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Advent is upon us once again. This month EN looks at three successful works - two films and a novel - which ask the same question as that raised by this particular Christian festival: 'Will the ending come as a surprise?'

There is no doubt that fictional stories set around actual historical disasters are hugely popular with audiences. When James Cameron made Titanic in 1997, it attracted millions of viewers worldwide, with a final gross of £1 billion. When Gus van Sant (director of Good Will Hunting) made the smaller, independent film Elephant about the 1999 Columbine High School shootings, he won the coveted Palme D'Or award at the 2003 Cannes film festival. This year, the novel Pompeii has taken its writer, Robert Harris, to the top of the bestseller lists once again with his fact-based version of the events leading up to the eruption of Vesuvius.

Knowing the end

While these three texts are very different, they share the same premise; the reader knows what the characters do not. A great disaster is just around the corner, yet none are aware of it. Each of the stories introduces us to fictional characters who are living their lives with no thoughts of their mortality. They certainly don't have any idea that death is imminent or that the world as they know it is about to be destroyed.

Each text is driven along by a strong sense of expectation. We know that the looming, inescapable event is going to happen and the actions of the characters grow increasingly petty or profound as the moment approaches. In Elephant we view a normally tedious school day in a different light. Van Sant makes us sense an imminent ambush in his use of hand-held cameras following characters walking down long labyrinthine corridors. As detentions are set and parties are planned, we gradually experience the horror of knowing about a future that the characters are naively unaware of. We cannot stop watching because we want to look for clues that help us to understand how this could ever have happened.

Answering the question 'Why?' is certainly on the agenda of the film makers. In Titanic, all of the eulogies about the size, power and strength of the ship before its maiden voyage reflect the over-confidence that was held by the White Star Shipping Line. Indeed, it was claimed to be so safe that headlines read: 'God himself could not sink this ship!'. Even though it is about a natural disaster, Pompeii also shows the misplaced trust that the puffed-up Romans in AD 79 had in their luxurious lifestyle and advanced civilisation.

As we watch the various characters live their lives in all three stories as though the world is at their feet, we long for them to wake up to the real situation that is about to unfold and make the most of the short amount of life that they have left. We long for them to make the right choices. We want them to survive through the disaster.

Re-evaluation

At a time in the Christian calendar when we consider Advent and the return of Christ in judgement, these are texts that can help stimulate Christians to re-evaluate the way we view our own lives and futures.

It is interesting that in each of these three stories, there is a hero who survives the horror. They are each shown a hiding place. Jack puts Rose on the floating planks that will keep her out of the freezing water, Attilius and Corelia crawl into the mouth of the aqueduct and Elias sees the boys enter the school with their guns and runs out into the car park, warning everyone not to go in. These characters don't escape the trauma of the actual event but they make the choices that make the difference between life and death.

James Cameron, Gus van Sant and Robert Harris have chosen to use real life events in order to grab our attention. Yet by telling the story using fictional characters, they open up the possibility of imagining ourselves in a similar position. They also make us ask the question whether our own lives and the situations we are in, are actually any different. We may not be in a school, on a cruise ship or near a volcano but we too are living lives that could be cut short at any moment - by the return of Jesus Christ. Will the ending come as a surprise to us?

The final countdown

Knowing the end

Re-evaluation

Eleanor Margesson

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