Last night I got hooked into watching a movie on the SyFy Channel. It was titled "The Mist." There is a secret government project outside this little town. One evening there is a huge wind and electrical storm. The next day a mist comes down the mountain and covers the town. We slowly learn that the secret project involved opening a "window" to other worlds. One character observes, "Or a door." Strange, powerful, and deadly creatures begin to make their way out of The Mist - killing the persons locked inside the grocery store.
There is a local woman considered crazy. She sees in the events the end of time and God's judgement. She sees in The Mist the retribution which comes as a result of misguided human action.
The main character is not of that mindset. He mounts an attempt to escape, along with his five year old son and three others. Which almost works till his Rover runs out of gas. The final scene involves the five persons sitting in the useless car, surrounded by The Mist, and realizing they only have four bullets for the gun.
The man shoots the others and steps out of the car to await his fate. He cries for it to be over.
And The Mist lifts. There are soldiers, and survivors.
The crazy woman's ravings aside, the movie is a powerful exploration of what is unleashed on the world when we conduct "secret" actions. Jesus said that darkness is preferred by those who have little regard for others.
That final scene will haunt me for weeks to come. Sometimes even the actions we do with a pure and caring heart result in horror. Original sin is a statement about our inability to break free from the cycle of unintended consequences.
The themes of the Bible and theology are fodder for practically every movie written. Discovering them isn't all that difficult. Opening our lives to their insights and lessons is the difficult thing to do.
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