Apocalypse

This article is about the films -- for the trope, see The End of the World as We Know It.

Apocalypse is a Christian end-times film series developed by Peter and Paul Lalonde and released by Cloud Ten Pictures, the producers of the short-lived Left Behind film series. It follows the story of former World News Network reporter Helen Hannah as she and those left behind on the earth following the Rapture deal with the emerging Anti Christ figure Franco Maccalusso and his One Nation Earth government, trying to bring as many people into the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ before His return. The series consists of Apocalypse, Revelation (featuring Jeff Fahey and Carol Alt), Tribulation (featuring Gary Busey, Margot Kidder, and Howie Mandel), and Judgment (featuring Corbin Bersen, Jessica Steen, and Mr. T). A fifth movie in the series, Redemption, is currently under development.

Tropes used in Apocalypse include:

• Actor Allusion: Jeff Fahey's character in Revelation entering an ultra-realistic virtual reality simulation is an allusion to his appearing in another movie featuring a virtual reality program where his character is warped to the point where he claims to be God. In contrast, Jeff Fahey's character in Revelation claims that he isn't looking for God. Also, Corbin Bernsen plays a lawyer character in Judgment, which is an allusion to his role in the TV series L.A. Law.
• A God Am I / A God Is You: Not only does Franco Maccalusso declare himself to be God, he also promises that those who believe in him can also be gods, using Scripture to back up his claims.
• Alphabet News Network: World News Network, WNN.
• Amoral Attorney: Victoria Thorne (Jessica Steen) in Judgment, who plays a really manipulative bitch of a prosecutor.
• Apocalypse How: A level 1 (global Depopulation Bomb) at this point in the series.
• Assimilation Plot: The goal of One Nation Earth citizens during the Tribulation to unite together for world peace, interpreted as the people becoming one in mind like those who attempted to build the Tower of Babel, heavily emphasized in Tribulation as police officers and One Nation Earth agents hunt down those who have not taken the Mark of the Beast and force them to enter the Day Of Wonders program.
• As the Good Book Says...: Used by the Christian protagonists in the story, but also used by believers in Franco Maccalusso's ideals in Tribulation with their interpretation of Genesis 11:6 being that if the world could unite as one, then they would be able to achieve anything.
• Bi the Way: Willy Spino is hinted as being this in Judgment when he flirts with some men in the court room as he is brought in as a testifying witness against Helen Hannah, whereas in Revelation he was hitting on the blind woman.
  • Earlier in Revelation, Spino makes comments hinting at a one-sided man crush on Thorold Stone.
• Blessed with Suck: The ones who have taken the Mark of the Beast receive limited telepathic and telekinetic powers, all for the eternal cost of being sent to the Lake of Fire.
• Caught Up in the Rapture
• Can't Stop the Signal: Two people in Revelation who have taken the Mark of the Beast try to stop the anti-Day Of Wonders virus program from uploading by pulling out the disk from the computer and even shooting the computer it's uploading on, all to no avail as it miraculously continues to boot up.
  • Unfortunately, this plan only delays the Day Of Wonders program from being released worldwide, as it shows up in full use in the following movie Tribulation.
• Cassandra Truth: In Tribulation, when Tom Canboro's brother-in-law Jason Quincy (Howie Mandel) is being manipulated by future One Nation Earth agents who want to prevent him from spreading the truth before the world is ready for it, neither Tom nor his wife Susan are willing to believe him due to their past dealings with him that lead to their belief that Jason is mentally unstable. However, Tom's sister Eileen somehow senses that the agent has been in Jason's hospital room and is more willing to believe him, though Tom doesn't believe his sister due to her being a born-again Christian who takes the Bible very literally.
• Conspiracy Theorist: Jason Quincy (Howie Mandel) plays one, though he seems a bit more of a crackpot, which makes his telling his family members that the men who drove him to throw himself out the window rather difficult.
• Crapsack World: What the world during the Tribulation slowly devolves into in the series with One Nation Earth's Assimilation Plot taking place.
• Cyberspace: The Day Of Wonders takes place within a virtual reality program, mostly consisting of a white room with a Digital Avatar of the Antichrist in it to offer whoever enters it the Mark of the Beast, with the alternative being death, usually by decapitation.
