end of days movie review

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There are forces here you couldn't possibly comprehend. Dialogue from "End of Days'' You can say that again. "End of Days'' opens with a priest gazing out his window at the Vatican City and seeing a comet arching above the moon like an eyebrow. He races to an old wooden box, snatches up a silver canister, pulls out an ancient scroll, unrolls it and sees--yes! A drawing of a comet arching above the moon like an eyebrow! For verily this is the dreaded celestial display known as the "Eye of God.'' The priest bursts into an inner chamber of the Vatican, where the pope sits surrounded by advisers. "The child will be born today!'' he gasps. Then we cut to "New York City, 1979'' and a live childbirth scene, including, of course, the obligatory command, "push!'' A baby girl is born, and a nurse takes the infant in its swaddling clothes and races to a basement room of the hospital, where the child is anointed with the blood of a freshly killed rattlesnake before being returned to the arms of its mother.

Already I am asking myself, where is William Donohue when we need him? Why does his Catholic League attack a sweet comedy like "Dogma,'' but give a pass to "End of Days,'' in which we learn that once every 1,000 years a woman is born who, if she is impregnated 20 years later by the Prince of Darkness during the hour from 11 p.m. to 12 a.m. on the last day of the millennium, will give birth to the anti-Christ, who will bring about, yes, the end of days? But meanwhile, an internal Vatican battle rages between those who want to murder the woman, and the pope, who says we must put our faith in God? The murder of the woman would of course be a sin, but perhaps justifiable under the circumstances, especially since the humble instrument chosen by God to save the universe is an alcoholic bodyguard named Jericho Cane, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger . Jericho and his partner Chicago ( Kevin Pollak ) find themselves investigating a puzzling series of events, including a man with his tongue cut out who nevertheless screams a warning and is later nailed to the ceiling of his hospital room.

Movies like this are particularly vulnerable to logic, and "End of Days'' even has a little fun trying to sort out the reasoning behind the satanic timetable. When Jericho has the Millennium Eve timetable explained to him, including the requirement that the Prince of Darkness do his dirty deed precisely between 11 p.m. and midnight, he asks the very question I was asking myself: "Eastern Standard Time?'' The answer, Jericho is told, is that the exact timing was meticulously worked out centuries ago by the Gregorian monks, and indeed their work on this project included, as a bonus spinoff, the invention of the Gregorian calendar.

Let's see. Rome is seven hours ahead of New York. In other words, those clever monks said, "The baby will be conceived between 6 and 7 a.m. on Jan. 1, Rome time, but that will be between 11 p.m. and 12 a.m. in a city that does not yet exist, on a continent we have no knowledge of, assuming the world is round, and there are different times in different places as it revolves around the sun, which of course it would be a heresy to suggest.'' With headaches like this, no wonder they invented Gregorian chants to take the load off.

"End of Days'' involves a head-on collision between the ludicrous and the absurd, in which a supernatural being with the outward appearance of Gabriel Byrne pursues a 20-year-old woman named Christine ( Robin Tunney ) around Manhattan, while Jericho tries to protect her. This being a theological struggle Schwarzenegger style, the battle to save Christine involves a scene where a man dangles from a helicopter while chasing another man across a rooftop, and a scene in which a character clings by his fingertips to a high window ledge, and a scene in which a runaway subway train explodes, and a scene in which fireballs consume square blocks of Manhattan, and a scene in which someone is stabbed with a crucifix, and ... But the violence raises another question. How exactly do the laws of physics apply to the Byrne character? Called "The Man'' in the credits, he is Satan himself, for my money, yet seems to have variable powers. Jericho shoots him, and he pulls up his shirt so we can see the bullet holes healing. But when Jericho switches to a machinegun, the bullets hurl the Man backward and put him out of commission for a time, before he attacks again. What are the rules here? Is he issued only so much anti-injury mojo per millennium? The movie's final confrontation is a counterpoint to the Times Square countdown toward the year 2000. Only a churl would point out that the new millennium actually begins a year later, on the last day of 2000. Even then, "End of Days'' would find a loophole. This is the first movie to argue seriously that "666,'' the numerical sign of Satan, is actually "999'' upside down, so that all you have to do is add a "1'' and whoa--you get "1999.''

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

End Of Days (1999)

Rated R For Intense Violence and Gore, A Strong Sex Scene and Language

118 minutes

Arnold Schwarzenegger as Jericho Cane

Gabriel Byrne as The Man

Kevin Pollak as Chicago

Robin Tunney as Christine York

Rod Steiger as Father Kovak

Directed by

• Peter Hyams
• Andrew W. Marlowe

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End of Days Reviews

End of Days is never interesting and usually silly, but it might help Arnold get some momentum if he really does run for the governorship of California. At least he'll get the anti-Satan vote.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Oct 30, 2023

The fatal flaw lies in the fact that the Devil, especially when personified by a talented and handsome actor like End of Days's Gabriel Byrne, is actually much more compelling and personable than the hero.

Full Review | Feb 27, 2020

Arnie's not taking any chances this time, and the result is the most questionably repulsive big-budget film in recent memory.

Full Review | Feb 6, 2018

Tired dud of an over-the top violent action movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 24, 2010

The movie pits Arnold Schwarzenegger against the devil (Gabriel Byrne), with director Peter Hyams delivering tense moments of action amid not-so-subtle choices for character development.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Aug 30, 2008

The plot is such hooey...and the plot holes so gaping that End of Days proves more exasperating than enjoyable. [Blu-Ray]

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Aug 20, 2008

Peter Hyams's lurid, FX-happy thriller slams pieces of a dozen other movies into a noxious new compound. It has to be seen to be believed, but who'd want to?

Full Review | Mar 31, 2008

Never rises to the realm of exciting.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 21, 2007

Part of the degraded charm of "End of Days" is its buffet-table derivative approach.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Jul 30, 2007

Starts by stealing bad ideas from other movies, then it putsthem together in the wrong order and casts the wrong actors to play the parts. In other words, it's one of the worst movies I've seen this year.

