Nice Salon piece about the growing genre of Christian apocalypse movies:
In the “Apocalypse” movies, the rapture has come and gone, calling home the Christian right and leaving everyone else to suffer under the rule of the antichrist. While the gold-encrusted studios of the Trinity Broadcasting Network can be assumed to be silent as tombs, all is not lost. TBN footage has survived, offering words of advice for those “left behind,” presented by neighborly doomsday advisors Jack Van Impe and his wife Rexella.
The Van Impes have, of course, personally ascended to heaven, but a ragtag band of fugitive evangelists, who include Mr. T, use a stolen news van to hack into Satan’s satellite network and broadcast this pirate signal. It’s enough to make the antichrist, Nick Macalusso (Nick Mancuso) lose his cool: “Why can’t you idiots stop these treasonous transmissions?” he roars at his henchmen.
Scientologist John Travolta gave us “Battlefield Earth,” which begins with a note to the effect that “humans are an endangered species.” And a host of B-list Hollywood stars have given us “Apocalypse” and its three sequels — “Revelation,” “Tribulation” and “Judgment” — in which fundamentalist Christians are the endangered species.
(Thanks, Alan!)