It was adapted by Rolf Forsberg and Robert Amram[2] into a 1978 film narrated by Orson Welles and released by Pacific International Enterprises.

As such, it compared end-time prophecies in the Bible with then-current events in an attempt to predict future scenarios resulting in the rapture of believers before the Great Tribulation and Second Coming of Jesus to establish his thousand-year (i.e. millennial) kingdom on Earth.

Cover art of the Bantam edition suggested that the 1970s were the "era of the Antichrist as foretold by Moses and Jesus," and termed the book "a penetrating look at incredible ancient prophecies involving this generation."

[2][5] Welles opens by providing background information on the importance of prophets such as Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Amos in foretelling the arrival of Jesus as the Messiah.

He focuses on three key events prior to the arrival of the Antichrist: Additional interviewees detail then-current and anticipated future crises facing humanity: People magazine said, "Lindsey splices Bible prophecies of doom with contemporary signs.

"[6] Marc Jacobson wrote in The Village Voice, "Therein lies the major fault of The Late Great Planet Earth.

Some day I hope to watch a four-hour VTR tape of A-bomb explosions on a seven-foot TV screen as I drink beer.

The Omen had already turned the Apocalypse into big-budget summer spectacle in 1976, and the steam was running out of the pseudo-historical documentary genre pioneered by Sunn Classic Pictures, which released In Search of Noah's Ark, The Bermuda Triangle, and The Lincoln Conspiracy.

[9] The New York Times noted, "The efficacy of the film's scare tactics is minimized by its applying biblical predictions too generally, and almost cavalierly at times – the most memorable sequence shows a computer conducting a numerological analysis of various politicians' names, to figure out if Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan or Ted Kennedy is the Antichrist.

And Hal Lindsey, who co-wrote the book upon which the film is based and who appears with Mr. Welles as a co-narrator, speaks coolly, almost enthusiastically, about the prospect of worldwide destruction.