THE SHIFT (2023)
A dazzling, unapologetically Christian sci-fi parable worth your family's time.
Should You See It?
This one earns its four stars. THE SHIFT tells a science-fiction fable about a man tempted by a devilish "Benefactor" who offers wealth and power in exchange for service — and the man responds not with cleverness but with prayer. That choice, and everything that flows from it, is rendered with writing, acting, and directing the source calls superb.
The film doesn't preach at you; it shows you a hero who keeps choosing faith in a world built to strip it away, complete with real allusions to Scripture, the Book of Job, and the Empty Tomb. The cost is real too: some people get shot, guns get waved around, and there's talk of alcohol and AA meetings that root the hero's brokenness in something true to life.
For older kids and up, this is a rare gift — spectacle in service of belief rather than in place of it. For younger or more sensitive viewers, the darkness of the dystopian world may be too much. Bottom line: this is well worth the trip for your family, once your kids are old enough for it.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESKevin Garner loses his job on Wall Street the same day he meets Molly, the woman who will become his wife. They marry knowing marriage is hard, and they build a life together — until their young son wanders off one day and never comes back. Grief pulls Kevin and Molly apart. Then a mysterious stranger called "The Benefactor" appears, offering Kevin riches and power in exchange for his service. Kevin does something the stranger doesn't expect: he starts to pray. What happens next sends him further from home than he ever imagined — and that's where we'll leave it.
Is It Any Good?
Four stars means the source considers this filmmaking of the highest order for its category — and the review backs that up. It praises the writing, acting, and directing as superb, and calls the finished film one of the most moving, inventive, compelling, and powerful faith-based movies ever made. That's a high bar, and the source clears it without qualification.
What sells the story, per the review, is restraint: the film "isn't preachy" even while carrying explicit, beautiful references to God, Scripture, the Resurrection, and the Empty Tomb. A science-fiction premise about shifting between worlds gives the filmmakers room to dramatize temptation and faith without ever feeling like a sermon.
The Worldview
This is, by the source's own account, a strongly Christian film — and it wears that faith openly rather than apologetically. The hero prays instead of striking a bargain with the devil-figure who tempts him, and calls him a liar to his face. The story draws directly from the Book of Job, quoting it by chapter and verse, and threads in symbols of the Empty Tomb and the phrase "He lives." Even in its darkest, most totalitarian world — one where the Bible itself has been banned — the film insists redemption is still possible, and its hero spends his exile writing down Scripture from memory to pass it to others.
The film's central conceit, a multiverse of alternate worlds shaped by different choices, could easily have drifted into moral relativism. Instead, the story bends it back toward providence: by the end, it strongly implies that God is in control across every one of those worlds, and that miracles can reach even the most hopeless of them. That's a meaningful theological move for a mainstream science-fiction film to make.
The ache at the center of this story — a man cut off from the people he loves, searching for a way home — is an old one. Scripture names it too: "We know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (2 Corinthians 5:1). THE SHIFT tells a story about a man finding his way back to his wife; the deeper story it borrows from is about finding your way back to God.
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Very strong Christian, biblical, moral, somewhat allegorical worldview set in a Twilight Zone world where a righteous man is tempted by the Devil who appears as a totalitarian leader of a dystopian world he tries to control completely, but the hero constantly tries to make the world a better place by helping other people and doing small acts of kindness and the movie includes passages from the Book of Job, including Job 42:5, many positive references to God, several moving prayer scenes, references to miracles, the phrase “He lives” is shown on a necklace that’s a symbol for the Empty Tomb, the Empty Tomb symbol is shown in other scenes, the Devil accuses God of not really caring about people in two or more scenes but the righteous hero always calls him a liar, plus brief discussion about there being some kind of a multiverse with multiple worlds where people make different choices, but movie strongly implies by the end that God is in control and miracles can happen in all those worlds, even the dystopian world where the Devil has shifted many people who have made bad choices, but people still can be redeemed there even though the Devil has banned the Bible, and the hero writes down parts of the Bible that he can remember to pass Scripture passages around
No foul language, but one “p” vulgarity a euphemism for being angry
Brief strong and some light violence includes police in a totalitarian society shoot at least two people dead, the police fire into a crowd that’s about to riot and launch tear gas canisters before they fire over the protestors’ heads, police and other people wave guns around, angry man trashes a hotel room when the Devil traps him there, some fighting, hero pushes the Devil against a wall, and a little boy goes missing and is never fund, but hope is often expressed that he’ll be found
No sex scenes, but hero is shifted briefly to one alternative world where his doppelganger is sitting a couch in his smoking jacket with two young women, implying prostitution or some other sexual situation, but potential, not depicted
No nudity, but there’s a shot of the hero’s back in the shower
Some alcohol use and it’s implied a couple times in the story that the hero attends AA meetings, but he’s never shown as being drunk, though in one scene he’s tempted to go off the wagon
No smoking or drugs;
Some lying by several characters.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
Kevin responds to the Benefactor's offer of wealth and power by praying instead of bargaining. What does that scene teach us about how to respond when we're tempted to trade our convictions for something we want?
Matthew 4:8–10 · James 4:7Even in a world where the Bible has been banned, the hero writes down what he remembers of Scripture to share with others. How well could you do the same if you lost access to your Bible tomorrow?
Psalm 119:11 · Deuteronomy 6:6–9The film suggests that God's providence reaches even into the darkest, most hopeless corners of its story. Where have you seen God at work in a situation that looked hopeless?
Romans 8:28 · Job 42:5Kevin and Molly grow apart after losing their son, then find their way back to each other. What role does faith play in holding a marriage together through grief?
Ecclesiastes 4:9–10 · Romans 12:12The Final Word
THE SHIFT is the rare science fiction film that treats faith as the answer rather than the obstacle, told with genuine craft and a hero worth rooting for. It also carries some real intensity — shootings, a bleak dystopian world, references to alcohol — that make it a film for older kids and up, not the youngest viewers. Our answer: worth the trip — ages 13 and up.
