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Characters / The Prophecy

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Angels

    General Tropes 
  • Our Angels Are Different: No robe-wearing harpists here. Aside from being Winged Humanoids, angels have Super-Strength, Super-Speed, Made of Iron, Healing Factor, Super-Senses by taste, Hyperactive Metabolism, and can detect the presence of souls by looking into the mouths of humans and steal them via kissing. The bodies that they manifest on Earth lack eyes much less any optical nerves, their blood composition is that of an aborted fetus, and their bones lack any indicators of growth. They're also hermaphrodites as well. In order to destroy an angel, you have to remove its heart. The angels also have angelic brands somewhere on them to designate their identities. They also have an uncanny sense of balance, letting them perch anywhere without discomfort much less any issues with falling, make massive leaps through the air in a single bound, and their fingernails are black and sharp, much like bird claws or at least Lucifer's is. They also have a penchant for wearing longcoats and dusters, which are used to conceal their wings, which are visible in their shadows whenever they leap from high places to low places. Archangels have greater powers such as the ability to set people ablaze, bring people back from the dead until no longer needed in the case of Gabriel since he's the Angel of Death, or turn into flocks of birds to teleport.
  • Characterizing Sitting Pose: Angels often sit perched on their feet like birds, rather than sitting down like people, thus evoking the presence of wings.

    Gabriel 

Gabriel

Played by: Christopher Walken

One of Heaven's Archangels, Gabriel, fervently jealous of God's love for humans, comes to Earth in search of Colonel Hawthorne's soul to turn the tide of the Heavenly War in his favor.

