Celling the End Times: The Contours of Contemporary Rapture Films

This article examines the contours of contemporary rapture films, examining them as cultural documents that reflect the particular religio-political worldviews of their producers, and more broadly of the evangelical Christian/premillennialist milieu in which they are produced and consumed. In particular, it argues that the films may be seen to operate on several levels simultaneously. On one level they seek to educate their viewers in the specifics of premillennial understandings of prophecy in an entertaining manner and encourage those who have not yet done so to undergo a born again experience. However, on another, equally important level, they also serve to articulate and possibly even redefine a sense of evangelical identity within the context of a late modern, increasingly globalised world through the language and imagery of the apocalypse.