Full Review | May 26, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: D+ | Apr 9, 2005

End of Days isn't complete waste of time but all those who watch it would probably agree that this film's days were numbered long time ago.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/10 | Feb 14, 2005

Sort of like listening to that old Toto album tucked away somewhere in your music collection. You remember thinking you used to like this kind of stuff, but you can't quite recall why.

Full Review | Jul 2, 2003

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | May 20, 2003

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 8, 2003

A lot of fun, but not a great movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Dec 8, 2002

Idiotic beyond the point of redemption, this sinfully stupid farrago manages to insult audiences and critics, Christians and Satanists alike, reducing 2000 years of fertile mythology to the level of an incoherent pop video.

Full Review | Dec 2, 2002

Loud, lurid, bloody and ridiculously entertaining.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 15, 2002

Um filme de ao incessante que traz Arnold Schwarzenegger em uma das piores atuaes de sua carreira.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 31, 2002

Displaying precisely the imagination that gave the world such epic achievements as The Star Chamber and The Relic, Hyams dusts off America's designated import and goes with Arnie Schwarzenegger his own self.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Mar 19, 2002

End of Days (1999)

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‘End of Days’ (1999): A solid horror-action fusion (review)

We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post.

Flash forward to 1999, and an investment banker ( Gabriel Byrne ) is possessed by Satan while dining at a restaurant. Depressed former NYPD detective Jericho Cane (Schwarzenegger), now working in private security, assumes a job with his co-worker Bobby Chicago ( Kevin Pollak ). Unbeknownst to Cane and Chicago, they’re protecting the investment banker possessed by Satan. A priest attempts to assassinate the banker, but Jericho gives chase. It’s here where Cane’s entire worldview gets upended with the revelation that the would-be assassin is not only a priest named Thomas Aquinas ( Derrick O’Connor ), but one that, despite speaking to Cane shortly before his death, had cut out his tongue.

While the NYPD, led by Detective Marge Francis ( CCH Pounder ) opens an investigation, Cane pursues the truth on his own. This leads Jericho to Christine York ( Robin Tunney ), and a priest, Father Kovak (Rod Steiger). Eventually, Kovak reveals to Jehrico the return of Satan and his mission to impregnate York between 11 PM and midnight on January 31, 1999. Initially, the atheist Cane remains skeptical, but the more strangeness he witnesses, the further he’s dragged into the supernatural.

“End of Days” successfully, and enjoyably, fuses the horror and action genres. Throughout the Peter Hyams-directed romp, there’s a bit of a John Carpenter’s “Prince of Darkness” vibe. This isn’t helped by scenes such as a church basement replete with instruments interpreting prophecies of the End of Days. From the onset, action and supernatural horror intertwine seamlessly. Through the use of actual Biblical verses, “End of Days” establishes intricate lore quickly.

Acting is generally strong. From the beginning, it’s clear that Jericho suffers from some previous personal trauma. Schwarzenegger plays the depressed Cane perfectly, though the alcoholic Jericho inexplicably stays in bodybuilder shape despite his less-than-healthy diet of rancid leftovers and vodka pulls. Robin Tunney returns to horror after a marvelous appearance in “The Craft,” playing the tortured Christine York brilliantly. CCH Pounder puts in a solid guest-starring role but Pounder gets far too little screen time. Kevin Pollak provides a spot of much-needed comic relief.

Technically, effects shine apart from a bit of CGI so atrocious it’s bound to induce eye bleeding. John Debney handles the orchestral score marvelously, upping the strings and timpani in moments of suspense, then dialing it back for a melodic backdrop for slower, less action-oriented scenes. “End of Days” is well-paced with an enjoyable mix of action, intrigue, and drama. I particularly appreciate the way “End of Days” incorporates the Y2K scare as a prominent subplot.

Unfortunately, for all its gusto, “End of Days” has its flaws. Oddly, especially considering its diligence to establishing intricate religious lore, nobody seems to recall the 13th Century priest and philosopher Thomas Aquinas. This does, thankfully, lead to a few riotously hilarious moment such as Jericho storming into a church demanding “I would like to talk to you about Thomas Aquinas,” with no mention of the Saint. Moreover, most of its characters are cliches: the depressed ex-cop, the wisecracking sidekick, and unwitting victim. A few plot holes arise, such as convenient and unrealistic detective work on Jericho’s part. He miraculously makes the connection to a misinterpreted Latin phrase “Christ in New York” as Christine York. And the final showdown between Satan and Cane devolves into the typical bullet-fueled Schwarzenegger blockbuster extravaganza a la “The Terminator” and “Predator.”

Despite its shortcomings, “End of Days” succeeds as a fresh supernatural horror-action combo. It’s well-acted, features a spectacular score, and the effects mostly hold up. With tinges of “Prince of Darkness,” the Peter Hyams “End of Days” may fall short of the Carpenter classic, but it’s a spiritual successor of sorts well worth its 122-minute runtime.

This post may contain affiliate links. We are a participant in affiliate programs such as the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. However, all products are thoroughly tested and reviews are honest and unbiased.

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End of days.

1999 Directed by Peter Hyams

Prepare for the end.

On 28 December 1999, the citizens of New York City are getting ready for the turn of the millennium. However, Satan decides to crash the party by coming to the city and searching for his chosen bride — a 20-year-old woman named Christine York. The world will end, and the only hope lies within an atheist named Jericho Cane.

Arnold Schwarzenegger Gabriel Byrne Robin Tunney Kevin Pollak CCH Pounder Derrick O'Connor David Weisenberg Rainer Judd Miriam Margolyes Udo Kier Luciano Miele Michael O'Hagan Mark Margolis Jack Shearer Rod Steiger Eve Sigall Victor Varnado Robert Lesser Lloyd Garroway Gary Anthony Williams John Nielsen Jonny Bogris Elliot Goldwag Elaine Corral Kendall Denice D. Lewis Renee Olstead Mo Gallini Marc Lawrence Van Quattro Show All… Charles A. Tamburro Lynn Marie Sager Linda Pine David Franco Steve Kramer Melissa Mascara John Timothy Botka Walter von Huene Michael Rocha Sven-Ole Thorsen

Director Director

Peter Hyams

Assistant Director Asst. Director

William M. Elvin

Producers Producers

Armyan Bernstein Andrew W. Marlowe Bill Borden Paul Deason

Executive Producers Exec. Producers

Marc Abraham Thomas A. Bliss

Writer Writer

Andrew W. Marlowe

Casting Casting

Jackie Burch Angela Peabody

Editors Editors

Steven Kemper Jeff Gullo Ray Boniker

Cinematography Cinematography

Camera operators camera operators.

