First Reformed

**First Reformed** is a 2018 film starring Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried and Cedric Kyles, directed and written by Paul Schrader and produced by Jack Binder, Greg Clark, Gary Hamilton, Victoria Hill, David Hinojosa, Frank Murray, Deepak Sikka and Christine Vachon.

The film was a financial failure as it generated a loss of $5 million.

## Plot

Reverend Ernst Toller of the First Reformed Church in Snowbridge, New York is writing down his thoughts in a journal for a year, after which he intends to destroy it. He leads a 250-year-old Dutch Reformed Church which was once a stop on the Underground Railroad; it faces dwindling attendance under Toller's leadership, which has taken the church in a new direction and away from its historical focus on Reformed theology and today it serves mostly as a tourist attraction. In trying to manage his own life issues, such as his alcoholism, Toller seeks a deeper experience through reading Roman Catholic writings (G.K. Chesterton and Thomas Merton) and mystical books (The Cloud of Unknowing). This new spiritual direction leads him to seek support from a nearby charismatic megachurch, Abundant Life, which owns First Reformed.

Toller, a former military chaplain, is also struggling with the death of his son Joseph, who was killed in the Iraq War; Toller had encouraged him to enlist. He meets Mary, who is seeking counseling for her radical-environmentalist husband, Michael. He further challenges Toller's beliefs: Michael explains that he wants Mary to get an abortion, because he does not want to bring a child into a world that will be rendered almost uninhabitable by climate change.

Mary finds a suicide vest belonging to her husband in their garage. Toller takes it, promising to counsel Michael about it. Mary and Toller discuss going to the police, but Toller feels it would dramatically worsen Michael's state. Just before their next appointment, Michael sends Toller a text message asking to meet in a local park. Toller arrives to find Michael dead of a self-inflicted shotgun wound. In accordance with Michael's will and testament, a service is held at a local toxic-waste dump, where his ashes are scattered. Meanwhile, plans are underway to celebrate the sestercentennial of First Reformed with a service attended by the mayor, governor, and a notable industrialist, Edward Balq, a key financial backer of Abundant Life. At a meeting in a diner, Toller argues with Balq over climate change after Balq finds Toller honoring Michael's will a political act: Balq dismisses it as "complicated", but Toller sees it as a straightforward matter of Christian stewardship.

Experiencing various physical pains, Toller reluctantly sees a doctor, who suspects stomach cancer and schedules tests. Using Michael's laptop, which he took after his suicide to prevent the police discovering his radicalism and making trouble for Mary, Toller researches Michael's concerns further, including the materials which inspired him to make the explosive vest. One night, Mary visits Toller in the parsonage of the church, and he plays Michael's role in a nonsexual rite of physical intimacy that the couple used to perform.

Toller begs Mary not to attend the anniversary service. Preparing for his role in the ceremony, he puts on the explosive vest, and arms it. When he sees Mary entering for the ceremony, he removes the vest and instead wraps himself in barbed wire under his alb. Toller pours a glass full of drain cleaner and is about to drink it when Mary interrupts him. The two embrace, kissing passionately before the film abruptly cuts to black.