The Trump Prophecy (2018)

There are very few instances when I outright hate a movie. You may have noticed that while reading the Sunday “Bad” Movies posts that I’ve written over the past almost ten years. I’ll always try to find something good or, at the very least, interesting about a movie. Even a movie that I find bad, there tends to be something to take away from it. A lesson about what not to do. One scene that stands out among everything else that doesn’t. An interesting performance within a forgettable movie. Stuff like that. I’ll find something to cling onto because very few movies are outright terrible. There’s always something to appreciate.

But here we are, at week 512 of Sunday “Bad” Movies, and I find myself in an interesting predicament. This week’s movie has joined the ranks of such prestigious alumni as The Parking Lot Movie and Chicks Dig Gay Guys. I have found another movie that I outright hate. Even if it has one redeeming quality. That little redemption could not counter the seething detest that I had, thanks to the messaging and final third. It couldn’t come back from that, no matter how strong I thought the one redeeming quality was.

The Trump Prophecy came out in 2018. I knew I was going into something bad simply based on the name. I didn’t know just how bad it would be. Firefighter Mark Taylor (Chris Nelson) was torn up about a boy he couldn’t save in a house fire. The memory of the child’s death was tearing him up inside. He sought professional help for his PTSD and left his job at the firehouse. One night, during one of his many nightmares about the dead boy, Mark awoke and jotted something down in his journal. He prophesized that Donald Trump would win the presidency in 2016. He and his therapist watched and waited as the prophecy held true.

That first bit of The Trump Prophecy wasn’t so bad. The story of Mark experiencing PTSD because of a child’s death during a housefire was compelling enough. It wasn’t necessarily done well, what with the movie having the subtle touch of a typical Christian film. But it had the potential to be a captivating story under the right circumstances. Someone out there could tell that story, one of a hero not being able to save everyone and falling apart because of it, in an interesting way. This wasn’t the interesting way, but it was the most interesting part of the movie.

Then The Trump Prophecy completely dropped that storyline for a Christian Conservative political agenda. That’s where I started to outright dislike The Trump Prophecy. I’ll get to the full hatred in a few minutes. The PTSD storyline was thrown by the wayside in favour of a story about Donald Trump being elected. Mark woke from one of his restless slumbers to write in his journal about something God told him in his sleep. He wrote that Donald Trump would be president. This part of the story took place in 2011, so it was strange that he would have thought a businessman with no political history would become president. The prophecy was what it was, though, and that was that.

Four years later, Mark had switched to a new therapist, Don Colbert (Don Brooks), to deal with his PTSD. It was now 2015 and he told Dr. Colbert about the prophecy he wrote down four years earlier. Colbert wanted to take a look. Mark brought in a copy of his journal, which Colbert shared with his wife, Mary (Paulette Todd). Mary took the prophecy to heart. She took it as the word of God that Donald Trump should be president. She set up a church prayer line, connecting churches across the country to pray for Donald Trump to win the election. She even went so far as to commandeer an airplane bathroom during takeoff to host a prayer on the phone.

Mostly, this just seemed like a ridiculous Christian Conservative story. I’ve seen movies of this kind before. I’ve seen movies where people were healed of cancer through prayer, or they learned the true meaning of Christmas through Christianity. The Trump Prophecy even had people blowing into shofroth to bring good will to Donald Trump in the election. That stuff wasn’t what made me hate the movie. That just felt like wacky religious movie hijinks.

The Trump Prophecy took two strange turns after Donald Trump was elected, however. The first was a five-minute uber-patriotic music video that followed the election storyline. It had nothing to do with anything in the rest of the movie. It didn’t fit at all. There was a bald eagle flying in front of the American flag and the constitution while some stereotypical American guitar rock played. Families held up pictures of their soldier fathers, brothers, and sons. It was a tribute to the fallen troops of the past. It had nothing to do with The Trump Prophecy.