Stephen S. Campanelli David Norris

Lighting Lighting

James R. Tynes Paul Ciancetta

Additional Photography Add. Photography

Michael Scott Michael Ferris Michael P. May Brian Mussetter

Production Design Production Design

Richard Holland

Art Direction Art Direction

Charlie Daboub Dawn Brown Kenneth Hardy

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Maya Shimoguchi Gary Fettis Al Hobbs Greg Berry Charisse Cardenas Julia K. Levine Jeffrey Beck David L. Bell

Special Effects Special Effects

Thomas L. Fisher Scott R. Fisher Ronald Epstein

Visual Effects Visual Effects

Stan Winston Ian Hunter John 'D.J.' Des Jardin Gary Nolin Kurt Williams Erik Lee Anders Ericson

Stunts Stunts

Franco Columbu Tim Gilbert Jack Gill Buddy Joe Hooker Joey Box Ron Stein Freddie Hice Gene LeBell Bobby Bass Jeffrey J. Dashnaw Sven-Ole Thorsen Henry Kingi Jennifer Caputo Alan Oliney Jimmy N. Roberts Mitch Toles Troy Brown Bob Brown Dick Ziker Ronnie Rondell Jr. James Ryan John C. Meier Tim Trella Billy D. Lucas Andy Gill Darrell Davis Lance Gilbert Troy Robinson Tommy J. Huff Steve M. Davison Scott Workman James M. Halty William H. Burton Jr. Gregory J. Barnett Chuck Picerni Jr. Bill Young Manny Perry Dieter Rauter Erik Rondell Scotty Richards Thomas J. Larsen Bennie Moore Troy Gilbert Alexander Denk Shawn Kautz Mark Chadwick Gunter Simon Josh Kemble Janet Brady Shawn Robinson Raymond Normandin Nadine Grycan Lee Waddell Rita Minor Alan Wurtzel Danny Rogers

Composer Composer

John Debney

Sound Sound

Scott Martin Gershin Tony Lamberti Christopher Assells Nerses Gezalyan James Moriana Jeffrey Wilhoit Greg Zimmerman Kerry Ann Carmean Frank A. Montaño Michael Minkler Hector C. Gika Michael D. Wilhoit Scott Sanders Kelly Oxford Jeff Glueck Gene S. Cantamessa Leonel Pedraza

Costume Design Costume Design

Bobbie Mannix

Makeup Makeup

Jeff Dawn Louis Lazzara Dayne Johnson

Hairstyling Hairstyling

Peter Tothpal Jennifer Bell Justin Ditter

Beacon Communications

Releases by Date

24 nov 1999, 25 nov 1999, 26 nov 1999, 02 dec 1999, 03 dec 1999, 04 dec 1999, 09 dec 1999, 10 dec 1999, 15 dec 1999, 16 dec 1999, 17 dec 1999, 24 dec 1999, 25 dec 1999, 26 dec 1999, 29 dec 1999, 07 jan 2000, 28 jan 2000, 17 feb 2000, 28 mar 2013, 18 apr 2000, 08 nov 2000, 16 nov 2007, 26 aug 2008, 11 may 2011, 08 jan 2013, 29 nov 2002, releases by country.

• Theatrical MA15+
• Theatrical 12+
• Theatrical 12
• Physical DVD
• Physical 12 Blu-Ray
• Digital VOD
• Theatrical 16
• Theatrical 18
• Theatrical VM14

Netherlands

• TV 16 Yorin
• Physical 16 DVD
• Physical 16 Blu ray

New Zealand

Philippines.

• Theatrical Davao
• Theatrical M/16

Puerto Rico

Russian federation.

• Theatrical 18+ Moscow

South Korea

• Theatrical 15

Switzerland

• Theatrical R
• Physical R DVD Release
• Physical R Blu-Ray Release

121 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by sydney ★★★ 6

arnold makes a smoothie out of coffee, pepto bismol, beer, leftover chinese food, and pizza he finds on the floor

Review by Justin LaLiberty ★★★ 1

nothing quite captures the vibe of 1999 like Satan having a body horror threesome with a mother and daughter set to Limp Bizkit

Review by Josh Lewis ★★★ 6

an equally silly and self-serious satanic y2k paranoia neo-noir that thinks its doing something between Rosemary's Baby and Se7en but is in execution much closer to like The Ninth Gate and 8mm . despite the bleakness of the material arnold is pretty fun as a drunken atheist detective named jericho cane who stumbles onto an ancient new year's eve templar apocalypse conspiracy that involves udo kier drenching babies in snake blood, gabriel byrne punching people's heads off, 360 degree green-screen incent orgies, demon-possessed self-impalements and various machine gun massacres of families and priests alongside the total destruction of the new york city transit system. the soundtrack features KoЯn, limp bizkit and rob zombie.

Review by pd187 ★★★★ 4

why is the antichrist birthmark a lululemon logo

Review by Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine ★★★½ 4

Action! - The Unlikely Rumble: Hill v Hyams

I don't think any of the films I was looking forward to viewing during this marathon have as strong a sentimental draw as this one. I recall seeing it on TV all the time, either on cable or on local networks. Although I believe this is the first time I've seen it from beginning to end.

And if it's true that theologically it's filled with huge and basic fallacies, like a fantasy that pulls a lot from the hysteria unleashed by Y2K, the Satanic panic of the moment, and the propagation of the second coming of Christ, this was a lot of fun. Seeing Arnie in a more serious role and attempting…

Review by Sam ★★★ 3

Who would win in a fight, the Prince of Darkness or one muscular Austrian?

