From “Fast & Furious” to “Frozen,” a new book reveals LDS beliefs in Hollywood

Lights, camera, Mormonism? Members can find their faith reflected in quotes from Yoda, Mary Poppins, Mister Rogers and many more in Hollywood’s biggest and smallest movies.

What can a person learn about God’s good word from the exciting film series “Fast & Furious”?

says Latter-day Saint Mike Winder, author of the new book Hidden in Hollywood: Finding the Gospel in 1,001 Movie Quotes.

The former West Valley mayor and former Utah state legislator, who was raised as a Latter-day Saint, said he always had his own “antenna” for messages that resonated with his religious beliefs.

But the idea for his 14th book — whose other books include “The Favorite Bibles of 100 American Leaders” and “Presidents and Prophets: The Story of America’s Presidents and the LDS Church” — didn’t occur to him until he stumbled upon an article titled “Who Said It: Dieter or Dumbledore?” in UtahValley360 magazine. The story provided a list of inspirational quotes that readers had to trace back to either the fictional silver-haired wizard or the silver-haired Latter-day Saint apostle.

The comparison sparked an idea in Winder, who spent the next few years collecting movie quotes — from 1950s classics like “A Streetcar Named Desire” to animated comedies like “Minions” — that he believed reflected the basic tenets of the Church of Jesus. Christ of Latter-day Saints.

For help, he turned to his 15-year-old daughter, Grace. Together, the father-daughter duo spent their afternoons for many years delving into movie quotes.

Winder said there were some “big discussions” about how to format the final manuscript before they finally arrived at 19 sections, each referring to different Latter-day Saint teachings, into which they sorted out the sayings.

LDS teachings appear in the movie Mary Poppins

For Winder, who lost his mother in 2011 and his brother in 2014, it was the “Death and Aftermath” section that he found most important.

“The principle that the departed are still with us is really powerful,” he said. “Some of the ways our favorite movie characters say things are very comforting and very consistent with Latter-day Saint doctrine.”

For example, he pointed to this Emily Blunt lyric from the 2018 film Mary Poppins Returns:

Trust that it is always there,

Watch as it grows.

Find it in place

Where lost things go.

Grace said the project taught her that “there is a lot of good in this world.”

Her favorite quote came from the wise and wise Yoda. “I like when he says, ‘Do or don’t.’ There’s no trying,” he said, referring to a line from the 1980 Star Wars film “The Empire Strikes Back.”

The most widely quoted films include “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” a 2019 film in which Tom Hanks plays the beloved Fred Rogers of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” fame. Winder found that the “Star Wars” and “Harry Potter” franchises were gold mines for Latter-day Saint beliefs about kinship, inner worth, and everyone’s ability to connect with a power greater than their own.

‘Frozen’ moves toward ‘good theology’

He noted that while many of the themes described are not the beliefs of Latter-day Saints alone, some storylines or phrases have particular resonance with more specific teachings of the Utah-based church. He pointed, for example, to the 2020 Pixar film “Soul,” which depicts pre-Earth life in which individuals develop traits that will define their experience on Earth.

“Frozen,” a 2013 hit, “also had a lot of good theology,” he added.

What about the “Fast & Furious” street racing series?

“There was a lot about the importance of family,” he said.

Ultimately, the endeavor taught Winder a lesson that he says “completely changed” the way he watches movies. This is this: “If you use a Hollywood metric to measure the gospel, it fails. But if you use the Bible scale to measure Hollywood, you’ll find hidden gems of good reporting in films of all genres.