Risen – a scene guide

A scene-by-scene look at the 2016 film about a Roman soldier who investigates the disappearance of Jesus' body. Includes 14 clips from the film.

Lucius (Tom Felton), Clavius (Joseph Fiennes), and a familiar-looking shroud in Risen (2016).

Risen tells the story of a Roman soldier who participates in the burial of Jesus and then has to find out what happened to the body after it vanishes from the tomb.

The film was released by the “faith-based” arm of Sony Pictures in February 2016, at a point in time — between the success of Noah and the failure of Ben-Hur — when the major studios were briefly interested in the biblical genre again — and Risen was, indeed, one of the more successful Bible movies during that period.¹

I was intrigued by the film for a number of reasons:

• First, it’s rare for Jesus movies to devote more than a few scenes, if that, to the Resurrection, and Risen is all about that particular story.

• Even better, because it’s told through the eyes of an outside investigator, the film functions as a sort of genre hybrid — part Bible movie, part detective story — and it has more room than a typical Jesus movie would to tap into the hint of unresolved doubt at the end of Matthew’s Resurrection narrative (“When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted”; Matthew 28:17).

• I was also interested in how the film integrated the various accounts of the death and resurrection of Jesus into a single, detailed feature-length narrative.

So, within the film’s first week of release, I went through the film scene-by-scene and posted a scene guide to my blog, noting which Bible passages each scene was based on (if any) and how the film had tweaked those passages — and this ended up becoming the first of a few detailed scene guides that I posted to my blog. (Other films I tackled include The Young Messiah, Paul, Apostle of Christ, and Mary Magdalene.)

Lately I’ve been thinking of posting ad-free versions of those guides to this Substack, as a bonus for paid subscribers — and Risen seemed like a good place to start. Not only was it the first film I analyzed this way, it has also come up here a couple times recently: Testament director Paul Syrstad mentioned it when I interviewed him last month, and it ranked fairly high in the most recent Netflix data dump.

Along the way, I figured I’d make a few revisions — tweaking some bits for style or clarity, adding a point or two that hadn’t occurred to me nine years ago, and updating the embedded videos. (A few of the original videos have gone offline, but there are a lot more studio-approved clips out there now than there used to be.)

Paid subscribers can read the updated version of the scene guide below; my notes on the first few scenes are available as a preview to everyone else. Enjoy.

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Risen – a scene guide (with clips)

Clavius (Joseph Fiennes) opens a door to the upper room in Risen (2016).

1:40 – 3:10 — Prologue

Clavius walks through a desert and stops at a tavern, where the owner recognizes the tribune’s ring on his finger. A subtitle sets this scene in “Judaean Desert, A.D. 33”.

No one knows exactly when the death and resurrection of Jesus happened, but Luke 3:1-2 says John the Baptist began his ministry “in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar” — which, given that Tiberius began reigning in AD 14, would be circa AD 28 — and the ministry of Jesus began sometime after that. The ministry of Jesus itself is often thought to have lasted three years because John’s gospel says there were at least three Passover festivals during his ministry (John 2:13, 6:4, 13:1).

3:10 – 6:20 — The battle

As Clavius tells the tavern-owner his story, the film jumps back to a battle between Romans and Zealots that took place on the same day Jesus was crucified.

Clavius begins his voice-over: “Thirty years, the Roman Empire of Tiberius Caesar has ruled the wasteland of Judea and its people…” Tiberius had actually been Emperor for 19 years by AD 33, and the Romans had held sway over the region for much longer, i.e. nearly a century. But Judea had been governed directly by a Roman prefect, rather than a Herodian king, since AD 6, i.e. 27 years before the movie begins — so, yes, the Romans had been ruling Judea directly for almost 30 years by this point.

Clavius executes a Zealot leader named Barabbas on the battlefield. Is this the same Barabbas who was set free by Pontius Pilate just a few hours before this scene takes place (Mark 15:6-15, Matthew 27:15-26, Luke 23:13-25, John 18:38-40)?

6:20 – 9:30 — Pilate gives Clavius his orders

Pilate alludes to the trial of Jesus (Mark 15:1-15, Matthew 27:11-26, Luke 23:1-25, John 18:28-19:16), but it is over before the scene begins.

Pilate washes his hands privately the way one of the gospels describes him washing them publicly before the crowd (Matthew 27:24).

9:30 – 16:05 — The Crucifixion

The sky goes dark (Mark 15:33, Matthew 27:45, Luke 23:44-45) and the earth shakes (Matthew 27:51-52) as Clavius and Lucius ride out of Jerusalem. The three gospels that mention the darkness all agree that it lasted three hours, and Matthew says the earthquake happened after that — but in the film, the darkness and the earthquake happen simultaneously, and the darkness is fairly brief.

A centurion says Jesus died after six hours (Mark 15:25-37) and that his last words were “It is finished” (John 19:30).

The legs of the thieves are broken, but Jesus, who is already dead, is pierced with a spear instead (John 19:31-37).

Mary Magdalene is there at the Crucifixion (Mark 15:40-41, Matthew 27:55-56, John 19:25; cf. Luke 23:49), as is the mother of Jesus (John 19:25-27). All four gospels say that other women were present at the Crucifixion too, and John says a male disciple was there as well, but none of those people are depicted here.

The centurion says, “Surely this man was innocent!” (Luke 23:47; cf. Mark 15:39, Matthew 27:54)

Joseph of Arimathea arrives with permission from Pilate to take the body of Jesus (Mark 15:42-26, Matthew 27:57-60, Luke 23:50-54, John 19:38). Nicodemus helps him (John 19:39).