Mac Reviews Movies: Revelation Road

 The Philosophy of Revelation Road

Revelation Road: the Beginning of the End is a 2013 religious movie about a special operations veteran turned traveling salesman in the backwoods of southern California during the rapture. This analysis hopes to look into two major questions: What qualifies for entertainment in Evangelical America (of 38 IMDb reviews, self-described Christians ranked the movie an average of 8.2/10 whilst non-Christians gave an average of 1.4/10) and what lessons does Pureflix want to teach its viewers? (The movie is a top staff pick at Pureflix, and stars David A.R. White, a producer and actor for most Pureflix media). So, with those two questions in mind, I’ll try to dissect the first 84 minutes of this film. I’ll try to be as unbiased as I can in my analysis, though I am not a Christian, and would describe myself as an agnostic that believes in a non-supernaturalist objective morality.

We are introduced to the main character, Josh, who was an ex-government assassin, now a traveling salesman that sells some kind of body armor. Josh is married to a loving wife with a young daughter, but has felt disconnected from her because of his PTSD and his wife’s Christian faith. Traveling in some small town in rural California, he meets several characters that help him understand his past, his wife’s faith, and his role in the rapture. 

Josh’s introduction is that of an incredibly bland, white knight character, that stops on the side of the road and is hit from behind by a truck with two angry townsfolk. After stepping out of the car, the townsfolk want Josh to pay for the damage to which he responds “I could be wrong, but I think you hit me” and then “Hey why don’t we just exchange each other's information”. Josh is seemingly saved from a major beating by the Biker gang known as “The Barbarians” who berate the townsfolk (more on these guys later). Josh then drives into town and tries to sell some armor to Frank, a gun store owner. Frank asks Josh three questions, and if he likes the answers, he’ll buy from him: “Are you a family man?””Do you believe in God?” “Would you trust God or this armor to protect your family?”. Frank leaves to get something from the back, and Josh is pickpocketed by Frank’s daughter, Elizabeth. After Frank tells Elizabeth to give Frank his wallet back, three of the Barbarians try to rob the store. In a series of weird PTSD induced split-personality deus ex machina, Josh hulks out and takes down the Barbarians, killing 3 of them after one says he wants to “take” Elizabeth. 

So right off the bat, the movie’s primary commentary seems to be the use of violence to protect. Even though this is a religious film, Josh is not shown to be very religious for most of the movie, and the two Christian role models in his life, Frank and his wife Rachel, take a backseat for the first half of the movie aside from the gun store scene and the barbecue scene. In actuality, we are presented with the common narrative that “Josh is a good man that avoids violence like on the road, but is not afraid to use it when people like Frank and Elizabeth are in danger.” I think we can all agree this sounds a lot like the “Good guy with a gun” narrative (Interestingly, this exact scene happens where a store is robbed and is prevented by Josh, a good man with a gun). The main problem with this message is that in this world, villains are cartoonish enough that they randomly rob gun stores, and that they are psychotic to the point of wearing over the top biker gear, talk about “taking” Frank’s daughter, and seemingly have no other motive for robbery besides just being wicked. And this really strikes at the heart of why it’s easy for Christians to get behind this “Good gunslinger” myth and why it's so hard for everyone else to. Villains like the barbarians don’t really exist in real life, but exist all the time in Christian and conservative media where antagonists aren’t often portrayed as having human motives and are overtly evil, because of their connection to sin or the devil. Evangelical media wants to imitate the stories of Augustinian Christianity by portraying wholly good characters like Josh and (mostly) wholly evil characters like the Barbarians, and Josh’s violence against them is justified because they’re so over the top evil. In most real life robberies or break-ins, the robbers usually don’t want to spill blood, want to be in and out as quickly as possible, and don’t dress like (in a Christian POV) Satan loving bikers. Keep in mind as well, Frank specifically owns a store selling firearms, a realistically bad target for a heist since everyone will be theoretically armed. 

