End of Days is a 1999 American action horror film directed by Peter Hyams and written by Andrew W. Marlowe. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, with Gabriel Byrne, Robin Tunney, Kevin Pollak, Rod Steiger, CCH Pounder, Derrick O'Connor, Miriam Margolyes, and Udo Kier in supporting roles. The film follows alcoholic former New York Police Department detective Jericho Cane (Schwarzenegger) who, after he saves a banker (Byrne) from an assassin, finds himself embroiled in a religious conflict and must protect an innocent young woman (Tunney) who is chosen by evil forces to conceive the Antichrist with Satan.
The film was released by Universal Pictures in North America on November 24, 1999, and received largely negative reviews, but was a box office success grossing $212 million worldwide.
Plot[]
In 1979, a Vatican City priest witnesses a comet arching over the full moon, prophesying the birth of the mother of Satan's child. A corrupt cardinal insists that the child must die to stop Satan having sex with her, but the Pope rejects that plan as contrary to God's will and instead sends a Vatican-trained priest called Thomas Aquinas on a mission to find and protect the newborn baby. Meanwhile satanists in New York City have identified that baby, Christine York.
Twenty years later, during late December 1999, Satan possesses an investment banker at a restaurant. He then passionately kisses a business associate's wife without her consent, leaves the restaurant and causes it to explode. The following day he is assigned ex-New York City Police Department (NYPD) detective Jericho Cane (alcoholic and depressed since his wife and daughter's contract killings, for which he blames God) and his friend Bobby Chicago as his private security. When Aquinas tries to kill the banker, the pair prevent him, listen to the priest's ramblings and then hand him over to the NYPD. Marge Francis, an NYPD detective, tells Jericho that Aquinas has no tongue.
Jericho and Bobby investigate Aquinas's apartment, finding his tongue in a jar and messages and symbols written in blood on the walls. Jericho questions Father Kovak, a priest who knew Aquinas, who had been sent to New York before disappearing. However, Kovak refuses to tell him much else about Aquinas. Later in the evening, Satan confronts his head priest, the doctor to whom Christine had been taken just after her birth. He reveals that Satan's followers are ready to enact his plans.
An orphan since an early age, Christine now lives in an apartment with her guardian Mabel, one of the nurses who delivered her and also (unbeknown to Christine) another Satanist. While Christine dreams of the doctor's wife and daughter having sex with Satan, the doctor's family merges and suddenly transforms into her. The day after his visit to the doctor, Satan enters Aquinas's hospital, and crucifies him on the ceiling. After he is presumed dead, a doctor reads read "Christ in New York" carved in Latin into Aquinas' skin and when he revives a police officer under Satan's influence shoots him dead.
Jericho instead understands the carving as meaning Chris or Christine York and as he and Chicago begin searching for someone of that name they happen across the cardinal's Masonic Vatican Knights attempting to kill Christine. However, Satan then appears, immolates Chicago and a police car, and sets the apartment on fire.
Jericho fights off the Knights then Mabel and he and Christine flee. Marge and another officer, both revealed to be Satanists, demand that Jericho surrenders Christine. Jericho instead kills them both. Satan resurrects Marge to rally the other Satanists to do his bidding. Jericho and Christine take refuge in the church's crypt, the base for Kovak and his Vatican research team. He tells Jericho and Christine that Satan must impregnate her between 11pm and midnight on New Year's Eve to usher in the Apocalypse.
Christine stays in the crypt under Kovak's protection, and back at Jericho's apartment Satan confronts him and tempts him into giving up Christine in exchange for resurrecting his dead family. After Jericho resists his temptations, Chicago appears, and the two agree to retrieve Christine. At the church, Jericho again stops the cardinal and his Knights from killing Christine.
Satan reappears and kills the Vatican clergy. Chicago betrays Jericho, leaving him to be beaten and crucified by Satanists, revealing that he made a pact with Satan in exchange for his resurrection. After Chicago leaves with Christine, Kovak finds and rescues Jericho. After his recovery, Jericho tracks down Satan to his lair, kills Marge again and rescues Christine.
In the ensuing fight, Jericho convinces Chicago to resist Satan's influence. Satan later kills Chicago for breaking their pact. Jericho destroys the lair, escapes with Christine into a subway tunnel and boards a train. Satan follows them, killing the train's driver. Jericho fires a grenade, destroying the train car Satan was in. Satan leaves the banker's irreparably damaged body to die and instead pursues Jericho and Christine non-corporeally.
Jericho and Christine arrive at another church, where he renews his faith in God and prays for strength. Satan appears as a winged creature, possesses Jericho and attempts to rape Christine. Responding to her pleas, Jericho resists long enough to deliberately impale himself on a nearby sword, sacrificing himself to prevent Satan's endgame. At the stroke of midnight, Satan is sent back to hell. Jericho sees his wife and daughter waiting for him in the afterlife and dies peacefully. Christine embraces him as the world celebrates a new millennium. The ambulance then arrives and takes his dead body away.
Alternate ending[]
After Satan gets sent back to Hell, Jericho dies from his wounds, and Christine tearfully embraces his body and thanks him for saving her life. Suddenly, God removes the sword from Jericho's body and heals his wounds, bringing him back to life. Christine is surprised and glad Jericho is back, and they embrace before leaving the church together.
Cast[]
- Arnold Schwarzenegger as Detective Jericho Cane
- Gabriel Byrne as The Man
- Robin Tunney as Christine York
- Kevin Pollak as Bobby Chicago
- CCH Pounder as Detective Marge Francis
- Derrick O'Connor as Thomas Aquinas
- Miriam Margolyes as Mabel
- Udo Kier as Doctor Abel
- Mark Margolis as Pope
- Rod Steiger as Father Kovak
- Victor Varnado as Albino
- Marc Lawrence as Old Man
- Denice D. Lewis as Emily Cane
- Renee Olstead as Amy Cane
- Mo Gallini as Monk (as Matt Gallini)