POINT BREAK

Johnny Utah is a visionary, 25-year-old FBI agent who goes undercover to solve a rash of bank robberies committed by five presidential mask-wearing pros, who repeatedly dumbfound the authorities by leaving no distinguishable evidence, except for one crook who drops his trousers to reveal handwritten words on each cheek: “Thank you.”

Johnny’s veteran partner tells him about the FBI’s only clue to this mystery: They are surfers. Evidently, close-up video footage taken by the bank’s hidden camera reveals a bathing suit tan-line on the buttocks of the exhibitionist, as well as traces of “sex wax,” which is used on surfer boards for traction.

Since all the robberies were committed within their Santa Monica, California, vicinity, Johnny goes undercover as a surfer in hopes of exposing the thieves. However, Johnny nearly drowns in the undertow of a thunderous wave. He is rescued by Tyler, a weather-beaten surfer girl with piercing eyes. Tyler uses some four-letter words to warn Johnny that the sport isn’t for amateurs.

Back at the office, Johnny pulls up the FBI files on Tyler: indecent exposure, cocaine possession, theft, and her parents died in a car accident in 1984. Using this information, Johnny persuades Tyler to teach him to surf. He contends that his whole life had been centered around what his parents wanted him to do and that after his Mom and Dad passed away (a lie), he wanted to learn to surf.

Identifying with Johnny’s story, Tyler meets him early in the morning for surfing lessons. She also introduces him to Bodhie, a pantheistic Zen surfer guru (a contradiction in terms since Buddhists are non-theistic, but the screenwriter didn’t know any better) who later turns out to be the criminal mastermind behind the robberies.

Bodhie, depicted as an aging, dark-skinned surfer with stringy hair, is an interesting portrait of pantheism. He sees the ocean as his soul. Ultimately, surfing is a vehicle to nirvana, enabling him to reach a higher state of enlightenment.

However, the ocean is not Bodhie’s only fetish. Other forms of thrill-seeking also give him energy, such as the “killer rush” of robbing banks and skydiving, which Bodhie describes as “the closest thing to God.”

True to pantheism, Bodhie believes his cosmic oneness puts him beyond good and evil. “We’ve robbed over 30 banks,” says Bodhie. “It’s never for money; it’s us against the system.” At one point, Bodhie challenges Johnny: “Why be a servant to the Law when you can be its Master?”

Bodhie poses as an impersonal, transcending personality who is one with the cosmos. When his former girlfriend, Tyler, becomes sexually involved with Johnny, he is totally indifferent. Evidently, he could care less one way or the other.

Bodhie’s stoic attitude is also evident in his criminal activities as he guns people down as if they are pop-up cardboard decoys. He even threatens Johnny telling him that his friends will “gut (Tyler) like a pig” if he doesn’t go along with their criminal plan.

In contrast, the one true God is “infinite and personal, transcendent, immanent, omniscient, sovereign, and good” (James Sire, THE UNIVERSE NEXT DOOR). Our God is infinitely greater than the ocean, extending beyond the world’s scope. He is not merely a force or energy but a personal Savior who possesses self-reflection and self-determination. Compared to pantheism’s “higher state of enlightenment,” Christianity advocates a filling of the Spirit. Furthermore, man is not beyond good and evil. He is subject to God’s laws and judgment. As Hebrews 9:27 says, “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”

Reflecting on the positive qualities of POINT BREAK, the film is to be commended for its intriguing cinematography complete with bubbly underwater shots and breath-taking skydiving scenes. When viewed as a whole, however, the film drowns in a bloody cesspool of bitterness, promiscuity and disrespect for human life.