2006’s The Moment After 2 picks up where The Moment After ended.
In the days after the Rapture, the Global Alliance has taken over the world. The government seeks to control everything. Paper money is becoming a thing of the past and instead, everyone is expected to pay via a chip that’s been implanted in their hand. Not having a chip means going to prison and probably being executed for being a subversive. The Global forces, led by the sadistic Commander Fredericks (Monte Rex Perlin), are hunting down dissidents. People are being reeducated. It’s the type of world that, in reality, a lot of people want, even if they hide it behind a bunch of class struggle rhetoric.
Former FBI agent Adam Riley (David A.R. White) is on Death Row but he gets a chance for freedom when the prison transport is attacked by a rebel group. When the other prisoners ask Adam to come with them, Adam takes one look at all the bodies of the people killed during the attack and refuses. He’s not a follower of Global but he doesn’t want any part of the rebel militia’s demand of “an eye for an eye.” Instead, Adam wanders through the desert until he finds a community of Christians. He’s reunited with the Rev. Jacob Krause (Brad Heller), from the first film. He also meets Carissa (Andrea Logan White), a woman with whom he is in love. However, she’s married to Richard (Mark Atteberry) and we all know what the Bible says about adultery. Of course, the world is now a dangerous place and, with Fredericks executing every Christian he finds, maybe Adam will still get his chance. Adultery may be a sin but moving in on a new widow is not.
Meanwhile, Adam’s former partner and friend, Charles Baker (Kevin Downes), is recruited to track Adam down. If Charles captures Adam, maybe Charles’s wife Rebecca (Deanne Morre) will be releases from prison. Or maybe not. You really can’t trust the Global Alliance.
One thing that I appreciated about this film is that Adam, despite plenty of opportunities to give into temptation, stayed true to the commandment that “Thou Shalt Not Kill.” A lot of faith-based, apocalypse films tend to use the end times setting as an excuse to turn its characters into quip-ready action heroes, gunning down the forces of the world government and blowing up buildings without a second thought. This film, though, is smart enough to say, “Hold on, the whole anti-killing thing still applies, regardless of how bad things get.”
As for the rest of the film, it’s well-made and the cast is decent. That may sound like faint praise but, after you’ve watched enough low-budget faith-based productions, you come to appreciate the ones that at least feature a steady camera, a clean soundtrack, and actors who can at least show a modicum of emotion. As tempting as it may be to laugh at the heavy-handedness of the Global Alliance, those of us who remember the COVID lockdowns will never forget some of the suggestions that were made for dealing with people who were judged to be noncompliant because they didn’t want to observe curfew or close their businesses. Much like the first film, The Moment After 2 is a decent thriller, one that works nicely for our paranoid times.
Through the Shattered Lens 