Stuck in a Moment: End of Days

 “End of Days” (1999)
Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gabriel Byrne, Robin Tunney, Kevin Pollak
Directed by Peter Hyams
Written by Andrew W. Marlowe
Rated R for intense violence and gore, a strong sex scene and language

In the initial installments of Stuck in a Moment, I focused on movies in which one scene overshadowed the rest of the film and may have kept me from enjoying or appreciating other aspects. This time, one scene in the feature elevated the entire movie for me from weird product of its time to odd personal favorite.

The end of the year seemed like a fitting time to rewatch “End of Days.” I wondered if it still felt the way it did in the theater, when I expected little and almost got it.

Released in November 1999, the movie taps into end-of-the-millenium anxiety. There was Y2K, plus the fact that every digit in the year would be changing for the first time since we added a fourth. As someone who was used to every 25 issues of a comic book being celebrated with holofoil, die-cut covers and the like, I wondered how reality itself would mark such a milestone.

The movie posits that the Devil himself would arrive in New York to sire a child, somehow ending the world. They use a lot of religious imagery and even manage to pull some actual scripture into the story (Revelation 20:7 - “When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison,” New International Version) although it's lacking quite a bit of context.

To accomplish his goal in the final hour of 1999 (Eastern Standard Time, I guess, being the time zone referred to in Revelation), Satan occupies the body of an unnamed financial executive (Byrne). Suicidal ex-police officer Jericho (Schwarzenegger) is part of a security detail protecting the bigwig from an assassination attempt by... an elderly priest who's cut out his own tongue.

With wisecracking sidekick Pollak in tow, Arnold delves into the mystery of the would-be killer and tracks down a young woman named Christine (Tunney), who is, unbeknownst to her, the Devil's intended. We learn Arnold lost his faith after his wife and daughter were brutally murdered as retribution for him testifying against some particularly bad folks.

The movie is filled with disturbing imagery, from crucifixions to a sex scene that's twisted even by Hollywood standards. Along the way, we get exposition from Father Kovak (Rod Steiger) about how 666 in Revlation was inverted from 999 (actually, one interpretation is that 666 is the value, in Hebrew numerology, of the name of Roman Emperor Nero Caesar) and other bits you might have missed in Sunday school (the Devil's urine is flammable).

Um... no

The Christianity, Catholicism and religious imagery are barely surface deep, just there to unsettle and lend the tiniest shred of credibility to the story.

Except...

(Spoilers follow.)

Although being consumed with guilt and placing a gun to his head is not the introduction I expect for a Schwarzenegger character, a lot of what we get in “End of Days” feels like pretty standard action hero fare. Arnold dismisses the pleas from Kovak to have faith, opting instead to believe in his own skills and arsenal to protect Christine. We see him jump from a helicopter, survive bullets thanks to a Kevlar vest, shoot a pair of corrupt cops who have him dead to rights and fight Satan with automatic weapons and explosives, even running him over with a subway train that he then blows up.

Honestly, this is kind of a father-daughter moment between Schwarzenegger and Tunney.

But Lucifer just keeps on coming.

As the clock ticks down to midnight, Arnold instructs Christine to hide in the church in which they've taken refuge. But as he reloads his comically lethal gun, he looks to the stained glass imagery and statues in the front of the sanctuary. His eyes fall on the crucified Christ and...

Arnold Schwarzenegger – who we expect to solve problems with his muscles, his guns or both – throws his weapon aside. He gazes up at the statue of Jesus and whispers, “Please God, help me. Give me strength.”

Having left Byrne's broken form, the Devil bursts through the floor and commandeers Arnold by force. He calls for Christine, then attempts to complete his quest in the newly hijacked body of her would-be protector. With Arnold's face, he looks up at the Christ statue and gloats that His sacrifice meant nothing because he's about to win.

But the prayer didn't go unanswered.

Arnold regains control and leaps onto the extended sword of a shattered angel statue. The clock runs out, the Devil erupts in a fiery tantrum, and the mortally wounded Jericho is welcomed into the afterlife by his wife and daughter.

Even 22 years ago, I expected Hollywood to be at best dismissive, if not outright hostile, to my faith. Most of the movie up to this point had reinforced at least the former. But arguably the biggest action star in the world laying down his arms and saying, essentially, “I can't do it Lord, I surrender to your will?” That's the opposite.

With Arnold/the Devil's mockery, the movie acknowledges Christ's sacrifice, his death on the cross to take on the punishment for sin that fallen humanity has earned. By acknowledging his own helplessness and relying fully on God to stop the evil he's facing, Arnold gives at least a decent approximation of the Gospel message that we can't save ourselves.

It's even supported by an opening scene, set in 1979, in which the Pope dismisses his advisers' recommendation to have the newborn Christine killed, saying, “We serve God. We must believe in Him, and rely on Him. Only that can save the girl.”

“End of Days” earns its R-rating with both violence and sex (Tunney even has a topless scene while heading to the shower for no other reason than, hey, nudity). It's not what anyone would describe as a “Christian movie.” But somehow, that makes this pure moment of faith and surrender even more striking. Don't mistake this as me suggesting the Gospel should be Trojan-horsed into gore- and lust-filled spectacles. This movie could have told its story with more restraint and still not come across as an adapted Sunday school lessson.

For nearly two hours, “End of Days” is a bumpy, secular ride with religion as a plot device. But in those last few minutes, it's transformed into something special.