"The Prophecy" is a film from 1995 with arguable "cult" status that launched a franchise that is currently at 5 films so far, with all of them but this first one being direct-to-video. I'm not sure as to the reason behind that, as it seems to me that there are far worse franchises that are still getting theatrical releases. I'm not saying this is a fantastic bunch of movies, but for the most part they are a cut above your average straight-to-DVD affair. And hey, the first 3 have Christopher Walken! What's not to like?
The plot concerns a second war in heaven between angels. Half of the angels stay loyal to God while the other half, led by the Angel of Death, Gabriel (Christopher Walken) rebel against their creator, and want to eradicate mankind. The reason for that is because they are envious of humans, who are seen as elevated over all other creatures, including angels, in God's eyes. This war has been raging for thousands of years, and because of it no mortal soul has ever yet reached Heaven.
In a bid to turn the tide of the conflict, Gabriel comes down to earth to find the darkest human soul on the planet, in the form of a recently deceased Army officer who did very, very bad things in what I'm guessing was Vietnam. The reasoning is that angels, being pure creatures, don't have it in them to be as brutal and knowledgeable in warfare as humans do, so to win the war they need a human to lead them. Of course the scenes of angels beating the feathers off each other in hand to hand combat and ripping out and then eating their enemy's heart suggests otherwise, but in context of the film it kind of works. I don't think you're supposed to think too much about it.
Before they can come to fruition, Gabriel's plans are ruined by an angel on the "good side," Simon (Eric Stoltz), who finds the soul first. Gabriel spends the rest of the movie chasing after Simon and the soul, which becomes doubly hard to find after Simon takes it and hides it in the body of a young girl in a scene that's totally not creepy at all and in no way makes me need an adult.
No, seriously dude. There has to be other ways of transferring a soul. I'm calling "bad touch."
That's all happening in the background as we are following our main character, Thomas Dagget (Elias Koteas), a cop and expert on angels who was going to be a priest before a horrific vision of the war in Heaven made him quit. Incidentally that's one of my favorite things about "The Prophecy" - the fact that Dagget's character lost his faith not because he doesn't believe, but because he knows for a fact that it's true, and he's horrified by what he has seen.
Dagget becomes involved with the whole debacle while investigating a crime scene where Simon had killed another angel. Upon seeing the very strange and medically impossible body of the dead angel and translating the angel's bible, which is the oldest in existence and contains an additional chapter in Revelations which tells of the second war in Heaven and prophesies future events, Dagget realizes what is going on and heads out to find the soul.
Elias Koteas is unsurprisingly great in the role, since he's awesome in pretty much everything he does, although it's a trip seeing him with hair, I'm not going to lie. He and Eric Stoltz add some great acting chutzpah to the movie, but the guy who pops up at the end to steal the show in whatever scene he's in is an actor who at that time was still relatively obscure - Viggo Mortensen. This was some 6 years before "Lord of The Rings," and get this - here he plays Lucifer. And it's a really good portrayal as well. He's got this cutting quietness to his delivery, as is Viggo's style, but he injects it with this fantastic, slimy evil which really pops when he sneers great lines like "God? God is love. I don't love you."
Also, he eats someone's heart. There's that, too.
But when it all comes down to it, there's only one real reason to watch "The Prophecy": Christopher Walken. Few things in life are as fun as watching an actor like Walken having an absolute blast doing his job. He's hamming it up magnificently here, but the great thing about Walken is that even when he's being an absolute nutjob and seeming like he's on another plane of consciousness with the wackiness he's emanating, he's still capable of being really creepy and surprisingly badass.
His trademark brand of manic, wide-eyed, oddly inflectioned performance full of grand gestures and alternating higher-pitched vocal burnouts and subterranean growls is capable of inciting a lot of laughter, especially when he's given lines like "Study your math, kids. Key to the Universe." But just as often as he makes us laugh, the admittedly top-notch dialog in "The Prophecy" hits us with Walken sneering lines like "I'm an angel. I kill firstborns while their mamas watch. I turn cities into salt. I even, when I feel like it, rip the souls from little girls, and from now till kingdom come, the only thing you can count on in your existence is never understanding why."
Damn, son.
Following him around are the other two people who make "The Prophecy" come off as something of a dark comedy at times: Jerry (Adam Goldberg) and then later in the film Rachael (Amanda Plummer). They're both people who have recently died whom Gabriel brings back from the dead to drive him around and use any kind of technology, since Gabriel being an angel has no concept of how to use a car or computer or radio or anything like that. And they are not big fans of Gabriel. Both of them, but particularly Jerry snarks back to Gabriel all the time, wearily asking if he can just die and be done with it, and taking pleasure in whatever is currently causing Gabriel grief. This makes up most of the funnier parts of the film, which are honestly pretty funny. Rachael mostly just cries. She's not exactly hardcore like Honey Bunny, unfortunately.
If the characters walk into a diner in this series, it's going to be a great scene. Dead serious.
The acting isn't all great though. Moriah Shining Dove Snyder playing Mary, the little girl who is carrying the soul around inside her, isn't the worst child actor I've seen, but she's not very good. She does have her moments, particularly a scene when the soul's words are coming out of her mouth and giving a creepy monologue about cutting off heads, but for every one of those scenes we have to watch 10 minutes of her just standing there with this weird, buck-toothed, open-mouthed expression which is just annoying to look at. She reminds me of that terrible kid actor who played Danny in that horrific TV version of "The Shining," if anyone was unlucky enough to see that travesty. But she's not nearly that bad, and I guess she was better than Virgina Madsen. At least I'm remembering Moriah's performance, which is more than I can say for Virgina.
There's only a couple real issues I have with "The Prophecy." The first is that the story gets a little confusing as it winds down, and I never quite understood why it was that Lucifer ends up helping Dagget. It had something to do with Heaven becoming another Hell (which obviously is something Lucifer won't tolerate), but that aspect of the plot never really solidified for me. The other thing is that there were a couple scenes that seemed a little out of place and never followed up on again, almost like there's missing bits. The most notable one that comes to mind is a scene where Simon and Dagget meet and start talking, only to have the scene suddenly end, with Dagget never mentioning that he talked to an angel afterwards.
And what exactly happens when you kill an angel? Do they just go back home?
Does all that ruin "The Prophecy?" Naw. It just makes it a movie you're not supposed to think about all that much. But then again, that can be said for nearly any film involving angels and devils and whatnot. None of that stuff makes any sense to begin with, so why should the movies? What's important here is that "The Prophecy" is a good time - which it is.
And hey, it's a healthy dose of Walken. That's delicious and nutritious!
By seeing this image, your soul is now the property of Christopher Walken.
Man, check out that 90's cheesiness. They don't make trailers like that anymore.
THE BOTTOM LINE - "The Prophecy" is a fun time which makes for an awesome late night quasi-horror flick. The cast is top-notch and the quality of the film-making and special effects are above what one might expect from a movie of this genre. Required viewing for Christopher Walken fans, as I consider it to be one of his most memorable performances.
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