The second turn was what made me hate The Trump Prophecy. Following the weird patriotic music video that was inserted into the movie, things shifted into documentary mode. A bunch of real-life Conservatives and church leaders were used as talking heads to discuss a specific Bible verse that was used in the movie. They tied the Bible verse to Donald Trump, his work with Israel, and the make America great again movement. I started to get mad at the people making the movie.

A fictional story where characters believe bad things and behave badly is much more palatable than when you’re presented with real people who are the same way. This documentary section of The Trump Prophecy showed real people who believed in the make America great again sentiment. They believed in the racism and misogyny that Donald Trump presented through his campaigns and his term as President. Their religion and their political allegiance pushed them to support a monster of a human being, wholeheartedly, and they were using this movie to spread their agenda. It wasn’t just that they believed in this stuff. It was that they were pushing for other people to also believe it. They were given a platform.

Donald Trump was, and still is, a huge piece of shit. He wanted to build a wall on the border of Mexico to keep the “bad hombres” out of America. He instituted a Muslim ban. ICE was ramped up while he was in power. He was probably involved in the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking buiness. And he’s most certainly a criminal who was giving government secrets away, likely for monetary gain. That’s all he really cares about. Money. And then we have all the people in The Trump Prophecy declaring their support for Donald Trump because that was God’s will. God wanted Trump to be president.

In the words of Mox in Varsity Blues, “I say fuck that. Alright? I say fuck that.” I’m not religious, and even I know that Jesus was about helping the poor and less fortunate. At what point in his life has Donald Trump represented that idea? He wanted to get rid of the poor and less fortunate. He wanted to get more money for himself and his rich friends. That’s against the teachings of one Jesus Christ, and thus against the morals that these Christian leaders claim to uphold. But I guess we already knew they didn’t uphold them, since typical American Christianity seems to be soaked in white supremacy.

There was also a strange connection between Donald Trump and Israel that The Trump Prophecy felt like it needed to hammer home for everyone. The strange use of the shofroth during the scripted portion was an odd touch, and it led to the people of Israel also using shofroth to support Donald Trump’s presidency. Worse, though, was the comparison between Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu during the documentary portion. They were making it out to be a good comparison of two good politicians. The comparison worked, though not as they hoped. Instead, both political leaders were found out to be criminals and have gone through impeachments and trials. These talking heads were vouching for two pretty bad dudes.

I’m all for people having a platform to tell the story they want to tell and to advocate for things they find important. What I don’t want to see is stories that support hate or people that support hate. The Trump Prophecy supported hate. It supported Donald Trump, one of the poster boys for hate. It told a story about people wanting him to get elected, which was fine, but then decided to show real people talking about why it was God’s wish to keep Trump in power. That’s less fine. That’s just real people who are okay with hate speech, hate actions, and all around hating of other people. That’s not okay. That’s where a movie loses me.

There are very few movies that I hate. In terms of Sunday “Bad” Movies, there are three that I can think of off the top of my head. Chicks Dig Gay Guys was a movie about two guys pretending to be gay to pick up women. Being gay was the punchline of the movie. It wouldn’t be as bad if the writer of the movie wasn’t out there proudly saying that he did the same thing to pick up women in his real life. Ugh. Disgusting. The Human Centipede II was a movie that was offensive simply for the sake of being offensive without any actual redeeming qualities. Then there was The Parking Lot Movie, a documentary that held parking lot attendants up on a pedestal as if they were gods. As a former parking lot attendant, myself, I can tell you that the job is nowhere near that important. The Trump Prophecy has now joined that illustrious crowd. That’s not a good thing.

