End of Days

Plot synopsis:
Jericho Cane (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a mercenary who is in the throes of deep depression. He gets an assignment to protect an investment banker, and is shot by a crazed priest (Derrick O'Connor) in the process. From this priest Jericho gets the name Christine York (Robin Tunney), a young woman living in New York.Jericho finds Christine and rescues her from a group of Catholic assassins. It turns out that Christine has been chosen to bear Satan's child on New Year's Eve, 1999, a date that is rapidly approaching. Jericho and Christine escape to a church where Father Kovak (Rod Steiger) knows what is going on. Christine stays with the faith-filled Christians while Jericho scoffs at their faith and leaves.Jericho is visited by Satan (Gabriel Byrne), who wants the location of the girl. It turns out that Jericho had a wife and daughter, but they were murdered by gangsters to get revenge on Jericho, who was a cop. Satan mocks God and promises to bring Jericho's family back to life if Jericho helps. Jericho tells Satan to "Go to hell," and throws him out of a window.Later, Satan tricks Jericho into leading him to Christine. Christine is taken by Satan and his followers, with Jericho beaten and left for dead. After waking, Jericho loads up on guns and ammo and interrupts Satan's impregnation ceremony. Jericho and Christine flee as Jericho pumps hundreds of rounds and grenades into Satan.The battle takes them to a church. Satan's assumed body has been destroyed, so he possesses Jericho. Satan (in Jericho's body) is about to rape Christine, but Jericho resists and kills himself. New Year's Eve passes, and Satan is defeated. Before dying, Jericho sees the ghost of his wife and daughter, thanking him for doing the right thing.********************************************************************************************************************In 1979, a newborn girl named Christine York is identified by Satanists including her physician, Dr. Abel, and her guardian, Mabel as the one chosen to bear Satan's son during the last hour on New Year's Eve, 1999, due to a symbol on her arm. As she is being born, a priest in the Vatican witnesses a comet arching over the moon, described as the "Eye of God", heralding the birth of the one chosen to be the mother of Satan's child. The priest is then sent on a mission by the Pope to find and protect the girl from Satan's presence at all costs. However, a few Vatican Knights (led by a corrupted cardinal) insist that she must be killed to prevent Satan's plans, which most of the clergy (including the Pope) opposes, as they view that taking a life in an attempt to stop evil is sinful.Twenty years later, near the end of 1999, retired cop Jericho Cane, in a constant state of depression since his wife and daughter were murdered by hit-men, works for an elite security and protection company. He and his co-worker/friend Bobby Chicago are assigned to protect a Wall Street banker. They are attacked by a priest named Thomas Aquinas, who is eventually captured and taken to a hospital. Unknown to Jericho, Aquinas somehow knew the real identity of the banker - he has been possessed by Satan and now wields great powers. Satan locates Aquinas and brutally murders him, crucifying him onto a ceiling. Jericho and Chicago see a name amongst many other things scratched into Aquinas's skin, and after some guesswork, begin searching for Christine York.Jericho and Chicago find the now-adult York in her apartment and save her from the Vatican Knights who attempt to assassinate her. That evening, Chicago waits in a van while Jericho discusses the recent happenings with Christine. Satan arrives and blows up the van, killing Chicago. As Jericho and Christine try to flee, they are apprehended by Mabel who is possessed with preternatural strength despite her late middle age and lesser size. Jericho barely manages to subdue her. Outside, Marge, Jericho's superior from his days in the police force, and another police officer, both Satanists, confront him, demanding Christine. Jericho kills them both. A few moments later Satan resurrects Marge for her usefulness as a NYPD detective to have the police search for Jericho and Christine, who have escaped to a nearby church, seeking answers from a priest, Father Kovak.Kovak soon realizes Christine and the banker's roles, and describes how at the end of every millennium, Satan will possess a man's body to consummate with the flesh of a preordained woman. If he succeeds in taking York, he will have free rein over the world. After hearing that the only way to defeat Satan is to "have faith", Jericho tries to persuade Christine to go into hiding with him, but she prefers to stay with Kovak after he says that Satan's greatest trick was to fool Mankind that he did not exist and she felt Kovak's explanation was true. Frustrated, Jericho returns to his apartment, and it is there that Satan meets with him and tries to tempt him with his lost family and his anger at God in order to make him reveal Christine's location. Jericho resists and manages to throw Satan out of his apartment window. Chicago soon shows up, alive