''The Prophecy II'' is a 1998 American
fantasy-
action-
horror
Horror may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Genres
*Horror fiction, a genre of fiction
** Japanese horror, Japanese horror fiction
**Korean horror, Korean horror fiction
* Horror film, a film genre
*Horror comics, comic books focusing o ...
film and the second installment in
''The Prophecy'' series.
Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken (born Ronald Walken; March 31, 1943) is an American actor. Prolific in film, television and on stage, Walken is the recipient of numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Awar ...
reprises his role as the
Archangel Gabriel. It was directed by Greg Spence and written by Spence and Matthew Greenberg.
Plot
Lucifer (Guri Weinberg) ejects
Gabriel from Hell, claiming the War of Heaven isn't his to fight and
Hell
In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...
isn't big enough for both of them. Gabriel's new mission is to prevent the birth of a child, a
nephilim
The Nephilim (; ''Nəfīlīm'') are mysterious beings or people in the Hebrew Bible who are large and strong. The word ''Nephilim'' is loosely translated as ''giants'' in some translations of the Hebrew Bible, but left untranslated in others. ...
, the offspring of an angel and a human. The coming of this child, said to precede reconciliation between the warring factions in heaven, has been prophesied by Thomas Daggett, now a monk. The child's conception takes place when Valerie, a nurse, is seduced by an attractive stranger (the
angel Danyael) whom she hit with her car. She finds a few days later that she is pregnant.
Gabriel attempts to find the whereabouts of the child from Daggett, but kills him when he refuses to help. When Danyael kills members of Gabriel's army of angels, Gabriel instead employs the assistance of a teenage girl (Izzy) who has just committed suicide with her boyfriend. Gabriel keeps her alive to help him in his search for Valerie (despite his powers as an angel, he is completely naive about technology, and is unable to drive a car or work a computer and has her use her computer skills to find her and drive him around).
Gabriel's war against Danyael and the other angels climaxes in a battle in Eden, now an industrial wasteland. Danyael and Izzy are killed, but Valerie defeats Gabriel by seizing him and jumping from a building, confident that God will protect her as He told her He would (she reveals that Gabriel is unable to hear His voice as he simply does not ''listen''); she is indeed unharmed, but Gabriel is impaled on a spike. As punishment, Gabriel is turned into a human by
Michael
Michael may refer to:
People
* Michael (given name), a given name
* Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael
Given name "Michael"
* Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian an ...
. Valerie raises the child by herself, accepting the risk that the angels may come for her. The film ends with Gabriel as a derelict; a face in the sky and ominous clouds show that the war in Heaven is not over.
Cast
*
Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken (born Ronald Walken; March 31, 1943) is an American actor. Prolific in film, television and on stage, Walken is the recipient of numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Awar ...
as
Gabriel
*
Russell Wong as Danyael
*
Jennifer Beals as Valerie Rosales
*
Brittany Murphy as Isabelle "Izzy"
*
Nicki Micheaux
Nicole "Nicki" Micheaux (born 1971) is an American actress, known for her role as Jennifer 'Jenn' Sutton in the ABC Family drama series '' Lincoln Heights'' (2007–2009), for which she received two NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a ...
as Detective Kriebel
*
Eric Roberts
Eric Anthony Roberts (born April 18, 1956) is an American actor. His career began with a leading role in ''King of the Gypsies'' (1978) for which he received his first Golden Globe Award nomination. He was nominated again at the Golden Globes fo ...
as
Michael
Michael may refer to:
People
* Michael (given name), a given name
* Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael
Given name "Michael"
* Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian an ...
*
Glenn Danzig
Glenn Allen Anzalone (born June 23, 1955), better known by his stage name Glenn Danzig, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, film director, and record producer. He is the founder of the rock bands Misfits, Samhain, and Danzig. He owns t ...
as Danyael
*
Steve Hytner
Steve Hytner (; born September 28, 1959) is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his role as Kenny Bania on the NBC series ''Seinfeld''.
Hytner is a native of Long Island, New York. He appeared as a regular in ''The 100 Lives of Bl ...
as Joseph
*
Bruce Abbott as Thomas Daggett
* William Prael as Rafayel
*
Renee Victor as Lida Rosales
*
Elizabeth Dennehy as Dr. Kathy Kimball
*
Danny Strong as Julian
*
J. G. Hertzler
John Garman Hertzler Jr. (born March 18, 1950) is an American actor, author, screenwriter, and activist best known for his role on '' Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'' as the Klingon General (later Chancellor) Martok, whom he portrayed from 1995 unt ...
as Father William
* Michael Raimi as Danyael, Jr.
Reception
Rotten Tomatoes, a
review aggregator, reports that 33% of six surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 4.7/10. In 1998, the ''
Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films
Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films is an American non-profit organization established in 1972 dedicated to the advancement of science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, television, and home video. The Academy is headquarter ...
'' rated the film as "The Year's Most Suspenseful Thriller", and ''
Cinefantastique'' praised the film for being "Intense…Action Packed! Walken Steals the Show!" ''
TV Guide'' rated it 1/5 stars and called it "a dull and cheap-looking direct-to-video sequel".
Nathan Rabin of ''
The A.V. Club'' wrote, "While at times amusing, and far from unwatchable, ''The Prophecy II''s quirky strengths can't compensate for the fact that it's about as frightening as your average episode of ''Psi Factor''." Robert Sellers of the ''
Radio Times
''Radio Times'' (currently styled as ''RadioTimes'') is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in May 1923 by J ...
'' rated it 2/5 stars and wrote, "But where the original boasted some good, offbeat ideas, this quickly degenerates into just another dumb chase movie." Witney Seibold of
CraveOnline
Mandatory (formerly CraveOnline Media) is a lifestyle website based in Los Angeles with sales offices in New York City, Chicago and San Francisco. The site is owned by media company Evolve Media, LLC. Mandatory focuses its contents into the male- ...
wrote that the sequel suffers from overfamiliarity and thus becomes "a pretty rote action thriller". Nicholas Sylvain of
DVD Verdict
DVD Verdict was a judicial-themed website for DVD reviews. The site was founded in 1999. The editor-in-chief was Michael Stailey, who owned the website between 2004 and 2016, and the site employed a large editorial staff of critics, whose reviews ...
wrote, "If you aren't a Walken fan, then you have my sympathies, because there's not much else here for you."
See also
*
List of films about angels
References
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Prophecy II, The
1998 films
1998 horror films
American fantasy films
Direct-to-video horror films
1990s English-language films
The Prophecy (film series)
Direct-to-video sequel films
Dimension Films films
American supernatural horror films
Films produced by Joel Soisson
1990s American films