  • Authority Equals Asskicking: It's implied he's the strongest of the rogue angels in the Angel Civil War and therefore their leader as many defer to his authority and see him as a source of strength. He's also strong enough to trounce any angel in a one-on-one fight save for Lucifer himself and it's implied he beat Lucifer and his army in the past with some help.
  • Adaptational Villainy: The Gabriel in Biblical Scripture is firmly on God's side; in The Prophecy films, he's a bad guy out to kill God's precious "monkeys." He pulls a Heel–Face Turn between the second and third films, though.
  • Affably Evil: Gabriel is a witty, charismatic guy and seems like he would be fun to hang out with if he weren't trying to destroy the human race. He drops the evil part in The Ascent.
  • Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: At the end of The Ascent, when his angelic powers are restored.
  • Badass Boast:
    • From the first movie:
      Gabriel: (to Katherine) I'm an angel. I kill firstborns while their mamas watch. I turn cities into salt. I even, when I feel like it, rip the souls from little girls, and from now till Kingdom Come the only thing you can count on in your existence is never understanding why.
    • Then you have this:
      Katherine: Go to Hell!
      Gabriel: Heaven, darling. Heaven. At least get the zip code right.
      Katherine: It's all the same to you, isn't it?
      Gabriel: No. In heaven, we believe in love.
      Katherine: What do you love, Gabriel?
      Gabriel: Cracking your skull.
    • From the second movie:
      Izzy: Please, can't you just let me die?
      Gabriel: Let's understand each other. I sang the first hymn when the stars were born. Not that long ago I announced to a young woman, a "Mary", who it was she was expecting. On the other hand, I've turned rivers into blood. Kings to cripples. Cities to salt. So, I don't think I have to explain myself to you.
    • From The Ascent:
      Zophiel: Killing you would be so easy.
      Gabriel: Yeah? Fried food can kill me. A mugger can kill me. You're not so special down here, Jones!
  • Bad Boss: In the first two films, he treated his human lackeys like shit.
  • Been There, Shaped History: Gabriel implies that he was at least partially responsible for the Ten Plagues of Egypt ("I kill firstborns while their mamas watch" and "I turned rivers to blood") and the whole Sodom and Gomorrah thing ("I turned cities to salt"). Plus he states he was the angel, as mentioned in the Biblical story, who told Mary that she was pregnant with Jesus and sang the first hymn when God created the stars.
  • Berserk Button: If he revives you to serve him, don’t complain about wanting to die. He hates that. He also hates it when people use profanity and will correct them immediately if occurred.
  • Big Bad: Of the first two movies. He pulls a Heel–Face Turn between the second film and The Ascent.
  • Big "SHUT UP!": His response to Jerry's wisecrack about not finding Hawthorne's soul in his grave in the first movie.
    Jerry: Bad news for the war effort, huh?
    Gabriel: SHUT UP!
  • Brought Down to Normal: At the end of the second movie, Gabriel is turned into a human by Michael.
  • Car Fu: In The Ascent, Gabriel arrives to save Danyael from Zophiel by hitting the angel with his car.
  • Celestial Paragons and Archangels: He's the Archangel Gabriel.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: A massive lover of this in addition to being a complete Sadist. His favorite torture tactic is beating victims to death or repeatedly setting them on fire.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Would you expect anything less from Christopher Walken?
  • Disney Villain Death: Downplayed. At the end of the second movie, Gabriel is too stunned by Valerie's claims that God told her to jump that he ends up plummeting to the ground with her, and he ends up impaled on a pole while Valerie is unharmed. Michael then walks up and turns him human, and he goes on to live as a mortal until the end of The Ascent, when he becomes an Archangel again.
  • Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Christopher Walken plays him. Averted in the third film, where his hair is gray.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Gabriel has no qualms about killing others, even his own kind, in pursuit of his goals, but he has a huge problem with people taking God's name in vain.
    Thomas: Goddammit!
    Gabriel: You're gonna have to watch it with that profanity!
  • Fantastic Racism: To put it in simple terms, Gabriel hates humanity and wants to wipe them out.
  • Fantastic Slur: Gabriel is awfully fond of calling humans "monkeys."
  • Faux Affably Evil: While Gabriel is genuinely Affably Evil most of the time, he becomes this whenever he is really pissed.
  • The Grim Reaper: Well, he is the Angel of Death. He can literally smell death and can detect any graveyard or corpse on Earth by smell. He can also slow down a person's rate of death after they are killed to bring them to life to serve as his minion and then let them die on a whim.
  • Heel–Face Turn: By the time of The Ascent, he's turned from his evil ways and works to help Danyael Rosales fulfill his destiny as The Chosen One.
  • Hopeless with Tech: In the first two movies, Gabriel doesn't know how to drive a car and can't work a computer to save his life, necessitating the need for human minions (Jerry, Rachael, Izzy). By The Ascent, he knows how to drive, which he notes to Zophael.
  • Humanity Ensues: By the time the events of The Ascent take place, Gabriel has adjusted to living as a human and takes pleasure in human things, like playing a horn, eating donuts and, apparently, having sex.
    Zophiel: "Make it like it was before the monkeys," remember? Or has this place completely befouled your senses?
    Gabriel: I like it here. I even learned to drive.
  • Implacable Man: He's basically a snarky Angel Terminator who will simply not stop until he gets his prey and nothing short of tearing out his heart will stop him. When hunting both human protagonists it takes Lucifer himself showing up to stop him the first time and the second time it took getting impaled and turned human by the Archangel Michael and he was still alive afterwards.
  • Jerkass: In the first two movies, he's as unpleasant as they can come. He's much nicer in The Ascent, though.
  • Kick the Dog: In the second film, when Izzy asks why he can't just let her die, Gabriel takes Izzy's hand and causes it to burn while telling her he doesn't have to explain himself to her.
  • Large Ham: It's Christopher Walken playing him, so this is to be expected.
  • Laughably Evil: Gabriel may be evil, but he's very entertaining to watch.
  • Mysterious Protector: To Danyael Rosales in The Ascent. After Valerie was murdered and young Danyael was pursued by the perpetrators, Gabriel hid the boy. Since then, he kept a close watch on Danyael, most likely to atone for his past deeds (like murdering Danyael's father in the second film).
  • Pride: Near the end of the first movie, Lucifer himself even points out that this is Gabriel's motivation.
  • Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "I will NOT! ALLOW! ANY! Talking monkey...to take my place!"
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: He gives a brief but scathing one to Lucifer in the first movie.
    Gabriel: Lucifer, sitting in your basement, sulking over your breakup with the boss...you're nothing.
  • Stealth Pun: In the third film, Gabriel is seen playing a horn along with some music playing on the car radio.
  • Suddenly Shouting: A couple of times in the first two films. ("I will NOT! ALLOW! ANY! Talking monkey...to take my place!" and "Where is it? Where did you put it? GIVE IT TO ME!")
  • Villain Protagonist: Of the first two films.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: Gabriel's motive for doing what he does in the first two films is because he feels that God doesn't talk to him anymore (though Valerie points out in the second movie that it isn't that God isn't talking to him; it's that Gabriel isn't listening).
  • Would Hurt a Child: In the first movie, Gabriel tells Thomas and Katherine at separate times that he's going to rip Mary apart in order to get Hawthorne's soul. In the second film, he prepares to rip Valerie and Danyael's unborn child out of Valerie's womb. Oh, and there's the whole thing about killing firstborns and ripping the souls from little girls.

