The Prophecy
Encyclopedia
The Prophecy is a 1995 fantasy
Fantasy film
Fantasy films are films with fantastic themes, usually involving magic, supernatural events, make-believe creatures, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered to be distinct from science fiction film and horror film, although the genres do overlap...

 horror
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...

-thriller film starring Elias Koteas
Elias Koteas
Elias Koteas is a Canadian actor of film and television, best known for his roles in The Prophecy, Fallen and the live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films.-Early life:...

, Virginia Madsen
Virginia Madsen
Virginia Madsen is an American actress and documentary film producer. She came to fame during the 1980s, having appeared in several films aimed at a teenage audience...

, Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken is an American stage and screen actor. He has appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows, including Joe Dirt, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, The Prophecy trilogy, The Dogs of War, Sleepy Hollow, Brainstorm, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New...

, Eric Stoltz
Eric Stoltz
Eric Hamilton Stoltz is an American actor, director and producer. He is widely known for playing the role of Rocky Dennis in the biographical drama film Mask, which earned him the nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture...

, and Viggo Mortensen
Viggo Mortensen
Viggo Peter Mortensen, Jr. is a Danish-American actor, poet, musician, photographer and painter. He made his film debut in Peter Weir's 1985 thriller Witness, and subsequently appeared in many notable films of the 1990s, including The Indian Runner , Carlito's Way , Crimson Tide , Daylight , The...

. It was written and directed by Gregory Widen
Gregory Widen
Gregory Widen is an American screenwriter and film director.A student in UCLA's screenwriting program, he sold his script for Highlander while still an undergraduate. Before entering the UCLA program, Widen attended Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, California.Widen worked as a firefighter for...

, and is the first motion picture of The Prophecy series
The Prophecy (franchise)
The Prophecy is a fantasy horror-thriller film franchise which focuses on angels fighting each other to protect the survival of the human soul. Produced by Dimension Film, the series was established in 1995 with eponymous first installment,The Prophecy, which has since been followed by four sequels...

 including four sequel
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...

s. 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
Prologue
A prologue is an opening to a story that establishes the setting and gives background details, often some earlier story that ties into the main one, and other miscellaneous information. The Greek prologos included the modern meaning of prologue, but was of wider significance...

, Thomas Dagget (Elias Koteas
Elias Koteas
Elias Koteas is a Canadian actor of film and television, best known for his roles in The Prophecy, Fallen and the live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films.-Early life:...

) is about to be ordained as a priest of the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

, but he is stricken by horrific visions of angel
Angel
Angels are mythical beings often depicted as messengers of God in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles along with the Quran. The English word angel is derived from the Greek ἄγγελος, a translation of in the Hebrew Bible ; a similar term, ملائكة , is used in the Qur'an...

s at war with each other. Several years later, Thomas, having lost his faith
Apostasy
Apostasy , 'a defection or revolt', from ἀπό, apo, 'away, apart', στάσις, stasis, 'stand, 'standing') is the formal disaffiliation from or abandonment or renunciation of a religion by a person. One who commits apostasy is known as an apostate. These terms have a pejorative implication in everyday...

 and abandoned the church, is a detective with the Los Angeles Police Department
Los Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department is the police department of the city of Los Angeles, California. With just under 10,000 officers and more than 3,000 civilian staff, covering an area of with a population of more than 4.1 million people, it is the third largest local law enforcement agency in...

. Two angels fall to Earth: one, Simon (Eric Stoltz
Eric Stoltz
Eric Hamilton Stoltz is an American actor, director and producer. He is widely known for playing the role of Rocky Dennis in the biographical drama film Mask, which earned him the nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture...

), 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
Obituary
An obituary is a news article that reports the recent death of a person, typically along with an account of the person's life and information about the upcoming funeral. In large cities and larger newspapers, obituaries are written only for people considered significant...

 for a recently deceased Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...

 veteran named Hawthorne clipped from a newspaper in Chimney Rock, Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...

. 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
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...

 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
Book of Revelation
The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...

 - a chapter that does not exist in any other version. Thomas translates the chapter and learns of a second war in Heaven
Heaven
Heaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...

, 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
Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken is an American stage and screen actor. He has appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows, including Joe Dirt, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, The Prophecy trilogy, The Dogs of War, Sleepy Hollow, Brainstorm, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New...

) has arrived on Earth. Needing a human helper, Gabriel recruits Jerry (Adam Goldberg
Adam Goldberg
Adam Charles Goldberg is an American actor, director, producer, and musician.-Early life:Goldberg was born in Santa Monica, California, the son of Donna and Earl Goldberg, a former lifeguard. His father is Jewish and his mother is a "lapsed" Roman Catholic of Irish, French, and German descent...

), who has been trapped in a state of limbo
Limbo
In the theology of the Catholic Church, Limbo is a speculative idea about the afterlife condition of those who die in original sin without being assigned to the Hell of the damned. Limbo is not an official doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church or any other...

 ever since Gabriel prevented him from dying when he committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

. 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
Virginia Madsen
Virginia Madsen is an American actress and documentary film producer. She came to fame during the 1980s, having appeared in several films aimed at a teenage audience...

).

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
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....

