Beginning with his role Hercules in New York, Arnold Schwarzenegger had appeared in comedies, action movies, neo-noir, westerns, science-fiction and fantasy. Yet, he had never really done straight horror. James Cameron had said The Terminator was supposed to be a variation on the slasher genre but the science-fiction elements led to people thinking it was mostly science-fiction/horror.
End of Days, released in 1999, is actually his first of only dealing with the horror genre. The other is the underrated zombie apocalyptic drama, Maggie, in which Schwarzenegger plays a Midwestern farmer whose daughter, played by Abigail Breslin, has been bitten and is slowing turning into a zombie. The movie I think portrays one of the most honest portrayals of the world during a zombie crisis the same way Christopher Nolan portrayed society collapsing but trying to hang on to some normalcy in Interstellar.
A movie like this was playing up on all the mass hysteria people felt upon the pending end of the millennium. (Yes, I know the end wasn’t officially until Dec. 31, 2000 but people aren’t the brightest.) There was also the pending worries about computers as Y2K had people suspecting there might be a huge malfunctions in computers and machinery. However, it didn’t happen.
End of Days focuses on the Devil wanting to give birth to the Anti-Christ before the New Year in New York City. This raises a lot of questions as why the Devil didn’t choose Greenwhich Mean Time in London or even Tokyo which is 15 hours ahead. I mean, you have the International Date Line to consider. It wasn’t discovered until the voyages of Ferdinand Mangellan and his crew in the early 1520s. Despite the plot foolishness of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, at least that was an issue brought up that no one had focused on in ancient writings.
In 1979, priests in the Vatican City witness a comet arching over the full moon which is a prophecy of the woman born who will be sought after by the Devil to impregnate. In New York City, a child has been as the nurse, Mabel (Miriam Margolyes), who takes it down to a room where Dr. Abel (Udo Kier) marks it with blood of a rattlesnake. A priest Thomas Aquinas (Derrick O’Connor) is commanded by the Pope to protect the child.
Twenty years later a few days from the New Year, Satan possesses an investment banker (Gabriel Byrne) at an upscale restaurant in Manhattan. He’s hired he private security firm that Jericho Cane (Schwarzenegger) works for along with his friend/partner, Bobby Chicago (Kevin Pollak). Jericho used to be a NYPD officer before mobsters killed his wife and daughter as he was getting too close and wouldn’t take a pay-off. Since then, Jericho has turned into alcohol, become depressed and lost his faith. He tells Father Kovak (Rod Steiger in his final film role) that the murder of his family caused a difference of opinion.
While providing security detail for the man the Devil possessed, Aquinas tries to shoot him but instead hits Jericho who was wearing a bullet-proof vest. Aquinas has since turned into a homeless bum who has cut out his tongue but when Jericho corners him, he says the end of days are approaching. However, Det. Marge Francis (CCH Pounder), feels Jericho is drinking again because Aquinas couldn’t speak.
The baby, Christine York (Robin Tunney), is now grown-up but suffering from hallucinations and bad dreams. She is under the care of Dr. Abel and Mabel has worked her way into the Christine’s family become her stepmother as she has been monitoring. When the Devil goes to kill Aquinas in the hospital, they discover his body with writings in the flesh which translate to Christ in New York.
Jericho sees the body and guesses it could point to Christine and he and Bobby go to check on her at the same time some radical priests have arrived to kill Christine. It’s an plot with a lot of holes in it but this was an attempt by Andrew W. Marlowe to get a pet project made after his first produced script Air Force One made a lot of money and got rave reviews. In Hollywood, you’re usually only as good as your previous movie.
Something tells me this script had been written years earlier with no one considering it as Marlowe tried to get it sold. Then after Air Force One, it was fast-tracked to make it into production so that it could be released before the end of 1999. Yet the problem is movies like The Matrix and even Fight Club took a more apocalyptic look at the end of the world better with action scenes. The movie was originally intended for Tom Cruise who decided to do Magnolia instead, for which he got an Oscar nomination.
Peter Hyams was chosen by Schwarzenegger on the advice of Cameron. Incidentally, it was Cameron’s ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow, who was able to make Strange Days, which Cameron wrote and produced, a far better movie about mass hysteria around Dec. 31, 1999. Sadly, Schwarzenegger’s options were limited. In 1997, he had open heart surgery which reportedly limited his options. He was also 50 and there was a new batch of younger action stars like Cruise, Will Smith and even Keanu Reeves.
There aren’t many action scenes here as Schwarzenegger as a man in his early 50s recovering from heart surgery makes him look better like a boozing man with depression. You can really see Schwarzenegger showing his age here. It’s not a bad role for him. And Pollak manages to add some much needed comedy relief
Unfortunately, Tunney never really makes Christine a character we can really get behind. She mostly reacts and after a while, you get tired of hearing her scream and yell a lot. Reportedly, Liv Tyler, Kate Winslet and Jennifer Connelly were all in talks to play Christine, but they all turned it down. For some reason, Tunney has never really impressed me as a lead actress. She seems more suited for smaller roles.
Byrne manages to make the character of the Devil pure evil. Here’s where another actor might have made him more charismatic, but I think it all comes down to Hyams who always functions as his own director of photography. Sometimes, it works. But here, it’s so dark and dreary at times, you feel like you can’t see much. Schwarzenegger admitted that Hyams was wrong for the position.
Critics were harsher calling it one of Schwarzenegger’s worst and saying the plot is absurd and ludicrous. The script needed a lot of work but it might have worked a lot better if both the director and lead actress was more into the movie. Not to give much away but I’m actually glad the ending is the way it is. It still grossed over $212 million worldwide against a $100 million budget and did better internationally as well with DVD sales, but still fell short of expectations. It would do a lot better than Schwarzenegger’s next movie, The 6th Day, which didn’t even gross $100 million.
As for Schwarzenegger, well he thought being the “Governator” was a better role to take on. When it comes to horror, you better have a director who cares about the material more seriously especially for a novice actor to the genre, even if it’s Schwarzenegger.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 