‘Captive:’ Miraculous Real-life Story of How God Saved Drug Addict and Murderer Through Rick Warren Book Purpose Driven Life

Captive movie

The new Christian movie "Captive" came to theaters on September 18, and is a true story of a drug-addict Ashley Smith, whose life changes in a seven-hour ordeal with her kidnapper Brian Nichols.

In 2005, Brian Nicolas was on run after murdering four people when he takes Smith hostage at her home, where she reads the Rick Warren book, "Purpose Driven Life" to him. The encounter not only softens Nicholas' heart, but also changes her forever.

The movie is based on Smith's memoir of her seven-hour captivity, "Unlikely Angel: The Untold Story of the Atlanta Hostage Hero." Smith is being played by Kate Mara in the film, while David Oyelowo is casted as Nichols.

Nichols was facing trial in court for rape in 2005, when he attacked a deputy sheriff standing nearby, stole her gun, wounded her, and then went on to kill the judge, another deputy sheriff, a federal agent and a court reporter, before kidnapping Smith and hiding in her home to avoid police hunting him all over the city, even while he hoped to see his new-born son soon.

At that time, Smith was addicted to crystal meth, and sometimes visited church, where she was given a copy of "Purpose Driven Life."

"When Purpose Driven Life was introduced to me, on the front of it says 'What on Earth are we here for?' And that was really a question that I needed answering at that moment. So I picked it up and began to read it to try to figure out why I was still on Earth and what my purpose was," she told the Christian Post.

"I wasn't a mother anymore because my aunt had taken custody of my child. I wasn't a positive member of society. I just was a lonely widowed drug addict who had no motive or reason to live at that point."

While hiding at her home, Nichols wanted drugs to calm his nerves, and Smith gave her meth.

That night, Smith had vowed never to take meth again, but Nichols asked her three times at different occasions to take the drug as well, but she refused. When the third time she turned down the offer, she felt "free."

She believed that it was Jesus who was asking her through Nichols if she truly wanted to be free.

"I really felt like Jesus was asking me for the last time 'Do you want to be a drug addict, or do you want Me to change your life?'" she said.

Smith told the Baptist Press, "And I really honestly believe that if I would have [chosen] to do the drugs that night that I would have died, whether it be by the hands of Brian Nichols or somebody else. But I looked at Brian Nichols and I said I don't want to use that now and I never want to use it again, whether I've got five years to live or I've got 50 years to live, and by the grace of God I have not [used it again]."

Nichols asked her to read from the Purpose Driven Life, and she took out chapter 32 'You're Shaped to Serve God.' Reading from the chapter apparently had effect on both her and Nichols.

"[God] showed me, 'You know what, I love you. It doesn't matter what you do, who you are, I love you,'" Smith continued. "It was like an immediate freedom. ... God was asking me to trust Him. He was asking me if I wanted a new life, or if I didn't want a new life. And I wanted a new life. Thankfully He gave me one."

Miraculously, Nichols did not harm her, and even permitted her to leave the house to see her daughter. Smith informed the police which took Nichols into custody, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

"I'm grateful that he allowed God to help him, not kill me. But he made some bad decisions and he took four innocent lives. He's paying for that right now. But he also is a sinner saved by God's grace, just like I am, and in that way, it's no different. I know life in prison may not seem like a second chance, but his only other alternative was death. And right now he still can impact people's lives," she said.

She believes that Nichols will use his life for God's glory, and that he is a Christian "fighting a spiritual war."

"We make choices in our lives that aren't so good, but that doesn't mean God turns his back on us. And actually the only way to change us from those ways is God."

Actor Oyelowo said in Saddleback church's online broadcast interview that he was drawn to play the character of Nicholas because of the way the hostage situation changed their lives.

"I was less drawn to playing Brian than I was drawn to the effect this event had on Ashley Smith. And as a Christian myself, I was just so taken with the fact that you have a murderer and a meth addict holed up together for seven hours. Somehow out of that comes salvation, hope, redemption, and Ashley Smith in particular stepping into a new chapter in her life where she gets her life back."

"Often what comes out of Hollywood is not edifying, not godly, doesn't have a moral compass, certainly doesn't hint at true hope," he said. "This was a story that I just knew I had to be part of seeing come to fruition."