--- title: "The Rapture" year: 1991 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-rapture" fi1m_id: "the-rapture" imdb_id: "tt0102757" tmdb_id: 1411 wikidata_id: "Q1610996" fi1m_score: 72 critics_score: 68 critics_reviews: 9 published: "2026-09-26T02:03:45.875697+00:00" updated: "2026-09-26T02:03:46.266112+00:00" region: "SI" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Rapture (1991) Directed by Michael Tolkin · 1h 40m · Mystery, Drama, Fantasy, Thriller ## Identity The Rapture - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/the-rapture - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** the-rapture - **IMDb ID:** tt0102757 - **TMDB ID:** 1411 - **Wikidata ID:** Q1610996 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102757/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1411, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1610996 **Fi1m score: 72** · Critics 68 from 9 reviews *In a sentence:* Starts as a Los Angeles sex film, ends as the Book of Revelation, and never once winks > Michael Tolkin’s film takes the end of the world literally and asks what a woman owes a God who keeps his word. Mimi Rogers is remarkable, the middle sags, and the last half hour will either shake you or lose you. It shook us. ## Synopsis Los Angeles, the early 1990s. Sharon (Mimi Rogers) works directory enquiries in a windowless office, saying the same few words to strangers all day. At night she and her friend Vic (Patrick Bauchau) go to bars and take couples back to motel rooms. One of the couples includes Randy (David Duchovny), who wants to see her again without the others. At work Sharon overhears colleagues talking in low voices about a pearl and a dream of a boy that many of them seem to share; two evangelists knock at her door, and she listens longer than she means to. Bored with the bars and frightened of herself, she gives up the nights, marries Randy and, in time, has a daughter, Mary (Kimberly Cullum). ## Review Michael Tolkin, writing and directing, begins in a Los Angeles directory-enquiries office where Sharon (Mimi Rogers) sits in a grey partition giving out numbers to strangers all day. At night she and Vic (Patrick Bauchau) go to bars and take couples back to motel rooms. Then her colleagues start whispering about a pearl and a dream, two evangelists knock at her door, and Sharon, who has tried everything else, tries God. What follows takes the fundamentalist account of the end of days at its word, without a wink, and asks what a person owes a God who does exactly what he said he would. It is a good film with a slack middle and a last half hour that is either the bravest thing in it or the silliest. We came down on the side of brave. Rogers carries it. She plays the bar years with a flat, tired stare, a woman going through the motions of pleasure the way she goes through the motions of a shift, and she plays the conversion without a trace of glow. Sharon does not become nicer when she is saved. She becomes certain, which is a different and more frightening thing, and Rogers lets us see the old boredom sitting underneath the new belief, waiting. In the final stretch she has to hold the whole argument of the film in her face, with almost nothing to say, and she does it. Bojan Bazelli shoots the office as a box of identical grey cubicles under fluorescent tubes, and the motel rooms in a warm orange that is meant to look like pleasure and looks like a lamp. When the film moves outdoors later, he goes the other way, bleaching the light until the sky is white and people are dark shapes in it. Robin Standefer gives Sharon’s married home bare walls and a single framed picture of Christ, so the house looks as if it belongs to the faith rather than to anyone who lives in it. Giovanna Ottobre-Melton dresses her in black lace for the bars and buttoned florals afterwards, and the florals are the more disturbing. The middle is where it drifts. David Duchovny plays Randy as pleasant and not much else, and when the script asks him to speak about salvation he sounds like a man reading it off a card, which may be the point and does not help. The born-again scenes are stiff in a way the bar scenes are not, and the time jump that follows lands us among characters we have not met, talking about a faith we watched Sharon acquire but never saw her live in. Suzanne Fenn cuts everything at the same even pace, with no build, so that a prayer meeting and an orgy carry the same weight. For an hour that evenness is the idea. Around the hour mark it starts to feel like a shrug. Then the film goes somewhere we will not describe, and we sat very still. The last twenty minutes did something to us that no film