Religious Themes in Film

Lesson 8: The Omen and The Prophecy: It’s the end of the world as we know it.

The Omen: More Father/Son Problems

“I don’t know if we’ve just got the heir to the Thorn millions here or Jesus Christ himself.” – Reporter Keith Jennings commenting on Damien Thorn, the antichrist child.

The classic film The Omen is less about the antichrist, and more about what it is like being the father of the antichrist. In the movie, American diplomat Robert Thorn slowly discovers that his son is the antichrist. Of course, the demons that accompany the kid have already wiped out Thorn’s wife, the nanny, and a couple other endearing characters.

In the final scene, Robert Thorn is commanded by God to kill his son (in the sense that Thorn has to do it in order to save the world). Frankly, the kid himself isn’t that evil. He seems to inspire evil, but he hasn’t done any of the killing himself. Robert Thorn finds himself in the same position as Abraham was when he was told to sacrifice his only son.

Instead of an angel, a bullet from a policeman’s gun stops Thorn.

The term antichrist takes on a number of meanings in the New Testament. 1 and 2 John are actually the only places where the word “antichrist” (meaning counter-messiah) is used. The writer or writers of those two letters appear to be referring to a person or a community that were preaching a different doctrine than the “mainstream” Christians.

Most likely, this was a Gnostic group basing their beliefs on a Gnostic text. Perhaps the “antichrist” doctrine that John is critiquing is the Gnostic group’s idea that Christ was all god and not human at all.

The antichrist as a single person is referred to in Paul and in Revelation, though the word “antichrist” is not used. Paul uses the phrase “lawless one,” who is controlled by Satan and will mislead the people. The Book of Revelation uses the term “the Beast” to describe a person who will lead people away from the truth.

Revelation is the biblical book one turns to if one wants to learn about the End Times. From its pages, rich stories of demons and antichrists have been mined for the movies and great lyrics have been found for heavy metal hair bands. The immensely popular Christian “Left Behind” novel series takes its plotlines from Revelation’s pages. Revelation is where you go when you want to know what signs to look for at the end of the world.

The film The Omen uses Revelation when it talks about the birthmark on Satan’s child: the number of the beast, 666 (Revelation 13:18)

The problem with Revelation, of course, is that it’s rather Campbellesque. The writer of Revelation is recounting a dream and so we are prone to all the pitfalls of dreams: Are we talking about metaphors and symbols here – Campbell’s hero adventures in the psyche? Or are we talking literal, or on a level more spiritual, involving gnosis? Just what kind of dream is the Greek god Morpheus sending us?

That does not mean that Revelation is useless to us. It just needs some careful reading. That reading should consider how certain symbols and themes are used in the Bible. (666 is the amount of gold that Solomon receives every year, and so it seems to symbolize material wealth and commerce.) A close reading should also consider how certain symbols are used in other cultures and what “bells” ring with that reading.

The Book of Revelation is almost like a movie. It is telling a story, but it is also teaching moral lessons and using symbols and themes to teach this moral lesson.

Contemporary movies, of course, are not the same as sacred scripture. But, like all art, they are worth a second look (and perhaps a third and fourth) in order to find the deeper meanings. Do some exploring with these End Times movies (with your Bible in hand). Tell me what you find.

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