Finally a secular movie with God's positive wisdom! Though one tiny reason why I love this movie so, is that the lead actor Jake Gyllenhaal is a hunk... :POk, back to the movie plot itself.
The lead "wakes up to find himself in the body of somebody else and finds out he is part of a mission to find the culprit of a certain train bombing". Sounds simple enough. Ah, when the time factor comes in, the poor lead, and us audience start to have a headache. Turns out that he is sort of "reliving the final 8 minutes of a certain victim in the train bombing."
Thus the initial action thriller part of the movie focuses on the lead trying to first find where the bomb on the train is, which passenger is the culprit and most importantly where this culprit has stashed his hide of another bigger amount of weapons for an even worse large scale bombing.
Then eventually the movie veers into the more philosophical, theological and emotional realm where the lead struggles with the concept of the mission. According to his superiors, the mission is solely to stop a future bombing. The 1st train bombing is considered past and irreversible. The leader however is unwilling to resign to this success alone. He hopes to prevent that "past bombing" since he is reliving that particular 8 minutes repeatedly and he has something for all the other innocent victims in that bombing (of course especially inclusive of an certain attractive spunky female lead). For the lead, the concept of events and time are not linear but could be parallel. He deduces and argues with one of the personnels in charge of the mission, that the future prevented 2nd bombing could have been a sort of "past event", thus justifying his rationale to give it a shot at remedying the 1st bombing. Ok, I'll leave the ending for you to find out when you head towards the theatres (please go soon, I don't think it will survive past next wednesday as it has run for more than 2 months).
The message from God in this movie is not so much of us being saviours like the lead to correct and remedy future and even past mistakes. Note that in the movie, the lead is a helicopter pilot in the US war on Afghan. He was selected for the special mission, as his life threatening injuries from the war matched closely that of that other victim in the 1st train bombing, thus the team "implanted his consciouness in to that 8 miniutes of parallel time of the victim before death".
We too have been chosen by God to be heroes in our own way, to serve in His mission.
As for time factor wise, I've no scientific background in the concept of time though I do have some inkling that Einstein did propose that time as we know it is actually dependant on the speed of light. Thus if the speed of light where altered, theoretically we go back/forward in time.
Looking in this light (literally and metaphorically), the 2nd coming of Christ may really be totally beyond human comprehension.
The main commander general and coordinator of The ultimate rescue mission is God, we believers are but soldiers chosen for our individual talent, skill, ability (as represented by the lead's injuries) to effect a tiny part of this grand mission. However, we must also never look down on the task we are entrusted with. This is partly mirrored by metaphorsis of the attitude of the lead in the movie.
In the initially "trial runs" of the 8 miniutes, the lead is clearly frustrated by his lack of knowledge of the mission and adopts a "get it over and done with" attitude. Later when he gets over the frustration, he is furious towards for culprit of the the 1st bombing and the 2nd plot. He also even harbours resentment towards the mission leaders who selected him, for not letting his body die naturally and thus leaving him conscious of his separation from his father. Later on nearing the climax, he develops a sense of attachment for all the victims in the 1st bombing and pleads with one of the chiefs in the project to let him try reversing the past, even though he knows that this may endanger the actual him's chances of survival.
During our walk with Chirst, a similar series of that replay occur along the way. We get frustrated with the seemingly impossible teachings of Christ we have to uphold and want to "get it over and done with". Other times we believers harbour anger both towards others (sinners, fellow believers and even God himself), thinking they are making our walk difficult, separating us from God! However each significant stage of our walk with God comes when we sacrifice some selfish desire to place of what God deems as a greater good.
In conclusion, let us perserve on in our walk with Him, for eventually "all things will be made good again through His ways".
For the perserving believer
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
2 Timothy 4:7
In praise of God's ultimate mission
For the old order of things has passed away. He who is seated on the throne said "I am making everything new"
Revelations 21:4-5
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
Revelations 22:12
No comments:
Post a Comment