Michael is a 1996 comedy-fantasy film directed by Nora Ephron and starring John Travolta as Archangel Michael.
The film starts with the workings of the "National Mirror", a Chicago-based tabloid which specializes in unbelievable tales. Vartan Malt (Bob Hoskins), the editor, has just heard the story of an old woman living with an actual angel somewhere in rural Iowa. He immediately sends a team to investigate. Well, it's not exactly the best team, but it will have to do. Frank Quinlan (William Hurt), is a cynical reporter whose career has declined over the years. Huey Driscoll (Robert Pastorelli) is a naive photographer. His main claim to fame is bringing to the newspaper Sparky the Wonder Dog, its recognizable mascot. The dog joins missions and has become a media darling, since for some reason the public loves it. The trio is accompanied by newbie Dorothy Winters (Andie MacDowell), a supposed "angel expert". Actually, a dog trainer intended to replace Huey, not that the other two know.
The trio visit the elderly Pansy Milbank (Jean Stapleton) and meet her housemate Michael. He has the wings of an angel. But hardly the stereotypical behavior. Michael is a womanizer, a chain-smoker, addicted to sweets and his speech contains several vulgarisms. He claims that angels are allowed to take vacations on Earth. Well, this is the last vacation allowed to him. He is going to enjoy it to the fullest.
Milbank suddenly dies. Michael joins our trio in a road trip to Chicago. He wants to see the Sears Tower before leaving for good. Several events follow. Including Sparky getting killed by a truck and then resurrected by Michael. Meanwhile, sexual tension develops between Frank and Dorothy. Which leaves them uneasy, because they have a history of poor relationships. By the end of the film, Michael departs. After ensuring that Frank and Dorothy are getting married. As he explained much earlier in the film, "I invented marriage".
This film provides examples of:
- Angels in Overcoats: Although it's autumn in Iowa and everyone's wearing overcoats, the titular angel wears a trenchcoat most of the time, indoors and out, specifically to hide his wings.
- Art Imitates Art: The bar brawl with Michael fighting with a pool cue and garbage can lid is very similar to many famous Renaissance paintings of Michael fighting Satan.
- Bar Brawl: Instigated by Michael's Chick Magnet aura, he and Frank are briefly Back-to-Back Badasses, its even in the rating's discriptor .
- Blood Knight: Well, he is an archangel. Specifically, he's the angel of battle, who led God's armies against Satan and is considered the patron of military and law enforcement. This being a comedy, however, this only surfaces when he challenges a bull (and wins) and gets into a Bar Brawl. (Michael is also considered a healer, which can explain his restoring Sparky to life and his In Mysterious Ways actions below.
- Brush-Off Walk-Off: After failing the assignment to bring Michael to their editor, Malt, Quinlan announces that he's quitting, and walks away. Malt calls after him, wanting to know who's going to fight with him now, but Quinlan is paying him absolutely no mind.
- Bubbly Waitress: The titular angel entices a bubbly waitress (played by Joey Lauren Adams) to spend the night with him. She's apparently The Ditz, as she is overheard, upon discovering Michael is an angel, saying, "Wings? Far out!"
- Cast from Hit Points: At one point Michael is able to bring Sparky back to life after the dog is hit by a car, but at the cost of most of the energy remaining to him for his current time on Earth.
- Character Title
- Crazy Consumption: Apparently when you're an angel, adding eight spoonfuls of sugar to anything you eat is par for the course.
- The Defroster: Michael strongly implies that defrosting Quinlan is precisely why he's currently on Earth.
- In Mysterious Ways: Michael's end goals become increasingly clear as the movie goes on, but he rarely pursues them in the most obvious way. For instance, we find out early on that Dorothy is an amateur songwriter who wants to be a musician, and Michael suspiciously demands that she sing on command for him exactly once in exchange for him going. The expectation is that he is going to make her sing at the right time and be recognized for her talent, and indeed the group ends up at a packed bar with an open mic competition halfway through. But instead of making her sing on stage as expected, he instead makes her sing for her friends - and their positive response give her the confidence to sing on stage without being made to.
- Eventually Frank scoffs at this notion later on, at the idea that Michael will somehow create a convoluted Meet Cute for him and Dorothy to reunite. The situation he jokingly describes looks like it's about to happen later, but then turns out to be dud... only for Michael to show up and just lead the two to each other directly.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Michael himself.
- Love Angel: While Michael is an archangel (and speaks about kicking Satan out of heaven at one point), he plays matchmaker for Frank and Dorothy.
- Our Angels Are Different: Michael, being an archangel, is far more rough around the edges than what most people come to expect. The only thing really angel-like about him is that he has wings. He says so himself: "I'm not that kind of angel."
- Punch! Punch! Punch! Uh Oh...: Punching an archangel in the face doesn't tend to work that well.
- Satan: Michael is supposed to have kicked his ass, but that was a long time ago.
- Louis Cypher averted :
Michael: Then what happened was, he came as a hundred mouths, open and stinking with decay... and he tore at my flesh from every angle of Heaven. I grabbed Beelzebub's blue tongue in my fist...Grandpa: Woah man, who is Beelzebub ?Michael: Beelzebub is Satan.Grandpa [impressed] : Oh. Satan. - Shipper on Deck: Michael when it comes to Frank and Dorothy.
- Training the Pet: Dorothy was hired by Malt to secretly train Sparky so that he could take him from Huey. To keep it on the downlow, Malt tells Huey and Quinlan that Dorothy is an expert on Angels. The titular Angel, Michael, knows the truth, and threatens to expose her if she doesn't join them on their road trip.
- The Troublemaker: The titular Angel, Michael, is deliberately stirring up trouble during a road trip from an Iowa farm to Chicago, but mostly because he's trying to act as The Defroster to the emotionally closed off Quinlan. In the course of a few days, he causes the group to have a flat tire, he gets them arrested for a bar room brawl, and various other hijinks. But, as Hewey points out, whatever trouble he gets them into, he also invariably gets them out of as well.
