WAR ROOM

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by R & L

The movie stars off with Ms. Clara (Karen Abercrombie) standing by a grave. The scene cuts to army soldiers standing in a war room. Clara explains a war room is where an army gathers before a war to plan their strategy. This is what her husband did for a living until a heart attack took his life too soon.

We meet the Jordan family. Tony, the dad, is very cold. He comes home and yells at his wife, Elizabeth. He saw that she transferred $5,000 from their savings and knew it is for her sister. He tells her to put it back, and it’s his decision and she won’t be giving her any money. He tells their young daughter Danielle that she is too old for a double dutch team. Mom, Liz, nods disapprovingly. She tells Danielle she has to drop her off at the community center early the next day to meet with a client and Tony is leaving for a business trip.

We see Tony is the top salesman at a pharmaceutical company. He makes a lot of money and is well respected. On his way out of a meeting, he meets an attractive lady who hands him her number. He takes it and smiles.

Liz is a real estate, agent. We see her in a room with her co-workers, and they tell her not to back down to Tony, give her sister the money anyway. Then one lady makes a joke and says “My grandmother used to say, submitting to your husband is just ducking so God can hit your husband.”

Liz goes to meet Ms. Clara. She gets the details of her beautiful home. She sees a picture on the wall of Clara and her husband. She says they only had one son and were married only fourteen years before he died. Then Clara asks to meet Liz the next day for coffee. Liz agrees.

The next morning Clara asks Liz about her church and her prayer life. Liz says she goes to church sometimes and that she’d consider her prayer life luke warm. Clara brings Liz room temperature coffee, and when she expresses her disgust, Clara tells her that’s how God feels about His people being luke warm. He wants us either hot or cold. We see Tony call the woman from earlier and say he’ll be in town and asks her out to dinner.

Clara asks Liz if she’ll meet with her one hour a week, and she’ll train her about how to pray for her husband so Liz won’t step on the same land mines that Clara did. Liz agrees. Clara tells her that God calls us to pray, not to change people and that her battle isn’t with Tony, but it’s with the devil who has taken control of her house and her marriage. She shows her a closet, her war room, where she goes to pray. She has scriptures and notes posted on the walls of the room about what to pray for what situation and what she needs to pray for. Outside of the closet, she has a wall of remembrance, where she posts answered prayers.

At home, Liz overhears her daughter Danielle tell her friend that she wishes she could live at her house because anytime her parents are together, all they do is fight. Liz goes to her closet and cleans it out and makes her war room. She isn’t sure what to do at first so in a hilarious scene she is shown taking chairs and bean bags in and out deciding what to do. Then she decides just to sit and eat chips until Danielle finds her. Danielle makes a joke about how stinky the closet is because of her mothers feet.

Liz gets a text from a friend that Tony is at dinner with another woman, and it doesn’t look like business. Liz begins to cry. Then she sits down in her war room and genuinely prays. She finds scriptures to help her trust God and resist the devil. She prays to God to take her hurt and intervene in the situation with Tony, to please help him and stop whatever is happening and save her marriage.

We see Tony at dinner with the woman. She doesn’t care that he’s married and invites him back to her apartment. Tony agrees and asks for the check. Meanwhile, Liz is still praying that God stops the situation. Tony suddenly gets very sick and runs to the bathroom.

Tony comes home early and finds Liz making dinner. She says Danielle is going to a friend’s house. He asks if she can eat with her. She smiles and agrees, never mentioning the affair. He sees her cell phone and the messages from the friend telling her about him with the other woman, so he knows that she knows where he was. Liz treats him with dignity and respect, never questioning him because she’s trusting it to God. She says God is his judge, not her. In another funny scene, he switches their plates of food because of how nice and calm she is. He asks her what she wants. She says “Right now? Right now I’d like a big ice cream sundae. Hot fudge just everywhere and lots of whipped cream. One cherry right on top. OH and a foot rub”. Tony says “Liz, I am NOT touching your feet.”

