- Content: “Can a Missionary Go Too Far to Spread the Gospel?”
| None | Light | Moderate | Heavy | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Language | ||||
| Violence | ||||
| Sex | ||||
| Nudity |
Watch:
What You Need To Know:
LAST DAYS is beautifully shot with great actors who tell the story well. However, it’s unclear if the lead character is a hero or a villain. Despite this, LAST DAYS places a strong emphasis on Christian, biblical beliefs as John works to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The movie upholds the sanctity of Christian missionary work. However, it questions John’s intentions. The movie asks whether John is a missionary, so his life has meaning, rather than an honest desire to spread the Gospel. LAST DAYS has seven obscenities, including one “f” word, and some lewd content in one scene. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution.
Content:
Strong Christian, biblical worldview as characters live the call of the missionary life and prioritize spreading the word of the Gospel with the world, characters constantly refer back to the Bible and go to the Lord in prayer for guidance, but it’s unclear whether the lead male character is a hero, plus a lesbian character is upset about Christians stifling her perverted sexuality;
Seven obscenities (including an “f” word and five “s” words);
Moderate violence as the main character is shown being attacked by spear-wielding indigenous people, which pierce him and put his life in jeopardy;
One example of a slightly explicit sex scene, though the characters do not actually end up having sex, one character is also a homosexual who is upset at religion for stifling her sexuality;
No explicit nudity, but multiple instances of upper male nudity, and one instance of a man shown wearing nothing but underwear;
Social drinking throughout the movie, though the main character does not drink;
Multiple characters smoke cigarettes throughout the movie, but there is no drug content; and,
Moderate miscellaneous immorality includes lying, sexism, fraud, dysfunctional family, and hypocrisy.
More Detail:
The movie begins three years before John’s trip to India as he is getting ready to graduate college. While he is at a final chapel before the end of the school year, he is challenged by the speaker to spread the word of the Lord to the dark places in the world. John, however, does not accept the challenge, knowing that he will, instead of following his lifelong dream to travel the world as a missionary, choose to go to medical school to appease his father. During his first semester of med school, however, John drops out to chase his dream.
His first mission takes him to Kurdistan where he works to help orphans while also sharing the Gospel with them. While there, he connects with two other missionaries who take on the extremes of the field, having run missions in places like the Amazon and North Korea. They encourage John to work to truly reach those in the dark, rather than the easy populations which any missionary could impact.
John takes this call seriously and returns to the U.S. to train at a missionary training center which prepares missionaries for the intensities of the life through things like survival training, a base knowledge in mechanics, and the ability to endure intense psychological moments. It is there that John decides he is going to travel to India and make his way to North Sentinel Island to reach a people who have no chance to hear the Gospel.
His first step towards this mission is traveling to the Amazon Rainforest to connect with one of the hardcore missionaries he met in Kurdistan and tell him his plan. The missionary tries to talk him out of pursuing this goal, but ultimately gives him advice on how to be able to enter India without rousing suspicion. The steps given to him engulf the next couple years of John’s life as he prepares to reach his goal.
In 2018, John entered India and promptly set about making arrangements to reach the island, which was very difficult to do because going there without the permission of the Indian government is illegal and the Indian Coast Guard heavily monitors the waters around the island. John, however, eventually connects with a group of Christian fishermen who are willing to take him near the island and allow him to go the rest of the way in a kayak. On reaching the island, he meets the natives and attempts to share gifts with them, but is ultimately forced to flee after they begin throwing spears at him with intent to kill.
John is depressed when he returns to the island and is ready to give up. He decides to indulge in the worldly things of life and ends up connecting with an Australian girl with whom he shares a lot in common. Things turn south, however, when he shares with her that he was almost killed by the Sentinelese earlier that day, and she freaks out that he attempted to contact them. She ends up telling the police, placing John in danger as they will punish anyone who even attempts to reach the Sentinelese people.
The next day, John attempts to flee the country, but while he is in the airport, he runs into his hardcore missionary friend who came to the country after John repeatedly reached out to him for help. The friend consoles him and encourages him to pursue a new goal now that he has reached the island, rather than return and potentially lose his life for the second time. John, however, gains an even stronger resolve to return to the island and embarks on his final journey. Will he be able to make it, or will the Indian police catch him in time and save him from his own doom?
LAST DAYS is a beautifully shot movie with great actors who tell the story well. Sadly, the movie is unclear whether John is a hero or a villain. For example, even his closest allies don’t believe John should be trying to reach this island, though the movie glorifies missionary work as a whole. Furthermore, John is portrayed as a strong Christian, though it ultimately seems that he continues to pursue the Sentinelese people because he has a desire for his life to mean something, rather than a true desire to spread the Gospel.
Nonetheless, LAST DAYS places a strong emphasis on Christian, biblical beliefs and highlights the missionary life as particularly worthwhile. Also, multiple characters quote Scripture and pray often. Furthermore, John continues to love his enemy and pursues people who have attacked him, even though he might endanger his physical health. However, LAST DAYS has seven obscenities, including one “f” word, and a slightly explicit lewd scene. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution.
