A remake of a 1941 film called Here Comes Mr. Jordan, Warren Beatty directed and starred as a football player who is erroneously plucked from his earthly body before his time. While heaven itself is never seen (because it can wait, after all), we get a glimpse of the way station, where Joe, in sweats and carrying his clarinet, wanders in a misty, solemn place where souls are silently and obediently lined up to be transported, via Concorde, then the latest in space age transportation, to their “ultimate destination.”
Top 10 On-Screen Depictions of Heaven
To mark our cover this week, "Rethinking Heaven," TIME takes a look at the various ways the afterlife has been depicted on television and in movies