Synopsis:
John Woodson has reached a crossroads in his life. After losing his job teaching history at a local high school, he finds himself facing an uncertain future. Disillusioned and temporarily...
John Woodson has reached a crossroads in his life. After losing his job teaching history at a local high school, he finds himself facing an uncertain future. Disillusioned and temporarily rudderless, he is about to experience a dramatic and profound metamorphosis.
John's phone rings with a call from an old girlfriend (Charlene), a journalist who just happens to be in town on a brief layover after covering a story in Peru. Over dinner, she explains to John that she couldn't stop thinking of him when she visited a beautiful retreat called Viciente where a dedicated group of people is studying a set of ancient scrolls. There, she met a priest named Father Jose, who explained that this manuscript is s a prophecy, written sometime before the birth of Christ. The scrolls consisting of 9 insights predict a time when violence and unrest in the world would lead to a new awakening, arising within all religious traditions, that moves humanity toward a deeper experience of spirituality, and redefines human life and culture in the 21st century. That time is now. She goes on to tell him that for some reason she feels he should go to Peru, and see for himself.
At first somewhat cynical, he's amused when his mail includes a travel brochure on Peru. Curious, he calls the travel agency and finds an available seat on a flight the following day. Impulsively, he books it. On the plane, he meets a fellow passenger, a professor who not only knows the priest his friend had mentioned, but also was involved with the authentication of the scrolls. Apparently written in 5 or 6 B.C., the scrolls were found in a wooden box that the professor confirmed as having been created in the 1600s. It's led him to believe that someone in the early Franciscan Church, inspired by Pope Celestine the Fifth, had buried them. Eight scrolls were discovered. The ninth was yet to be found.
After leaving the professor and checking into his hotel, John stretches his legs after the long flight from Atlanta and strolls around the darkened streets of Lima. By chance, he meets Father Jose. Their brief conversation is interrupted by the sudden arrival of armed men. Jose commands John to leave as he deals with Robert Jensen, a high level operative who confronts the priest about the whereabouts of the missing ninth scroll. As Jose is held at gunpoint, John races for help. Joined by the professor he met on the plane, John returns to the scene and finds nothing except a little beggar girl who reaches out to him. At that moment, armed agents of some kind kidnap the professor, and John is left to fend for himself.
As police sirens wail, a stranger suddenly pulls John to safety. The man, Wilson James, explains that he is a guide who was with Father Jose when he discovered the scrolls. The danger they are facing is real. Rather than take John to the American Embassy or back to his hotel, Wil insists that he accompany him, coincidentally or perhaps not, to Viciente. On the road, Wil tells John more about the scrolls and the insights they contain. John is dumbfounded at the series of coincidences that have led him here. Wil explains that John is beginning to experience the manifestation of the first spiritual insight the prophecy says we're going to discover, the realization of how events shape our lives and seem to be moving us somewhere for a reason. John grapples with the information confronting him. His dreams are filled with visions of a little girl and ancient ruins that are strangely familiar.
Moving on, Wil and John arrive at the crest of an exquisite panorama, hauntingly similar to what he saw in his dreams. They have arrived at the Celestine Ruins, the very place where the first eight scrolls were found. On the edge of a hillside is a mission built by Cardinal Sebastian, (the highest-ranking church official in a country where church and state struggle for power and rebels roam the mountains a short distance away. They travel along rutted roads to arrive at the mystical oasis known as Viciente.
Welcomed by Miguel, Wil introduces John to Julia, a dear friend who excitedly tells them that they have just learned that the missing ninth insight may not be on a scroll after all. It is said that it will just appear. John may be joining them at a most auspicious time. As John explores the extraordinary beauty of his surroundings, it is apparent to Julia that if he is here to help, he has to learn the rest of the insights quickly. She is the next to suggest that he acknowledge the synchronicity that brought him here, and begin to open up to a higher level of perception. He notices a beautiful woman named Marjorie (Sarah Wayne Callies), whom he had spotted at the airport in Lima. Rather than receive him with the grace he met in Julia, Marjorie recoils from his controlling energy. Unaware of what he's doing, but willing to yield, he allows Julia to show him how to see the energy operating around him, and explains that to open up fully, he must stop his controlling of others. Only then can he complete his destiny here.
Suddenly, the sanctity of Viciente is invaded. Forced to flee and take the scrolls for safekeeping, the women are separated from John and Wil. Out on the road, they meet again only to be caught in crossfire between the military and angry rebels, each side as volatile and threatening as the other. The adventure heightens as he is then separated from Will, pursued by the military, and at the moment of his greatest despair, finally opens up to the new perception of beauty the prophecy is describing. Now he must follow his destiny, and find the remaining ninth scroll. In a riveting ending, he in finally reunited with the young girl who guides them all back to the Celestine ruins, where in a transformation of color and light, the future of humankind is revealed.
--© Celestine Films
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