The Omega Code
Encyclopedia
The Omega Code is a 1999 thriller film directed by Robert Marcarelli, starring Casper Van Dien
as the protagonist, Dr. Gillen Lane, and Michael York
as the antagonist. Its main plot presents an Evangelical Christian
view about the millennium, and a plot by the Antichrist
to take over the world. The film is based on a novel written by televangelist Paul Crouch
, head of the Trinity Broadcasting Network
, which occasionally airs the movie on its cable television station. It spawned a prequel
that disregarded the events in this film while telling the story of how the Antichrist rose to power. The prequel, Megiddo: The Omega Code 2
, had a larger budget than the original but proved less popular.
The scene shifts to the back stage of a talk show, hosted by Cassandra Barashe (Catherine Oxenberg
), where Dr. Gillian Lane (Casper Van Dien
), an author and speaker, is getting ready to go onto the stage. He is then shown coming on and explaining his book and how the Old Testament is a passage to our past, present, and future. After the show, he is shown returning home and visiting his ex-wife and daughter on the latter's birthday.
Stone Alexander (Michael York
) is then shown speaking at a peace ceremony in Rome
on how he has fed the hungry in Africa with water and food wafers. Dr. Lane is portrayed as being there to visit and "enjoy some fine champagne and to support a worthy cause." It is revealed to the audience that the man who killed the rabbi in the beginning is Stone's apprentice, Dominic (Michael Ironside
). Dr. Lane meets with Cassandra, and the two form an alliance.
Lane and Stone are then portrayed as making a worldwide tour of goodwill such as one related to the establishment of the Palestinian state. Stone also makes a seven-year peace treaty with the Palestinians and the Israelis before moving on to other regions of the globe. In the meantime, Lane's family is shown not being able to see him because of his busy schedule.
After three-and-a-half years, Lane discovers that Stone had been using the computer code that was shown in the beginning of the movie. This code is based on what is called the 3-D study of the Bible, where prophetic messages are revealed. Stone and his bodyguard find Lane, which upon Stone requests him to be his prophet. He asks Dominic to leave, but Dominic, in an anger of being left out all the time pulls out his gun and says, "You said I would be the prophet!" He then shoots Stone, but fails to shoot Lane. As Stone is dying, he logs in the next code. Dominic lies over the radio stating that Lane just shot Stone, which later leads to a worldwide manhunt. People around the world hold funerals for Stone. Lane, meanwhile, is about to take off in an airplane when he remembers what Rostenburg said about the Torah containing the genetic code of the universe. Because Rostenburg didn't enter the final code, Satan enters Stone's body so he can continue the plans. Later in the movie, he obtains the final code via tempting Cassandra to threaten Lane by handgun. Stone proclaims himself high king and God at a coronation. He angers the two prophets, who start saying verses from the Bible when Stone demands them to "show us all a sign, right here, right now!" one responds "It is a wicked and perverse generation who asks for a sign. But like Christ, your only sign will be this: destroy these temples of His holy prophets and the Lord will rebuild them in 3 days!" To that, Stone says "It will be my pleasure!" They are then killed by Dominic while Stone says to keep them on display to show what will happen if anyone who defies him, invoking a general protest from both Muslims and Jews. Alexander manages to leave via helicopter, vowing to make an example of Jerusalem. Meanwhile, the last code is shown to be a fake (the true code was with the prophets).
Stone then leads armies to Jerusalem as it is the first to withdraw from the global alliance. The two prophets are resurrected. Lane appears with the code. Stone lies that he'll call off the attack if Lane will enter the final code. Lane does so. Stone is about to commence the destruction of Jerusalem, "On my mark, 3,2 and" when a bright light appears from heaven, sending Satan back to where he came from, leaving Stone dead again and freeing Cassandra. The film closes as we see what the final code said from the start of the movie: Dawn of New Millennium.
in 2000, and then distributed by TBN on video and released over the internet in 2002.
gives The Omega Code a rating of 8%. Joe Leydon, writing in Variety
, describes the movie as "laughably simplistic and confoundingly muddled." Entertainment Weekly
said that the film "gives 'Great Tribulation' new meaning," and MaryAnn Johanson called Casper Van Dien's acting "shockingly incompeten[t]."
