The Prophecy

For other uses, see The Prophecy (disambiguation).

The Prophecy
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Gregory Widen
Produced by	Joel Soisson
Written by	Gregory Widen
Starring	Elias Koteas Virginia Madsen Christopher Walken Eric Stoltz Viggo Mortensen
Music by	David C. Williams
Cinematography	Richard Clabaugh Bruce Douglas Johnson
Editing by	Sonny Baskin
Studio	First Look Pictures
Distributed by	Dimension Films
Release date(s)	September 1, 1995 (1995-09-01)
Running time	98 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$8 million
Box office	$16,115,878

The Prophecy is a 1995 American fantasy horror-thriller film starring Elias Koteas, Virginia Madsen, Christopher Walken, Eric Stoltz, and Viggo Mortensen. It was written and directed by Gregory Widen, and is the first motion picture of The Prophecy series including four sequels. The film tells the story of the Archangel Gabriel (Walken) and his search for an evil soul on Earth, and a police detective (Koteas) who unknowingly becomes caught in the middle of an angelic war.

Plot

In the prologue, Thomas Dagget (Elias Koteas) is about to be ordained as a priest of the Roman Catholic Church, but he is stricken by horrific visions of angels at war with each other. Several years later, Thomas, having lost his faith and abandoned the church, is a detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. Two angels fall to Earth: one, Simon (Eric Stoltz), warns Thomas of coming events, before disappearing. The second, Uziel (Jeff Cadiente), tracks Simon down and attempts to kill him, but is killed himself. Investigating the disturbance, Thomas goes to Simon's apartment and finds an obituary for a recently deceased Korean War veteran named Hawthorne clipped from a newspaper in Chimney Rock, Arizona. More puzzling, Thomas finds a copy of a theology text that he himself wrote years ago. In Chimney Rock, Simon finds the veteran and removes the soul from the body.

The medical examiner informs Thomas that Uziel's body is like nothing he has seen before: it has no eyes, no signs of bone growth, hermaphroditism, and the same blood chemistry as an aborted fetus. Among the personal effects found on the body is an ancient, hand-written Bible, which includes a Twenty-Third chapter of the Book of Revelation - a chapter that does not exist in any other version. Thomas translates the chapter and learns of a second war in Heaven, instigated by a group of angels who refused to accept God's elevation of man over all other creatures, including angels. The chapter includes a prophecy that a "dark soul" will be found on Earth that can be used as a terrible weapon.

Unknown to Thomas, Gabriel (Christopher Walken) has arrived on Earth. Needing a human helper, Gabriel recruits Jerry (Adam Goldberg), who has been trapped in a state of limbo ever since Gabriel prevented him from dying when he committed suicide. Jerry retrieves Uziel's belongings from the police station while Gabriel destroys Uziel's body in the morgue. After finding Hawthorne's obituary among Simon's possessions, Gabriel and Jerry head for Chimney Rock. Before Gabriel arrives, Simon befriends a little girl, Mary (Moriah Shining Dove Snyder), and passes the soul on to her in order to hide it from Gabriel. Mary immediately falls ill and is taken care of by her teacher, Katherine (Virginia Madsen).

After finding Uziel's immolated body, Thomas decides to go to Chimney Rock. Just outside of the town, Gabriel smells a graveyard. He and Jerry locate Hawthorne's body but, to Gabriel's dismay, the soul is gone. Gabriel locates Simon by scent and confronts him at the school; Simon refuses to tell him where he hid the soul. Gabriel says Hawthorne's soul will end the stalemate, tipping the balance to whichever side possesses it. Simon chastises Gabriel for going against the word of God, and finally Gabriel kills Simon by setting him aflame and ripping the heart from his chest. Mary begins showing signs of being possessed by Hawthorne's soul, drawing gruesome depictions of war and muttering about events and places she couldn't possibly know about. Meanwhile, Thomas arrives in Chimney Rock, examines Simon's remains, and questions Katherine. He searches Hawthorne's home and finds evidence of a court martial in which Hawthorne was accused of a number of war crimes, including cannibalism. Thomas visits a church to reflect and is shaken by a confrontation with Gabriel.