    Simon 
Played by: Eric Stoltz (The Prophecy), Jason London (Uprising and Forsaken)

An angel who, seeking to oppose Gabriel's efforts to win the War in Heaven, takes Colonel Hawthorne's soul and hides it inside Mary.

  • Badass Bookworm: He's a physically unimposing angel capable of defending himself.
  • Body Horror: Gabriel sets him aflame after he refuses to divulge the whereabouts of Hawthorne's soul, leaving him a charred, barely-recognizable shell of an angel.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: In the final Prophecy movie, he's revealed to be Allison's biological father.
  • Decoy Protagonist: He seems like the main character, but Gabriel kills him halfway through. The role of a heroic angel (or an angel allied with the heroes) is instead filled by, of all things, Lucifer.
  • Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: "Oh, Gabriel...when was it you lost your grace?" He pays for it dearly.
  • Good is Not Nice: He is a pretty nice fellow, but he hides Hawthorne's soul inside Mary, a morally questionable act born out of desperation, and is a firm believer of Just Following Orders.
  • Just Following Orders: Simon argues to Gabriel that this is what angels are meant to do.
  • Killed Off for Real: By Gabriel halfway through the first movie.
  • Nice Guy: Simon is one of the nicest angels in the whole series.

    Uzziel 
Played by: Jeff Cadiente

Gabriel's lieutenant, sent to confront Simon and stop him from finding Hawthorne's soul.

  • The Brute: He's a beefy and tall angel.
  • Butt-Monkey: In his brief screentime, he is beaten up by Simon, thrown out a window, and hit by a car. Then his body is burnt to a crisp by Gabriel.
  • Destination Defenestration: Simon throws him out a window and he lands in the alley in time to get hit by a car.
  • The Dragon: To Gabriel, not that he sticks around long.
  • Killed Off for Real: He dies, but doesn't come back.
  • Sinister Shades: Wore a pair of these.
  • We Hardly Knew Ye: Uzziel only appears in the first hour or so of the movie, but he ends up killed and Gabriel later burns his body.

    Lucifer 

Lucifer

Played by: Viggo Mortensen (The Prophecy), Guri Weinberg (The Prophecy II), John Light (Uprising and Forsaken)

The Devil himself, the first angel that God created, and the ruler of Hell, Lucifer steps in to assist the protagonists for purely selfish reasons.