Now let’s toss some notes in here and be done with it:

• The Trump Prophecy was suggested by @LastFilmSeen, who also suggested Santa Jr. (week 107), Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman (week 159), Santa with Muscles (week 211), Fred Claus (week 265), and Clownado (week 497).
• I mentioned a few movies in this week’s post. They were Chicks Dig Gay Guys (week 145), The Human Centipede II (week 180), and The Parking Lot Movie (week 239). I also alluded to movies like God’s Not Dead (week 230), Saving Christmas (week 212), and Last Ounce of Courage (week 369).
• Have you seen The Trump Prophecy? I sure hope you haven’t. What were your thoughts about the movie? Let me know on Twitter or in the comments.
• If there are any movies that you think would be a good fit for Sunday “Bad” Movies, tell me about them. You can leave a comment, or you can find me on Twitter.
• Sunday “Bad” Movies is on Instagram, too.
• Now it’s time for a preview of next week’s movie. After a movie that I hated with my whole self, I’m going into one that’s just some dumb fun. Hulk Hogan is back, and this time he’s in No Holds Barred. I hope you’re ready. I’ll see you next week for another post.

Cold Vengeance (2003) and Villains Utilizing Public Events

Villains are horrible people. You already know that. They’re the bad guy in any story, which automatically makes them horrible if you’re rooting for the hero. In most crime-related movies, the villain is even worse. They relish in their villainy. They enjoy watching other people suffer because of them. They’ll do whatever they can for money, success, and power. And they’ll do it while wearing a cocky smirk.

Much like magicians, some villains like to use a slight-of-hand tactic when planning their crimes. They want people to look one way while they do something else in the other direction. When they do this magic, they frequently incorporate public events into the proceedings. In order to make this kind of villainy more entertaining for a movie audience, filmmakers sometimes like to set the big villainous crime at a sporting event.

Take Cold Vengeance, for example. Jimmy Coy (Josh Barker) was an assassin for hire. While scoping out a potential new job, he came across Cassandra Diaz (Christina Cox) and the two immediately hit it off. They began a romance. The same romance would be complicated by the new job being an assassination to take place at the same arena where Cassandra trained her sister in figure skating. Jimmy had to stop Russ Fortus (Darren Shahlavi) from committing the same murder that he had refused.

The arena was a major part of the story in Cold Vengeance. Cassandra was a figure skating coach. The movie didn’t shy away from showing the figure skating at various times. Cassandra and her sister were introduced through a skating routine that turned out bad. The climax of the movie involved the sister skating again, this time to a rendition of a song that Jimmy wrote for Cassandra. Part of the conflict between Cassandra and her father revolved around the money he said he wasted on figure skating. That was before the whole spousal abuse aspect came into the movie.

The romance between Jimmy and Cassandra blossomed because of a meeting at the arena, which brings us to how the villain tied into Cold Vengeance. Russ was only a hired gun, replacing Jimmy when he refused to do the job. There was someone above them, someone who was funding the whole assassination operation. His plan was to bring someone to the arena for a figure skating competition, have that person assassinated during the competition, and have mayhem ensue that would cause more deaths. I don’t know why he wanted more casualties. All he ever said was that there needed to be more casualties.

As you can see, the villainy was tied directly into the sports in Cold Vengeance. The assassination attempt was going to take place at a figure skating competition. The mob boss guy who was paying freelance assassins had planned it that way. The sub-villain of Cassandra’s dad was also tied into the sports, as his villainy came from his contempt for his daughters and their burgeoning figure skating career. Both villainous storylines came to a head during the competition, and both villains were killed during the competition. Their plans and their demises came during the competition, as so many do.

Another WolfCop was another movie that featured the bad guy’s plan being executed during a sporting event. Sydney Swallows came to town to open a brewery and an arena. This was under the guise of reinvigorating the economy of smalltown Woodhaven. The brewery would make popular beer for people across the country, while the arena would provide hockey entertainment for the townspeople and any tourists. Only, things weren’t as they seemed on the surface. There was some stuff happening in the shadowy corners of the brewery that Swallows didn’t want people to know until the big hockey event.

The climax of Another WolfCop took place during the opening hockey game at Swallows’s new arena. You see, the beer that he brewed was actually an impregnation formula that bred alien lifeforms into the stomachs of the unknowing public. This might not seem like much of a crime. It might seem like more of an alien invasion than anything. And, sure, it might be. But it was also a mass murder at a hockey game as the alien lifeforms burst from the abdomens of the people who drank the beer. It essentially worked the same way as an assassination, only done by an alien instead of a mob boss. Both murder crimes hinged upon having a bunch of people attending an event at an arena.

