End of Days
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the concept in religion, see End times. For the Torchwood episode see End of Days (Torchwood). For the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode see End of Days (Buffy episode). For the Hex episode, see Hex (TV series).
| End of Days | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by | Peter Hyams |
| Produced by | Armyam Bernstein Bill Borden |
| Written by | Andrew W. Marlowe |
| Starring | Arnold Schwarzenegger Gabriel Byrne Robin Tunney Kevin Pollak Rod Steiger CCH Pounder |
| Music by | John Debney |
| Distributed by | Universal Studios (USA) Buena Vista International (non-USA) |
| Release date(s) | November 24, 1999 (USA) |
| Running time | 122 min |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $100,000,000 USD (estimated) |
| IMDb profile | |
End of Days is a 1999 action/horror film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and directed by Peter Hyams. It also featured Robin Tunney, Rod Steiger, Kevin Pollak, CCH Pounder, Udo Kier and Gabriel Byrne as Satan.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
In the year 1979, a newborn girl named Christine York is found by satanists (two of which are revealed later on as Dr. Abel, Christine's Doctor; and Mabel, Christine's guardian) after they see a symbol on her arm, identifying her as the one chosen to bear Satan's son during the last hour on New Year's Eve, 1999. Just as she is being born, a priest in the Vatican witnesses a comet, called the "Eye of God" in a piece of prophecy. He begins to alert the Pope, who sends him on a special mission to find and protect the girl from evil and harm.
Twenty years later, not so long before the end of 1999, retired police officer Jericho Cane (Schwarzenegger) is assigned to protect a Wall Street banker (Byrne) from a rogue priest named Thomas Aquinas (played by Derrick O'Connor), who is eventually captured and taken to a mental hospital. Unknown to Jericho however, the banker's body has been taken over by the ghost of Satan and the banker becomes Satan himself. According to some scars Satan later inflicts on Aquinas' body (after sneaking into the hospital to "visit" him), Jericho and his friend Chicago (Pollak) see the name "Christine York" scratched into Aquinas' skin.
Jericho and Chicago visit the adult Christine (Tunney) in her apartment, saving her life from a group of Vatican Knights sent to kill her. That evening, while Jericho is still with Christine and Chicago waiting outside, Satan arrives and blows Chicago to bits in his van. As Jericho and Christine try to escape, they are stopped by Mabel (Miriam Margolyes), and later by Jericho's superior from his days in the police force, Marge (CCH Pounder) and a police officer; all three are servants of Satan. Jericho kills Marge and the police officer while Satan kills Mabel for her failure. Jericho and Christine escape to a nearby church to find some answers from Jericho's friend, Father Kovak (Rod Steiger).
At the church, Kovak shows Jericho and Christine a polish peasant in a mysterious trance, and the legend of Regressus Diaboli (The Return of Satan), in which Christine shows Kovak the symbol on her arm. Kovak then realizes that Christine is the one who has been chosen to bear the child of Satan, and that the unnamed Wall Street Banker was the one chosen to be Satan's host. After hearing that the only way to defeat Satan is to "have faith", Jericho tries to persuade Christine to come with him into hiding, but the convinced Christine prefers to stay. Frustrated, Jericho returns to his flat.
However, he soon finds he is not alone. Satan, still in the banker's body, "visits" him to make a deal with Jericho. Trying to convince him that God has not been fair with him by letting Jericho's wife and daughter die, Satan tries to persuade Jericho to tell him where Christine is in return for the resurrection of his family and a place with him at the top after the End of Days. But Jericho, knowing Satan's evil intentions, stubbornly refuses, and after a fierce fight, Jericho manages to throw Satan through his window. Jericho is then visited by Chicago, who miraculously survived the van explosion, but Jericho shoots Chicago in the arm to see if Satan was inhabiting his body, only to see blood splash from an angry Chicago's arm. Explaining the situation to Chicago, Jericho makes a plan to rescue Christine from the church with his friend's help.
Jericho and Chicago arrive at the church just as the Vatican Knights prepare to kill Christine. With Chicago waiting in his car in the back alley, Jericho stops the Knights and takes Christine just as Satan arrives at the church and tears his way through the Knights. Jericho and Christine flee for the car, but Chicago refuses to let Jericho in and instead betrays him to Satan and his lynch mob. Jericho tries to fight the lynch mob off, but they beat him up, and tie him to a cross a la Jesus Christ. Christine is then taken to an unknown location by Satan and Chicago.
The next morning, Jericho is found and rescued by Father Kovak, but immediately gets himself armed and resumes his search for Christine before New Year's Day. To his horror, Jericho notices a resurrected Marge, and tails her to Satan's hideout. Just as the sexual ceremony is about to commence, Jericho storms the party, and kills Marge in the process. Pretending to hold Christine hostage, Jericho faces Satan, who sets Chicago on Jericho. In a desperate attempt to win without killing his friend, Jericho tries to reason with Chicago, who miraculously manages to fight Satan's mind control off. Infuriated, Satan sets Chicago on fire, and in retaliation, Jericho uses a machine gun which slightly damages Satan, and kills most of Satan's hypnotized lackeys by using a grenade launcher on the fuel pipes.
In the confusion, Jericho and Christine blow their way through the hideout and into a Metropolitan Transportation Authority subway, a 7th train, modeled as an R33 (New York City Subway car) en route to Flushing, Queens nearly ran them over. Jericho and Christine board the train and attempt to flee, but Satan catches up with them and kills the conductor. Jericho and Christine manage to escape by separating the coaches and leaving the train to crash. Satan, still on the main train, attempts to catch them on the coaches, but Jericho pushes him back with a grenade, which blows the train to bits and leaves Satan's body beyond repair. Satan abandons the body, and the Wall Street Banker dies a second later.
Jericho and Christine then escape to the streets and into another church, where Satan smashes through the floor and confronts Jericho in his true form as a massive, demonic dragon. Moments later Satan enters Jericho's body. Now controlled by the Beast, he attempts to rape Christine and mate with her, but with the help of Christine's begging words, Jericho manages to fight Satan's control off for a few seconds. Using what might have been his only opportunity, Jericho impales himself on the sword protruding from a statue of Saint Michael the Archangel, to trap himself for the few remaining seconds until midnight. At midnight, Satan is pulled out of Jericho's body and sent back to Hell, leaving Jericho to die seconds later after seeing a vision of his wife and daughter smiling at him.
Christine thanks the deceased Jericho for saving her life as New York celebrates the start of the year 2000.
Tagline: The end is coming.
[edit] Trivia
- The role of Christine York was originally supposed to be played by Kate Winslet. Robin Tunney won the role.
- Sam Raimi was offered the director's chair but he opted out to direct For Love of the Game (1999).
- Marcus Nispel was originally going to direct it.
- The weapon used by Schwarzenegger near the end of the film is a Heckler & Koch MP5 fitted with an M203 grenade launcher.
- Thomas Aquinas is also the name with a thirteenth century Roman Catholic theologian.
- The soundtrack to the film contained, thus far, the only new single to be released by the "new line-up" of Guns N' Roses, the industrial rock track "Oh My God."
