This is the fourth movie in the series that began with "A Thief in the Night" back in 1972. This particular film essentially follows up where its predecessor "Image of the Beast" left off with "David Michaels" (William Wellman Jr.) having been captured by the one-world organization known as "UNITE". Just prior to his execution he is rescued by an attractive woman named "Connie Wright" (Terri Lynn Hall) who is a member of the opposition going by the name of the"Believer's Underground". The reason he is rescued is because of his knowledge of the main computer system that UNITE uses and it is hoped that he will be able to somehow disable it. In order to do that he has to go to a secret location which has a computer that is connected to the mainframe. On the way there, he and Connie pick up some fellow refugees. Unfortunately, it turns out that one of the people in their stolen vehicle is a spy who is feeding information to UNITE in order to discover the secret location. Meanwhile, the fugitives not only have the enemy to contend with but they also have to try to survive the elements unleashed in the great "Bowl Judgements" as well. In any case, this film encompasses quite a bit of Biblical material and unless a person is acquainted with the Book of Revelation or has seen the other three films in the series I'm afraid new viewers may not fully understand what transpires in this movie. That's not to say that this film is necessarily bad. However, it is somewhat dated and other than William Wellman Jr. and possibly Lynda Beatie (as "Linda") the acting could have used some improvement. Likewise,having all the mutants wearing monk attire was kind of ridiculous. In short, this movie could have been better. As it is I rate it as slightly below average.

Just when you thought this film series couldn't make LESS sense, here comes "The Prodigal Planet" to show us how very wrong we are.The great awfulness starts in the beginning, where preacher man from the last movie has SOMEHOW gone back in time and is now not on the guillotine where he ended movie #3 but is walking down a passageway to the guillotine. A blonde woman saves him as she's dressed up in a fake military outfit with a fake mark. So....they bust out of the base (preacher man doesn't really find it odd that she was able to smuggle herself onto a military base presided over by a GLOBAL force but....anywho). No mention is ever really made of the preacher man's dead friends from the last film...he kinda just forgets them and moves on to our next bunch of misfits.Other than blonde woman, preacher man starts a road trip with some women and her bratty teenage daughter who they run into in a nuclear disaster zone brimming with zombie mutants. Apparently our main characters are immune to radiation as they just walk around in the contaminated air. One of the zombies ISN'T evil and he's a teenage boy so he hooks up with the girl. By 'hooks up' I mean they hold hands or something, this being a Christian movie, so we never figure out if his parts still work. Lots of driving and stuff happens as they're going to some caves where all the Christians live now waiting for Jesus. Oh, evil hippie man whose wife got killed by a giant bee last movie is hunting them too. It's kind of like "Wild at Heart" without the sex. La dee da....zombie boy takes a bullet for the girl or something (I'm still pretty sure she doesn't even give him a kiss as thanks or anything), it turns out blondie actually DOES have the mark and she was just pretending to be a Chrisitan pretending to have the mark (?). Not that we have to worry about her for very long cause Jesus takes her out with a train collision. Anyway, preacher man and the mom and her daughter get to the Christ caves and evil hippie dies during an earthquake.Amen

I love the "Thief in the night" series. These are the only Christian movies that really show the view point of a believer's underground movement with out revolving around an anti-christ like the Omega Code and other new films. If your looking for a good movie based on the end-times this is a really good place to start.However, "Prodigal Plant" is a slow movie. It hits home but doesn't seem to go far in story telling. Some point of the film you may either feel tired or un-interested, but once seeing the film, you still can admire it's place within the series.Don't expect to see this film on the IFC channel since they are not Christian friendly, but you can buy these films (now on DVD) online or rent them in your local Christian book store (if they rent movies). These films are a must see for either bible study or entertainment.

THE PRODIGAL PLANET has some flaws but overcomes them and sizes up to be a great family adventure film. The film, designed for church and youth group viewership has many visual homages to films such as the OMEGA MAN which spice up the film visually. Visually interesting and well made, this film proves to be the best in the series technically. Targeted for a family and church audience the film does not let down it's target viewers.