Review by Joe ★★★

Y2K: Judgement Day

It's a neat trick taking the biblical noir vibe of Seven and introducing explicitly supernatural elements as well as some light Y2K paranoia, but this also has to serve as a bonkers Arnie action thriller and a sincere religious tract and the whole thing gets pretty crowded. This may be twenty years of increasing reliance on CGI talking but it seems like all the mediocre action films from this era seem so refreshing now, there's a flaming subway train crash at the end of this that's, well, heavenly, and like nothing you'd ever see in a mediocre action film of today.

Review by Tim McClelland ★★★½

Things End of Days taught me: 1. "Easy with the hardware" is an underrated Arnold delivered line. 2. The devil's piss is flammable. 3. You can stop the devil with a machine gun if you're Arnold Schwarzenegger. 4. The devil is really horny on New Year's Eve. 5. Arnold literally plays a guy named Jericho Cane in a movie about the end of the world. What else do you need?

Review by George Hanna-Wilson ★★★

Satan is trying to end the world by fucking the chick from the Craft and the only man who can protect her is Arnold Schwarzenegger. It's a pretty dumb movie but I love every God damn minute of it. So much fun.

Review by Ben Hibburd ☘🏀 ★★★ 2

Swap Arnie for Lance Henriksen's Frank Black and this could've easily of been the "Millennium" movie that we never got. Heck, even CCH Pounder is in this film, you can't tell me they didn't at-least think about it? This film had a really interesting hook to start the film with the role theology would play in the coming millennium. It was an idea that had a ton of potential that was unfortunately squandered on mediocre action and a convoluted plot. "End of Days" had its moments but in the end it stumbles and falls flat on its face which is a great shame...

On a side note; if you haven't seen "Millennium" go and give it a watch. It's one of the most underrated shows from the nineties.

Review by King #adoptdontshop ★★★ 5

End of Days is an apocalyptic thriller featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger as a cop aiding a woman destined to end the world. Better than I expected but weaker than one could hope, this movie is sluggish at some parts then speeds through a sequence the next. Director Peter Hyam's topsy turvy approach is baffling as well; with a storytelling confused whether to be a goth horror or a supernatural action with religious touches.

Major good points for Robin Tunney’s impressive acting as the accursed lead. The fights scenes are well executed while the small twists are correctly placed too - it didn't feel like it was just inserted in so we could see good ol' Arnie trade punches. Overall, End Of Days is a fine watch but not the movie anyone would pick watching if it's Mother Earth's last day.

Review by MAGE ★★★★½ 25

Am I crazy or is this secretly great? I thought this was drivel when I saw it back in 1999. Don’t know what my problem was, cause this is well paced, strongly acted, action packed and has atmosphere for days. The NY2K setting is a marvelous throwback to those of us old enough to recall the time and idiotic hysteria surrounding it. Which I’ll sheepishly admit I got caught up in myself. Give me a break, I was 22. 

In any case, god bless Peter “The Prince of Darkness” Hyams for acting as his own DP on this. End of Days is a breathtakingly beautiful film to look at. It’s so sumptuously lit and the inky, shot-on-film aesthetic is like…

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End of Days

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Content Caution

In Theaters

• Arnold Schwarzenegger as Jericho Cane; Gabriel Byrne as Satan incarnate; Robin Tunney as Christine York; Kevin Pollak as Chicago; Rod Steiger as Father Kovak

Home Release Date

• Peter Hyams

Distributor

• Universal Pictures

Movie Review

In 1979, a baby girl is born under just the right cosmic conditions to make her Satan’s intended bride-to-be on the eve of the new millennium, at which time she will conceive the Antichrist. Flashforward 20 years. New York City. Unaware of the dark, carefully orchestrated plans for her destiny, Christine York—tortured by weird dreams and visions—is shocked when murder and mayhem begin filling her life during the final week of 1999. Apostates of the devil prepare to deliver her into Lucifer’s hands (to consummate this unholy union, Satan commandeers the body of a businessman played by Gabriel Byrne). Meanwhile, religious zealots attempt to kill Christine and, thus, postpone the “end of days.” Stumbling into the mix are beaten-down ex-cop Jericho Cane and his partner, Chicago, who strive to keep Christine away from anyone out to harm her—including Beelzebub. A trail of violence and cryptic religious clues leads these two loose cannons to seek counsel from a decent (if confused) priest, Father Kovak. As the pieces of this apocalyptic puzzle fall into place, all signs point to a showdown of eternal proportions.

Positive Elements: Father Kovak is a compassionate man of faith who refuses to resort to evil to battle evil. Chicago is told to shoot his friend and, out of loyalty to Cane, refuses at his own peril. Cane eventually realizes that he can’t defeat Satan without turning things over to God (gazing at a rendering of Jesus on the cross, he nods in recognition, lets the gun fall from his hand and prays, “Please, God, help me. Give me strength”). In the end, Satan is driven back into the underworld.

Spiritual Content: End of Days is a theological mess. Scripture such as Revelation 20:7 is taken out of context and twisted to make a case for a millennial apocalypse. Father Kovak suggests that the real number of the beast isn’t 666 at all, but was seen upside down in John’s revelation; the real number is 999 as in 1999 (ugh). The occasionally off-key priest also claims that, “According to Scripture, [Satan] can’t see inside the house of God,” and it is not God who saves us as much as it is our own faith in Him. Works theology gets a subtle plug when Chicago asks Cane, “Considering how you’ve lived your life, what makes you think you’d be going upstairs anyhow?” Two men are tortured, then displayed in mock crucifixion. A woman experiencing stigmata is bound and supervised by priests. When the “chosen” baby girl is born, doctors perform an occult baptism by slicing open a live rattlesnake and placing its blood on the infant’s lips. Other satanic imagery involves a pentagram of blood (drawn on the floor of a homicidal priest’s hovel) and a voyeuristic black mass with hundreds of chanting satanists surrounded by candles.

