The thing that bothered me about the movie was how scared the little girl was and how they gave her (imho) an evil, almost scary look. There was no mention of the gospel and the only belief to be had that I could see is that if you don't believe the world will be destroyed and that the angels (who looked like men in black suits and drove a car in one scene) are here to rescue you, then you will be destroyed with the world.

 When the father was watching the son and the daughter of the girl go up, it seemed to me that he would have a chance to recant his "belief" but he didn't. (Biblically there is no second chance to make it in the rapture) I would have to take Nicolas Cage's parents as not believing in the pre-trib rapture and trusitng God. That did not bother me except that the movie did not have the Biblical 7 year trib, but it was a movie.

 

 The black stone made me think of the definition of "black balling" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackball a person since those who received it were the unbelievers. (but maybe I missed the meaning in the movie) The white rabbits made me think of the white stone in Revelation 2:17 as I could not help but correlate them to the opposite of the black stones, and yes, I did think "Tree of Life" when I saw the new planet and the tree. Though my first thought at that point was "They better get it right this time. Whatever "right" would pertain to in terms of the movie. That part I still wasn't sure of. Although, I suppose that was meant to be Heaven. My first thought since it showed the boy and girl was that they were to populate a new planet (as in Mormonism) but maybe that is not what the movie meant to portray and there were other "believers" landing on the planet in the background.

 I was still thinking about the beginning of the movie with the telescope and how they talked about specific grounds for the possibility of life on many many other planets which threw a wrench in the rest of the movie for me. (I forget the dialogue but father and son were agreed and seemed to have "scientific" grounds for their belief in this)

I wasn't sure what the field of black stones meant except that it was the point of contact and must have represented those unbelievers who were left behind.

 

To reiterate, I never was sure of what the "belief" was except for being rescued from impending doom.

Also, it bothered me that the "angels" did not offere comfort to the boy and girl but only warning. When the father chased the angel and asked what he wanted with his son, there was no explanation. The only reason for this would be what you brought out in your "book report" that he held anger in his heart over his wife's death. So I guess we would have to assume that his parents knew the gospel and that he had it growing up with them. The average non-Christian movie go-er may not see this.

 

Otherwise,  I thought that you did a very good and thorough (yet concise) job on your "book report" of the movie.

 

Kathy