• Deal with the Devil: Accepting the Mark of the Beast is played out like this, with the benefits of its recipients experiencing miracles such as the blind woman in Revelation receiving her sight, the wheelchair-bound man in the same movie being able to walk, and the one-armed man in the hospital in Tribulation receiving his right arm again. There's also the Blessed with Suck element of having limited telepathic and telekinetic powers, as featured in Tribulation.
• Digital Avatar: Franco Maccalusso has one in the Day Of Wonders program, for convincing people who enter the program to take the Mark of the Beast. In essence, he is fulfilling what the book of Revelation says about "the image of the beast".
• Disabled Snarker: Willy Spino and the blind woman (Carol Alt) in Revelation.
• Doomed Appointment: Of a sort in Tribulation, when Tom Canboro promises he would go with his sister Eileen to her church next Sunday night to hear what God has to say. It's only doomed because Tom Canboro gets into a car accident that puts him in a coma and Eileen is eventually Caught Up in the Rapture. However, near the end of the movie, Tom does visit the now-deserted church that Eileen attended, ready to hear what God has to say because he now believes in Him.
• The Dragon: Len Parker plays this in Apocalypse and Revelation.
• Easy Evangelism: Not everyone is convinced that either God was responsible for the launched nukes vanishing as well as the Christians at the time of the Rapture vanishing or Franco Maccalusso was the one responsible for it, but there seems to be more people swayed to believing Maccalusso's claims than what those who are left behind and became Christians are saying.
• Evil Empire: One Nation Earth.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Len Parker in Revelation goes into deep-voice mode while speaking like he was demon-possessed, which he most likely is.
• Fake Kill Scare: Helen Hannah (supposedly) dies in the Day Of Wonders program in Tribulation, but is later shown to be spared from death by the Antichrist himself in Judgment.
  • Also from Tribulation: Jason Quincy makes a run for it when he thinks that the One Nation Earth agent (secretly a Reverse Mole) is shooting all his Christian friends and family members in the hideout, but as it turns out is really firing blanks.
  • Another fake kill scare takes place in Revelation, as a Christian girl whose mother hears was permanently put out of her misery (so to speak) shows up alive near the end of the movie with her mother about to be put into the furnace along with former police officer Thorold Stone.
• For Your Own Good: A father turns his Christian son over to the One Nation Earth authorities in Revelation claiming he is doing this because he loves his son.
• Friend to All Living Things: Subverted with Revelation's blind woman in the Haters hideout, who by her own admission became a vegetarian not because she loved animals, but because she hated plants.
• The Fundamentalist: Those who believe in Franco Maccalusso being God incarnate and that his teachings are the truth are portrayed as falling into this trope more easily than the Christians that they persecute as being "haters".
• Give Me a Sign: Voiced by Thorold Stone in Revelation when he isn't convinced that there is a God other than the self-proclaimed Messiah Franco Maccalusso, which he doesn't believe is God either. He later gets his sign from the real true God when he and several other Christians get sent into the furnace and are supernaturally protected from the flames.
• Deadly Change-of-Heart: As in Left Behind, once you take the Mark of the Beast, you're pretty much screwed for eternity.
• Hollywood Hacking: Attempted with Willy Spino in Revelation as he uses a code-cracking program to hack into the Day Of Wonders program to see what it contains before it goes live.
• Incessant Music Madness: The singing of "Amazing Grace" near the end of Revelation by the group of Haters in the furnace almost becomes this when Willy Spino and Cindy Bolton (Carol Alt) are frantically searching for the anti-Day Of Wonders virus program disk and try to stop the program from uploading, all to no avail, while Len Parker has the furnace heat turned up even hotter to stop the singing until he decides to go into the room himself, only to be baked to a crisp. All the while, more people end up singing the song until it seems like Willy and Cindy are holding their ears, not wanting to hear it.
• Irritation Is the Sincerest Form of Flattery: In the early part of Tribulation, young Calvin Canboro imitates young Tom Canboro until Tom talks about Calvin having to go to the bathroom, which gets Calvin to stop imitating Tom when he finds himself repeating what Tom said.
• I Will Find You: Thorold Stone in Revelation loses his wife and daughter in the Rapture and will do anything to get them back, eventually realizing that he will have to put his faith in Jesus Christ to see them again.