about faith has done before or since: it made us take the believers’ God seriously and then asked whether we would want anything to do with him. We argued about it on the way home, which is what we want from a film with an 18 certificate and a hundred minutes to fill, and which almost none of them manage. One of the reviews we read found the ending ridiculous, and we understand why; the effects are cheap and the staging is plain. It did not matter to us at all. Thomas Newman keeps the score to a low drone and a few chimes and never swells to tell us what a scene means, which in a film about revelation is a discipline worth noting. Will Patton turns up late as Deputy Foster, a sceptic who is not allowed to stay one, and gives the film its only warmth. Kimberly Cullum, as Mary, asks the questions a child would ask about heaven and is answered honestly, and those answers are the most alarming lines in the picture. Tolkin also wrote [*The Player*](https://film.one/film/the-player) (1992), a film about people who believe in nothing, and this is its mirror. See it with someone who will argue with you afterwards, and do not read anything about it first. The film’s whole effect depends on not being sure, until the last minute, whether it means it. *Fi1m score 72, published 26 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics come down in favour of The Rapture, and nearly every review, whatever its final verdict, praises Mimi Rogers. Her performance as a bored telephone operator drawn into a fundamentalist movement is called brave, fearless and commanding by supporters and sceptics alike. Michael Tolkin, in his debut as writer-director, is credited with taking faith and divine judgement seriously without endorsing them, and the word that recurs is audacious. Variety also singles out Bojan Bazelli’s cinematography. The reservations cluster on tone and on the ending. Several critics find the shifts in mood uneven, and more than one describes the film as caught between the profound and the pretentious, with the final stretch dividing opinion sharply: what one review calls chilling, another calls ridiculous. The spread is wide, from a full-marks review at Slant to Time Out, the lone outright dismissal, which finds the whole thing risible. The consensus is admiring but wary. ## Straight answers **Is The Rapture worth watching?** *The Rapture* is worth watching for anyone prepared to see the fundamentalist end of the world taken entirely seriously, and we scored it 72. Mimi Rogers is remarkable as a bored Los Angeles telephone operator who finds God, though the middle stretch sags and the last half hour will either shake you or lose you. See it with someone who will argue afterwards. **How long is The Rapture, and what is it rated?** *The Rapture* runs 1h 40m. It is a mystery and drama film. **Where can I watch The Rapture in Slovenia?** *The Rapture* is not on any streaming or rental service in Slovenia at the moment. It is available in 3 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **How violent or frightening is The Rapture, and is it suitable for children?** *The Rapture* carries an 18 certificate, and it earns it early with frank sexual content: the first act follows Sharon and a friend picking up couples in bars and taking them to motel rooms. It is not a violent film so far as we saw, but the final stretch is frightening in what it asks rather than what it shows, and a child's plain questions about heaven get alarming answers. Not for children or younger teenagers. **How does The Rapture compare to Ordet?** *The Rapture* and [*Ordet*](https://film.one/film/ordet) both take a miracle at its word and refuse to wink, but Dreyer's film is slow, formal and quietly moving, while Tolkin's starts as a sex film and ends in the Book of Revelation. *Ordet* is the steadier and more assured of the two; *The Rapture* is uneven, cheaper and far more unsettling. Patient viewers should start with Dreyer, those wanting to be rattled with Tolkin. **What should I watch after The Rapture?** After *The Rapture*, try [*Ordet*](https://film.one/film/ordet) (1955, Fi1m 86): Dreyer takes a miracle at its word and dares you to laugh; nobody does. Then [*Breaking the Waves*](https://film.one/film/breaking-the-waves) (1996, Fi1m 82): Another woman whose faith is more literal than her church can stand; and [*Take Shelter*](https://film.one/film/take-shelter) (2011, Fi1m 83): Michael Shannon sees the end coming and the film refuses to say if he is right. ### Reviews we read (9) - **Slant Magazine**, Keith Uhlich (4/4): Uhlich finds the film profound and quietly rapturous, praising its treatment of Sharon’s free will amid religious and patriarchal forces. He singles out Mimi Rogers’s brave, spectacular performance and the calm, chilling delivery of the final line. