The Prophecy 3: The Ascent
Encyclopedia
The Prophecy 3: The Ascent is a fantasy
horror
-thriller film, and the third motion picture (of five) in The Prophecy series
. Christopher Walken
and Steve Hytner
reprise their roles as the Archangel
Gabriel
and the coroner
Joseph, respectively. As the war in Heaven
and on Earth
rages on, Pyriel
(Scott Cleverdon
), the Angel
of Genocide
, arises with the intention of destroying all humankind; the only one who can stop him is Danyael (Dave Buzzotta), a Nephilim
born of an angel and a human woman. However, Danyael is unaware of his purpose until he learns it from Gabriel (who became a human at the end of The Prophecy II
). Gabriel acts as Danyael's guardian while Zophael
(Vincent Spano
) seeks out Danyael. The fate of humankind hangs in the balance as Danyael sets out to confront Pyriel and fulfill his destiny.
, he has some of the angels' abilities, such as regeneration
, and can only be killed if his heart
is removed. One night, a blind assassin shoots Danyael as he preaches before a crowd, but the assassin is driven off before he can take out Danyael's heart, and Danyael is able to regenerate while lying in the city morgue. As punishment for his failure, Zophael kills the assassin and starts going after Danyael himself with an extendable bladed weapon (the blade can be turned into a three-pronged hook) with which he plans to use to remove Danyael's heart, killing him for good. However, Danyael is protected by Gabriel, a now-human fallen angel who killed Danyael's father and performed many misdeeds. After being defeated by Danyael's mother, Gabriel was turned into a human as punishment. He has spent eighteen years as a human, and realized how wrong he was in the past so has now switched sides.
Zophael manages to convince Danyael's girlfriend Maggie to work with him on killing Danyael, but she realizes she's on the wrong side and tries to shoot the angel. It has little effect on Zophael, and he tells her what he is. Frightened, Maggie agrees to help him, and the two catch up to Danyael on a Native American
reservation, where he is going to confront Pyriel, another angel who wants to overthrow God
. Danyael briefly meets Mary, a Native American woman (first introduced as a child in the first film
). Mary informs Danyael that she dreamed of his coming, and that she believes he will be victorious against Pyriel. After parting from Mary, Danyael is attacked by Zophael, crashing Maggie's truck and badly injuring her. He then faces off against Danyael in battle, and seemingly defeats him by impaling his chest with a motorcycle
tailpipe, but the angel gets back up and uses his weapon to impale Danyael from behind. Before Zophael can remove Danyael's heart, Maggie empties her gun into him, stunning him. Danyael takes his chance and removes Zophael's heart through the hole he created earlier, finally killing him.
Danyael heads off to face Pyriel, armed with Zophael's weapon while Gabriel watches over Maggie. He confronts Pyriel, but is no match for him, although he succeeds in impaling him with Zophael's weapon. Pyriel is about to win when God seemingly sends down a lightning bolt
, electrocuting the weapon and, through it, Pyriel, weakening him. Danyael extends the blade into its prong form and removes Pyriel's heart with it, killing him and apparently ending the war in Heaven. He returns to Gabriel and Maggie, who is on the verge of death. Maggie is saved when Gabriel is given a second chance and becomes an angel again; he heals her wounds on his way back to Heaven.
Fantasy film
Fantasy films are films with fantastic themes, usually involving magic, supernatural events, make-believe creatures, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered to be distinct from science fiction film and horror film, although the genres do overlap...
horror
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
-thriller film, and the third motion picture (of five) in The Prophecy series
The Prophecy (franchise)
The Prophecy is a fantasy horror-thriller film franchise which focuses on angels fighting each other to protect the survival of the human soul. Produced by Dimension Film, the series was established in 1995 with eponymous first installment,The Prophecy, which has since been followed by four sequels...
. Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken is an American stage and screen actor. He has appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows, including Joe Dirt, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, The Prophecy trilogy, The Dogs of War, Sleepy Hollow, Brainstorm, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New...
and Steve Hytner
Steve Hytner
Stephen Arthur "Steve" Hytner is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his role as Kenny Bania in Seinfeld...
reprise their roles as the Archangel
Archangel
An archangel is an angel of high rank. Archangels are found in a number of religious traditions, including Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Michael and Gabriel are recognized as archangels in Judaism and by most Christians. Michael is the only archangel specifically named in the Protestant Bible...