and well. Despite Jericho's initial suspicion, they make a plan to retrieve Christine.At the church, where Kovak and his clergy inform the Pope of York's location, he orders them to hide and protect her at all costs. Unfortunately, the Vatican Knights arrive again, taking Kovak and his clergy into custody while they try to kill Christine again. Before they manage to do so, however, Jericho comes by and stops them, saving Christine and the clergy. Satan then appears, and Jericho runs away safely with Christine. The clergymen, in an act of bravery, confront Satan and try to send him back to Hell by using exorcism, but he resists them with impunity, killing the Vatican Knights, including the misguided cardinal. As Jericho and Christine arrive outside, Chicago then betrays the two; he leaves with Christine while Jericho is beaten by a mob of Satanists and left for dead. The next morning, Jericho is found and rescued by Kovak. Jericho immediately arms himself heavily to resume his search for Christine. He notices the resurrected Marge and follows her to Satan's hidden temple. There, he manages to rescue Christine and kill Marge for the second time. Chicago steps in to stop Jericho, revealing that Satan resurrected him in exchange for his help in capturing Christine. He manages to fight off Satan's influence after some persuasion by his friend; in retaliation, Satan burns him alive. Enraged, Jericho opens fire on Satan and escapes with Christine in the ensuing chaos.The two make their way through Satan's hideout and into a subway tunnel. They board a train and attempt to escape. Satan catches up with them and kills the motorman. In the ensuing fight, Jericho fires an M203 grenade launcher at Satan, wrecking the train and buying them enough time to escape. The banker's body is now irreparably damaged and so Satan leaves it to find a new host.Jericho and Christine escape to the streets and into another church where he prays to God. Satan smashes through the floor and confronts Jericho in his true form: a massive, demonic creature. He enters Jericho's body and possesses him. Now controlled by Satan, Jericho attempts to rape Christine, but with the help of her begging words, he is able to fight Satan's control for a few seconds. Using what may be his only opportunity to redeem himself, Jericho impales himself on the sword protruding from a fallen statue of Saint Michael The Archangel, thus disabling his body for the few remaining seconds before midnight. At the stroke of midnight beginning the year 2000, the will of God frees Jericho's body from Satan's control and sends Satan back to the depths of Hell forever. After being granted a vision of his wife and daughter smiling and waiting for him on the "other side" (Christine also sees them), Jericho dies contented. Christine thanks the deceased man for saving her life as New York celebrates the start of the new millennium.

Tags: mystery, neo noir, murder, stupid, violence, flashback, good versus evil, suspenseful

Review:
However, where the likes of Commando had him portraying invincible supermen with a neat array of guns and one liners to hand, End of Days is considerably darker.Set in New York on the eve of Millennium, the film shows a version of the Austrian Oak previously never witnessed.
He plays Jericho Cane, an alcoholic ex-Cop in charge of a security squad who finds himself embroiled in a battle to save a young girl (Robin Tunney) from being raped by the devil (a sadly, rather ineffective Gabriel Byrne) and bringing about Armageddon.
It is a fitting location for the end of all creation to begin and cast a dark veil over the flick.Of course, that isn't to say the film is all doom and gloom as there are a few glimpses of just how seriously the makers weren't taking their project (the argument between Arnold and Kevin Pollack in the former's apartment is hilarious).
Plus, while the story and characters are all developed to match the atmosphere of impending dread during the first hour and a half, the last twenty minutes are made up of the kind of explosive action that strangely doesn't jar against the grimmer nature of the rest of the film, though the CGI devil at the climax is pushing it a little.All in all, an enjoyable romp for fans of the Governator before his attention was diverted by a political career.
Soon he learns that there are some very bad things going on in the city, and the new millennium is very close..It is the last days of December, 1999.I really liked the scare department in this demonic little horror thriller from this talented director and director of photography, Peter Hyams.
Peter Hyams is a terrible director and has ruined some very unique films in the past (his most notorious butchering in my opinion was of a 1983 Michael Douglas film called "The Star Chamber" - great premise, awful directing)."End of Days" is like "Exorcist" meets every supernatural thriller ever made.
It pretty much feels like any average made-for-TV scary-flick - with even worse direction.The only other good aspect of this film was that it brought Axl Rose out of seclusion to record his first original song in seven years with a new incarnation of Guns N' Roses.