  • In Tribulation, Tom Canboro is separated from his wife Susan when he was in a coma from the automobile accident and spends much of the movie looking for her. He does find her among a group of persecuted Christians, thankfully.
• Jesus Saves
• Just in Time: Thorold Stone's virtual beheading in Revelation is interrupted by Helen Hannah coming to cut the power on the virtual reality goggles Stone was wearing just as the guillotine blade falls.
• Kangaroo Court: Helen Hannah's trial in Judgment takes place in this as her defense attorney Mitch Kendrick (Corbin Bernsen) is given a script of the trial that he must follow so that Helen can be convicted guilty.
• Magic From Technology: Apparently the Day Of Wonders virtual reality program is so real it can hurt and even kill people who enter into it: a lethal snake bite in the program also becomes a lethal snake bite in reality. Willy Spino in Revelation when he first entered the Day Of Wonders program after it was hacked ran his virtual self finger on the blade of a guillotine in the program and ended up cutting his finger in reality.
  • Arguably it may not be the programming of the Day Of Wonders that causes it to be that real, but actually the power of the Antichrist working within the program itself.
• Man On Fire: Len Parker in Revelation ends up becoming this when he sees that God has supernaturally protected the believers who were put into the incinerator and decides that he will deal with them himself.
• Mark of the Beast: This particular variation coming from being exposed to the Day Of Wonders virtual reality program.
• Meaningful Name: Victoria Thorne, which makes you wonder how she ever managed to get to the top of her profession.
• Neutral No Longer: Helen Hannah's defense attorney Mitch Kendrick in Judgment hides behind a fake Mark of the Beast because he is unsure of whether to put his faith in Maccalusso or Jesus Christ. However, near the end of the movie during the court proceedings, Mitch ends up becoming a believer, which causes him to be killed by his ex-lover and prosecutor Victoria Thorne (Jessica Steen).
• Not So Different: The Devil as Antichrist's claim to Helen Hannah in Tribulation that he is just like God. Helen refutes it by saying God loved the world and died for it, whereas the Devil wants people to die for him.
• The Nudifier: Hinted at in Apocalypse when people are removed from their clothes during the Rapture. Strangely, though, their clothes are neatly folded in the spot where they once stood, instead of just lying in a disheveled heap as in Left Behind.
• Off with His Head: Those who refuse to take the Mark of the Beast when inside the Day of Wonders virtual reality program are subject to a virtual beheading, or in some cases another form of death like a lethal snake bite, which causes the victim to die in reality.
• One World Order: One Nation Earth is in control of all the earth throughout all the movies so far, and has been shown to be rather oppressive to both Christians and those who have not chosen a side.
• The Other Darrin: Sam Bornstein played Franco Maccalusso in the first movie, which was later played by Nick Mancuso in the following movies.
• Ouija Board: Jason Quincy (Howie Mandell) uses what is called the Tabarrok Board in the movie Tribulation in order to find out some things. Two of the answers he gets from it are Genesis 11:6 and "I AM".
• Path of Inspiration: Franco Maccalusso's Religion of Evil masquerades as this, having a Secret Circle of Secrets working in the shadows.
• Place of Protection: In Tribulation, Tom Canboro is being chased through a hospital by a One Nation Earth agent who uses his mind powers to close all doors in the hallway so his prey cannot escape -- all except for one room that Tom enters, which turns out to be a chapel which provides for him a means of escape.
• Poe's Law: Margot Kidder signed up for her role in the film thinking it was a parody of Christian Apocalypse stories.
• Potty Failure: Young Calvin Canboro in Tribulation wets his pants while he and his brother Tom wait for Eileen to finish her prayer to God about the tree she carved their names into. Years later, Calvin can Never Live It Down.
• Psychic-Assisted Suicide: A man under the mind control of future One Nation Earth agents in Tribulation is driven to throw himself out of the window of a high-rise apartment building after Tom Canboro prevents him from killing his wife, who is a Christian.
• Red Herring: Thorold Stone and his partner in Revelation are misdirected to a hideout of persecuted Christians who are blamed for the bombing of a school bus, when the job was really done by inside One Nation Earth agents under the employ of Len Parker in order to get the stolen Day Of Wonders program disk from the Christian cell group.
