The Rapture (1991)
Rapture (rap’chur) 1. ecstatic joy or delight. 2. a state of extreme sexual ecstasy. 3. the feeling of being transported to another sphere of existence. 4. the experience of being spirited away to Heaven just before the Apocalypse.
Sharon is a phone information operator in Los Angeles. She holds impersonal phone conversations with strangers during the day, and after work she cruises “swingers” clubs with her boyfriend to have impersonal sex with strangers at night. When she sleeps, she is haunted by images of a pearl suspended in blackness. She finds herself drawn to a group of Christian co-workers and discovers that they share the same dream. They convince her that God is calling to her and the dream is a harbinger of the Apocalypse. Suddenly, the empty void of her life is filled with a purpose and Sharon becomes born-again. The film then jumps through time as she meets a man, gets married, has children, and finds herself on the shores of heaven at the End of Days. The abrupt change from a casual life filled with music and dancing and sensuality (if not intimacy) to a harsh and uncompromising confrontation with life after death is jarring both for Sharon and for the viewer, setting the scene for her defiant confrontation with the almighty.
Michael Tolkin is best known for his novel-turned-screenplay, The Player. But this is his wildest creation, a dramatization of the appeal and beliefs of fundamentalist Protestant evangelicalism, blended with New Age elements. Mimi Rogers gives an outstanding performance as telephone operator Sharon, bored with her life and seeking rapture through anonymous sex. She finds herself drawn to a group of Christian co-workers and discovers that they share the same dream, and a desire for a rapturous journey to heaven, ahead of the Apocalypse. They convince her that God is calling to her and, suddenly, Sharon is born-again. The abrupt change from a casual life filled with superficial pleasures to a harsh and uncompromising confrontation with life after death is jarring both for Sharon and for the viewer, setting the scene for her defiant confrontation with the Almighty, on the shores of heaven at the End of Days.