A Thief in the Night

Plot synopsis:
This film is the first in a sequence of four. The first two films out of the four in the series, concern Patty and her two female friends. The chief conflict is whether or not Patty will take the Mark of the Beast or not, in the face of the threat of execution by the forces of the Beast.
Patty Jo Myers is a young woman who considers herself a Christian because she occasionally reads her Bible and goes to church regularly, where the pastor is really an unbeliever. She refuses to believe the warnings of her friends and family that she will go through the Great Tribulation if she does not accept Jesus. One morning, she awakens to find that her family and millions of others have suddenly disappeared. Gradually, Patty realizes that the Rapture, an event some interpret from the Bible, has happened and she and everyone else left behind are entering into the Great Tribulation, the last days of Earth, dominated by the Antichrist. A government system called UNITE (United Nations Imperium of Total Emergency) is set up and those who do not receive the mark identifying them with UNITE will be arrested. Patty desperately tries to avoid the law and the mark but is captured by UNITE. Patty escapes but is cornered by UNITE on a bridge, and falls from the bridge to her death(in the dream state).
Patty then awakens, this time for real, and realizes that all she had experienced was only a dream. Her relief is short-lived when the radio announces that millions of people have disappeared. Horrified, Patty frantically searches for her family only to find them missing too. Traumatized and distraught, Patty realizes that the Rapture has indeed occurred and she's been left behind. In the ensuing plot the questions are 1) will she be caught (as in her dream she was caught), and 2) will she take the mark to escape execution.
The plot is somewhat hard to understand in the second film because the story of Patty is told in flashbacks within flashbacks. But it ends dramatically with Patty witnessing her friend Wenda being executed, and arguing with Wenda's younger sister Sandy (who, along with Jerry and Diane, urges Patty to take the mark) who betrayed them -- and being prepped for her own execution.
The 3rd and 4th films are spliced on to the ending of the second film, but begin a rather new story, that of Dave, Leslie, and Connie. Leslie is with Patty at the guillotine (waiting her turn), when she escapes due to the eschatological earthquake. She runs, goes down into an underground room and meets Dave there. It is love at first sight. Dave and Leslie have a romance. While the plot is a bit difficult to understand, Dave's purpose seems to be 1) to develop a fake mark so that a person can buy and sell without using the actual Beast's mark and 2) to destroy the master computer of the Beast by injecting into it a destructive code, which in fact is the song, "Onward Christian Soldiers." The story is presented with action scenes and interspersed long conversations. Connie is an agent of the Beast who pretends to cooperate with Dave.

Tags: christian film

Review:
I was saved before I saw this movie and the rest of the series and was forced to watch it in a youth group at my church.
The film's premise is grounded in Pre-Millenial, pre-Tribulation eschatalogy, believing that Christ comes once for the secret taking of the true church, and then comes again at the end of the seven years of hell on earth.
One of the most abhorrent motion pictures ever made (second only to Lamont Johnson's reprehensible "Lipstick" back in 1976), "A Thief in the Night" has -- sadly -- become a Bible belt staple -- one of the only "Evangelical Christian cult films." How wildly popular is it among conservative Christians?
Let's put it this way: one could walk into any "film night" at a midwestern Baptist church during the eighties and nineties and catch this motion picture, nine times out of ten (until John Schmidt took over by making a series of contemporary Christian films that actually remain watchable to this day -- "The Wait of the World" (1989), etc.)I fail to understand how anyone could even -sit through- "A Thief in the Night" (let alone heap unqualified praise onto the film).
The "filmmakers" rendered this impossible by dampering "A Thief in the Night" with some of the sourest, most depressing dramatic overtones in movie history and ensuring that it can never (NEVER) be *enjoyed* as entertaining camp.
This, from a film about Christ's second coming -- a subject which should impart a message of hope, not of fear.In short: nothing fun about this one, folks.