Finally "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" was a pretty big letdown with way too much humor that just felt so forced."End of Days" is for sure his last great movie.
So, it's up to burned out cop Arnold to stop this plot from happening.The movie has a very goofy story only teenagers would find brilliant, but the movie does have lots of big loud action,great performances,and is well directed by Peter Hyams(Sudden Death,A Sound Of Thunder)..
I also enjoyed the nice visuals and excellent sound.You just can't take the story seriously, but how many films can you, especially Arnold's wild movies?
What can you expect from a movie when its premise is based on the concept that once every thousand years if Satan impregnates a woman during the hour from 11 p.m. to 12 a.m. on the last day of the millennium, she will give birth to the anti-Christ who will bring the world to an end?
Along the way he uses big guns, many stunts, lots of grunting and more explosions than Wile E Coyote has seen in his life.If you like the sound of that, you'll probably enjoy End of Days.
I liked this film.it's sort of in a similar vein as the original The Omen(1976)and it has a fair amount of thrilling scenes.there's lots of action.the acting is good all around.
Arnold Schwarzenegger stars ,with Robin Tunney and Kevin Pollock.Gabriel Byrne who also starred in Stigmata the same year,is in this film as well.the rest of the supporting cast is also very good.for me,this supernatural thriller is exactly that.it's very thrilling and dark,although there are some amusing bits to to release the tension.if you like this movie,i would recommend the original Omen(1976)and the remake (2006 for me,End of Days is a 7/10.
Released at the end of November, 1999, "End of Days" is about the devil (Gabriel Byrne) coming to earth to impregnate a chosen female (Robin Tunney) during the last hour of the second millennium to bring about the end of the world.
For instance, disillusionment due to the unjust death of a loved one (or any number of other tragedies) happens all the time.The movie is R-rated not just for the violence and cussing, but because the filmmakers try to convey the devil's filthy lawlessness, like a threesome with a mother & daughter in a brief dream sequence (which may be "reality," but it's hard to tell).
Byrne has fun with the role of Satan.As a holiday action blockbuster with Schwarzenegger "End of Days" delivers the requisite thrills where there's a massive explosion about every 12 minutes.
This, by itself, endears me.All movies require some degree of Suspension of Disbelief and The End of Days is no exception but, given the usual Suspension given to action movies, it becomes a virtually flawless example of its kind and a hell of a good roller coaster ride.Likes and dislikes being what they are and being tied exclusively to the individual doing the liking or disliking, I'd simply recommend 'give it a try' within the parameters demanded by its genre.
End of Days is a good movie with a very different storyline and a good cast,with a very strong performance from the always brilliant Arnold Schwarzenegger.I expected this movie to be an action packed movie with an Armageddon type of theme to it,and I wasn't disappointed,but I really didn't expect it to be scary,there are actually some very frightening scenes in this movie,mainly any of Gabriel Byrne's scenes,and its a lot scarier than some of the ridiculous horror movie you would see today that aren't at all frightening.The movie is very unpredictable,and I was surprised it got such bad reviews,I really enjoyed it,it certainly wasn't perfect,but it didn't deserve any Razzie nominations.Arnold Schwarzenegger did a fantastic performance,Gabriel Byrne was very creepy and believable,and Peter Hyams did a great job directing this movie,it looked beautiful,none of them deserved Razzie nominations.Its certainly not Arnold Schwarzenegger's finest film,but fans of the actor will get a great kick out of this movie.As the world reaches the year 2000,the Devil (Gabriel Byrne) is in search of Christine York (Robin Tunney) to make her his bride,its not up to police officer Jericho Cane (Arnold Schwarzengger) to keep her safe..
Worse still Jerico Cane is played by big Arnie which means through box office necessity ( ie box office bucks ) instead of END OF DAYS being a haunting supernatural drama it ends up being a supernatural action/adventure movie that doesn`t work .
But at the end of the day ( Pun intended ) this movie would have worked a lot better if we had an acting star instead of an action star as the hero.
Marlowe, this film has Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gabriel Byrne and Robin Tunney in the main roles.One of the last films of the past millennium, it precisely addresses the end of it and the apocalyptic prophecies about that.