The portrayal of the devil blends speculative fantasy with lines of dialogue that sound like The Screwtape Letters . Satan first appears as a translucent, flying mass in search of a human body to inhabit. Wounds to that “host body” are healed miraculously. He reveals people’s secret sins and resurrects mortally wounded humans for selfish purposes. In the finale, he takes the form of a hideous beast as he bursts through the floorboards of a church sanctuary and unfurls massive wings. Yet elements of the character reflect truths about the adversary. For example, he tries to seduce Cane into joining his team by badmouthing God, blaming the Lord for taking the man’s family from him (Cane’s wife and daughter were murdered several years earlier) and saying things such as, “If something good happens, He gets the credit; if something bad happens, it’s His will.” But the devil is given too much power by the filmmakers. He promises Cane, “I can give it all back to you—everything He took away,” and is in the business of resurrecting people. Believers will be disturbed by Satan mocking the crucified Christ directly (“You died for nothing; you just bought them time”). Father Kovak states, “Satan’s greatest trick was convincing man he didn’t exist.” In the press notes for End of Days , actor Gabriel Byrne describes his approach to playing Lucifer as follows: “I did not want to exaggerate any stereotypes. I wanted to go with the idea that this presence is always among us and in man’s shape.”

In the film, the Vatican is split on how to proceed with the knowledge of the unholy consummation about to take place in New York. While the Pope sees this dark hour as a time for faith in God’s omnipotence, the “Vatican Knights” set out to kill Christine before she can conceive the Antichrist. At one point, they’re ready to stab her to death, but are interrupted while administering “last rites.” On the positive side, Father Kovak dismisses the Knights’ violent mission as the work of irresponsible zealots, not true Christians (“They think they’re doing God’s work, but they’re not . . . You can’t prevent evil by doing evil”). Kovak also challenges Cane’s professed lack of belief in God by asking, “If you don’t believe in God, how can you believe in His adversary?” Good question. Fortunately, Cane does turn to God for help when he realizes a spiritual battle requires spiritual artillery (“Please, God, help me. Give me strength”).

Sexual Content: An explicit scene shows Satan, as a man, engaged in sex with a woman while her teenage daughter lies beside her, awaiting her turn (breasts exposed). Breast nudity is also seen when Christine removes her shirt. The f-word is used as a harsh term for intercourse several times. Chicago jokes about having an inflatable girlfriend. Christine is placed on an altar for sexual purposes twice, though neither results in sex.

Violent Content: Aside from its spiritual issues, the biggest problem with End of Days is its frequent, graphic violence. A priest-turned-sniper fires at police and a chopper before Cane can disable him (at the hospital, Satan crucifies him on the ceiling as his blood drains onto the bed below). We see a man’s tongue in a jar, and a bloody pair of gardening shears that suggest he performed the surgery on himself. In one of her visions, Christine touches a freakish prophet on a subway train, causing the man to shatter into pieces. As a spectral force, the devil tosses men around like rag dolls before taking over their bodies. Cane, despairing over the loss of his family, puts a pistol to his head and is ready to pull the trigger. A fight between Cane and a supernaturally empowered woman ends with him smashing her head through a glass tabletop. A skateboarding teen is hit by a bus. A man is thrown down a flight of stairs. Christine follows a trail of blood into her bathroom and finds a dead man floating in the tub. With one crushing blow, Satan turns a man’s face into a bloody pulp. Elsewhere, he pushes Cane out a high-rise window, twists a man’s head off, puts his fist through a railway conductor’s torso, embeds a cross into a priest’s skull and ignites Chicago on fire—twice. A mob attacks Cane, beats him bloody and hoists him up the side of a building on a makeshift cross. Cane unleashes heavy artillery on a gathering of satanists during their black mass, shooting several at close range. A subway crash leaves the devil’s borrowed body dismembered and beyond repair. Satan does a swan dive out of a window and crashes mightily into a parked car many stories below. Prophetic warnings are carved into a man’s chest. In a final act of valor, Cane throws himself on a sword, impaling Satan’s last chance of impregnating Christine. Audiences also get a heavy dose of explosions, conflagrations, imploding windows, flying pews, etc.

Crude or Profane Language: Most offensive are the numerous f-words and blasphemous uses of Jesus’ name. Other profanities creep in as well.

Drug and Alcohol Content: Cane is an alcoholic. He swigs from a bottle of vodka and also has various medications strewn across his kitchen sink. Satan has a drink as he chats menacingly with Cane. Without bothering to examine her, Christine’s doctor recommends drugs for her recurring nightmares. After a harrowing experience, Christine pops a few pills, explaining to Cane, “They relax me. You want one?,” to which he replies fliply, “No thanks, I drink.”

Summary: End of Days tries to combine apocalyptic intrigue with flurries of the high-octane, guns-a-blazin’ action Schwarzenegger fans pay to see. The result is a bloody, effects-heavy hodgepodge that makes less sense the more you think about it. The one worthwhile moment in the film involved Hollywood’s perennial terminator coming to the end of himself, dropping his weapon and asking God for help. Quite a statement. But it’s not worth enduring the rest of this violent, profane, spiritually dubious film just to hear Arnold pray.

Bob Smithouser

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End of days, common sense media reviewers.

Tired dud of an over-the top violent action movie.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Intense and extreme.

Extensive, including a threesome involving a mothe

Character with alcohol problem; drinking, smoking.

Parents need to know that this movie is in the upper ranges of the R rating, with some gross-out violence, a sexual threesome featuring a mother and daughter, and suicide portrayed as an heroic act.

Violence & Scariness

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Extensive, including a threesome involving a mother and daughter.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this movie is in the upper ranges of the R rating, with some gross-out violence, a sexual threesome featuring a mother and daughter, and suicide portrayed as an heroic act. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Based on 1 parent review

Sort-of fun, don't expect much from it

What's the story.

Once again Arnold Schwarzenegger has to save the world from destruction in this action movie. As the millennium draws near, so does the devil's one opportunity to bring about the apocalypse by impregnating a woman at 11:00 P.M., Dec. 31, 1999. The devil (Gabriel Byrne) arrives in New York City, and when a woman claims to have seen Mephistopheles, former cop turned bodyguard Jericho Cane (Schwarzenegger) must protect her from becoming mother to the devil incarnate.

Is It Any Good?

END OF DAYS is tired and tiring dud of an action film with a thin premise. Upon learning of the devil's plans, Schwarzenegger asks helpfully, "Is that Eastern Standard Time?" And luckily it is, so we can juxtapose the race to save humanity with the countdown at Times Square. The damsel in distress is named Christine, just in case we need a reminder that this is all deeply meaningful. And the good guys are straight out of a scriptwriting software package -- a disaffected former cop accompanied, of course, by a wisecracking sidekick.