Afterwards, Elizabeth thanks Josh and Frank invites him for lunch. Frank calls the Sheriff that brings him down to the station. The Sheriff asks him about his time serving in the military and they have an actually pretty interesting conversation about PTSD and taking a life. The Sheriff questions Josh along the lines of “Most people I know that have killed a man are shaking, but you’re as stiff as whiskey”. Obviously, this alludes to the fact that Josh has probably killed many people, and has blocked off his connection to his past, but “hulks out” with gut reactions whenever someone attacks him or threatens violence. 

After leaving the Sheriff, Josh goes and has lunch with Frank, his wife, and Elizabeth. After the barbecue, Frank takes Josh aside and laments that people are so desensitized to fighting, and thinks about how it was hard for him to return to the United States after fighting overseas. He says “the one thing they don’t train you for is coming home”. He then tries to evangelize Josh, telling him Jesus can help him overcome the rift between him and his wife, and help him deal with his trauma of hulking out during stressful situations.

Meanwhile, the leader of the Biker gang mercy kills the last gang member that survived the shootout, and says they’ll get revenge on Josh, Frank, and his family. At the Biker layer, the bikers have recreational fights, and the female Biker challenges one of the Bikers, but the leader Biker says “you’re too important.” In the end, he agrees to send her and his best lieutenant to go after Frank and his family.

So this part of the movie has more to say than the first part, talking about the use of faith in overcoming one’s problems. We are introduced to Josh’s marital problems, and that he doesn’t really remember or understand what happens when he “hulks out”. The message in these scenes are that it’s possible to heal through Christ, but that Josh has to decide for himself to heal. So I’ve known a few veterans, and I won’t say it’s improbable that you can find healing in religion. I also think it’s very interesting commentary that Frank (and the Sheriff) laments about the effects war has on his psyche, but then turns around and owns a gun store and is completely unphased by violence occurring in his store. The character of Frank is kind of a hypocrite then, since he both preaches anti-violence, but is very much man capable of and ok with violence going on around him. Seemingly, the only difference between him and the “Barbarians” is that he’s just not the aggressor in violent encounters, and doesn’t get involved in revenge. 

The most interesting thing about this couple of scenes is that Josh rejects Frank’s evangelizing offers— not what you would expect from an evangelical movie. And then you might ask “well won’t he still convert anyway at some point?” And the answer there is probably, yes, he will likely become Christian before the end of the series. However, his “journey” to faith says a lot about what watchers and producers of Pureflix think about faith. To them, Josh rejecting faith is ok, and it’s ok for him to become Christian later. This is very perplexing, since for the most part, evangelicals are quick to pass the judgement of eternal damnation on certain communities like the LGBTQIA+ or Democrats or people that have Abortions. In Revelation Road however, characters like Josh or Elizabeth can take their sweet time accepting Jesus, seemingly because of their “intrinsic goodness”. The problem with this message is that if Josh and Elizabeth are “intrinsically good” and can choose at any time to accept Christ, why during the rapture do they remain on earth? There’s probably a long conversation here about determinism vs. free will, and whether or not it is possible for every single person to be saved, but I’ll do my best to cut right to the heart of what I think. Because Josh and Elizabeth can eventually convert and join the other good souls in heaven, Pureflix believes that (most) anyone can achieve God's grace as long as they eventually do acknowledge God, which is in opposition to the Christian belief of unforgivable sin. When the rapture happens in Revelation road, good people get turned to ash and go to heaven, but those who haven’t acknowledged God, including good people like Josh and Elizabeth, are left alive since they still have a chance to go to heaven. In a way, this subliminal messaging is actually really interesting, essentially saying it’s never too late to have faith in God, and by extension, even those “sinners'' can still achieve eternal glory. 