The darkest character is undoubtedly the Devil, but the police fighting against him (played by Schwarzenegger) also has to face his own demons: alcohol, deep depression, lack of faith and lack of self-confidence, in a double combat, physical and psychological.The film has great action scenes which strangely cohabit with several heavier scenes, almost terror.
So, when you think about this, you can say that he must have lost his gift with the passing years."End of days" isn't really a suspense film because we guess the devil's grim intentions from the start of the movie.
At least, it's better to see "Schwarzy" in an action movie rather than in a comedy where he's nearly always pitiful.A remark: "end of days" is the second movie featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger in the main role to include a Guns N'Roses song in the original soundtrack.
Below Par. End of Days, starts off pretty well, Arnie plays a down and out cop (a very similar character to Riggs in Lethal weapon) and the story looks like a kind of serial killer action thriller that will be good entertainment.Sadly it fails to deliver, Arnie is as good as we we have come to expect, but as for Gabriel Byrne i expect him to chose his roles more carefully than this.
cast as the devil; this is probably the weakest portrayal of the lord of darkness ever.This movie gets a little too daft for me, and the end sequence, aside from being very weak, is visually one of the worst i've seen in recent years, CGI is have been better than this since the early nineties.Quite simply not good enough.
End of Days (1999) is the most very underrated and hated American action supernatural horror flick.Directed by Peter Hyams starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gabriel Byrne, Robin Tunney, Kevin Pollak, Rod Steiger, CCH Pounder, and Udo Kier.I think End of Days (1999) is the most underrated Arnold Schwarzenegger film that is supernatural action horror flick.
I think it is Schwarzenegger different action film than his classic action films were.The film's plot follows former New York Police Department detective Jericho Cane (Schwarzenegger), after saving a banker (Byrne) from an assassin, finds himself embroiled into a religious conflict, and must protect an innocent young woman (Tunney), who is unwittingly chosen by evil forces to conceive the Antichrist with Satan.This film isn't classic action movie like are Terminator 1 and 2, Predator, The Running Man, Total Recall and Commando.
The movie pits Arnold Schwarzenegger against the devil (Gabriel Byrne), with director Peter Hyams delivering tense moments of action amid not-so-subtle choices for character development.There are forces here you couldn't possibly comprehend.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."Without even realizing it, suicidal skeptic Arnold Schwarzenegger sets out to fight the evil one head-on in "End of Days." Throughout the story, he resorts to a plethora of guns and firepower.
Set at the end of the twentieth century, the film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as Jericho Cane, a burnt-out private security specialist who finds himself protecting a young woman from a man who may embody the ultimate evil and then bring about the end of the world.
It's up to an ex-cop who now runs an elite security outfit to stop him.10/10 Grade: A- Studio: Beacon Communications,Universal Pictures Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gabriel Byrne, Robin Tunney, Kevin Pollak, Rod Steiger, CCH Pounder, and Udo Kier.
The man they are protecting (Gabriel Byrne) happens to be none other than Satan himself, hiding in human form, and trying to track down the one girl (Robin Tunny) that he must copulate with before midnight in order to bring about the end of days upon our world.
I expected a more serious handling of the fight between good and evil; something like "the exorcist" or "the omen" and not a comic book starring satan.furthermore, the acting is terrible especially byren's which proves that the term "overqualified" is true: byren is an excellent actor but , I assume, after seeing what an illogical and horrible film it was, just said the lines and took the money.Also there are so many plot holes that it's impossible to name them all but i'll name 2: 1.pretty amazing recovery after a crucifixion (even Conan took much more time than he to recover) 2.
Throw money at a ham-handed director, add a lousy script, mix in ludicrous acting and ho-hum special effects and you get "End of Days."  I never thought I'd leave a film missing Tom Arnold, but after enduring a lifeless Kevin Pollak as Arnold's sidekick, I sure did.
You get what you pay for with Arnold, but you'd better make sure the vehicle can carry his weight, or he'll collapse with everything around him as he did here.I don't usually draw far-reaching conclusions from films, either good ones or lousy ones, but "End of Days" is clear evidence that something's rotten in Hollywood.
Arnie is no great actor, but I love a lot of his stuff because he is fun to watch.End of Days has an interesting story but the script is very average at times, very contrived.The direction is nice, but the film takes too long to climax, and when it does end, the film leaves you unsatisfied.The acting by Bryne is disappointing, he didn't have anything special to show.
