Six: The Mark Unleashed

I have to say that I truly enjoyed this movie; it’s one of the best Christian films I’ve seen. Over 1½ hours long, the time flew by. My wife, teenagers, and 11 year old son have also watched it several times with me, and it kept their attention every time. This tells me a lot about how well the movie was done.

I highly recommend this movie because it gets across the message that individuals will personally pay the price for the choices they make about what they do with Christ. The movie is set in an end times scenario, but it doesn’t try to teach doctrinal lessons about all that will happen in Daniel’s 70th week. If you see this movie because you want to watch a film that will help you understand all the nuances about eschatology, you will miss the entire point. The movie is not about trying to turn people into either pre, mid, or post-tribulationists. Nor does it set a timeline for all the events that will happen during that time. In fact, the vast majority of the prophetical teachings about the tribulation/great tribulation are not even mentioned. This movie is not about that, even though it is clearly set during the time that the antichrist is in power.

I found the acting performances to be quite good. The actors all seemed to believe that the movie had an important message that needed to get out, and most importantly, they believed the message, too. Having a veteran actor like Stephen Baldwin in the cast made an impressive impact, especially knowing that he is now a true believer. This came across loud and clear throughout the movie, and I felt I was seeing into his heart.

The other main actors also did great jobs with their parts. My wife was moved to tears at least three times, especially during the conversion scenes. I also found the scenes truly thought-provoking, as they were dealing with some pretty heavy subjects, ranging from salvation to skepticism, and the power of faith over fear.

There are several stories going on at once, but audiences are unlikely to get lost in any of them. From the opening scene to the closing, it was a tight and focused script, with the main message being that the most important choice we have to make in this life is whether or not we will accept Christ as our Savior, and the fact that this one choice alone will determine where we will spend eternity. I was very impressed with the way the story line unfolded around this theme and never wavered. The reality of people taking their stand for Christ, and then losing their lives for their witness is very well presented, and backed up with Scripture.

The reality that a genuine, faithful witness can lead to death was well handled, and nothing overly graphic was shown.

A great portion of the story takes place in a prison and the dialog is excellent. This would be a great movie to watch with an unsaved friend, and then talk about what it all means.

Now that I’ve seen the movie four times, I highly recommend it as definitely worth seeing.