, and finally Gabriel kills Simon by setting him aflame and ripping the heart from his chest. Mary begins showing signs of being possessed
Demonic possession
Demonic possession is held by many belief systems to be the control of an individual by a malevolent supernatural being. Descriptions of demonic possessions often include erased memories or personalities, convulsions, “fits” and fainting as if one were dying...

 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 crime
War crime
War crimes are serious violations of the laws applicable in armed conflict giving rise to individual criminal responsibility...

s, including cannibalism
Cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...

. 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
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

 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
Terminal illness
Terminal illness is a medical term popularized in the 20th century to describe a disease that cannot be cured or adequately treated and that is reasonably expected to result in the death of the patient within a short period of time. This term is more commonly used for progressive diseases such as...

 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
Exorcism
Exorcism is the religious practice of evicting demons or other spiritual entities from a person or place which they are believed to have possessed...

, Katherine is confronted by Lucifer
Lucifer
Traditionally, Lucifer is a name that in English generally refers to the devil or Satan before being cast from Heaven, although this is not the original meaning of the term. In Latin, from which the English word is derived, Lucifer means "light-bearer"...

 (Viggo Mortensen
Viggo Mortensen
Viggo Peter Mortensen, Jr. is a Danish-American actor, poet, musician, photographer and painter. He made his film debut in Peter Weir's 1985 thriller Witness, and subsequently appeared in many notable films of the 1990s, including The Indian Runner , Carlito's Way , Crimson Tide , Daylight , The...

) 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
Hell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...

, 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 Thomas 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
    Elias Koteas
    Elias Koteas is a Canadian actor of film and television, best known for his roles in The Prophecy, Fallen and the live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films.-Early life:...

     as Thomas Dagget
  • Virginia Madsen
    Virginia Madsen
    Virginia Madsen is an American actress and documentary film producer. She came to fame during the 1980s, having appeared in several films aimed at a teenage audience...

     as Katherine
  • Christopher Walken
    Christopher Walken
    Christopher Walken is an American stage and screen actor. He has appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows, including Joe Dirt, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, The Prophecy trilogy, The Dogs of War, Sleepy Hollow, Brainstorm, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New...

     as Gabriel
  • Eric Stoltz
    Eric Stoltz
    Eric Hamilton Stoltz is an American actor, director and producer. He is widely known for playing the role of Rocky Dennis in the biographical drama film Mask, which earned him the nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture...

     as Simon
  • Viggo Mortensen
    Viggo Mortensen
    Viggo Peter Mortensen, Jr. is a Danish-American actor, poet, musician, photographer and painter. He made his film debut in Peter Weir's 1985 thriller Witness, and subsequently appeared in many notable films of the 1990s, including The Indian Runner , Carlito's Way , Crimson Tide , Daylight , The...

     as Lucifer
    Lucifer
    Traditionally, Lucifer is a name that in English generally refers to the devil or Satan before being cast from Heaven, although this is not the original meaning of the term. In Latin, from which the English word is derived, Lucifer means "light-bearer"...

  • Amanda Plummer as Rachael
  • Moriah Shining Dove Snyder as Mary
  • Adam Goldberg
    Adam Goldberg
    Adam Charles Goldberg is an American actor, director, producer, and musician.-Early life:Goldberg was born in Santa Monica, California, the son of Donna and Earl Goldberg, a former lifeguard. His father is Jewish and his mother is a "lapsed" Roman Catholic of Irish, French, and German descent...

     as Jerry
  • Steve Hytner
    Steve Hytner
    Stephen Arthur "Steve" Hytner is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his role as Kenny Bania in Seinfeld...

     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
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, also known simply as the "PG," is the largest daily newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.-Early history:...

claimed that the film was “Chilling!” New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...

glorifies the film for its “Top –Notch Cast!” Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...

professes the film as “Entertaining!”

Sequels

The film spawned four sequel
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...

s: The Prophecy II
The Prophecy II
The Prophecy II is a fantasy horror-thriller film and the second motion picture in The Prophecy series. Christopher Walken and Steve Hytner reprise their roles as the Archangel Gabriel and the coroner Joseph, respectively.-Plot:...

(1998), The Ascent
The Prophecy 3: The Ascent
The Prophecy 3: The Ascent is a fantasy horror-thriller film, and the third motion picture in The Prophecy series. Christopher Walken and Steve Hytner reprise their roles as the Archangel Gabriel and the coroner Joseph, respectively...

(2000), Uprising
The Prophecy: Uprising
The Prophecy: Uprising is a fantasy horror-thriller film and the fourth motion picture in The Prophecy series. Although this chapter does not feature series regular Christopher Walken, it does star talented British actor Sean Pertwee, Doug Bradley, and frequent horror-film star Kari Wührer in the...

(2005) and Forsaken
The Prophecy: Forsaken
The Prophecy: Forsaken is a fantasy horror-thriller film and the fifth motion picture in The Prophecy series. Following the events of the previous film, Allison is still protecting the Lexicon, an ancient book that will foretell the name of the coming Antichrist, from renegade angels called...

(2005).

Soundtrack

The film score
Film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...

 by David C. Williams was released on Perseverance Records
Perseverance Records
Perseverance Records is a record label which releases film scores on CD and online. Releases are usually accompanied by extensive, well-researched booklets...

August 7, 2006.
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