Sermon Illustrations
Movies Make Heaven Look Less Appealing than Hell
A February, 2011, issue of Wired magazine had the following quote about "why Hollywood always makes going to heaven look so unappealing":
Try thinking of a really good movie that doesn't play the afterlife for laughs. There isn't one …. The only cinematic visions of the afterlife that are worth [anything]are the ones that depict damnation. As long as your hero goes to hell, the audience stays engaged. Move the story upstairs, though, and God help you.
Hell has proven useful to filmmakers looking for spectacle or a great villain. But heaven, which would seem like a great source of the kind of happy ending Hollywood loves, simply lacks drama. (There's a reason the words "And they lived happily ever after" appear right after the credits—happily ever after is boring.)