Kids will want to see this movie because Arnold Schwarzenegger gets to fight the devil and lots of things get blown up. But parents should know that it is in the upper ranges of the R rating, with some gross-out violence, a sexual threesome featuring a mother and daughter, and suicide portrayed as an heroic act.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about some of the issues raised in this movie, including the theme of faith against force. They can also talk about whether it is right to sacrifice one innocent life to save millions, and the question of free will (one character sells his soul to the devil to stay alive and then struggles to do what he knows is right).

Movie Details

• In theaters : December 9, 1999
• On DVD or streaming : April 18, 2004
• Cast : Arnold Schwarzenegger , Gabriel Byrne , Robin Tunney
• Director : Peter Hyams
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Universal Pictures
• Genre : Action/Adventure
• Run time : 121 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : violence, sex, language
• Last updated : June 2, 2023

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END OF DAYS (1999)

END OF DAYS (1999) Directed by Peter Hyams

After their Wall Street client is shot at, private security officers Jericho and Chicago hunt down the man responsible. Discovering the culprit has ties to the church, they uncover a theory that the Devil himself has arrived in New York City and is destined to consummate with Christine, a woman chosen from birth to deliver the anti-Christ. With the intimate act to be performed in the final hour of 1999, Jericho has just days to track down Satan’s conquest and prevent them from ending the world as we know it.

Horror thriller END OF DAYS sees Arnold Schwarzenegger kick ass whilst trying to outrun the devil and prevent him from having his wicked way with an innocent young woman whilst the entire city counts down to their Millennium celebrations. It’s not exactly how anyone plans to see in the new year but it sure makes for an interesting premise, or at least I initially thought so…

Boasting an estimated $100 million budget, END OF DAYS   was certainly no minor movie to hit the screen in 1999 but you could be mistaken with the resulting effort. It’s likely that a large chunk of the money was spent on the numerous action scenes in the movie which add thrill and spectacle but don’t always sit right, especially watching the movie twenty years on. The action sequence at the beginning of the film, where a helicopter flies low across New York whilst hero Jericho (Arnie) hangs off a cable from it, attempting to catch the gun-toting priest, must have cost a pretty penny to execute. Despite this, the entire sequence has a B-movie style to it and feels way over the top given the built-up location and threat concerned. It’s not like the president has had an attempt on his life. The client is just some rich Wall Street banker but we’re meant to believe an ex-cop, private security officer is able to pull dangerous manoeuvres involving guns and helicopters without any repercussions? Well, in this version of 1999 it seems you can get away with allsorts.

I’d like to say it gets better but unfortunately exaggeration is what the film does best. In one of the more entertaining but equally daft action sequences is a fight scene between actress Miriam Margolyes and our hero Arnie. Never in my life would I have predicted I’d ever witness these two at war but here we have Margolyes, as Christine’s step-mother Mabel, furious with Jericho for keep interfering in their family’s business. It might not be as thrilling as the fight scene in They Live but Margolyes and Arnie definitely have an intense scrap that makes the furniture fly.

After the OTT opening action scenes, the film takes on a sinister vibe that teases a more thoughtful approach to what is a dark, sexual concept. We watch as Jericho and Chicago (Kevin Pollak) drive forwards with their investigation, the police department one step behind, as they unearth some disturbing truths. However, it’s at the hospital where things really get freaky in what is the most brutal part of the film as renegade priest Thomas Aquinas comes face-to-face with his nemesis.

For a film about the devil and the end of days, there’s quite a bit of humour involved whether intentional or not. Gabriel Byrne stars as the devil, managing to switch from portraying an everyday businessman to the epitome of dark sleaze as he’s taken over by the spirit of Lucifer that has singled him out as his vessel on Earth. Walking through NYC, causing death and destruction wherever he goes, Lucifer is a determined character who’ll stop at nothing until he gets his hands on Christine. He also has a neat party trick of urinating flammable liquid which comes in handy in one particular scene, even though we know he’s more than capable of just exploding whatever building he sees fit without whipping ‘it’ out.

Watching the film over two decades later reminded me of the hysteria we experienced in 1999 leading up to the year 2000. The news constantly spread fear about the Millennium bug dooming computers to crash throughout the world as soon as we hit ’00 (they reckoned that computers wouldn’t be able to handle the last two digits and would mistaken the year for 1900). The time in which this film was set was ‘end of days’ material in more ways than one. Then the clock struck midnight and the whole anxiety about the Y2K bug dissipated.

There’s lots of religious nods throughout the film as you’d expect in a movie dealing with good versus evil. Our lead character Jericho seems destined to be the saviour of the story. His initials J.C. (Jericho Cane), identical to that of Jesus Christ, are perhaps an in-joke or nod to that. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but he’s also nailed to a cross during the film which further reinforces the idea of the role he’s found himself in. Not that I’m saying he’s the embodiment of Christ but rather a protector or one of the ‘good guys’ to prevent the devil from making his goals a reality.

Whilst there’s aspects of END OF DAYS that are enjoyable, namely the bits in which Jericho investigates the shooter, overall the film feels too cringeworthy and daft to live up to its dark storyline. Even Arnie, who I usually love watching, isn’t enough to save this film from the depths with both script and on-screen action leaving much to be desired.

• Arnold Schwarzenegger
• Gabriel Byrne

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End Of Days review

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Take it away, gravelly-voiced man: ""It's the twilight of the millennium. The greatest force of evil threatens the future of humanity. Only one man can stop him". Schwarzenegger (sound of iron door slamming)... Satan (sound of another iron door slamming)... Showdown!" Well, the trailer could have gone something like that. And you can't deny that End Of Days gets the adrenalin glands twitching, with its promise to pit modern cinema's biggest action icon against Western civilisation's baddest bogeyman.