  • Badass Boast:
    Lucifer: I can lay you out and fill your mouth with your mother's feces, or we can talk.
  • Beard of Evil: Rocks one.
  • Being Evil Sucks: Mortensen's Lucifer is perhaps the most *joyless* Prince of Hell ever filmed. His rare chuckles are mirthless, his smiles even colder and emptier than his threats. Apparently losing God's "perfect love" is not something you get over, even if you're coeternal with the Universe.
  • Card-Carrying Villain: He doesn't pretend to be anything but the misanthropic Devil that he's infamous for, as seen when his first inclination to calm a shocked Katherine down is to threaten to fill her mouth with "your mother's feces" if she doesn't, and to claim he's the opposite of God.
  • Deadpan Snarker: He has a dry wit, though it only serves to make him creepier.
  • Evil Wears Black: He wears a cassock-like black getup.
  • Fantastic Racism: Gabriel isn't the only angel to call humans "monkeys," to say the least.
  • Faux Affably Evil: He is civil when he interacts with Thomas and Katherine, but any politeness is far from genuine and he makes it clear he is only on their side because it benefits him.
  • Foil: To Gabriel. Both of them are Archangels, both loved and were loved by God, both felt betrayed when He favored humanity, and both became evil in response. However, Gabriel is Affably Evil while Lucifer is definitely Faux Affably Evil. Gabriel, despite his hatred and envy for humans (seeing them as monsters ruining Creation), can get along with them, be polite to them, and can actually enjoy human things like food and modern conveniences; Lucifer, on the other hand, seems to loathe humans as vermin and takes no pleasure from anything on Earth or having to do with humanity—with the sole exception of their capacity for treachery and making war, which he claims exceeds that of any angel—and while Gabriel merely wanted to destroy humanity, Lucifer wants to make them suffer. Lastly, Gabriel wants to change things for (what he believes) to be the better, while Lucifer doesn't care about anything and seems to hold contempt for all things (he rips apart a flower and eats it, most likely just because it was a beautiful thing and he wanted to destroy it).
  • Knight of Cerebus: While there are elements of horror to the film, they are balanced by lots of humor and Gabriel is doing some really monstrous things, he's still well-intentioned and has a sense of humor, dark as it may be at times. Lucifer, on the other hand, is anything but nice, affable, or sympathetic.
  • Pragmatic Villainy: In the first film, Lucifer doesn't step in to aid the protagonists because he cares about them, but because he knows Gabriel succeeding in winning the angel war will just turn Heaven into another Hell, and that's one Hell too many.
  • Pride: Lucifer not only points out that this is Gabriel's motivation, but also remarks that, because pride is evil, that makes it his domain.
  • Satan: The name Lucifer didn't tip anyone off?
  • Waxing Lyrical: Lucifer remarks to Katherine that he was the very first angel, loved above all others, before finishing in a sing-song voice reference to Nick Lowe's "Withered on the Vine", "But like all true loves, one day it withered on the vine."

    Danyael 
Played by: Russell Wong

An angel who seduces and sleeps with Valerie, impregnating her with a child prophesied to bring an end to the war raging in Heaven.

    Raphael 
Played by: William Prael

    Michael 

Michael

Played by: Eric Roberts

The guardian of Eden.

  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives one to Gabriel during their standoff at Eden's gates.
    Gabriel: We're family. You know what I want.
    Michael: What you want has made you a walking tragedy, brother. Even Lucifer wouldn't have you. Surprising; since the two of you have so much in common.

    Zophiel 
Played by: Vincent Spano

An angel in the service of Pyriel, Zophiel comes to Earth to eliminate Danyael Rosales so he won't be able to fulfill his destiny.

    Pyriel 
Played by: Scott Cleverdon

An angel, also called the "White Sepulcher," who seeks to become the next God and eliminate humanity so he can create a new race.

  • Big Bad: Of The Ascent.
  • Evil Sounds Deep: His voice is fairly deep.
  • A God Am I: Zophiel even refers to him as "the next God."
  • Kill All Humans: His plan is to eradicate all of humankind so he can "sow the earth with a better seed."
  • Light Is Not Good: His name is said by Zophiel to mean "light of Heaven," but he's very bad news for humankind.

