End of Days (1999)
★½ — End of Days (1999)
Released in the final weeks of 1999, End of Days arrived at a moment when millennial anxiety was genuinely part of the cultural conversation, and Beacon Communications were clearly banking on that mood. The film reunites Schwarzenegger with director Peter Hyams, who had previously guided him through the reasonably successful Eraser (1996), though Hyams is perhaps better known for Outland (1981) and the Kubrick follow-up 2010 (1984). The hundred-million-dollar budget was a substantial commitment for a studio-backed thriller outside the major Hollywood infrastructure, and the film ultimately returned just over double that at the global box office. For Schwarzenegger personally, it represented a conscious attempt to shift into darker, more morally complicated territory following his post-Terminator run of lighter action fare and family comedies through the mid-1990s.
End of Days (1999) is the kind of film that thrives on pure 90s excess. Arnold Schwarzenegger as a grizzled ex-cop turned alcoholic bodyguard who gets caught in a satanic apocalypse, Gabriel Byrne oozing evil as the Devil himself, and enough explosions, church-set brawls, and “Hasta la vista, baby” energy to power a small city. I remember watching it on VHS with friends back in the day and thinking, Yeah, this is kinda cool. It had that post-Terminator gravitas, gothic horror vibes, and Arnie at his most deadpan badass. But revisiting it as an adult... Oh boy. It’s absolutely awful. Laughably over-the-top, tonally ridiculous, and drenched in religious cheese that tries way too hard to be profound. The plot: Satan comes to New York to impregnate a woman at midnight on New Year’s Eve so he can birth the Antichrist. Arnold, armed with holy water, a shotgun, and sheer Austrian willpower, must stop him. It’s not just silly, it’s earnestly silly, like everyone involved forgot they weren’t making The Omen. The dialogue is cringe-worthy, the action is loud but uninspired, and the spiritual themes are about as subtle as a sledgehammer wrapped in a crucifix. Even the score is more melodramatic opera than effective tension-building. Not good by any measure, but occasionally funny in how seriously it takes its own ridiculousness. A guilty pleasure for Arnie fans.
Rating: ★½ | Year: 1999 | Watched: 2025-10-28
Where to watch (UK)
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Peter Hyams: Timecop (1994)
More with Arnold Schwarzenegger: Batman & Robin (1997) · Last Action Hero (1993) · Predator (1987) · Terminator Genisys (2015)
More from the 1990s: Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Shinjuku Boys (1995) · Blue (1993) · Cemetery Man (1994)
More action: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · The General (1926) · Hand of Death (1976) · Daredevil (2003)
More horror: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Viy (1967) · Nightmare City (1980) · Angst (1983)