• La Résistance: The Haters, which is One Nation Earth's name for underground groups of persecuted Christians during the Tribulation.
• Ret-Gone: Eileen Canboro (Margot Kidder) is mysteriously erased from Calvin Canboro's picture of his siblings in Tribulation, though Tom Canboro clearly remembers her. Of course, Eileen is only erased because she was Caught Up in the Rapture and Calvin has accepted the Mark of the Beast, causing him to forget her existence.
  • Earlier in the movie, Tom Canboro finds out that a fellow police officer who he knows is a Christian is not listed in the police department's records after the Rapture.
• Reverse Mole: A One Nation Earth officer who infiltrates a Christian hideout in Tribulation and threatens to kill everyone in it ends up firing blanks and revealing himself to be on their side.
• Rip Van Winkle: Tom Canboro (Gary Busey) in Tribulation wakes up a few years into the Tribulation period after being in an automobile accident.
• Second Coming: It's all about Jesus Christ's return.
• Shoe Phone: Helen Hannah wears a contact lens camera in Tribulation so she can purposely be captured and enter the Day Of Wonders program to expose Franco Maccalusso as being the Antichrist.
• Shoot the Dog: Willy Spino does this to his dog in Revelation after he turns evil.
• Sigil Spam: The One Nation Earth logo, which is based on the Eye of Providence pyramid design of the Great Seal of the United States, tends to pop up everywhere during the Tribulation.
• Spit Take: Tom Canboro in Tribulation when he tries to drink bad coffee at the hospital.
• Take Over the World
• Taking the Bullet: One of the Haters sacrifices himself to block a bullet Willy Spino fires at his half-sister Helen Hannah after he receives the Mark of the Beast and ditches the wheelchair in Revelation. Her protector, though, gets better.
• Taking You with Me: The Devil in the form of the Antichrist Franco Maccalusso pretty much knows he's doomed for the Lake Of Fire, and so decides to take as many souls with him in the Tribulation through the Mark of the Beast.
• Talking to Himself: In-universe example, Len Parker voices Thorold Stone's wife and daughter through a walkie-talkie in order to deceive Stone into believing he has them in his custody. He even tells "them" to be quiet.
• Techno Wizard: Willy Spino, the wheelbound-chair computer programmer in Revelation, is made out to be this, as he is able to make gadgets that can read human DNA through solid concrete walls. His virtual reality programs are so real that they are totally indistinguishable from reality, with the exception that you can't hurt yourself in them. Someone, however, decided to go a step further to make the Day Of Wonders program become real enough to hurt and kill people.
• Thanatos Gambit: Helen Hannah allowing herself to be captured by the One Nation Earth forces so she could enter the Day Of Wonders program and expose the truth of it by wearing a contact lens camera. The Antichrist, however, spares her from death.
• Twenty Minutes Into the Future
• Utopia Justifies the Means: One Nation Earth's goal of world peace using the Assimilation Plot to achieve it.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Franco Maccalusso has been in the spotlight a bit longer than he has actively been the Antichrist, mostly due to his book Babel Becomes One.
• Voice Changeling: Len Parker doing the voices of Thorold Stone's wife and daughter in Revelation.
• White Void Room: What the Day Of Wonders program takes place in. See also Cyberspace.
• With Us or Against Us: You're either on the side of believing Franco Maccalusso is God or on the side of believing that Jesus Christ is God; THERE IS NO MIDDLE GROUND HERE!!!
• A Wizard Did It: Franco Maccalusso's proclamation of himself being the one who not only miraculously caused all the launched nukes to disappear, but was also behind the Rapture, claiming that those who disappeared were removed because they were obstacles to the goal of achieving world peace. Makes sense, as he proclaims himself to be God.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: Despite Thorold Stone's efforts, the Day of Wonders program still shows up in full use during the Tribulation.
• You Have Failed Me...: A deleted scene from Judgment shows Franco Maccalusso sending Victoria Thorne and the judge from the court case in the movie to an uncertain fate after failing to give him the desired verdict.
  • In Tribulation, Calvin Canboro was choked to death inside the Day Of Wonders program by the Antichrist's Digital Avatar when he failed to convert his brother.
• Your Mind Makes It Real: See also Magic From Technology in regards to the Day of Wonders program.