    Stark 
Played by: Tony Todd

The leader of the Thrones, a group of renegade angels.

Humans

    Thomas Daggett 
Played by: Elias Koteas (1st film) Bruce Abbott (2nd film)

A seminary school student who became a police detective after experiencing horrifying visions of angels and losing his faith in God, Thomas investigates a mysterious murder and soon finds himself in the middle of a violent war among the angels for the fate of Heaven and humankind.

  • Badass Normal: Simply put, Thomas holds his own pretty well against an Archangel, so he qualifies.
  • Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: When Gabriel confronts him in the second film, Thomas remarks how ironic it is that an Archangel needs a "monkey" to get a vision from God. It does NOT end well for Thomas.
  • Killed Off for Real: He dies in the second movie and isn't seen again afterward.
  • Sanity Slippage: He’s clearly lost some of his sanity by the time of the second film.
  • Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: After being a main character in the first movie, he returns in the sequel only to be killed off.

    Katherine Henley 
Played by: Virginia Madsen

A schoolteacher living in Arizona, Katherine is puzzled by the strange events that surround one of her students, Mary, and she soon finds herself fighting to protect Mary from Gabriel.

    Joseph 
Played by: Steve Hytner

Thomas' best friend, Joseph works as a coroner. In the first three movies, he finds himself dealing with unusual phenomena.

  • The Cameo: Despite not physically appearing in Uprising, he makes a brief appearance on an internet chat.
  • The Coroner: His job.
  • Deadpan Snarker: He tends to make a lot of sarcastic quips.
  • Here We Go Again!: His reaction in The Ascent after Danyael Rosales is murdered and he remembers that his mother was Valerie Rosales, whom he met briefly in the second movie and warned not to get further involved in the whole angel mess.
  • I Need a Freaking Drink: He hits the bottle while researching angels in The Ascent.
  • Recurring Character: He is the only human side character to appear in the first three films, and he makes a brief appearance in The Uprising on an internet chat.

    Colonel Hawthorne 
Played by: Patrick McCallister

A Korean War veteran who recently died, his soul becomes the sought-after MacGuffin for Gabriel to win the War in Heaven.

  • Child Hater: Catherine remarks to Thomas that Hawthorne hated children.
  • Court-martialed: The roll of film that Thomas finds includes scenes from his court martial for war crimes.
  • I'm a Humanitarian: Film taken from the battlefield implies that he was eating the hearts of his slain enemies.
  • Killed Off for Real: His soul is destroyed by divine intervention, which effectively means he is Deader than Dead.
  • MacGuffin: His soul serves this function in the first movie.
  • Politically Incorrect Villain: While possessing Mary, Hawthorne remarks that the Chinese soldiers don't bleed like Americans do, and that they needed to have their hearts cut out.
  • Sealed Inside a Person-Shaped Can: Simon hides Hawthorne's soul inside Mary's body so that Gabriel can't find it.
  • Sociopathic Soldier: In life, Hawthorne was of the second flavor. In fact, it's why Gabriel desperately wants the man's soul to win the War in Heaven. Gabriel described Hawthorne as the cleverest, meanest, sickest "talking monkey" on Earth before his death.

    Mary 
Played by: Moriah "Shining Dove" Snyder

A young Native American girl who befriends Simon when she finds him hiding out in an abandoned part of her school; this, unfortunately, leads to her becoming the vessel of Colonel Hawthorne's soul, which makes her a target for Gabriel.

  • Continuity Cameo: She's absent from the second movie, but makes a cameo in The Ascent to tell Danyael it's his destiny to defeat Pyriel.

    Jerry 
Played by: Adam Goldberg

A man who committed suicide, only for Gabriel to bring him back to life so he can help the rogue angel in his plan to obtain Hawthorne's soul.