Liz continues to meet with Clara. They go for ice cream and are robbed at knife point. Clara stands up to the man and tells him to drop the knife in the name of Jesus, and he gets freaked out and runs. The police are shocked at how calm Clara is but she says she trusts God to protect her.

Tony is discovered to be padding his numbers at work to earn more bonuses and loses his job. When he tells Liz, he’s already very defensive. She’s very calm and says that it’s okay, and they’ll make it through this. He gets even more upset at her, and she says she trusts Jesus and that she loves him but first and foremost, she belongs to the Lord, and no matter what Tony does, he won’t steal her joy because that comes from God.

He wants to go to the gym and while he’s looking for his gym bag, discovers his wife’s war room. He reads the prayers and the letters she has. He takes Danielle to her double dutch practice and gets involved. He jumps with her and teaches her new tricks. Her and her friends love him. Tony goes home and falls on his face and begs God to forgive him. Then he goes to Liz and begs her forgiveness and says he will be better. He says he didn’t cheat on her, but he almost did; he came so close, and he’s so sorry for all he’s done and how he has treated her. She forgives him. Then he asks the same from his daughter.

Tony tells Liz he’s struggling with one more thing. He opens a box full of pills he stole from the pharmaceutical company. He says he knows he has to return them but if he does, he may spend time in jail. She tells him to trust God. Tony takes the pills back to the company. One boss, Tom, is ready to call the cops immediately, but another boss played by writer and director Alex Kendrick, tells him to give him two days to think about what he wants to do.

Liz tells Tony to spend the next two days involved with the jump rope team and to let God have his worries. He does. The day before he finds out his fate, his boss comes to his house. He tells him that he can’t give him his job back but that he believes he is sincere because not many men would risk returning the pills. He also tells him he needs to pay back the $19,000 in bonuses because of his lies. He says they already agreed to do so.

Liz and Tony break down saying this is grace and mercy from God on them.

The next day the family goes to the Double Dutch competition. On the way, they see Tom, the boss who wanted him in prison, with a flat tire. He can’t change it, and Tony stops. He gets out of the car and approaches Tom with a tire iron. Tom is visibly scared until Tony goes to the ground to change the tire. He stands up with dirty hands to shake Tom’s hand, and Tom relaxes and gives him a firm, respectful hand shake. Tom sees that Tony was sincere in his reasoning to get right with God, his family, and his former company. He gets back in the car, and his daughter asks why he did that for such a mean man, and he says “It’s mercy, Danielle. I treated him the way I want to be treated.”

At the double dutch competition, Tony competes with his daughter’s team. They are amazing. The win second place but it wasn’t about winning, it was about him being involved and being there for his daughter.

They go home as a family. Liz shows Clara’s house to a retired preacher who says he can tell someone has been praying in that closet; that’s how strong she prayed. They buy the house.

Liz still meets with Clara and thanks her. She says that Clara was her answered prayer and helped save her family. Clara says that Liz is her answered prayer, too. She tells her that she never got to reconcile with her husband. That she never prayed for him because she was so stubborn, bitter and prideful. She didn’t learn her lesson until after he died from a sudden heart attack. She asked God to send her a woman to pass the knowledge on to before it was too late and that God sent her Liz. She asks Liz to please find a woman to do the same for.

Liz and Tony are at home, and he asks her how it went with her sister. She said it went fine, and she appreciated the $500 and knows they can’t do more right now. He tells her he got a job as head of the community center, it’s half the pay, but they’ll make it if they’re wise. She says she’s so wise the ladies skipped dessert. He says good, he has something for her.

She sits on the couch, and he brings a bucket of water to her. He tells her to put her feet in and relax then brings her her ice cream sundae just the way she described earlier.

She tells him please, don’t touch her stinky feet. He says she’s his wife, and he has this covered. Then he pulls out a surgical mask, and they laugh. She starts to cry and says her husband brought her her favorite dessert and is rubbing her feet, there MUST be a God in heaven.