One other movie I want to mention with the crimes happening during sporting events is Drop Zone. The 1994 action movie was clearly a riff on Point Break, though it did many things its own way. A U.S. Marshall wanted to take down a former DEA agent and terrorist who had killed his brother. The entire evil plan hinged on the former DEA agent’s plan involving parachuting from a high altitude. The Marshall learned the skills necessary to parachute from extreme heights and tracked down the former DEA agent.

The crux of the villain’s plan involved hacking a government database during a parachuting exhibition in Washington D.C. because security would be relaxed. He was using the exhibition as a cover for his criminal plans. People would be focused on the exhibition, a public spectacle. Security would be focused on that same exhibition. The villain would be able to slip in and out much easier with the security detail looking the other way. He was also going to parachute onto the DEA building during the exhibition, which wouldn’t look as out of place with other parachuters around. The sporting event was integral to the villain’s plan, just in a different way than harming the people who attended.

Many villains like to go big when they commit their crimes. They’ll find some sort of public event that could be the cover for what they’re doing. A sort of distraction that will make people unintentionally look the other way while they do their evil deeds. That’s what happened in Drop Zone. The parachuting exhibition was used as a cover for the villain to break into the DEA headquarters and steal vital information. Other villains use the public events to make their villainy a spectacle. Both Another WolfCop and Cold Vengeance had villains who wanted their evil to involve the audience at major sporting events. They wanted to cause chaos by having people see their evil intentions. The public sporting event was the perfect way to do that.

Sporting events aren’t the only kind of public event that villains use as part of their evil plan. It’s not always parachuting, figure skating, or hockey at the crux of things. Top Dog featured villains planning an explosion at a Fourth of July celebration. But sports are one of the more common public events that attract a lot of people. Sports are something that many more people are interested in than a parade or the opera. It makes them an easier target for evil plans, and villains will pick up on that. More people, more casualties, more chaos, more distraction.

Villains are bad people. They will corrupt what the average person finds joy in, simply to fit their own desires and ambitions. They’ll corrupt these things without any sense of guilt or remorse. They want money, fame, and power. Nobody will get in their way. They’ll use public events or do the crimes behind closed doors. It doesn’t matter to them, as long as they get what they want. That’s all that matters to a villain. They just want to succeed.

Now it’s time for some notes to finish things off:

• One of the villains in Cold Vengeance was played by Darren Shahlavi. He was previously in The Marine 3: Homefront (week 30), Alone in the Dark (week 152), and In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (week 220).
• James Michalopolous was in Far Cry (week 364), 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown (week 460), and Cold Vengeance.
• Cold Vengeance was the third Sunday “Bad” Movies appearance for Paul Wu, following In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (week 220) and Futuresport (week 491).
• Lars Grant returned to Sunday “Bad” Movies in Cold Vengeance. Their other appearance was in The Marine 3: Homefront (week 30).
• Denis Corbett appeared in In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (week 220) and Cold Vengeance.
• One of the actors in Cold Vengeance was Paul Coufos, who was also in Chopping Mall (week 306).
• Finally, Cold Vengeance featured John Sampson, who already appeared in Police Academy (week 400).
• Have you seen Cold Vengeance? What did you think of it? How do you feel about villains using sports events in their plans? Let me know your thoughts on Twitter and in the comments.
• If there’s a movie that you think I should cover in a future Sunday “Bad” Movies post, let me know what it is. Any suggestions can be sent to me on Twitter, or simply put into the comments.
• Check out Sunday “Bad” Movies on Instagram.
• Here’s a look at what’s coming up next week. I’ll be checking out a Christian movie, once again. It’s going to be a politically charged one this time. You might not have heard of it, but you soon will. I’ll be taking a look at The Trump Prophecy. I’m sure it won’t be good. I’m not here for good, though. I’ll see you next week for that one.