The last part of the movie has Josh retire to a hotel where he meets a hotel owner that is sad about an ongoing war between the US and Iran, saying “They don’t even know what they’re fighting for” and then tries to help a domestic abuse victim after her boyfriend hits her. He almost kills the boyfriend and then only stops when their daughter shows up and pulls him out of his “hulking”. Josh and the woman talk about people not being able to change, and then he goes and has a conversation with the biker leader. The biker leader seems to believe that strong men don’t exist in the world, and one day the “Titans” will come back and rule the world. Josh disagrees, and says that the “Titans” are the “Tyrants” despite being the man who has killed the most people in this entire movie so far. Meanwhile, the rest of the gang attacks Frank and his wife, and the female biker helps Elizabeth escape. Josh finally calls his wife and maybe finds god? Then the rapture actually happens, and all the “good” souls are turned into white balls and go to heaven. The bikers try to chase down Elizabeth, but she runs into an Angel that helps her avoid the bikers.

Picking up where we left off, Josh's story seems to be much more about dealing with a hard past than anything specifically Christian. He goes and tries to help the domestic abuse victim, who decides she doesn’t want his help but later comes to him begging for money. He doesn’t give her any and then fights off her boyfriend. We see three sides of the more broken parts of human life: substance abuse, domestic abuse, and more living with a past of violence. The fundamental lesson to take away from this encounter is that the couple Josh attempts to help (before beating them up) are sinners like Josh and that he, either as a human or a fellow sinner, is unable to really help them. Now, you might say the lesson is “only Jesus Christ can help them” but remember at this point Josh isn’t yet a Christian. See, the part of this movie that actually makes it somewhat compelling is the fact that what stops Josh from “hulking” is the arrival of the couple's daughter— and eventually the feeling of finding God Josh experiences is heavily associated with the love he feels for his wife. I think the main surprise of the movie was that it wasn’t really Jesus that helps Josh in the end, but his love for his wife (that maybe helps him eventually find God). 

Another important piece of philosophy in this film is the conversation between Josh and the lead biker. Ironically, this is a great example of the conservative view of Authority: The biker leader wants “Titans to rise” to which Josh replies by considering them Tyrants. Ironically, Josh himself is a Titan-like violent man that can fight as well as any biker. Conservatives often rant against Tyrants despite republicans and Christians being quite common among the people that run the USA. I can only assume that this scene is there to demonstrate the evil of the biker, and how Josh is committed to defend who the biker considers the common people. Again, this makes no sense in reality where both good and bad people run society and the “Titans” often find themselves in power.

Lastly, when the gang attacks Frank and his family, Frank is shot many times and is also bearing a gun trying to kill, but then asks for the bikers forgiveness right before getting vaporized. It’s off that Frank is one moment trying to kill the bikers and the next begging for their souls to be saved. This is typical of evangelicals that often think more about peoples eternal souls than their lives on earth. 

In the very end of the movie, Elizabeth escapes and meets an Angel who tells her some of God's plan. We don’t actually get to hear what he says, but this scene seems to mostly exist to show that Elizabeth is good and needs to be god's instrument. Why is this important? I’d probably have to watch the second movie in the series but if I had to guess, Elizabeth needs to help save Josh.  

So, all in all — the movie has some ups and downs, but isn’t the worst. Looking back to the two questions I wanted to answer: what qualifies for entertainment in Evangelical America? Well, guns for one. This movie is fervent in its use of firearms, and outside of the few anti-war sentiments, usually thinks violence is righteous if it’s defending someone else. For two, evangelicals seem to enjoy characters that have to discover God. The two protagonists, Josh and Elizabeth are on the path, but have yet to find god. And three, uncomplicated villains. Even though the movie seeds some complications for the main biker, the gang is primarily depicted as a bunch of godless robbing Satanists. And why does Pureflix think this is one of their best works? Well, this is actually a good question since there seems to be two opposing answers: a) it works because it lionizes violence when it’s used by the righteous or b) is about giving up violent ways for god. It could be a bit of both, but I hope if I ever watch any sequels it is about the latter. Anyway, watch the movie and let me know what you think.