Katherine arrives at school the next day to find Gabriel questioning the children. He leaves, and she rushes to Mary's home to find Thomas there. Mary's condition is worsening. Katherine takes Thomas to an abandoned mine where she saw Gabriel's car parked. Inside, they find angelic script on the walls and they experience a vision of a battlefield strewn with dead angels. Thomas and Katherine rush back to Mary's home. Gabriel and Jerry are there, and Gabriel is attempting to extract the soul. Thomas kills Jerry (much to Jerry's relief), and Gabriel is rendered unconscious when Katherine blows up Mary's trailer home by shooting a propane cyclinder with Thomas' gun. "Mary" informs Thomas that angels aren't immortal on Earth; they can be killed by tearing out their heart. Thomas frantically calls for Gabriel's "corpse" to be cuffed and taken into custody, but Gabriel easily escapes. Katherine, meanwhile, takes Thomas and Mary to a Native American site where a ritual is to be performed to expel Hawthorne's soul from Mary. Gabriel recruits another "assistant", Rachael (Amanda Plummer), from the terminal unit of the ICU at a nearby hospital and threatens her with an eternity of living death unless she takes him to the site.

That night, as Mary starts to undergo her exorcism, Katherine is confronted by Lucifer (Viggo Mortensen) himself. Lucifer tells Katherine that "other angels" have taken up this war against mankind because they genuinely hate humans for being put in God's grace above all others, and since then, no human souls have been able to "meet their maker". He knows of Gabriel's plot to use Hawthorne's soul to overthrow the agents of Heaven, and he knows that if Gabriel wins, his "new" Heaven will ultimately devolve into another Hell, resulting in unwanted competition. The next day, Lucifer appears to Thomas and laments to him about the true nature of Hell — the absence of the divine presence — and then advises him to use Gabriel's lack of faith as a weapon against him. When Gabriel arrives, Thomas accuses him of being jealous of humanity, and asks him why he doesn't simply take his case to God; Gabriel mournfully reveals that God no longer speaks to him. The angel attempts to disrupt the Native American ritual, but is stopped by Thomas, who kills Rachael and then runs over Gabriel with a truck, then beats him into submission with a tire iron.

As the ritual continues, Lucifer appears and confronts Gabriel. He tells him the war is based on arrogance, which is evil, making it Lucifer's territory, not Gabriel's. Lucifer rips out a defiant Gabriel's heart and devours it, thus severing Gabriel's ties to the mortal realm. He incites the tribal ancestors to complete the exorcism and Hawthorne's soul is expelled from Mary and destroyed. With the threat eliminated, he asks Thomas and Katherine to "come home" with him, but they refuses to bend to Lucifer's will. The film closes with Lucifer returning to Hell, and Thomas commenting on the nature of faith and what it means to truly be human.

Cast

• Elias Koteas as Thomas Dagget
• Virginia Madsen as Katherine
• Christopher Walken as Gabriel
• Eric Stoltz as Simon
• Viggo Mortensen as Lucifer
• Amanda Plummer as Rachael
• Moriah Shining Dove Snyder as Mary
• Adam Goldberg as Jerry
• Steve Hytner as Joseph
• J.C. Quinn as Burrows
• Jeff Cadiente as Uziel
• Patrick McAllister as Col. Hawthorne

Reception

The film received mostly positive reviews: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette claimed that the film was “Chilling!” New York Post glorifies the film for its “Top –Notch Cast!” Chicago Tribune professes the film as “Entertaining!”

Sequels

The film spawned four sequels: The Prophecy II (1998), The Ascent (2000), Uprising (2005) and Forsaken (2005).

Soundtrack

The film score by David C. Williams was released on Perseverance Records August 7, 2006.

External links

• The Prophecy at the Internet Movie Database
• The Prophecy at AllRovi
• The Prophecy at Box Office Mojo
• The Prophecy at Rotten Tomatoes