By Kayla DeKraker
Actor John Michael Finley opened up with Movieguide® about playing a real-life hero in Angel Studios FAITH OF ANGELS.
The film is based on the true story of a 10-year-old boy who is rescued after being trapped inside a mine for five days.
“A true story set in 1989 Utah, where ten-year-old Joshua Dennis becomes lost in the labyrinthine tunnels of the abandoned Hidden Treasure Mine,” Angel Studios’ synopsis reads. The synopsis explains that Finley’s character John Skinner, who knew about the mine, felt led by God to help in the rescue. Authorities did not allow him to search at first, but he persisted and ending up saving young Joshua.
Finley visited the mine where the event took place.
“I mean you’re approaching the entrance of the mine…and 20 feet before you even get to the archway, you’re blasted by this strong air conditioning. The pressures that are in the mountain, they’re just blowing this cold air out,” he told Movieguide®’s Cheryl Crisp. “So, before you even get in there you’re already freezing. And I cannot imagine spending five days, five nights in pitch darkness, freezing.”
How did Joshua end up in the mine in the first place?
The story goes that he was on a scout camping trip with some other scouts and his father in September 1989. One night, they took their flashlights to go explore the mine, until one member wanted to go back to camp and was escorted out by Joshua’s dad, Terry. The other boys went ahead of Joshua, and he got lost and disoriented inside the mine. When he realized he was lost, he prayed, “Dear Heavenly Father, please help me to be all right.” God answered his prayer in a miraculous way.
He was found in a last-ditch search effort and explained that he knew angels were protecting him.
“You know when they pulled him out, they said, ‘Were you scared?’ He was kind of like, ‘No, I knew there were angels there. I knew that I was being protected,’” John Michael Finley explained.
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He continued, “The mind of a child…kind of shows us all, illuminates things in all of us that we kind of lose in our adulthood. And so, it was just really special to kind of meet all these people and hear their stories.”
“I think John found him in 20 minutes. They’d been looking for five days and five nights, and in less than 30 minutes,” Finley said of Skinner’s heroic decision to keep up the search when everyone else was losing hope.
FAITH OF ANGELS is now available to stream on the Angel Studios app or at Angel.com.
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