  • Body Horror: He is slowly rotting through the entire film.
  • Boom, Headshot!: How Thomas kills him.
  • Deadpan Snarker: He has a habit of sarcastically mocking Gabriel.
  • Death Seeker: He's really not enthused about being Gabriel's henchman. When he gets re-fatally shot, he cheerily thanks Thomas for doing it.
  • Driven to Suicide: He killed himself, only to be brought back by Gabriel.
  • Major Injury Underreaction: He is nonchalant about slowly rotting from the inside and being shot by Thomas only causes him to thank Thomas.
  • Minion with an F in Evil: He is a competent henchman and does a lot of the grunt work, but he mouths off to Gabriel pretty much all the time and at on every point reads a magazine while Gabriel fights Simon.
  • Our Zombies Are Different: He is sentient and keeps his personality, but he is also forced to serve Gabriel and is slowly rotting.

    Rachael 
Played by: Amanda Plummer

A deathly ill woman who dies in the hospital, only to be brought back to life by Gabriel to serve as his new lackey after Jerry is shot and killed by Thomas.

  • Death Seeker: She really wants to die, since she saw Heaven and wishes to go there, as well as the fact that she is trapped in a rotting and disease-ridden body.

    Valerie Rosales 
Played by: Jennifer Beals

A hapless nurse who falls for the charms of a mysterious stranger named Danyael and ends up pregnant with a half-human child foretold to end the War in Heaven.

  • Broken Bird: She describes her life in a dismal light since she mainly takes care of terminally ill children but her job has taken its emotional toll on her and she only does it for a paycheck. She also described herself as being divorced after a three year and three month relationship with a parasitic ex-husband who put her in debt.
  • Florence Nightingale Effect: How she meets Danyael in the second movie.
  • Gratuitous Spanish: In one scene with her grandmother.
  • Hospital Hottie: She worked as a nurse, and was reasonably attractive.
  • Imperiled in Pregnancy: In fact, Gabriel corners her and prepares to rip the fetus out of her. Fortunately, Danyael arrives to stop him.
  • Interspecies Romance: With Danyael, the result being their son Danyael Rosales.
  • Killed Off for Real: Dies in the third movie and doesn't come back.
  • Missing Mom: To Danyael Rosales in the third film. A flashback shows she was murdered.
  • Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: After being an important character in the second movie, she gets killed off in The Ascent.

    Izzy 
Played by: Brittany Murphy

A suicidal teenager who finds herself in the service of Gabriel after she attempts to take her own life, and Gabriel resurrects her to be his accomplice.

  • Interrupted Suicide: An odd example. After she drives the car she and her boyfriend Julian are riding in into a brick wall, Julian dies but Izzy is left in what Gabriel terms "intensive care," meaning he's able to resurrect her with ease.
  • Suicide by Cop: She tricks Gabriel into killing her by wearing Danyael's coat (which Danyael had earlier given to Valerie, whom Izzy found) and leaping out at Gabriel, who reflexively pushes her away, causing her to end up impaled and leading him to let her die.
  • Together in Death: She tearfully pleads with Gabriel to let her die so she can be with Julian in the afterlife. After she dies for real in the final act, she tells Gabriel she'll tell Julian he (Gabriel) says "hi," but Gabriel hints she's going to Hell.

    Danyael Rosales 
Played by: Dave Buzzota

The hybrid son of Valerie Rosales and the angel Danyael, Danyael Rosales is prophesied to bring an end to the War in Heaven.

    Maggie 
Played by: Karyn Ann Butler

Danyael Rosales's girlfriend.

    Zealot 
Played by: Brad Dourif

A blind man hired by Zophiel to assassinate Danyael. He shoots Danyael but fails to cut out his heart. He then commits suicide.

    Allison 
Played by: Kari Wührer

    Dani Simionescu 
Played by: Sean Pertwee

    Laurel 
Played by: Doug Bradley

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