"Left Behind" (1999), starring Kirk Cameron and based on the bestselling book series (a film I have not seen), covers the same ground and is evidently far more watchable..
The pastor of a church who would would be interested in showing A Thief in the NIght to his congregation would obtain a copy of the film.
This movie is used to by religious organization to provoke fear in little kids so they will believe in Christianity.
I had nightmares for at least 15 years and I think that making children see these movies is child abuse.
If I were not brought up to think that this was true and had this shoved down my throat, I wouldn't found the bad acting and ridiculous plot entertaining, but being told at 5 that this is what is going to happen to you can cause lifelong trauma..
Written and acted by sincere amateurs, produced by some exploitation monger, this is dull and hard to watch.Not the worst movie ever, but at least schlock like _Plan 9 From Outer Space_ usually had a real actor or two.
Since I am a Christian believer and that includes believing in the Divinity of Jesus Christ and that He is my Personal Savior and Lord due to His Sacrifice at the Cross and coming back to Eternal Life after being raised from the dead as well as believing that the Bible is the inspired Word of God - what can I really say about this particular film?I think the film has a powerful message, even though I have mixed feelings about its delivery.
, once again, centuries before the fact, and a catastrophe [world war?] yet future to our times (the Antichrist mentioned in the film).
Even Jesus said that He did not know, to paraphrase, " nor the Angels in Heaven, but the Father only ".What this means is that we should continue to anticipate the Return of Christ while doing the Christian walk in our daily lives.Speculation about the Second Coming of Christ goes back centuries.Much of this speculation has caused a great deal of tragedy and misunderstanding, especially in the dangerous practice of date-setting.
I watched this movie when I was 9 years old.
I am a new born Christian however I believe that the rapture will take place after the great tribulation (the movie teaches that it will happen before it).
I don't like the way the film tries to scare the audience, I don't think that it is an effective way of preaching the gospel.
My presumption was that it will be very amateurish, made with a cheap cam by somebody who knows nothing about movie-making with ridiculous acting by his brethren in the local church.
Too bad Paul Anderson went on to the accursed Resident Evil movies, he really had something going.Thief in the Night is hampered by many obvious independent film attributes (acting, storytelling, dialog, and persuasion) and it's obvious what the film's intentions are from the start.
The Christian film industry hasn't learned from the failures of this, so we are stuck with The Omega Code, Left Behind, and the other Tribulation movies.
Their underlying element is that they are so concerned with selling their message: "Get saved, folks!" that everything else becomes second to whacking the audience over the head with a Bible.Overall, I can't believe I'm even writing this much about a movie this ineffective.
First of all, I saw this movie when I was 7 years old at a Christian Scholl I attended.
It's not some cheap attempt to scare people into believing in God, but rather, a means to get your attention.As a Christian, I know I'll not be left behind, and thanks to movies like this, I can look beyond the superficialities of entertainment, acting, and film budgeting to appreciate the depth that the film has to offer.
I have no clue what people are complaining about what people are whining about when they say that these movies scared them into accepting God. They just needed to find an excuse and blamed A Thief In The Night.
I had no clue because I really assumed that a lot of movies like these made in the 70's included low-budgets all the time.A Thief in the night tells the story of young and cynical Patty Myers who lives for what comes her way, until her husband, and nearly all her friends disappear in the prophetic rapture everyone warned her about.
What it leads up to are showing that everyone else around her are becoming christians and believing in Christ, which is usually what happens to a lot of people.
For those who haven't seen it, if you want a little bit of everything tossed into a Christian movie instead of stereo-typical everyone else is wrong movies, than you'll enjoy A Thief In The Night.
A Thief in the Night is basically the ur-Left Behind, an evangelical propaganda film from the 1970s that set the stage for most Christian end of the world stories since then.
I remember watching these movies when I was a kid, and it was on a Saturday night at the Baptist Church.
It got people thinking and talking about what the days before and after the Rapture of the Church would be like and what could be done to reach the lost.
Not everybody who watches these movies even think twice about Christ.
