This movie is probably ranked on my top 5. Not only is it an exciting thriller, but also it is rich with symbolism and meaning. Movies that over-do this, or try to hard to find the meaning behind life, usually end up shallow messes… enters “The Soloist.”

Anyways, if you’re going to talk about the Christian themes in this movie, I would love to add to the general collection of details that I picked up on.

I really liked this: “a character who seems burdened with seeing the earth through its possible last days… ” but it needs to be carried out to fruition. I view this entire movie like a Christology (themes directly mirroring the person of Jesus Christ). This is the reason I like it so much. If you watch it again and again, it’s brilliant how subtle these things are. In the middle when Nevelle has one of his flashbacks, his daughter says, “Look! A butterfly!” We know the butterfly to be the symbolic epitome of new birth, or being born again. So here is a man (Jesus Christ), impervious to the disease (sin), burdened to save and redeem the diseased humans (fallen humanity). It’s perfect. The woman and her daughter (disciples) come to Nevelle not really understanding where he is coming from. In the final scene when they are trapped in the bullet proof room, the movie goes into slow-motion and you hear his daughter say the butterfly line over again as we see this image: http://tinyurl.com/y9ash98.

If you failed to notice the butterfly, look again. In the glass you can see a butterfly with the zombie at the center. The obvious message? Human kind can be redeemed. In the final moments of Nevelle’s life (compare to Jesus’), he realizes and accepts what he must do. The formula from his blood (… uh, the blood of Jesus anyone?) worked on the woman zombie specimen (which by the way has a butterfly tattoo on its neck). He takes a vial of it, hands it to the woman and her son and tells them to take it to the colony (the great commission “go into all the world… “). And the culmination of this movie? He sacrifices himself to save humankind.

It is a blatant Christology. And I love it. The last quote in the movie is great too. Right as the movie blacks out, we hear the woman whisper, “Light up the darkness.” =]

The chosen ending corresponds to a more typical sense of legend in a positive light; someone who does something great that will never be forgotten.

This ending also goes a long better with the Christian theme present in the movie, that has some very direct connections to Christ.

Early in the movie when he opens the fridge you see a Time magazine that has Neville’s picture and says “SAVIOR?” Also, when the movie takes place he’s been alone in New York for “1001 days” according to his video journal, or nearly three years, approximately the same amount of time as Christ’s ministry. You could say that he had been bearing the burden alone for three years of trying to find the cure for humanity’s sickness.

I loved this movie. Every time I watch it I notice something different that makes me think. The Christian theme is just one of many that makes the viewer introspective on the ideas presented and how they apply to his or her own life and beliefs. This is one of the few movies where I actually feel like the movie was much better than the book that it was very loosely based on.

Unless the director or writer states that there is a christian influence, it is probably just similarity in structure. Otherwise “christian connections” are more than likely symbolic of one’s own values/opinions–making it too easy to see connections that aren’t really there. Before you try to argue with it, take a look at the the structures detailed in Joseph Campbell’s “Hero with a thousand faces”

I have to say the youtube video you posted was pretty far-out–I couldn’t confirm most of the connections that is proposes around how intertwined the story of Horus is with the history of Jesus that were mentioned among most common reference sites (Britannica, Wikipedia, Merriam-Webster), but I’m no Egyptologist.

I also have to admit, though my wife is Buddhist, she didn’t pick up on the religious undertones as much as I did for my faith background. Maybe it’s just me, but it was more religious than sci-fi. However, a great Buddhist/Christian sci-fi film I’d suggest is the undersung “The Fountain.” Beautiful, sad, intensely layered. From the director of the lesser-film, “Pi.”

I would like to take this opportunity to point out that The Matrix is not filled with christian undertones to that extent that everyone keeps rambling on about, it just contains a few bits that are shared with most religions. It is primarily based on the beliefs of mysticism, and although christianity (as do all religions) has it’s own faction of mysticism I find more platonic mysticism evident. Also there are many hints of eastern religions. (Sorry – it just bugged me that everywhere refers to it as a film with deep christian undertones when it’s actually one of the least referenced religions in the film. And before anyone hits me with the ‘the one’ argument; perhaps you should check out how many religions have a god/prophet/saviour that was born 25th Dec, died and was resurrected three days later, was of immaculate conception, was visited by three kings, was a priest at 12, reborn/baptised at 30 and was known as ‘lamb of god’, ‘the light’, ’son of god’, ‘the one’, etc – http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=EQLD59fK_Iw )

http://www.amazon.com/Light-Darkness-Christianity-Calvinism-Coherence/dp/1419682377/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1214534804&sr=8-1