Arnie fans can relax: this ain't another Eraser (which was more yawn than brawn), and it's certainly not another Batman & Robin. You can safely expect the Austrian Oak to be back on form with this Se7en'd-up slab of gore-guzzling mayhem. Although most of the shocks are strictly of the cat-jumping-out-of-the-shadows standard (damn, that moggy's got a good agent), End Of Days does successfully maintain a gloomy atmosphere of menace, with a raincoated Schwarzenegger exploring dark corridors while waving a flashlight about, X-Files style. Walls are daubed with bloody, Satanic symbols, old tongueless priests are pinned to ceilings by scalpels and nightmarishly erotic hallucinations involve sex scenes reminiscent of gross-out flick Society.

Respect to director Peter Hyams, then, for resisting the urge to lay on the hi-octane set-pieces too thickly, and restraining his bulky star while warming the horror pot slowly enough to make its boiling over effective. Hyams encourages his lead man to try and flex those acting muscles, and so we see Arnie doing some very un-Arnie things: when we're first introduced to his character, he's sticking a gun in his mouth, and later on we even see him break down and (kind of) cry as he mourns the loss of his wife and child. Most surprisingly, in one scene he has the crap kicked out of him by the plump, motherly Miriam Margoyles.

But worry not. As the battle hots up, there's plenty of the usual one-handed machinegun firing, rocket launching and one-liner delivering (our favourite? ""Between faith and a Glock nine-millimetre, I'll take the nine-millimetre"").

As with most big-budget crash-slammers, however, the most entertaining element is the bad guy. Making Gabriel Byrne The Prince Of Darkness was a casting masterstroke. Byrne affects a zippy Brooklyn accent (which makes him sound oddly like Robert De Niro), and puts a spring into Satan's step.

It's the end of the world and every-one else is partying, so why shouldn't Ol' Nick join in too? Byrne's Devil is a horny old goat who revels in his ability to knock the life out of anyone who gets in his way - - including the hero. In fact,he so consistently whups Arnie's arse, that you begin to wonder how the Chumpy One could ever triumph. It's a testament to Byrne's presence that, once he's replaced by a gargantuan CG bat-demon, the film's appeal plummets drastically.

But to criticise End Of Days for its preposterous monster climax would be like criticising Deep Blue Sea for having an absurd plot. As far as no-brain entertainment goes, it's best summed up as one Hell of a movie.

Gruesome in some places, explosive in others, End Of Days keeps its horror gory and its action noisy. It won't win any awards, and it's not going to blow your mind, but the Arnie/Satan face-off delivers everything you'd expect: nothing more, nothing less.

The Total Film team are made up of the finest minds in all of film journalism. They are: Editor Jane Crowther, Deputy Editor Matt Maytum, Reviews Ed Matthew Leyland, News Editor Jordan Farley, and Online Editor Emily Murray. Expect exclusive news, reviews, features, and more from the team behind the smarter movie magazine. 

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Saturday 13 May 2017

Movie review: end of days (1999).

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END OF DAYS

"end of arnold".

What You Need To Know:

(C, FRFR, AbAb, LLL, VVV, SS, NN, AA, D, MMM) Mild Christian worldview that endorses faith in God & explicitly advocates fighting evil with goodness rather than fighting evil with evil, plus strong elements of false religion & anti-biblical content, some of it rebuked but including an unbiblical view of Satan & his powers; 47 mostly strong obscenities & about 13 mostly strong profanities plus some sexual references; extreme, graphic violence including Satanist kills rattlsnake & feeds blood to baby, scenes of flesh being ripped apart & beaten, Satan personally murders several people, man's neck deliberately broken, Satanists beat hero with clubs & pipes, Satan wrecks & burns two churches, many explosions, etc.; depicted fornication & main plot is about Satan planning to fornicate with woman to destroy mankind; upper female nudity; alcohol use, drunkenness & references to hero's problem with drinking too much; smoking; and, Satan plots dastardly deeds with his minions on earth & filmmakers combine story containing Christian themes with graphic sex, violence & foul language.

More Detail:

With the end of the millennium fast approaching, Hollywood has turned to the Book of Revelation to serve up several movies with apocalyptic visions. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s newest movie, END OF DAYS, is perhaps the biggest one so far. In the movie, Arnold plays an alcoholic ex-cop named Jericho who must prevent Satan from fornicating with a young woman between 11 p.m. and 12 midnight Dec. 31, 1999 so he, Satan, can ravage God’s Creation.

The gimmick of the movie is that, every thousand years, Satan gets out of his prison (see Revelation 20:7 – “when the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison”). When he does, he possesses the body of a selected man so he can fornicate with a chosen woman. As the Roman Catholic officials explain cryptically in the movie, this somehow will give Satan power to destroy all of mankind and, hence, foil God’s holy plan for His people. This is never really explained adequately in the movie, although the production notes say that the coupling of Satan with a woman will produce the notorious “Anti-Christ.”

Swarzenegger’s character Jericho at first doesn’t understand the bizarre, violent things happening around him. As he investigates, however, he runs into a small group of priests led by Father Kovak. Kovak, played by Rod Steiger, advises Jericho to mind his own business, partly because Jericho has lost his faith in God since some criminals brutally murdered Jericho’s wife and daughter several years ago. Jericho, however, soon finds out that Satan has possessed the body of a Wall Street banker, played by Gabriel Byrne. Jericho also learns that Satan is after a young woman named Christine York, played by Robin Tunney. He feels the need to protect this woman, and eventually Father Kovak spills the beans to him. Satan manages, however, to capture Christine while his thugs beat up Jericho. Nursed back to health by Father Kovak, Jericho engages in a final bloody battle of wills with Satan.

END OF DAYS is not a very engaging thriller, partly because Satan is just another particularly brutal movie monster, albeit with special powers and lots of religious connotations. The confrontations are kind of silly and at times seem intentionally reminiscent of the story in THE EXORCIST and its movie sequels. Arnold Schwarzenegger has little of the panache that made his earlier B movies so much fun. The physical challenges he faces are nothing that viewers really haven’t seen him do before, with much better style. It doesn’t help matters that director Peter Hyams (2010 and THE PRESIDIO) is, except perhaps for NARROW MARGIN starring Gene Hackman, pretty much of a Hollywood hack. Hyams should stop directing movies at once before he does further damage to the great history of cinema.