I would say for it's time, this movie was awesome...and yes if you have no desire to become a Christian, then why bother watching it.
I see now they have taken these movies to another level and have created the Left Behind series...they run a close comparison and definitely are more modern to reach people.
The 'end-times' films such as this and 'Left Behind' and 'Apocalypse' and their respective sequels seem to lack the single most important element- appeal to the non-believer.
I am thankful there are folks out there trying to get the message out, and I praise the 'Thief in the Night' quadrilogy for starting the trend, but hopefully we, as Christians, can find a better and less fear-driven way of leading people to what is the most important decision of their lives and helping to give a small taste of the true joy of Christian life.
'Thief' is good for believers as re-inforcement, and was a semi-effective film for its time, which makes it all worth its while, but it is not up to today's junkfood tv standards and may actually have quite an opposite effect on the average non-believer or teenager.
YEARS before the "Left Behind" saga, A THIEF IN THE NIGHT scared many a non-believer and tuned many in to the teaching of the 2nd coming of Christ.
This will appeal to end-times fanatics as well as those who like low budget, spooky cult films..
In this film there is a second chance for people left behind to face the time of the antichrist.
A THIEF IN THE NIGHT and films like it stir up fear and attendance at gun shows.
I have seen many "End Times" Christian films since, but this remains the best in my mind due to it's distinctive 70's feel and the ultra-low budget that makes it more realistic than any blockbuster.
If you haven't seen this film before and you are interested in movies about God and things suggested in the Bible, I recommend that you watch this movie if you can find a copy somewhere.
Apparently, you either love it or hate it and it seems most people make that distinction based on whether they believe the tribulation and end times will happen as portrayed in the movie.Basically, the film - and its sequels - were made for about $1.30 each.
Add in even the slightest thought that the story might actually be close to something that might happen in the future and it becomes even scarier.This movie, and its sequels, didn't try to bring in the reasons why the tribulation happened when it did.
The net effect was "Thief" did a much better job on the scary part of movie, instead of spreading itself too thin trying to explain what was happening in the Middle East at the same time.
For a message film made by a religious group for the purpose of proseletizing, this is a very professional quality, well-made movie.
The existence of this film is solely due to the fact that there is no such thing.If you want to know what the born-again branch of Christianity were harping on about in the seventies just look up the word 'rapture' in a dictionary of cults and sects.
If you take time to read Revelation and believe in God, then you know these things are true and WILL come to pass.
When I first saw this Movie it scared me and made me think about life and religion.
I never saw the sequel (Distant Thunder), but I believe it picks up where this movie ends..
Thief In the Night-A Good Movie for the 1970's.
I remember seeing this movie a long time ago, back then even though it didn't have any special effects, the acting was really good.
I also enjoyed the music from the movie as well, Larry Norman was a really good songwriter during that time period, although now most Christian music is now worship and praise music.
This movie does include a band doing the "Jesus Rock" classic "I Wish We'd All Been Ready" done by Larry Norman and covered by many Christian artists throughout the years.This is only one of 4 movies in the entire set which you can get on DVD.A Thief in The Night, Distant Thunder, Image Of The Beast, and Prodical Planet.
But any movie or TV show, if you go back and watch it is like a trip down memory lane in many ways.The acting was not good, but then, most people with their first movies don't do well.
I can only imagine what we would see now a days if they made this movie...much different with our ever expanding technology etc.I like to watch in and think...boy has movie making come a long way..
The Rapture comes like a thief in the night, and when it does, will you be left behind?.
As for the "cheesy acting" as your call it, I think you will find the same quality in any and all low budget films of that day...and, one must also remember that those in these films were probably not trained actors but people who knew the Lord and were willing to be used for the good of His Kingdom.Perhaps instead of worrying about the quality of these movies you should be worried about the wellbeing of your Eternal soul (the objective of these movies) because like it or not according to 2 Peter 3:10 the Lord will return as "A thief in the night".
