How did a mid-budget thriller about child trafficking become a box office smash? With a lot of help from conspiracy theorists, the US’s religious right and Donald Trump
, it is a particularly unlikely “surprise smash hit of the summer”. Had it been released five years ago, as originally intended, this mid-budget thriller might have sunk without trace. Instead, it has struck gold in these politically polarised, conspiracy-theory-addled times, boosted by Donald Trump, Fox News and the religious right, not to mention adherents of the wacko QAnon conspiracy theory.
Often described as a “Christian thriller”, Sound of Freedom makes a few references to its protagonists’ faith – hence the takeaway line: “God’s children are not for sale!” – but contains no allusions to QAnon conspiracy theories.
While promoting the film, Caviezel has repeatedly referred to the compound adrenochrome, a key component in QAnon mythology