gun wielding arnold schwarzenegger has a change of heart by the film's end and becomes a believer in god instead of a skeptic , going through an amazing transformation by having a christian epiphany in the final scene as he becomes someone who can now beat the devil by his faith alone . . . this is after two hours of throwing people out windows and shooting more people than your average serial killer . nobody can save this bomb from it's own stupidity and arrogance in filmmaking and arrogance in believing that this is a positive religious-type of film . it's just a pile of dreck . . . an ill-conceived exploitive project , a pyrotechnical film . " end of days " aims to be an apocalyptic thriller . it features an idiotic script , a hack director , and a one-dimensional star who is past his prime . . . which makes this film dumber than dumb , plus it's not funny , not campy , or is it in the least bit entertaining . it's just dreary and unwatchable . . . a big-budget slasher film . arnold plays an alcoholic security guard who finds his new mission in life is to stop satan ( occupying gabriel byrne's body and possessing a wall st . bank account ) from destroying the world . the film opens in vatican city , roma 1979 -- where the pope is alerted by a young visionary priest tomaso , looking out at the night sky and seeing a comet whiz by , who proclaims after looking at his scrolls -- that's the sign for the 'eye of god , ' which reveals that a child has been born who is being prepared to give birth to satan's baby ( the anti-christ ) in the hour before the new century begins , when satan will fuck her and open up the gates to hell on earth . tomaso has some twenty years to find this woman and save her and the world from doom . but some in the pope's circle want to kill her if found , even though the pope insists on having faith and letting her live , as he lectures them : " even in the world's darkest days -- doing evil doesn't stop evil , but brings on more evil . " we saw the girl being born in nyc in 1979 , which seems to be the 'logical' place to look for satan according to the astrology charts of the visionaries . the chosen woman is christine york ( robin ) . it is now a few days before the new year celebration for 2000 and arnold and his wise-cracking security guard partner kevin pollack are hired to guard a wall street turd , and when he is fired upon by a renograde priest , thomas aquinas , arnold saves him and through a ridiculous chase captures the tongue less priest who fired the shot . he , nevertheless , can speak and tells arnold an 'end of days' is coming as prophesized in revelations . but satan gets to him in his hospital room and nails him to the ceiling while scribbling latin warnings of 'the end of the world' on his body . it is now up to arnold to save the world and find the chosen woman . he quickly finds christine and does everything to protect her from all the evil forces around her , as the film includes ludicrous helicopter rescues , people jumping out of windows , satan taking a piss and dropping a match to kill arnold's partner as the piss explodes like gasoline , satan being fired at . . . resulting in his sometimes experiencing pain and sometimes nothing , as if the director forgot which way he wants to have it . there is nothing spared in nyc from fire bombs -- including the subway , churches , and luxury buildings . the only trouble with all these high-budget action sequences , was that it lacked purpose and even entertainment value . the story was so terrible and inaccurate , that it did not have an iota of value or credibility . mercifully the movie drags to a final confrontation in times square , trying unsuccessfully to build tension to the countdown toward the year 2000 . why is the end of 1999 considered to be the devil's number " 666 , '' well ! . . . satan's numeral is actually " 999 , '' which is upside down of " 666 . '' accordingly , you just put a " 1'' in front of it-- and bingo -- you get " 1999 . '' with logic like that , this film might even think it pulled the wool over the viewer's eyes and got away with such a febrile explanation of the occult . this film should become a classic used by film schools in how not to make a horror film . i highly recommend seeing it for that purpose .