So even though I have disagreement with this film about the rapture that is not why I rate this movie so low.No, what makes me rate this movie so low is not its sincerity or its message, but rather its lack of production values, awful script, mediocre acting, and pitiful FX.
The Left Behind Series, The Apocalypse series, and the Omega Code series all failed to learn from this because they addressed the FX problems and the dated look problem, but their scripts are still poor, and their acting is wooden.There are great Christian films, with extremely low budgets, but this film is not one of them.
I have seen this movie(and the whole prophecy series) many times with family members of all ages, we all enjoyed and it just made us meditate on what we already knew from reading and studying the bible about the rapture and end times.
I have seen a lot of end time movies "Tribulation", "Armagedon" and so on and by far this one is one of the best in presenting bible truths.
It may not have a lot of great special effects like todays movies but I believe it is a good witnessing tool.
"A Thief in the Night" is a film that was generally ignored by movie fans at large due to its low-budget (which was obvious) and its subject matter--the Rapture of true Christian church and the fate of those left behind.
Even with the new "Left Behind" series coming out, telling the same story with a much higher budget, the impact is still the same--"A Thief in the Night" broke the ground of this genre and will always be remembered..
Amazing how something is always alright when *we* do it.Well, they say this needs 10 lines of text, so here goes...I'm quite sure that, in the future, the "666" branding will be as indiscreet as the Internet - we all (including all Christians) will just *embrace* the way it is - not even knowing that we are accepting "the mark of the beast" - just as we have accepted that "evil" network of computers (the Internet).Funny - ALL churches and congregation have Internet access - even those who have seen this film.
Basically, this is Left Behind from the early '70s, and it goes to show that the evangelicals have been pumping out religious propoganda aimed at scaring non-believers through the art of film for over thirty years now.
As for story, well, the rapture comes and millions of Christians simply disappear--non-believers are left behind and life goes on as usual (except for the bit about the UN making a single global government called Unite, which uses the mark of the beast--your choice of back of the hand or on the forehead--for commerce and labeling of citizenship).
Interesting in its Own Way. This film follows the belief of certain fundamentalist Christians that an event known as the "rapture" will take place soon which will cause all true believers to disappear from the earth all at once.
I would never recommend that you sit a child down to watch this movie, I don't really know what it is about it the visuals or the haunting feel, but it will scare just about any kid, especially if they come from a background of knowledge of the "End Times".
Though if you want to learn a little about what Christians think will happen in the not so distant future watch it.
For those people saying this is a scare tactic movie for the Christian movement, I would say yes and no.
I believe those that don't have some knowledge of the Christian faith or have it themselves will just dog this movie because it is from that view.
Though I'm not saying this is a great movie by any means, but it definitely was an interesting view especially when I watched it again as an adult..
So see A Thief in the Night with an open mind and don't think too much about the uneven acting or writing but about how effective the movie's message is..
A THIEF IN THE NIGHT is an excellent fictional account of the weeks leading up to the RAPTURE and the weeks following that pivotal event.I thoroughly enjoyed both the production values and the content values of this independent Christian movie.THE PRODUCTION VALUES.
What else would evangelical Christian movie makers make, if not a film that states their case?
This movie was commonly shown in churches in the 1970's, and frightened many non-believers so badly that some of them did begin to consider their own spiritual condition and come to salvation.
I was one of those people, having seen the film in a Pentecostal church with my then best friend back in high school in 1974.
I was raised in a Methodist church that seldom spoke of salvation and never spoke of the rapture, so the entire concept presented in the film was new to me at the time.Thus, I guess you could say this film did some good in the fact that some were brought to Christ either as a direct or indirect result of watching it.
In that sense, the film does a disservice.As other reviewers have mentioned, the acting is B-rated, but that is not really the point of the movie.
If you're not a believer I totally get it, but if you're a Christian, this is what the bible says will happen.Sure, the acting isn't the greatest, but I love movies like this.