buck, was in danger of becoming wooden and vanilla at any moment in his casting as a male supporting lead, and basically Chloe's love interest, but he did a very good job of carving the character out as his own and staving off the danger of falling into a rut at any moment. Even the supports as their respective stereotypes; the Muslim guy, the older American Business Man, the Dwarf... not sure why it was necessary to cast a Dwarf but Martin Klebba did a good job, the old lady with Alzheimer's, the drug addict lady, their respective actors were all pretty good in their roles. No faults there.

Also can't fault the special effects. Although, by 2014, and from a competently funded studio, bad FX shouldn't even be an issue by this point, but where they had to have car crashes, plane crashes and explosions, all was pulled off perfectly convincing. The plane looked real in the sky. No faults there. And the cinematography was also just fine. Quite impressive in parts, particularly cockpit scenes with Nic Cage and some of the scenes of Chloe's journey. Soundtrack as well was perfectly adequate. A bit vanilla and uninspiring in places though, but adequate enough to compliment the visuals.

So why is this a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes? If I had to hazard a guess, the whole religious undercurrent to the movies plot probably hit a bung note with critics like it did with me, and the scenes at the beginning of the movie, with people panicking and rioting were probably blown so far out of proportion as to be completely unrealistic. Absolute chaos ensues practically within seconds of the people vanishing and in real life, it probably wouldn't be that severe although I have lived through the COVID pandemic and could genuinely imagine people reacting in the same way so... and there are real heavy moments where the dialogue is so corny and dripping with pathos, particularly the bits with the Priest at Chloe's local church and when Captain Steele realises why everyone has vanished. It just felt... off to me...

This was a competent enough action / disaster movie, and I was willing to overlook a few minor niggles that perhaps you wouldn't know otherwise if you didn't know a bit about airplanes (I don't know the model of the airplane, but there is no way that plane, even if it lost a tank of fuel wouldn't have had enough fuel to get back to the airport...) and I was even ok with a bit of ropey, intense dialogue, but the under lying theme; that all the good people had ascended to heaven and only the sinners remain really crippled the entire film for me, particularly as a devout Muslim is depicted as one of the passengers and I did not care at all for the Christian ideology. If you had subtracted all of that, and left it as either an unexplained mystery as to why half the worlds people vanished, or even kept it ambiguous as to whether they were all Christian or not, I think this movie could have been appreciated more. But instead you are left with a preachy, condescending, undertone that spoils an otherwise enjoyable movie. 2 out of 5.