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-rapture/) - **Los Angeles Times**, Kenneth Turan (85/100, inferred): Turan finds the film compelling, audacious, and thoughtful in its probing of faith and the afterlife. He particularly praises Mimi Rogers’s fearless performance and Michael Tolkin’s dispassionate handling of challenging theological ideas. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-10-04-ca-3450-story.html) - **The AV Club**, Scott Tobias (80/100, inferred): Tobias praises the film as an audacious, thought-provoking work that takes religious faith and divine judgment seriously without embracing them. He singles out its defiant conclusion for its provocative challenge to the idea of God's justice. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/the-rapture-1798200150) - **Empire**, Kim Newman (70/100, inferred): Newman finds the film’s unsettling intensity ultimately effective, though its mood shifts may not work for everyone. He particularly praises the central performance and the atmosphere of dread and wonder. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/rapture-review/) - **The New York Times** (64/100, inferred): The page is inaccessible, so the critic’s verdict cannot be established. No specific praise or complaint can be verified from the available text. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/30/movies/review-film-festival-religion-taken-to-the-breaking-point.html) - **Radio Times**, Robert Sellers (3/5): Sellers describes the film as ambitious, challenging and intelligent, despite some imperfections. He especially praises Mimi Rogers’s bravura performance as a bored telephone operator drawn into a fundamentalist religious movement. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-nzei60/the-rapture/) - **Variety**, Variety Staff (50/100, inferred): Variety finds the film an unexpectedly serious exploration that struggles between profundity and pretentiousness, while still marking a distinctive debut for Michael Tolkin. It praises Mimi Rogers’s commanding, soul-baring performance and Bojan Bazelli’s luminous cinematography. [Read](https://variety.com/1990/film/reviews/the-rapture-1200428683/) - **Time Out**, BC (30/100, inferred): The critic finds the film unfortunately loony and ultimately risible. Its final stretch is singled out for becoming cherishably ridiculous. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-rapture) - **Paste**, Tim Porter (75/100, inferred): Porter finds the film audacious and potentially devastating, though its ideas and drama can become muddled and manipulative. He especially praises Mimi Rogers’s performance and the film’s openness to interpretation. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/the-rapture-dvd) ## Details - **Director:** Michael Tolkin - **Director:** Michael Tolkin - **Writer:** Michael Tolkin - **Cinematography:** Bojan Bazelli - **Editor:** Suzanne Fenn - **Music:** Thomas Newman - **Production design:** Robin Standefer - **Costume design:** Giovanna Ottobre-Melton - **Producer:** Nancy Tenenbaum, Karen Koch, Nick Wechsler - **Cast:** Mimi Rogers as Sharon; David Duchovny as Randy; Patrick Bauchau as Vic; Kimberly Cullum as Mary; Will Patton as Deputy Foster; Terri Hanauer as Paula; Dick Anthony Williams as Henry; James LeGros as Tommy - **Runtime:** 1h 40m - **First release (SU):** 3 July 1991 - **Genres:** Mystery, Drama, Fantasy, Thriller - **Budget:** $3 million - **Box office:** $1 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuttvF_nf48 ## Where to watch in Slovenia Not streaming, renting or buying in Slovenia at the last check. Also available in: DE, RO, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Ordet* (1955), Fi1m 86: Dreyer takes a miracle at its word and dares you to laugh; nobody does. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/ordet.md) - *Breaking the Waves* (1996), Fi1m 82: Another woman whose faith is more literal than her church can stand. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/breaking-the-waves.md) - *Safe* (1995): Los Angeles anomie cured by a cult, filmed by Todd Haynes with the same cold eye. - *Take Shelter* (2011), Fi1m 83: Michael Shannon sees the end coming and the film refuses to say if he is right. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/take-shelter.md) - *The Player* (1992), Fi1m 85: Tolkin’s other script from the same year, about people who believe in nothing at all. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-player.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-rapture