The Final Conflict (1981)

The now adult Antichrist plots to eliminate his future divine opponent while a cabal of monks plot to stop him.

Director:

Graham Baker

Writers:

David Seltzer (characters), Andrew Birkin

Stars:

Sam Neill, Rossano Brazzi, Don Gordon

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Sam Neill	...	Damien Thorn
Rossano Brazzi	...	DeCarlo
Don Gordon	...	Harvey Dean
Lisa Harrow	...	Kate Reynolds
Barnaby Holm	...	Peter Reynolds
Mason Adams	...	President
Robert Arden	...	American Ambassador
Leueen Willoughby	...	Barbara Dean
Marc Boyle	...	Brother Benito
Milos Kirek	...	Brother Martin
Tommy Duggan	...	Brother Mattius
Louis Mahoney	...	Brother Paulo
Richard Oldfield	...	Brother Simeon
Tony Vogel	...	Brother Antonio
Arwen Holm	...	Carol

Storyline

Now come into his full knowledge and power, the Anti-Christ in the body of Damien Thorne is about to strike his final blow. The Christ-child has been born again, on the Angel Isle, Great Britain (Scotland, England & Wales). The plan is simple, kill the Christ child to prevent him from growing up to bring the return of Christ and death of the Anti-Christ.

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Plot Keywords:

woman wears only a man's shirt | evil | ambassador | second coming | antichrist | 

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Taglines:

The Last Chapter in the Omen Trilogy

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 March 1981 (USA)

Also Known As:

Omen III: The Final Conflict

Filming Locations:

Brocket Hall, Lemsford, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$5,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$5,571,675, 22 March 1981

Gross USA:

$20,471,382

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$20,471,382

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In Germany and Hungary, the film was released as "Barbara's Baby", in an effort to align it with Rosemary's Baby (1968). Reportedly, this title also appeared on some movie posters for the film in some countries prior to the issuance of an official title for the picture

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Goofs

In the first scene set in the Fernbank Observatory, the rate of acceleration of the stars under observation is given as "...a couple of thousand Parsecs, minimum". In real life the Parsec is a unit of distance, not acceleration. (However, this could be a sly reference to the famous misuse of the term "Parsec" in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope.)

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Quotes

DeCarlo: Every child still living born between those hours is in mortal danger if, indeed, he has not already been killed.
Kate Reynolds: Are you suggesting they've been murdered?
DeCarlo: No, no, I am not. I'm stating it as a fact.
Kate Reynolds: But who on Earth would do such a thing?
DeCarlo: He is born again. And so is the Antichrist - the son of Satan - as foretold in the Book of Revelation.
Kate Reynolds: I'm sorry, Father. Look, I do respect your faith but I don't share it.
DeCarlo: You are not a practicing Christian.
Kate Reynolds: No, I'm a practicing journalist. And one of the ...
[...]

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Connections

Referenced in Mystery Science Theater 3000: Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell (1996)

User Reviews

Weak Finale With Many Plot Holes

The original "Omen" is one of the most chilling movies I have ever seen. Despite being slightly askew theologically, it boasted outstanding performances from Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, David Warner etc., an intelligent script, and above all chilling atmospherics thanks to director Richard Donner and the powerful Jerry Goldsmith score. You really did believe that the end of the world had begun when it was all over.

The first sequel, "Damien: Omen II" failed to match the original but still maintained reasonably good continuity from the first film and also had some fine performances too. In a sense it was a lot like "Jaws 2". Not as good as the original, but still okay on the whole.

"The Final Conflict" however, is a lame, miserable final chapter of the trilogy and brings the terrifying events of the original to a lame and utterly weak climax that on the way is filled with some of the most gaping plot holes imaginable. None more spectacular than adult Damien at one point saying he wants to run for the Senate in "84". Were the producers, director and writers so dense and stupid that they didn't realize that by saying that they were retroactively placing all the events of the first film in the 1950s? (Gregory Peck's lapels and David Warner's hairstyle, not to mention the automobiles seemed pretty 70s to me!) What's the big deal with these events in Israel and Egypt that are being talked about frequently yet have no relevance whatsoever to the final climax? What happened to that "child" that Father DeCarlo says is now safe and what does it have to do with the climax? How was Father Spiletto (the priest who saw the birth of Damien and arranged the adoption in the first film) able to "confess" to Father DeCarlo since we saw in "The Omen" that he was unable to speak and could only scribble random things with his left hand? And does the ending truly represent the return of Christ and the final judgment of humanity? Evidently not, since we were served up a TV movie a decade later that I don't think I'll waste my time seeing.

Watching Sam Neill recite his Satanic prayers evoked howls of laughter from me. A far contrast to Billie Whitelaw's nanny in the original who truly seemed like a servant of Satan. I guess perhaps the moral of the story is that its better to depict the anti-Christ as a child than as a man, where the whole sense of unanticipated terror about what the future will bring when he comes to power is still there. Indeed, the terror of "The Omen" was in the fact that you could sense that the beginning of the end had arrived but the terror of what was still to come was still in your imagination to fear and worry about. "The Final Conflict", by tackling subject matter that I think is impossible to depict or envision in a credible fashion when the gimmick has already worn out after two previous movies, was in a sense doomed to fail from the outset, though perhaps if there had been some actors the stature of Peck or Holden this time out, the results would have been better.

Stick to the first film and the second, and envision your own scenario of how it all resolved itself. You'll scare yourself a lot more that way than this film ever will.