Rating: PG
Genre: Biography/History, Christian, Drama
Directed by: Dallas Jenkins
Release Date
Theatre: PART 1 March 28, 2025
PART 2 APRIL 4, 2025
PART 3 APRIL 11, 2025
Cast: Jonathan Roumie as Jesus; Elizabeth Tabish as Mary Magdalene; Shahar Isaac as Simon Peter; Paras Patel as Matthew; Noah James as Andrew; George H. Xanthis as John; Shaan Sharma as Shmuel; Jordan Walker Ross as Little James; Giavani Cairo as Thaddeus; Nick Shakoour as Zebedee; Vanessa Benavente as Mother Mary; Joey Vahedi as Thomas; Yasmine Al-Bustami as Ramah
Review Courtesy: PluggedIn Reviewer: Paul Asay
MOVIE REVIEW
He knows where this is going.
Riding into Jerusalem triumphant, riding on a donkey as people waved palm fronds—greeting Him like a hero. A king. A messiah.
His disciples (most of them, anyway) celebrate with everyone else. He warned them; again and again, He warned them. And still, they smile and glory in Zion’s love. Yes, they understand Jesus has His enemies. Jesus has not endeared Himself to the Sanhedrin. He has few friends in the city’s Roman palaces. Peter, Andrew and the rest realize that as they step through Jerusalem’s gates, they step into what could be a fiery furnace, a lion’s den.
But God has overcome lions’ dens before. God has saved His servants from the world’s fiery furnaces.
Not this time.
Jesus knows He’s been sent not as a lion, but as a lamb. Not as a Sampson, but as a sacrifice.
A handful of religious leaders try to stop Jesus and His crew before they enter. “Raising Lazarus changed everything,” one says. “Jesus will not be safe inside the city gates.” Another suggests that by leading Jesus into Jerusalem, “You are calling for his killing.”
But Jesus will not be dissuaded. If the people of the city kept quiet, He tells them, “Even the very stones would cry out in their place.”
So it is. So it will be.
Jesus sees the stones of the city weep blood. He knows that His future holds another sort of cry: of pain. Of horror. Of grief.
If His disciples truly saw Him as Jesus rides His donkey, they might see something unexpected: They’d see Him looking … tired. Haunted.
But then Jesus shakes it off and sits higher on the donkey’s back. His Father has a job for Him. And He will follow.
POSITIVE ELEMENTS
Christians certainly know that the events of The Chosen: The Last Supper—Part One point to the seminal moment in human history: Jesus’ Crucifixion and Resurrection. Theologically speaking, one cannot overstate just how important those events were to us all.
So that said, let’s step forward and examine the two-episode “movie” itself—suspending, for a paragraph or two, our conversation about the wider meaning of the bigger story.
Within that narrower scope, we see not just the joy Jesus’ disciples have in their arrival to Jerusalem, but their love of their Rabbi.
As you likely know, The Last Supper is not a traditional movie, but rather the first two episodes of The Chosen series’ fifth season. And both episodes in Part One start at the Last Supper itself. There, Jesus expresses His love and gratitude for their faithfulness. The disciples who are present reinforce their belief in who He is (that is, the Son of God). And when Jesus tells them that they’ll all betray Him, they insist—fervently and sincerely—that they’ll never leave Him.
“We would all die for you, Master,” Little James says.
And eventually, so most of them shall, according to Christian tradition. Sure, we know that they’ll be struck with plenty of fear later on in the narrative. But for Part One, we should follow Jesus’ lead and sadly smile at their naive good intentions.
“Greater love as no one for this,” Jesus says. “That someone would lay down his life for his friends.”
Peter shows a particular zeal to follow in Jesus’ footsteps, making his first faulty efforts at preaching. It does not go well, as the world would have it; but his brother, Andrew, praises him anyway.
In previous episodes, we’ve been witness to the disciple Thomas’ powerful grief over the death of his beloved wife, Ramah. (And that subplot, obviously, is a dramatic fiction you won’t find in Scripture.) But while Ramah’s father still blames Jesus for his daughter’s death, Ramah’s mother offers Thomas a bit of love and forgiveness during a chance meeting in Jerusalem.
“I want to hate you, Thomas,” she tells Thomas. “I really, really do. But I know that [Ramah] loved you, and she was a smart young woman. She made her own choices, and she chose you, Thomas.”
A woman of means offers a friends’ house to Jesus and His disciples.
SPIRITUAL ELEMENTS
The Chosen: The Last Supper—Part One is bookended by two major events: Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and His scouring of the Temple. And while not every scene we see here comes straight from Scripture (as fans of The Chosen know well), most of what we see points back to it. The movie is made, ultimately, to point us to Christ, His nature and His work on the cross.
But in The Last Supper, we see clearly the pluralistic nature of the Roman Empire, and how that pluralism has seeped even into Jerusalem, the most holy city in Judaism.
Early on, Pontius Pilate (the governor of Judea) tells Caiaphas (the leader of Judaism’s governing body, the Sanhedrin), “We tolerate religions because we see them as variations of the same thing.” He points to the gems on Caiaphas’ ceremonial breastplate (which stand for the 12 tribes of Israel) and says that they “correspond to our zodiac in the heavens.” Pilate also taunts Caiaphas by eating shrimp (which is unclean, according to Leviticus).
Elsewhere, disciples ponder the mythological stories told in frescos (The ghost of Clytemnestra waking the Furies) and classical urns (where Hercules slays the Trojan king Laomedon). When a couple of Jesus’ Greek followers try to buy a suitable sacrificial offering at the temple (which a disciple says is an “important and in fact beautiful symbol of God’s grace”), they’re told they’ll have to exchange their Grecian drachmas for a more acceptable form of currency: After all, the drachma bears the image of the Greek goddess Artemis. Pilate’s own palace contains what appear to be statues of gods.