To its credit, END OF DAYS endorses the importance of having faith in God. There are scenes of the Pope urging his colleagues to have faith. Ultimately, Jericho himself regains some faith in God. Near the end of the movie, he even prays to God for strength while he stands before a statue of Jesus Christ on the Cross. Although Father Kovak says a throwaway line about God wanting us to save ourselves, he also urges people to have faith in God. Of course, the powers that Satan displays in this movie are not biblical. Satan cannot possess the body or soul of a person unless that person invites him, nor can he manipulate objects like he does so powerfully in END OF DAYS. Also, nowhere does the Bible prophecy, not even in Revelation 20:7 and its following verses, that Satan can destroy mankind and foil God’s ultimate plan for His people by fornicating with a young woman and producing the Anti-Christ.

What is so offensive about END OF DAYS, however, is not its distortion of Chapter 20 in Revelation or the fact that Satan displays stronger powers than he really has (though these are bad enough). No, what is most offensive is that the movie combines a story containing positive Christian themes and references to the Bible with scenes that include graphic sex, some nudity and lots of extreme, nasty violence that a few evil people and impressionable teenagers may want to emulate.

Thus, despite the fact that God does indeed seem to give Jericho strength to defeat Satan at the end of the movie, this is not a movie that anyone should rush out to see. If you must have your Ah-nold fix, you probably would do better by just renting one of his earlier movies instead.

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Life is short but art is long, the saying goes. And at two hours 43 minutes, “Do Not Expect…” is indeed long, divided into two lopsided chapters and so replete with provocative ideas that any given five-minute segment could emit enough intellectual energy to initiate fission in a small nuclear reactor. Its anarchic approach, full of digressions and addenda and footnotes that refuse to stay underfoot, is immediately apparent, with the first, longer chapter called “a dialogue” with 1981 film “Angela Moves On,” directed by Lucian Bratu, starring Dorina Lazar as a Bucharest taxi driver. Sure enough, the frenetic day-in-the-life escapades of our contemporary heroine, also called Angela (an electrifying Ilinca Manolache) are intercut with scenes from the older film, sometimes elegantly, more often with one of editor Catalin Cristutiu’s deliberately disruptive blunt-edged snips. It’s a conceit that yields fascinating parallels, that turn out not to be parallel but convergent, when Lazar’s Angela, now in her eighties, shows up unexpectedly in the modern-day storyline.   

The Angela of now – this film is so current it’s like it wrapped five minutes ago – has a thankless gig as a gofer for a local production company hired by an Austrian corporation to film a work-safety promo. In DP Marius Pandaru’s grainy, high-contrast black-and-white she rises blearily at an ungodly hour and stumbles naked across her bedroom, which is littered with empty bottles and paperback Prousts, to prep quickly for another 16-to-20-hour day running errands around Bucharest.

Today, Angela’s task is to tape interviews with workers who were injured on the job, so the Austrians, represented by the regally detached Ms. Goethe (Nina Hoss), can choose an appropriate mouthpiece for their video. Angela gets on well with her subjects, usually parting ways on a ribald joke — every encounter is studded with gags and anecdotes that range in tenor from juvenile to profound: Romanian dictator Ceausescu fixing football contests. Revered early cinema pioneer Georges Méliès filming mustard commercials. Porn stars who can only keep it up by pausing mid-thrust to log on to PornHub. Lowbrow gossip about Anthony Bourdain sits alongside glancing references to Karl Marx, ancient Egyptian burial practices and the infamous boxing prowess of German director Uwe Boll (played, of course, by Uwe Boll).

The cacophony of imagery and messaging is such effective, attention-stealing distraction from the broader forces of corporate exploitation, it’s no wonder that when driving Bucharest’s traffic-clotted roads, Angela chews gum, necks energy drinks, listens to thumping music and is still barely able to keep from passing out at the wheel. In Manolache’s extraordinary performance, she’s a highly relatable avatar for a generation swindled out of the very idea of leisure time or job satisfaction by the con that is the gig economy. But she is also wholly herself, an outlier weirdo with a brilliant magpie mind that throws off sparks like the sequins on her T-shirt dress — an outfit flashy enough to conceal its later accidental mussing during a brisk, efficient tryst with a lover inside her parked car.

On a drive in from the airport, Angela chats with Ms. Goethe, a woman who gives the impression of having coolly sold her soul to the devil (her great-great-great-grandfather was indeed the author of “Faust”) in return for a fat bonus check and an eternally ironed pantsuit. Angela mentions a treacherous road on the city’s outskirts that is lined with crosses commemorating those who have died in motoring accidents. And just like that, after all the frenzied hubbub, we are in a deathly silent stretch of montage, in which footage of 115 of those crosses unfolds unhurriedly, a dolorous reminder that it is always, as a wall clock with no hands announces, later than you think.

This somber sequence introduces the closing chapter. In a single unbroken, locked-off shot, Ovidiu (Ovidiu Pîrșan), the wheelchair-user chosen as spokesman by the Austrian overlords, delivers take after take of his testimonial, the truth of which dies a slow death by a thousand corporate cuts. All that wasted energy! All those pointless man-hours! It’s a process that demonstrates why, in Jude’s scathing, impish imagination, we shouldn’t expect too much from the end of the world: it comes not with a bang nor even a whimper, but with the realization that it’s been ending all along. We’ve just been kept too busy working to notice.

Reviewed at Locarno Film Festival (Competition), Aug. 3, 2023. Running time: 163 MIN. (Original title: "Nu aștepta prea mult de la sfârșitul lumii")

• Production: (Romania-Luxembourg-France-Croatia) A 4-Proof Film production in co-production with Paul Thiltges Distributions, Les Films d'Ici, Kinorama, Microfilm. (World sales: Heretic, Athens.) Producers: Ada Solomon, Adrian Sitaru. Co-producers: Adrien Chef, Paul Thiltges, Serge Lalou, Claire Dornoy, Ankica Jurić Tilić. 
• Crew: Director, writer: Radu Jude. Camera: Marius Pandaru. Editor: Catalin Cristutiu.
• With: Ilinca Manolache, Ovidiu Pîrșan, Nina Hoss, Dorina Lazar, Katia Pascariu, Laszlo Miske, Uwe Boll. (Romanian, English dialogue)

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