End of Days (1999)

At the end of the century, Satan visits New York in search of a bride. It's up to an ex-cop who now runs an elite security outfit to stop him.

Director:

Peter Hyams

Writer:

Andrew W. Marlowe

Stars:

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gabriel Byrne, Robin Tunney

1 win & 6 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Arnold Schwarzenegger	...	Jericho Cane
Gabriel Byrne	...	The Man / Satan
Robin Tunney	...	Christine York
Kevin Pollak	...	Bobby Chicago
CCH Pounder	...	Detective Margie Francis
Derrick O'Connor	...	Thomas Aquinas
David Weisenberg	...	OB-GYN
Rainer Judd	...	Christine's Mother
Miriam Margolyes	...	Mabel
Udo Kier	...	Head Priest
Victor Varnado	...	Albino
Michael O'Hagan	...	Cardinal
Mark Margolis	...	Pope
Jack Shearer	...	Kellogg
Rod Steiger	...	Father Kovak

Storyline

On December 28th, 1999, the citizens of New York City are getting ready for the turn of the millennium. However, the Devil decides to crash the party by coming to the city, inhabiting a man's body, and searching for his chosen bride, a 20-year-old woman named Christine York. [If he bears her child between 11:00 PM and midnight on New Year's Eve], the world will end, and the only hope lies within an atheist ex-cop named Jericho Cane, who no longer believes in God because of the murder of his wife and daughter.

---

Plot Keywords:

millennium | atheist | ex cop | priest | new year's eve | 

---

Taglines:

The end is near

---

Genres:

Action | Horror | Thriller

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for intense violence and gore, a strong sex scene and language

Details

Official Sites:

Universal [us]

Country:

USA

Language:

English Latin

Release Date:

24 November 1999 (USA)

Also Known As:

El día final

Filming Locations:

Altadena, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$83,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£1,370,017 (UK) (10 December 1999)

Gross:

$66,862,068 (USA) (3 March 2000)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Beacon Communications

Technical Specs

Runtime:

121 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

One of the priests is named Thomas Aquinas. Thomas Aquinas was one of the greatest philosophers, a classical proponent of natural theology, and the father of the Thomistic school of philosophy and theology.

---

Goofs

Jericho raves at Satan that he is not as evil as Jericho is. Jericho says "You think you 'know bad', eh? Well, you're a fucking choir boy compared to me! I'm Choir Boy!" The line should have been "You're Choir Boy!"

---

Quotes

Jericho Cane: Easy on the hardware.

---

Connections

Referenced in Enter the Clowns (2002)

---

Soundtracks

"The Christmas Song"
Written by Mel Tormé, Robert Wells
Performed by Nat 'King' Cole

User Reviews

Surprisingly effective horror action

Peter Hyams' End of Days stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as a fired and alcoholic police officer, who is on the edge of sanity and tries to commit suicide very often. He is now private security guard and traps a mysterious sniper who tried to kill one of his clients. 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. This film is full of effective and very ominous images and scenery and the film is very dark. I appreciate perhaps most the shots above the city and the twisted use of camera up there. That really creates a feeling of evil and that something very powerful and wicked is "above the city" and is about to get power. Hyams once again shows his talent as he has been the director of photography many times earlier in his own films. End of Days reminded me occasionally of Alex de la Iglesia's great horror film El Dia de la Bestia (Day of the Beast), a brilliant mix of black comedy and VERY dark imagery and atmosphere. As incredible as it sounds, this mainstream produced film is that effective, thanks to the talented men behind the camera.

There are some flaws, too, and the most irritating things is perhaps the cliche ending, which I definitely won't spoil here, but is without a doubt there only to satisfy the audience and create the safe and familiar Happy Ending. If this was made 20 years ago, the ending would definitely have been different; it would've been how the director wanted to, not hot the audience wanted to. That tones the otherwise great and exciting finale a little bit down, but fortunately it is not as syrupy as possible. Another negative thing that I can tell is the editing which is very fast, unstylishly and ineffectively fast and restless. Fast edits can be great elements if used right and with skill, but in this film, they are in my opinion gratuitously fast and too plenty. Just watch the action scenes and count how many edits there are in one minute. The editors should have realized that sometimes - and in this case - less is more. These "flaws" are still tolerable especially when I keep in mind how many positive points there are in this film.

End of Days is also very exciting and fast paced. The train segment is great and especially the clock ticking finale when the millennium is about to change, is very skillfully created and hold my full attention. The finale is pretty similar to the finale in Kathryn Bigelow's own millennium related film, a paranoid and effective thriller Strange Days (1995). In End of Days, there are also couple of genuinely frightening, scary, sudden and loud "shocks" that require a movie theatre to fully work. The nightmare sequences are also chillingly original and brought to my mind the great horror classics that even Hollywood sometimes produced. The demon which Christine sees in her dreams is very scary and almost as frightening as the similar character in David Lynch's masterwork Lost Highway.

As a horror film, End of Days works fine and creates an atmosphere that is so rare in mainstream films nowadays. I didn't have any expectations when I placed the VHS in my VCR, and so I was pleasantly surprised of what I saw and experienced. If we stay in the 90's, I could say that End of Days is kind of tamer version of Day of the Beast and without its comic elements. There are comic elements in End of Days, too, but those are not, fortunately, the usual Hollywood one-liners and stupid bits of dialogue. Gabriel Byrne over-acts occasionally little, but many guys who play devils seem to have this problem! He is almost as "cool and modern" devil as Al Pacino in Taylor Hackford's Devil's Advocate, a film which also has great atmosphere but is more restrained and drama oriented.

End of Days gets 7/10 from me. Great work again Peter!