Beyond and Back (GAM203)

Heath Enwright

Eli Bosnick

***Beyond and Back*** (not to be confused with the two-disc compilation album of *Rock Band X*) is the 1978 "documentary" featuring *undeniable* evidence that when good people die, they see a binding light and Jesus standing on a chess board.

### **Opening Phrase**

Where each week we sample another selection from Christian cinema, because… I don't have a "because." I'll ask Noah to remind me about the "because" when he gets back.

### **How Bad Was It?**

Well, if you love *America's Most Wanted*, but you wish it was based on literal fever dreams, you will *love* this movie. It's *The Lady Vanishing-ly Small Evidence* (Orson Welles).

### **Best Worst**

* Jonathan: ...use of porn actors in a non-pornographic film.
* Heath: ...blind person.
* Heath: …the entire movie is a spoiler for itself.
* Eli: ...answering your own questions.

### **Notes**

* Check out Jonathan on his website, Twitter, or the *Body of Evidence* podcast.
* Do not follow the implied advice of this movie in any way, or Eli's advice about choking yourself while jerking off.
* Partially based evangelist Ralf Wilkerson's 1977 book, *Beyond and Back: Those Who Died and Lived to Tell It!*

### **Jokes**

* [Eli: So yeah, he kisses his wife goodbye and he drives his car… off a… I'm going to say "offramp to death"? What… what was supposed to be going on in this scene?] [Heath: Oh my God! So ridiculous. Yeah, he's driving on a mountain road, and a big truck comes around, and is in the wrong lane, and he swerves, and there's the honk, and then he's like "Oh, no no no, it's cool—there's a very convenient ramp right here on the side of this cliff. I guess that that'll be *cooler*. And he jumps the fucking General Lee over the Grim Reaper and off the side of the mountain. It's so dumb.] [Jonathan: I think this is where they got that footage for *SNL'*s "Toonsis the Driving Cat."] [Heath: I loved Toonsis!] [Eli: This movie was made in 1978 , so special effects were just "Let's give Bill twenty dollars and enough cocaine so that he won't feel it when the car hits the ground." It's… you can *see* the guys pushing it off the cliff and then waving to mom to say hi. It's the best!] [Jonathan: Christopher Nolan is like "There you go! Those are practical defects people. That's what I'm talking about!"] (13:36)
* [Eli: So, just in case you're still skeptical, now they have video of the *real psychic* Uri Geller, as further proof: him doing the "compass moving trick."] [Heath: Uh Eli, question: you're a magician—Jonathan, you're a scientist—how do compasses move? Magnets? I feel like a magnet could do that, no?] [Jonathan: No, they only move be the power of bending spoons.] [Heath: Interesting. Yeah, Uri Geller is doing this, and everyone's like "Oh, do you mind removing your giant horseshoe watch?" He's like "Yes! I do! I do. It's part of my thing—it has to be a horseshoe-shaped watch." ] ["I do. It's very important to me. I'm going to embarrass myself on national television." (35:20)

### **Interstitials**

* *Coincidence? Yes. (8:10)*
* "Welcome to the afterlife. Hindus are right." (43:00)

### **Tropes**

* Christians Don't Know How the World Works
* Coincidence Treated like a Miracle
* Looks Like…
* Deathbed Proselytizing
* Deathbed Conversion
* [Adult] Visits Heaven
* Vaguely Heard of Jesus

### **Links**

* Episode on Audioboom
* Episode on YouTube
* Film on YouTube
* IMDB