Knock at the Cabin(2023)

Submitted by Julio M

Short pooper:
The catastrophes are real. The four intruders, all of whom kill each other throughout the movie, basically represent the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Eric (Jonathan Groff), having supposedly had a vision of the world being saved without him around, accepts his fate and has his husband Andrew (Ben Aldrige) kill him in sacrifice, which stops the conflagration. Andrew and Wen (Kristen Cui) survive and drive off together in Leonard’s (Dave Bautista) truck.

Longer version:
The vacationing family of husbands Eric and Andrew and their adopted little girl Wen are confronted and attacked by a group of strangers -Leonard, Redmond (Rupert Grint), Adriane (Abby Quinn), and Sabrina (Nikki Amuka-Bird)- who claim to be messengers of a pending global doom and that, in order for it to stop and save humanity, one member of the family must be killed as a sacrifice. Also, if they were not to make a choice, they could still survive, but only to be the absolute last three people remaining on the planet.

As the family refuses to believe them -even though, at one point, Eric claims to have seen a strange luminous being upon the original attack-, and strange catastrophes of all sorts unfold, visible on TV -tsunamis that ravage coasts around the world, a fast-spreading plague, random plane crashes and a rain of fire and thunder-, Leonard convinces his group to accept being killed one by one in various, gruesome ways -Andrew injures Sabrina during a struggle, but Leonard still finishes her off-. Failing to move the family to make a decision, Leonard, being the last left of the group, slits his throat as he urges them to act. The strangers killing themselves, Leonard claimed all along, seemed to temporarily delay what appeared to be the inevitable destruction of the planet.

At this point, Eric reveals that when Redmond was killed, the “light” he saw was an extended vision of the world being saved, Wen growing up, and Andrew still being around as her father. He realizes these four intruders acted like the Biblical messengers of the Apocalypse and that HE himself had to be the sacrifice needed to save humanity because of the real, pure love of his family. He convinces a hesitant Andrew to shoot and kill him, which, indeed, averts the global destruction.

In the end, Andrew and Wen, having survived, find Leonard’s truck with everyone’s belongings, which confirms what they claimed upon their first encounter. The radio is playing the song “Boogie’s Shoes”, which they were listening to on their arrival. Andrew turns it off, but Wen, believing it to be a manifestation of Eric’s spirit protecting them, turns it back on. The movie ends with them both driving away.