- Directed by Gregory Widen
- Written by Gregory Widen
- Stars Christopher Walken, Elias Koteas, Virginia Madsen, Eric Stoltz, Viggo Mortenson
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 38 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7PSZ7NDEgU
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It’s an interesting take on ideas of creation and good versus evil. It’s helped a lot by a strong cast, with Christopher Walken being an especially bright spot with what he brings to the movie. It’s a little slow at the beginning but builds well. We’d give it a thumbs up.
Spoilery Synopsis
Simon says that he remembers the first war, Hell was created and many angels died. Lucifer fell and it was all terrible. He never thought there would be another war… Credits roll.
We cut to a big church in the middle of a ritual to ordain new priests. Thomas Dagget watches the process, but when it’s his turn to be ordained, he has a weird vision and screams. Years later, Thomas is now a police detective; “Heaven showed me too much.”
Simon is perched unnaturally on a chair. Simon pulls out Thomas’s thesis; he wrote about angels. He smells something and then stops a demon who breaks through the window. He pokes out the demon’s eyes and then throws the demon out the window, and Thomas comes to investigate. The only lead is a newspaper from Chimney Rock.
In Chimney Rock, it’s a funeral for an old man who died at age 85. Simon is there, clearly injured from his battle. He opens the old corpse’s mouth and kisses him.
The coroner tells Thomas that the dead man never had eyes, and he’s very weird overall with both male and female sex organs. He was carrying an old handwritten Bible with an extra book at the end about a second war in Heaven.
Gabriel checks out the room where Simon and the demon fought. He smells things. He talks to Jerry, who looks post-suicidal. He wants Jerry to steal stuff from the police station evidence room.
Mary is playing hide and seek and finds Simon. Katherine, her teacher, comes looking for her and has a conversation with Simon, who’s hiding upstairs. He gives Mary something, and she gets sick. Katherine drives Mary home to the reservation.
Thomas translates the new book and it predicts a new war of the angels and demons, that hasn’t happened yet. The weird corpse in the morgue is Usiel, an angel. Meanwhile, Gabriel finds the body in the morgue and burns it. Jerry recovers all Usiel’s things, but the Bible isn’t there. The two of them set off for Chimney Rock. Gabriel calls Jerry a “talking monkey,” his name for humans. They dig up the body of the old man Simon already met. The soul that Gabriel wants is gone from the man now.
Gabriel tracks down Simon; he wants that soul. He does not want to be replaced by talking monkeys. Gabriel sets Simon on fire, demanding to know where the soul is.
Katherine comes to school and the police are there, looking at what’s left of Simon. Meanwhile, Mary, a Native American, is acting sick, so her people pray over her.
Thomas arrives at the cemetery where the old man is being buried a second time. The gravedigger tells Thomas about Simon’s body being found. He talks to Katherine, who mentions Mary and her strange illness. Thomas researches the old Colonel, who was accused of doing human sacrifices during the war; there’s even a film. The old man even left behind a box full of faces. He was a special kind of evil, which makes his soul a weapon that Gabriel wants.
Thomas goes to the church and Gabriel finds him there. He’s weird but doesn’t really do anything. Mary dreams about the old Colonel. Gabriel visits the school and looks inside the children’s mouths for the soul.
Thomas and Katherine visit Mary; she’s got the old Colonel’s soul inside her. Thomas knows that the angels want that dead, psychotic Colonel. She tells him about Gabriel. Katherine takes Thomas to the old shut-down copper mine; she thinks Gabriel is in there. They see thousands of angels, impaled on spikes.
Thomas and Katherine go to Mary’s house and find Gabriel there. Jerry attacks Thomas while Katherine tries to distract Gabriel. Katherine shoots the propane tank and blows up the house, which clobbers Gabriel. But Mary says that to really kill Gabriel, they need to cut his heart out.
The good guys take Mary to the Indian village to have a magic procedure done. Mary tells Thomas that this place is defensible; “One man could hold off an entire battalion.”
Since Jerry’s dead for real now, he needs a new servant. He goes to the hospital and resurrects Rachael, who committed suicide.
Katherine gets a very special visit from Lucifer himself. He explains the angels’ motivations and purposes. The Colonel was the “blackest soul” on Earth, and Gabriel wants it to help him win. Lucifer is actually here to stop Gabriel. He makes her an offer.
Gabriel and Rachael visit a local diner, and Rachael isn’t appreciating still being alive. Lucifer visits Thomas next and gives him some tips.
Night falls, and Gabriel approaches the place where the Native Americans are doing their songs. Thomas has set up boobytraps for Gabriel. There’s a bit of a battle, and Lucifer ends up confronting and killing Gabriel. Meanwhile, the ritual completes and Mary coughs up the Colonel’s soul which is destroyed by light from Heaven.
Lucifer wants Katherine and Thomas to go home with him, but they refuse. He leaves them unharmed.
Brian’s Commentary
I saw this when it came out and remembered this being more interesting than it was. About all I remembered from the original watch was the way the angels perched up above everything like birds; it’s still a neat touch. It’s very slow for the first hour, but the intensity of the last half hour is worth the wait.
What really makes this movie is the casting. How did they get all these big-name people involved? It holds up pretty well; there are some subtle special effects, but they all mostly still work. It’s good!
Kevin’s Commentary
The cast really does help this one a lot, elevating the movie quite a bit. I also saw this when it came out, and this was my second viewing thirty years later. How time flies. I thought it held up well enough to entertain me overall.
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