As for Gabrielle Burne (who you kinda expect more from) he coasted along on auto-pilot (You're playing the Devil for God sake liven up!!) The script was banal even by 'action' film standards, for example - some bloke: "You look like you've been hit by a truck"  Arnie: "The truck missed"  WHAT??
Jericho investigates the connection of the priest to a young woman, Christine York, and uncovers some sort of conspiracy involving the church, a satanic cult and the Devil himself which will bring the world to the end on the eve of the new millennium.Although I wasn't overly bothered about seeing this film it had enough of a draw for me that I gave it a go on low price dvd.
This is first and foremost an action movie, much like most of Arnold Schwarzenegger's movies, with the story taking a backseat to the action, but in a movie that has its hands in christianity, satanism, the end of the world, and where the devil himself is one of the key characters, that probably shouldn't be the case.
STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All CostsI really hate it when movies like 'End Of Days'keep you waiting in eager anticipation for ages for their release so you can see them,only for them to 'end' up letting you down as badly as they do.One of the inspirations for Mr.Schwarzenegger's choice of the role obviously being his new found 'faith in God'following his life threatening surgery,which was likely to have been the set in stone for a new path of more intellectual movie-making as he slumbers into his mid-50's,in retrospect,it should have been relatively obvious to me that this was the sort of pretentious,heavily incoherent twoddle he would end up showing us.The intelligent premise of the storyline has him having just under 48 hours to stop Satan (a laughably phony Gabriel Byrne)impregnating the 20 year old chosen one,a girl suffering from recurring nightmares in which she remembers her dead parents.But it's carelessly and aimlessly unvieled to the eye of the viewer.Arnie's name throughout is Jericho Cane,yet we never hear any of his security buddies,or his female sidekick, call him this until about the last half hour.As they come on the scene at the beginning,he is only ever referred to as'buddy','pal',or some other form of American chow word.The scene in which he shows real emotion by crying over a tiny ornament posession of his dead child barely lasts ten seconds,and throughout all his slumberous depression,he simply looks like a man suffering from the onset of a winter cold.On the effects front,the end monster Byrne's satan transforms into looks like a huge pile of athlete's foot fungus,which Arnie's winter blues throws him away from.The onset of the haunting choir music is pacelessly orchestrated to all the gratuotous violence on display,involving huge puddles of blood being left on hospital beds,icky manifestation on dead matter,and pike's being slammed through various body part's.I forgot all through that it was directed by Peter Hyam's,who gave us the Jean Claude Van Damme timepassers Timecop and Sudden Death.Though the style and pace of these films is credibly not apparent throughout,at the end of the movie,the core at the heart of them slids disappointingly through.**.
But Arnold 's acting in this film impressed me a lot and kept me captivated throughout the viewing, It's probably that I like to watch a more realistic character than superhuman ones although the latter are cooler.End of Days is my second favorite Schwarzenegger movie, btw he looked very good in this film, not changed a bit since I last saw him in Eraser except that his performance in End of Days is better than Eraser.
The Devil is loose and only Arnie, as Jericho Cane, can stop the devil (in the form of Gabriel Byrne) from consummating with Christine York (Robin Tunney) and bringing about `the end of days'.
(Then again, this could just as well be Predator III--in fact, there is a small touch that will indeed remind the perceptive viewer of the first one, IMHO still Arnold's best movie.)Pros: very good visual and great sound effects; very good acting by Gabriel Byrne; some genuinely suspenseful moments; adequate action (but not as much or as intense as in the aforementioned films)Cons: faulty internal logic; characters that are too unusual/artificial/undeveloped to believe; Arnie's acting.
it's a pretty good movie for Arnold.I'm guessing this is first movie since Batman And Robin but.I liked Gabriel Byrne as the bad guy the only thing that bothered me is that they could have written it alittle better then it would be a masterpiece.End Of Days gets a B..
I was a little disappointed with End of Days as I was expecting an all out actioner (like Predator for example) but Peter Hyams seemed to be more interested in the atmosphere of the movie than the action.
I cant help thinking that had Arnie's I Am Legend movie not fallen through we would have had both great cinematography and an interesting role for Arnold, plus a terrific story.So in summation I would recommend End of Days to all Schwarzenegger fans, you will find much to enjoy but everyone else might be disappointed in the weak script..
End of Days is one Arnold's best films.