Directors: Don Taylor, Mike Hodges
Writers: Harvey Bernhard, David Seltzer
Stars: William Holden, Lee Grant, Jonathan Scott-Taylor
Run Time: 1 Hour 47 Minutes
Link:
Synopsis
We start with the archaeologist, Bugenhagen, from the first film, racing his car through the streets as the credits roll. He’s got the newspaper that tells about Ambassador Thorn’s funeral, and about young Damien. He has no doubt that Damien Thorn is the Antichrist.
Bugenhagen gives his friend Michael a box to deliver to Damien’s new guardian, Robert Thorn, the former ambassador’s brother. Michael and Bugenhagen drive out an archaeological dig and an evil blackbird watches them enter the tunnels. They walk through the underground ruins and stop in front of a statue of the whore of Babylon. There’s also a mural.
On the mural are faces, and one is clearly Damien. There’s a cave-in, and the two men are slowly buried alive. The whole temple falls on top of them. That’s one secret that’s going to stay secret.
Seven years later, in Chicago, Damien is a teenager. Richard and Ann Thorn have been caring for him, and Damien and his cousin Mark are going off to military school. Aunt Marion doesn’t much like Damien. Marion insists that Richard take the boys out of the academy, or else she’ll dispose of her 27% of Thorn Industries, which otherwise would go to Richard. Neither of the boys are Ann’s. Aunt Marion wants Mark away from Damien. Why did Richard’s brother try to kill Damien?
Later that evening, Charles shows us in a slideshow that a bunch of relics including a statue of the whore of Babylon will be coming to town soon. Marion wakes up and finds a big black bird in her room. It stares at her and gives her a heart attack.
We shift over to see Damien and Mark at military school. Sergeant Neff is the new platoon leader over Damien’s unit. Back in Chicago, Richard talks to Bill Atherton, the President of the Thorn Company. Bill doesn’t like the new, modern ideas that Paul Buher is proposing. Paul wants to cut a bunch of dead wood from the company. Paul wants to farm to ocean and create new genetically modified foods– his policy can end world hunger. Bill thinks it’s inhuman and illegal.
A bully goes after Damien at school, and Damien hurts him with just a look. Richard denies Paul’s proposal, but says that “your time will come.” A reporter named Joan Hart comes to interview Richard; she’s interested in a biography of Bugenhagen; they’ve found his skeleton at the dig. She wants to warn him about the prophecy, but he throws her out of the car. Joan then goes to see Ann, but doesn’t get very far with her either. Joan goes to see Damien, but runs away after laying eyes on him. Her car breaks down, and she runs into the raven on the road. It attacks her eyes, and unseeing, walks into the road in the path of a truck.
Everyone returns home for Mark’s birthday party. Bill and Paul discuss their plans for the company and the lack ethics behind Paul’s ideas. Paul talks to Damien and tells him he should start to show interest in the company, since it will all be his someday. Paul explains that he wants to guide Damien into his adult life and leadership in the business world. The next morning, everyone goes skating at the lake, and Paul and the raven quietly watch, as the ice breaks and Bill is killed. Paul is immediately promoted to company President.
It’s clear that both Sergeant Neff and Paul Buher know about who Damien is, and they are here to help him. Neff tells Damien the parts of the Bible that he needs to read. Damien reads the Book of Revelation and finds the 666 birthmark. He’s not pleased, but at least he knows who he is now.
Mr. Pasarian, one of the company’s engineers, has uncovered murders related to Paul’s order to buy all that land in India. We can see that Paul ordered the murders, but Pasarian doesn’t suspect a thing. Paul starts talking about the huge profits to be had in “Famine.”
Damien invites the whole class to field trip at his family’s factory. Pasarian has to fix the P84 device, which has been acting up. The P84 valve explodes and won’t shut off, gassing Pasarian to death. The doctor checks out the students, and they’re all going to survive with minor injuries. Damien, however, had no effects at all. The doctor wants to run some routine tests to see why. Damien’s blood test shows that he has the blood of a jackal. The doctor almost immediately has a fatal encounter with an elevator. The doctor had enough time to tell Richard that Damien has an unusual cell structure, so Richard starts to wonder about things.
Charles at the museum finally unpacks the relics that has been sent to him from the dig. He also opens the box that Bugenhagen had planned to send to Richard, and it contains daggers and notes. He rushes over to the house, and Damien answers the door. Charles tells Richard everything and mentions that the wall with the mural will come to town tomorrow, but Damien overhears the entire conversation.
That night, Mark reads Damien’s Bible, which apparently has all the juicy bits highlighted. Charles reads Bugenhagen’s letter. Ann hears the story, and she doesn’t want to have anything to do with it and forbids Richard from speaking of it again. Mark and Damien argue, and Damien fully accepts what he is. Damien kills Mark with his mind, and Richard is convinced.
Richard goes to see a priest who is sheltering Charles. Charles has seen the wall mural, and he says it’s Damien. Richard wants to see it, so they go to the train depot for a look. Richard goes inside the train car and sees Damien painted on the mural, while Charles goes for a short train ride. The wall is destroyed in the accident.
Richard says “That boy has got to die!” And Ann begs him not to do it. Ann stabs Richard with the daggers. Ann reveals that she’s in on it too. The boiler explodes, killing her and destroying everything in the room. Damien walks out of the museum, now with no one to stop him.
Commentary
I’m not sure what Bill found unethical and immoral about Paul’s plan to make genetically modified seeds and farming the ocean. There’s some mention of the company buying the land, but I don’t see why that’s illegal or immoral at all, much less Satanic. Where did Bugenhagen get seven more daggers to put in Michael’s box? They couldn’t have been the same daggers, as this film started only a day or two after the first film ended, and those daggers would have been in a police evidence box.
This feels very much like a middle part of a trilogy. The story progressed, and there are many creative deaths, but it definitely doesn’t have the same creepiness factor the original had. Again, many people had a lot of bad luck; there’s nothing that proves anything supernatural was going on. You don’t see the devil; you don’t see lasers shooting out of Damien’s eyes. It could all still just be a coincidence.