Prophecy (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Prophecy is a 1979 horror film starring Robert Foxworth, Talia Shire and Armand Assante. It was directed by John Frankenheimer and written by David Seltzer.
It is an ecological fable about the evils of industrial pollution. The film is a prophecy of what might happen.
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[edit] Plot Summary
Tracking two lost lumberjacks through the night, a rescue team nearly follows the trail over a cliff. One of the hounds is attacked and the team abseil down to investigate. There they are attacked and killed by a ferocious beast.
Dr Robert Verne (Robert Foxworth) is fed up with dealing with the squalor of city tenements. He does not feel he is making a difference. He accepts a job from the Environmental Protection Agency to write a report on a logging operation near Androscoggin in Maine. The loggers are in dispute with the local American Indians who are the Opies (O.P.s), the original people.
Dr Verne's wife Maggie (Talia Shire) accompanies him on the trip. She is pregnant but is apprehensive to tell her husband as he is set against having children. When they fly in, they meet a man (Burke Byrnes) and his two children who are embarking on a trek into the wilderness. They also meet Bethel Isely (Richard A. Dysart), the director of the paper mill, who is to be their host. He tells them about his missing rescue team and lays the blame at the feet of the Opies. They have their own explanation: Katahdin, a vengeful spirit of the forest that has been awakened by the activities of the loggers. Isely describes Katahdin as "larger than a dragon with the eyes of a cat".
As Isely drives the couple to their cabin, their path is barred by a party of Opies. They refuse to let Isely's people pass and a fight ensues between the leader of the Opies John Hawks (Armand Assante) and Kelso (Everett Creach), one of Isely's heavies. The heavy is armed with a chainsaw while Hawks has only a broadaxe. The scuffle ends with Hawks laid on the ground with the chainsaw at his throat. The Opies relent and let the cars pass. Verne and Maggie are visibly shocked by the incident.
While fishing, Verne sees a huge salmon devour a duck. Later, after he and Maggie have eaten his catch, they are attacked in their cabin by a deranged raccoon. Verne kills it and sends a tissue sample to be tested.
The next day Hawks and his wife Ramona (Victoria Racimo) approach Dr Verne to put over their side of the story. If Verne is concerned about the environment then he should include the people in his assessment. Something is making the people ill: still births, mental illness and birth defects are rife. Hawks takes Verne and Maggie to the home of Hector M'Rai (George Clutesi), Ramona's grandfather. Hector claims to have seen Katahdin and describes him as part of everything in God's creation. Verne sees plant roots growing on the surface that should be underground; Hawk nets a bullfrog-sized tadpole from the water to show Verne; Hector has cigarette burns on his hand but feels no pain. As the evidence mounts the idyllic setting gradually takes on a sinister hue.
Verne and Maggie tour the paper mill to look for incriminating evidence but the chemicals used in the processing are demonstrated to never leave the plant. Isely tells them that the water is routinely tested for purity. As they leave however Verne notices mercury deposits on Maggie's boots. It is a mutagen that causes birth defects and progressive nerve damage. It has long been used in logging as a fungicide because it is cheap. It will not show up in Isely's water purity tests because it sinks to the bottom. Verne needs more evidence and determines to take blood tests from the Opies.
That night, the family party trekking in the woods are slaughtered by a monster. As Verne and Maggie are taking blood samples the next day, Isely and the police arrive to arrest Hawks and his men for the murders. Hawks however escapes. Verne, Maggie and Ramona take a helicopter to the campsite to investigate the killings. Verne and Ramona find huge scratch marks on the trees while Maggie finds two mutant bear cubs trapped in a salmon poacher's net. One of the cubs is still alive and Verne is determined to save it so it can serve as empirical evidence of the contamination. However the weather has turned and the pilot (Tom McFadden) refuses to take off in the high wind.
They make for Hector's home and Verne sends Hawks to fetch Isely and the sheriff. Verne sets up an emergency room in one of Hector's tepees and helps the cub survive. Maggie is clearly distressed by the ordeal so Verne takes her aside and assures her that it will all be over soon. She tells him that their nightmare is just beginning: she is pregnant and she has eaten contaminated fish like the mother of the mutant cubs.
Isely and the sheriff (Charles H. Gray) arrive and see the mutant cub. Isely is contrite. Then all hell breaks loose as the bear monster (Kevin Peter Hall) attacks the camp in search of her cubs. Everyone who can seeks shelter in tunnels beneath Hector's home. All goes quiet so the sheriff decides to check it out. He pokes his head up out of the tunnel and the monster kills him.
The next day, the survivors make their way out of the forest. The helicopter is not an option as the pilot was severely mauled in the beast's initial attack. Isely heads up to Mount Emery to try to reach a radio tower and call for help. He manages to reach the gates before the monster kills him. The others find the Opie village deserted but take a truck and try to drive out along the winding forest road. The monster turns the truck over and finishes the pilot off by beheading him. The others run off through the forest with the beast in pursuit.
They arrive at the river and swim across. The cub panics in the water and severely bites Maggie. They watch the beast kill Hector from the far bank. It seems reluctant to follow them at first but then enters the water and vanishes. They believe it drowned but then it suddenly emerges. They take shelter in a log cabin but the monster tears down the walls. Maggie is knocked unconscious by debris. Hawks shoots arrows into its hide until it floors him. Verne launches himself at the beast and stabs it repeatedly in the head until it collapses. Its corpse is carried away by the current.
As Verne and Maggie fly over the forest the next day, on their way home, another monster is seen to raise its ugly head.
[edit] Comments
Isely explained that the Opies comprised several tribes: the Ashinabegs, the Passamaquoddy, the Wampanoags and the Yuroks. This may explain Hector M'Rai's incongruous tepee home. A wigwam may have been more in keeping with the area.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
The Young Stranger • The Young Savages • All Fall Down • Birdman of Alcatraz • The Manchurian Candidate • Seven Days in May • The Train • Seconds • Grand Prix • The Fixer • The Extraordinary Seaman • The Gypsy Moths • I Walk the Line • The Horsemen • The Iceman Cometh • 99 and 44/100% Dead • Impossible Object • French Connection II • Black Sunday • Prophecy • The Challenge • The Holcroft Covenant (film) • 52 Pick-up • Dead-Bang • The Fourth War • Year of the Gun • The Island of Dr. Moreau • Ronin • Reindeer Games