Casper Van Dien
-Early life:Van Dien was born and grew up in Milton, Florida, the son of Diane , a retired nursery school teacher, and Casper Robert Van Dien, Sr., a retired U.S. Navy Commander and fighter pilot. There is a long military tradition in Van Dien's family. Aside from his father, his grandfather was a...
as the protagonist, Dr. Gillen Lane, and Michael York
Michael York (actor)
Michael York, OBE is an English actor.-Early life:York was born in Fulmer, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, the son of Florence Edith May , a musician; and Joseph Gwynne Johnson, a Llandovery born Welsh ex-Royal Artillery British Army officer and executive with Marks and Spencer department stores...
as the antagonist. Its main plot presents an Evangelical Christian
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
view about the millennium, and a plot by the Antichrist
Antichrist
The term or title antichrist, in Christian theology, refers to a leader who fulfills Biblical prophecies concerning an adversary of Christ, while resembling him in a deceptive manner...
to take over the world. The film is based on a novel written by televangelist Paul Crouch
Paul Crouch
Paul Franklin Crouch is a religious broadcaster and, along with his wife Jan, co-founder of the Trinity Broadcasting Network .-Biography:...
, head of the Trinity Broadcasting Network
Trinity Broadcasting Network
The Trinity Broadcasting Network is a major American Christian television network. TBN is based in Costa Mesa, California, with auxiliary studio facilities in Irving, Texas; Hendersonville, Tennessee; Gadsden, Alabama; Decatur, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Orlando, Florida; and New...
, which occasionally airs the movie on its cable television station. It spawned a prequel
Prequel
A prequel is a work that supplements a previously completed one, and has an earlier time setting.The widely recognized term was a 20th-century neologism, and a portmanteau from pre- and sequel...
that disregarded the events in this film while telling the story of how the Antichrist rose to power. The prequel, Megiddo: The Omega Code 2
Megiddo: The Omega Code 2
Megiddo: The Omega Code 2 is the prequel/sequel to the 1999 film The Omega Code. The film is more of an alternate film to the first film. Michael York detailed the entire film in a journal which he then published in book form called Dispatches From Armageddon.-Plot:Gavin Fink plays this younger...
, had a larger budget than the original but proved less popular.
Plot
The movie begins in Jerusalem, where a rabbi named Rostenburg is typing a code from the Bible onto his laptop computer. An aiming laser is shown pointing at his chest, and he is shot and killed. The man who shot him is shown wearing a rabbi's outfit, and then leaving with the computer's disk containing the code. Following this, two mysterious men take a page out of Rostenburg's sweater and keep it. These mysterious men get in the way of the assassin as he is leaving the scene, leading to the latter surrendering his gun before being allowed to leave.The scene shifts to the back stage of a talk show, hosted by Cassandra Barashe (Catherine Oxenberg
Catherine Oxenberg
Catherine Oxenberg is an American actress known for her performance as Amanda Carrington on the 1980s American prime time soap opera Dynasty. The daughter of HRH Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia, Oxenberg is a descendant of the Serbian Karađorđević dynasty.-Early life:Though born in New York City,...
), where Dr. Gillian Lane (Casper Van Dien
Casper Van Dien
-Early life:Van Dien was born and grew up in Milton, Florida, the son of Diane , a retired nursery school teacher, and Casper Robert Van Dien, Sr., a retired U.S. Navy Commander and fighter pilot. There is a long military tradition in Van Dien's family. Aside from his father, his grandfather was a...
), an author and speaker, is getting ready to go onto the stage. He is then shown coming on and explaining his book and how the Old Testament is a passage to our past, present, and future. After the show, he is shown returning home and visiting his ex-wife and daughter on the latter's birthday.
Stone Alexander (Michael York
Michael York (actor)
Michael York, OBE is an English actor.-Early life:York was born in Fulmer, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, the son of Florence Edith May , a musician; and Joseph Gwynne Johnson, a Llandovery born Welsh ex-Royal Artillery British Army officer and executive with Marks and Spencer department stores...
) is then shown speaking at a peace ceremony in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
on how he has fed the hungry in Africa with water and food wafers. Dr. Lane is portrayed as being there to visit and "enjoy some fine champagne and to support a worthy cause." It is revealed to the audience that the man who killed the rabbi in the beginning is Stone's apprentice, Dominic (Michael Ironside
Michael Ironside
Michael Ironside is a Canadian-born actor. He has also worked as a voice actor, producer, film director, and screenwriter in movie and television series in various Canadian and American productions. He is best known for playing villains and "tough guy" heroes, though he has also portrayed...
