If you ever had the chance to correct your mistakes, to do right instead of wrong, wouldn’t you take it? After all, we only get one life, and nobody wants to die with regrets and think about how they could have been a better person or done things differently. This is the idea at the heart of the movie The Pastor. The story follows Pastor David, a man who used to be deeply involved in gang activity. He knows firsthand how it can ruin lives—he spent eight years in prison because of it. But after his release, David doesn’t just want to turn his own life around; he wants to help change his neighborhood too. In a place where gangs are destroying lives, especially those of young children, David hopes to make a difference through his Biblical teachings. So, can David really change his life and inspire these young minds, or will his efforts be in vain? Let’s find out in The Pastor‘s recap and explainer.
Spoilers Ahead
What was David’s mission?
David is the very pastor we meet in the movie. But he wasn’t always the religious, law-abiding man we see now. There was a dark side to him. Just looking at the tattoos on his body and face, you’d realize he was once one of the rebellious ones. He spent eight years in prison. Why? Because he was involved in gang activity, he harmed people repeatedly. It wasn’t like he wanted to, but he felt he had to because, in their neighborhood, getting involved in gangs from a young age was pretty normal. Because of this, he lost his connection with Mercia, his wife, and found out she was with a gang leader named Luca, who was the very reason David ended up in prison in the first place. Learning that Mercia had a son made David want to get out even more. But this desire, along with certain outbursts, landed him in solitary confinement several times. During those lonely moments, the only savior he found was a Bible given to him by a pastor. At first, he didn’t believe in such things, but eventually, he developed faith and decided that, with the Bible as his guide, he could change lives. So, when he eventually got out of prison, the first thing we saw him do was have his tattoos removed through a painful laser procedure. Then he became the pastor at the neighborhood church. He believed the young people involved in gangs instead of going to school should change their ways by coming to the church. That was his mission—to change lives.
Why did he want help from his former gang leader?
After David returned to the neighborhood and started reading scripture to the young people in church, he realized they had little to no interest in such things. Instead, they thought working for gangs, vandalizing buildings, stealing, and tormenting people was normal. When he tried to meet his ex-wife, he saw that Mercia had no interest in seeing him. She had a son named Hector, which made David so happy, but even then, he wasn’t allowed to meet him because of his horrible past. But David didn’t lose hope, not for himself or for the young minds. One day, while he was giving away clothes, a young boy named Miguel came to collect clothes from the church’s charity and met David. David wanted to help him when he noticed the boy looked very nervous. He was right to be worried. Suddenly, gang members stormed in and attacked Miguel. Despite his attempts to stop them, they didn’t care. The leader, Nero, shot and killed Miguel right there. The little boy ended up dead. David realized that forming this church in such a gang-heavy area might have been a huge mistake. But he didn’t know then that it wasn’t just Nero behind it all—there was another main gang leader, Luca. Luca was David’s old enemy and is in a relationship with Mercia. When Luca found out that David was trying to disrupt their operation, he got angry. He also had a personal hatred for David. To take revenge, he kidnapped both Mercia and Hector. He didn’t care that they were David’s loved ones; to him, revenge was revenge. Feeling powerless, David sought help from his former gang leader to take down Luca’s gang. But the gang leader refused to help him; he didn’t care about David, his family, or the abduction. David realized he had to do everything on his own now.
What happened to Luca?
At Miguel’s funeral, both David and Luca shared their perspectives. David spoke about his desire to save the community from violence. In contrast, Luca declared that he didn’t believe in God because he thought the only way to survive was by showing power and dominance. He tried to be a good, timid person once, but it got him nowhere. So, he decided to do whatever it took to establish his strength over the powerless. To demonstrate his power, Luca tied up David and started threatening to torment Hector and Mercia before his eyes. Then, Luca dropped a bombshell: Hector wasn’t David’s son but Luca’s own. Despite this, David didn’t seem to care. He knew he had to save them both. So, he called the police, and while waiting for them to arrive, he decided to fight off Luca and his gang. Here, we saw the violent gang leader side of David, far from his pastoral persona. He grabbed a dagger and was about to kill Luca. Just then, the police arrived and arrested Luca. Finally, David, Mercia, and Hector were saved.
But that was not the end. David knows the emotional torment one goes through in prison and believes that only God can help them survive. So, he visited Luca in prison and gave him a Bible as he tried to change the person most against God for the better. David knew Luca was once like him, so maybe Luca could change too. Who knows? In the end, David reunited with Mercia and Hector. He didn’t care that Hector wasn’t his biological son; he wanted to be the father Hector needed. David vowed to protect him from harm and keep him from harming others.