Rapture-Palooza is a 2013 American comedy film directed by Paul Middleditch, starring Craig Robinson and Anna Kendrick. Also in the cast are John Francis Daley, Ken Jeong, Rob Corddry, Thomas Lennon, Tyler Labine, Paul Scheer, Calum Worthy, John Michael Higgins, and Ana Gasteyer.
When the biblical Rapture occurs and the faithful are taken up to Heaven, Lindsey (Kendrick) and her boyfriend Ben (Daley) are among those left behind to deal with all sorts of hellish phenomena, like rocks falling out of the sky, creepy wraiths wandering the streets, foul-mouthed crows... and Earl Gundy (Robinson), aka The Antichrist, who sets up residence in the couple's home city of Seattle. When Gundy sets his eyes on Lindsey and desires to make her his bride, Ben hatches a plan to defeat Gundy and save Lindsey.
This film contains examples of the following tropes:
- Abusive Dad:
- Gundy is an absolute asshole to Little Beast.
- Ben's dad is emotionally abusive to his son.
- The Antichrist: Earl Gundy, aka "Beast."
- Asshole Victim: Believe it or not, God (portrayed in this film as a total Jerkass) winds up dead along with Satan at the end.
- Babies Ever After: By the film's end, Lindsey is pregnant with her and Ben's child, and they seem to have taken Little Beast under their wing.
- Back from the Dead: After being shot many times by Lindsey, Gundy comes back to life...as Satan. Only to then be killed permanently along with God when they fall into a Jacuzzi and end up getting electrocuted.
- Badass Bookworm: Ben, a skinny and nerdy guy who manages to wallop The Antichrist with a shovel.
- Badass Normal: Ben, again. He goes up against Gundy with nothing but his unlikely plan and a shovel.
- Bad Boss: Gundy apparently rapes his own guards.
- Big Bad: Earl Gundy, The Antichrist.
- Big Damn Heroes: Averted. Near the movie's end, Jesus appears on a horse in the sky, about to do battle with Satan (recently incarnated in Gundy). Unfortunately, Ben doesn't realize what's going on and instead ends up blasting Jesus out of the sky, much to God's great annoyance.
- Bumbling Dad: Ben's father.
- Can't Act Perverted Toward a Love Interest: Averted with Gundy. He routinely makes lewd remarks and gestures about all the sexual things he wants to do to/with Lindsey.
- Caught Up in the Rapture: Occurs at the start of the movie.
- Conditioned to Accept Horror: The beginning of the movie points out how even with things like zombies, angry locusts, meteors and raining blood happening on a daily basis, humans can grow used to anything.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Oh so much. Ben kills Jesus with a military laser, Lindsey shoots Gundy more than seven times with many different guns before he goes down for good...only for him to come back to life as Satan, then God shows up and, in the ensuing battle, both He and Satan fall into a pool and are electrocuted by a stereo.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": Gundy insists that everyone call him "The Beast."
- Ethereal White Dress: God, when he shows up near the end to give Ben and Lindsey grief about blasting Jesus out of the sky and thereby ruining His plan, is at least wearing a snazzy white suit.
- Fat Bastard: Gundy is a fat dude who just happens to be The Antichrist.
- Faux Affably Evil: Gundy can play nice, but he's a total asshole.
- God and Satan Are Both Jerks:Ben: Who are we rooting for?Lindsey: They both wanna kill us.
- Hollywood Atheist: Averted with Ben and Lindsay, the two most decent characters in the movie. Ben even wonders if they should have just gone to church while they had a chance, although Lindsay points out that it wouldn't have changed anything if they still didn't believe.
- Jerkass:
- Gundy is as unpleasant as anyone can get.
- Ben's dad, as well.
- Jerkass God: God is portrayed as such when He shows up at the end, cussing out the heroes for messing up His perfectly detailed plan. And laser-frying His son.
- Jerkass Has a Point:
- Yes, Ben's dad is an asshole, but if he hadn't stopped Ben when Gundy decided to make Lindsey his bride, he probably would have gotten the three of them killed, and they wouldn't have been able to kill the Anti-Christ.
- As big a stoner asshole as Lindsey's brother is, he's the first to suggest Lindsey go with the Beast so she can kill him.
- Light Is Not Good: God, of all people, gets this treatment in this movie.
- Ms. Fanservice: Lindsey in a short, tight white number for her date with Gundy.
- Nice Guy: Ben, contrasting nicely with Gundy.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Ben ends up shooting Jesus with Gundy's laser beam, thinking he's another falling rock. God is NOT happy with this development.
- An Offer You Can't Refuse: The Beast propositions Lindsey, which she turns down immediately. He says that's fine, but he'll now kill everyone she knows, so Lindsey agrees to sleep with him. Rather than go through with it though she plots with her boyfriend to kill him.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Everyone "evil" but the Beast, including, oddly, the Wraiths.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Gundy, despite being a Fat Bastard.
- Show Some Leg: Lindsey dons a tight, short white dress to try and seduce Gundy in order to get him to drink spiked eggnog as part of Ben's plan to trap him in a kennel.
- Spoiled Brat: Little Beast. To be fair, his dad is the Anti-Christ and a major Jerkass. By the end of the film, he's seen in Ben and Lindsey's new restaurant with it being implied that they have adopted him, so he's probably chilled down some.
- The Stoner:
- Lindsey's brother.
- Also the Wraiths.
- Thinking Out Loud: The Beast does this because he clearly just doesn't care what others think, and openly speaks horrifically about them to their faces. Lindsey is unimpressed.
- The Unfavorite:
- Little Beast is this to Gundy, who treats him like crap and desires more ideal offspring.
- Lindsey's mother is this to God, explaining why she got sent back to Earth after being raptured.
- Unfazed Everyman: While a lot of the comedy comes from the character's reluctant apathy to the apocalyptic horrors around them, the protagonist Lindsey gives the least amount of shits to all of the madness happening around her.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