). Dr. Lane meets with Cassandra, and the two form an alliance.
Lane and Stone are then portrayed as making a worldwide tour of goodwill such as one related to the establishment of the Palestinian state. Stone also makes a seven-year peace treaty with the Palestinians and the Israelis before moving on to other regions of the globe. In the meantime, Lane's family is shown not being able to see him because of his busy schedule.
After three-and-a-half years, Lane discovers that Stone had been using the computer code that was shown in the beginning of the movie. This code is based on what is called the 3-D study of the Bible, where prophetic messages are revealed. Stone and his bodyguard find Lane, which upon Stone requests him to be his prophet. He asks Dominic to leave, but Dominic, in an anger of being left out all the time pulls out his gun and says, "You said I would be the prophet!" He then shoots Stone, but fails to shoot Lane. As Stone is dying, he logs in the next code. Dominic lies over the radio stating that Lane just shot Stone, which later leads to a worldwide manhunt. People around the world hold funerals for Stone. Lane, meanwhile, is about to take off in an airplane when he remembers what Rostenburg said about the Torah containing the genetic code of the universe. Because Rostenburg didn't enter the final code, Satan enters Stone's body so he can continue the plans. Later in the movie, he obtains the final code via tempting Cassandra to threaten Lane by handgun. Stone proclaims himself high king and God at a coronation. He angers the two prophets, who start saying verses from the Bible when Stone demands them to "show us all a sign, right here, right now!" one responds "It is a wicked and perverse generation who asks for a sign. But like Christ, your only sign will be this: destroy these temples of His holy prophets and the Lord will rebuild them in 3 days!" To that, Stone says "It will be my pleasure!" They are then killed by Dominic while Stone says to keep them on display to show what will happen if anyone who defies him, invoking a general protest from both Muslims and Jews. Alexander manages to leave via helicopter, vowing to make an example of Jerusalem. Meanwhile, the last code is shown to be a fake (the true code was with the prophets).
Stone then leads armies to Jerusalem as it is the first to withdraw from the global alliance. The two prophets are resurrected. Lane appears with the code. Stone lies that he'll call off the attack if Lane will enter the final code. Lane does so. Stone is about to commence the destruction of Jerusalem, "On my mark, 3,2 and" when a bright light appears from heaven, sending Satan back to where he came from, leaving Stone dead again and freeing Cassandra. The film closes as we see what the final code said from the start of the movie: Dawn of New Millennium.
Production and distribution companies for The Omega Code
The film was produced by Code Productions in cunjunction with Eclipse Catering, TBN's Gener8Xion Entertainment and TBN Films. It was first aired on Trinity Broadcasting NetworkTrinity Broadcasting Network
The Trinity Broadcasting Network is a major American Christian television network. TBN is based in Costa Mesa, California, with auxiliary studio facilities in Irving, Texas; Hendersonville, Tennessee; Gadsden, Alabama; Decatur, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Orlando, Florida; and New...
in 2000, and then distributed by TBN on video and released over the internet in 2002.
Other distributors
- Higher Dreams (1999) (Spain) (theatrical)
- Providence Entertainment (1999) (USA, theatrical)
- At Entertainment (2000) (Japan, on video)
- Eagle Entertainment (2001) (Australia, theatrical)
- Argentina Video Home (Argentina, video)
- Califórnia Home Vídeo (Brazil, VHS only)
- Dutch FilmWorks (DFW) (2001) (Netherlands only on DVD)
- GoodTimes Home Video (2000) (2002) (USA, only on DVD)
- Laurus Entertainment (2001) (Netherlands) (VHS)
- RTL Entertainment (2003) (Netherlands) (TV, RTL5) (broadcast premiere)
Film reviews
The film received mostly negative reviews. The website Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
gives The Omega Code a rating of 8%. Joe Leydon, writing in Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
, describes the movie as "laughably simplistic and confoundingly muddled." Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
said that the film "gives 'Great Tribulation' new meaning," and MaryAnn Johanson called Casper Van Dien's acting "shockingly incompeten[t]."
External links
- The Omega Code at The Numbers