The Omega Code

The Omega Code
DVD cover
Directed by	Robert Marcarelli
Produced by	Matthew Crouch (also executive producer) for Code Productions and Gener8Xion Entertainment
Written by	Stephan Blinn Hollis Barton
Starring	Casper Van Dien Michael York Catherine Oxenberg Michael Ironside Devon Odessa
Music by	Alan Howarth Harry Manfredini
Cinematography	Carlos González
Editing by	Katina Zinner Peter Zinner
Studio	Gener8Xion Entertainment
Distributed by	Providence Entertainment
Release date(s)	October 15, 1999 (1999-10-15)
Running time	100 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$7,600,000[1]
Box office	$12,615,000[2]

The Omega Code is a 1999 thriller film directed by Robert Marcarelli, starring Casper Van Dien as the protagonist, Dr. Gillen Lane, and Michael York as the antagonist. Its main plot presents an Evangelical Christian view about the millennium, and a plot by the Antichrist to take over the world. The film is based on a novel written by televangelist Paul Crouch, head of the Trinity Broadcasting Network, which occasionally airs the movie on its cable television station. It spawned a prequel that disregarded the events in this film while telling the story of how the Antichrist rose to power. The prequel, Megiddo: The Omega Code 2, had a larger budget than the original but proved less popular.^{[citation needed]}

Plot

The movie begins in Jerusalem, where a rabbi named Rostenburg is typing a code from the Bible onto his laptop computer. An aiming laser is shown pointing at his chest, and he is shot and killed. The man who shot him is shown wearing a rabbi's outfit, and then leaving with the computer's disk containing the code. Following this, two mysterious men take a page out of Rostenburg's sweater and keep it. These mysterious men get in the way of the assassin as he is leaving the scene, leading to the latter surrendering his gun before being allowed to leave.

The scene shifts to the back stage of a talk show, hosted by Cassandra Barashe (Catherine Oxenberg), where Dr. Gillian Lane (Casper Van Dien), an author and speaker, is getting ready to go onto the stage. He is then shown coming on and explaining his book and how the Old Testament is a passage to our past, present, and future. After the show, he is shown returning home and visiting his ex-wife and daughter on the latter's birthday.

Stone Alexander (Michael York) is then shown speaking at a peace ceremony in Rome on how he has fed the hungry in Africa with water and food wafers. Dr. Lane is portrayed as being there to visit and "enjoy some fine champagne and to support a worthy cause." It is revealed to the audience that the man who killed the rabbi in the beginning is Stone's apprentice, Dominic (Michael Ironside). Dr. Lane meets with Cassandra, and the two form an alliance.

Lane and Stone are then portrayed as making a worldwide tour of goodwill such as one related to the establishment of the Palestinian state. Stone also makes a seven-year peace treaty with the Palestinians and the Israelis before moving on to other regions of the globe. In the meantime, Lane's family is shown not being able to see him because of his busy schedule.

After three-and-a-half years, Lane discovers that Stone had been using the computer code that was shown in the beginning of the movie. This code is based on what is called the 3-D study of the Bible, where prophetic messages are revealed. Stone and his bodyguard find Lane, which upon Stone requests him to be his prophet. He asks Dominic to leave, but Dominic, in an anger of being left out all the time pulls out his gun and says, "You said I would be the prophet!" He then shoots Stone, but fails to shoot Lane. As Stone is dying, he logs in the next code. Dominic lies over the radio stating that Lane just shot Stone, which later leads to a worldwide manhunt. People around the world hold funerals for Stone. Lane, meanwhile, is about to take off in an airplane when he remembers what Rostenburg said about the Torah containing the genetic code of the universe. Because Rostenburg didn't enter the final code, Satan enters Stone's body so he can continue the plans. Later in the movie, he obtains the final code via tempting Cassandra to threaten Lane by handgun. Stone proclaims himself high king and God at a coronation. He angers the two prophets, who start saying verses from the Bible when Stone demands them to "show us all a sign, right here, right now!" one responds "It is a wicked and perverse generation who asks for a sign. But like Christ, your only sign will be this: destroy these temples of His holy prophets and the Lord will rebuild them in 3 days!" To that, Stone says "It will be my pleasure!" They are then killed by Dominic while Stone says to keep them on display to show what will happen if anyone who defies him, invoking a general protest from both Muslims and Jews. Alexander manages to leave via helicopter, vowing to make an example of Jerusalem. Meanwhile, the last code is shown to be a fake (the true code was with the prophets).

Stone then leads armies to Jerusalem as it is the first to withdraw from the global alliance. The two prophets are resurrected. Lane appears with the code. Stone lies that he'll call off the attack if Lane will enter the final code. Lane does so. Stone is about to commence the destruction of Jerusalem, "On my mark, 3,2 and" when a bright light appears from heaven, sending Satan back to where he came from, leaving Stone dead again and freeing Cassandra. The film closes as we see what the final code said from the start of the movie: Dawn of New Millennium.

Production and Distribution Companies for The Omega Code

The film was produced by Code Productions in cunjunction with Eclipse Catering, TBN's Gener8Xion Entertainment and TBN Films. It was first aired on Trinity Broadcasting Network in 2000, and then distributed by TBN on video and released over the internet in 2002.

Other Distributors

• Higher Dreams (1999) (Spain) (theatrical)
• Providence Entertainment (1999) (USA, theatrical)
• At Entertainment (2000) (Japan, on video)
• Eagle Entertainment (2001) (Australia, theatrical)
• Argentina Video Home (Argentina, video)
• Califórnia Home Vídeo (Brazil, VHS only)
• Dutch FilmWorks (DFW) (2001) (Netherlands only on DVD)
• GoodTimes Home Video (2000) (2002) (USA, only on DVD)
• Laurus Entertainment (2001) (Netherlands) (VHS)
• RTL Entertainment (2003) (Netherlands) (TV, RTL5) (broadcast premiere)

Film Reviews

The film received mostly negative reviews. The website Rotten Tomatoes gives The Omega Code a rating of 8%.^[3] Joe Leydon, writing in Variety, describes the movie as "laughably simplistic and confoundingly muddled."^[4] Entertainment Weekly said that the film "gives 'Great Tribulation' new meaning,"^[5] and MaryAnn Johanson called Casper Van Dien's acting "shockingly incompeten[t]."^[6]

References

1. ^ The Internet Movie Database[1] says $8mio, while The Numbers[2] give $7.2mio; the number presented here is the middle.
2. ^ As per IMDb's website.
3. ^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/omega_code/
4. ^ http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117752258.html?categoryid=31&cs=1
5. ^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/author/author-3029/
6. ^ MaryAnn Johanson, "The Omega Code (Review): Signs and Blunders," FlickFilosopher, May 14, 2000.

External links

• The Omega Code at the Internet Movie Database
• The Omega Code at The Numbers