We also hear quite a bit about Jewish practices as well, including some discussion about Passover, ritual cleanliness and the process of sacrificing animals at the temple. Caiaphas claims to have received a prophecy from God: “One man will die for the people so that our nation will not perish.” Herod Antipas, who calls himself the tetrarch of Galilee, says that Jesus is not a threat to Rome, as He has only preached about “peace and forgiveness and love, humility and a bunch of other boring stuff.” But Jesus (Antipas says) does seem to be something of a magician, “which I would be game to see.”
A voice roars from a cloudy sky—the voice of God or an angel. “It was for your benefit, not mine,” Jesus tells the people who heard it. Jesus talks to His heavenly Father.
SEXUAL & ROMANTIC CONTENT
Hercules is depicted nude on an urn. We see him in profile, and nothing critical is seen. Another statue or two are scantily dressed.
John and his father take goods to the house of Caiaphas. The priest’s servant, Malchus, says that they can’t enter unless they’re ceremonially clean—and he rattles off a great many things that would make a person unclean, including a seminal discharge. “Even with a Mikvah purification?” Malchus is asked, referencing the ritual bath Jews perform before and after various events.
Tamar, an African woman who has become one of Jesus’ most devoted followers, encounters a fellow native of Africa in the Temple courtyard. The man, who’s selling doves, flirts with Tamar and ultimately gives her sacrificial doves for free.
VIOLENT CONTENT
Jesus has a vision of the destruction of the Temple, which includes fire, apparent explosions and, it would seem, a man being stabbed to death by Roman soldiers. He also envisions blood running down the stones of the city.
Jesus crafts a whip. The next day, he brings the whip to the Temple courtyard, where he uses it to keep people at bay. He turns over tables, spilling money and scales. He lets loose animals. He knocks over people, too—some of whom seem to suffer minor injuries. (One cries out, “I have a family!” as Jesus pushes a table over.) A tent catches fire.
Kafni, who blames Jesus for his daughter’s death, threatens both his one-time son-in-law, Thomas, and Jesus. “You led her to her death!” he tells Thomas. “And now your Master will be next!” We hear that he’s not the only one who might want Jesus dead. “Some are waiting here with open arms, others with daggers,” Thomas says.
We hear Jesus talk about the pain of childbirth and how that pain is replaced with joy. Caiaphas asks Herod Antipas to consider assassinating someone. People talk about executions and riots. We hear that the spice sold at the Temple covers up the “stench of blood.” We hear that Tiberias Caesar would push people off cliffs if they displeased him. Peter nearly hits someone in the face.
CRUDE OR PROFANE LANGUAGE
Pilate scoffs that Jesus would ride into Jerusalem on an “ass.” He adds, “Pathetic.”
DRUG & ALCOHOL CONTENT
In a flashback, we see Kafni help daughter Ramah and son-in-law Thomas load up some goods for a wedding feast, including some very special wine. Pilate and Herod Antipas likely have glasses of wine with them during a couple of scenes, but it’s never verified.
OTHER NOTEWORTHY ELEMENTS
Pilate insists to someone that he smells just fine. “I bathed … a week ago?” Pilate says. A Roman soldier takes an apple from a cart and chomps into it without paying. We naturally see a lot of business dealings on Temple grounds, including some shady stuff.
CONCLUSION
When Jesus heads onto the Temple grounds, already steeling himself for the confrontation to come, he begins by arguing with a vendor. “This place used to be filled with the sounds of prayer,” Jesus says sadly. The vendor barely bothers to respond: He’s heard it all before, and he simply complains that Jesus is holding up the line.
“What are you paying with today?” the man asks.
“You’ll see,” Jesus says. It’s a lovely warning on two levels. One, it’s a very nice cinematic nod to the chaos Jesus is about to cause. But on a deeper level, Jesus knows that this day—His day of turning over tables—will set the table for His last day. And His last supper.
What will Jesus be paying with? His life. He will make all the blood and sacrifice and money changing superfluous with His trip to Golgotha—a trip that becomes almost unstoppable with His bold, passionate confrontation on the Temple grounds.
When He upends the first table, Jesus can see His own earthly end approach. And The Chosen’s own end is coming, too.
The Chosen: The Last Supper—Part One sets fans up for the beginning of the end. And it does so as The Chosen always has: with strong performances; deep, earnest characterizations; a fidelity to the biblical account while freely sprinkling in extrabiblical material. It is a known quantity at this point. And chances are, you already know what you think about The Chosenseries as a whole well before you read this review. You might reject it for the creative license the show takes with Scripture—or you might embrace it because, like nothing else you’ve seen onscreen before, it makes the Scriptures come alive.
The Last Supper—Part One is, by its very nature, more somber than some previous seasons of the show. We, like Jesus, knows what waits. Religious and political leaders plot and scheme. Jesus’ followers grow more confused and worried. And a few watch as Golgotha edges closer, like the edge of a hurricane.
This two-episode arc has its handful of gritty moments worth mentioning, too. John’s uncleanliness may leave some raising an eyebrow or two, and the show’s penchant for alluding to mythical legends in this Christian story may cause some of those same eyebrows to furl.
But excepting those few moments, The Last Supper—Part One continues its compelling and powerful narrative walk—somehow infusing a story most of us know by heart with a new sense of urgency and peril. That’s no small achievement. And, as we look toward The Last Supper, parts two and three—set to be released in consecutive weeks—we know that this is just the first course for the Last Supper.
Reviewer:
PAUL ASAY
Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo.
Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.