Gabriel
Gabriel
In Abrahamic religions, Gabriel is an Archangel who typically serves as a messenger to humans from God.He first appears in the Book of Daniel, delivering explanations of Daniel's visions. In the Gospel of Luke Gabriel foretells the births of both John the Baptist and of Jesus...
and the coroner
Coroner
A coroner is a government official who* Investigates human deaths* Determines cause of death* Issues death certificates* Maintains death records* Responds to deaths in mass disasters* Identifies unknown dead* Other functions depending on local laws...
Joseph, respectively. As the war in Heaven
Heaven
Heaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...
and on Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
rages on, Pyriel
Puriel
Puriel is an angel who appears in the apocryphal work of the Testament of Abraham, the 2nd century apocalyptic tale of Abraham's journey to heaven...
(Scott Cleverdon
Scott Cleverdon
Scott Cleverdon is a Scottish actor best known as the angel Pyriel in the movie The Prophecy 3: The Ascent. He has also done significant voice acting....
), the Angel
Angel
Angels are mythical beings often depicted as messengers of God in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles along with the Quran. The English word angel is derived from the Greek ἄγγελος, a translation of in the Hebrew Bible ; a similar term, ملائكة , is used in the Qur'an...
of Genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
, arises with the intention of destroying all humankind; the only one who can stop him is Danyael (Dave Buzzotta), a Nephilim
Nephilim
The Nephilim are the offspring of the "sons of God" and the "daughters of men" in Genesis 6:4, or giants who inhabit Canaan in Numbers 13:33. A similar word with different vowel-sounds is used in Ezekiel 32:27 to refer to dead Philistine warriors....
born of an angel and a human woman. However, Danyael is unaware of his purpose until he learns it from Gabriel (who became a human at the end of The Prophecy II
The Prophecy II
The Prophecy II is a fantasy horror-thriller film and the second motion picture in The Prophecy series. Christopher Walken and Steve Hytner reprise their roles as the Archangel Gabriel and the coroner Joseph, respectively.-Plot:...
). Gabriel acts as Danyael's guardian while Zophael
Jophiel
The Archangel Jophiel is also known as Iophiel, Iofiel, Jofiel, Yofiel , Youfiel and Zophiel .-In Jewish and Cabalistic lore:...
(Vincent Spano
Vincent Spano
Vincent M. Spano is an American stage, film and television actor, and film director and producer. He received a Cable Ace Award nomination in 1988 for his role as Mark Ciuni in Il cugino americano.-Backround:...
) seeks out Danyael. The fate of humankind hangs in the balance as Danyael sets out to confront Pyriel and fulfill his destiny.
Plot
Danyael Rosales, a street preacher and the child of Valerie Rosales and the angel Danyael from the previous film, is forced to face his destiny. As a NephilimNephilim
The Nephilim are the offspring of the "sons of God" and the "daughters of men" in Genesis 6:4, or giants who inhabit Canaan in Numbers 13:33. A similar word with different vowel-sounds is used in Ezekiel 32:27 to refer to dead Philistine warriors....
, he has some of the angels' abilities, such as regeneration
Regeneration (biology)
In biology, regeneration is the process of renewal, restoration, and growth that makes genomes, cells, organs, organisms, and ecosystems resilient to natural fluctuations or events that cause disturbance or damage. Every species is capable of regeneration, from bacteria to humans. At its most...
, and can only be killed if his heart
Heart
The heart is a myogenic muscular organ found in all animals with a circulatory system , that is responsible for pumping blood throughout the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions...
is removed. One night, a blind assassin shoots Danyael as he preaches before a crowd, but the assassin is driven off before he can take out Danyael's heart, and Danyael is able to regenerate while lying in the city morgue. As punishment for his failure, Zophael kills the assassin and starts going after Danyael himself with an extendable bladed weapon (the blade can be turned into a three-pronged hook) with which he plans to use to remove Danyael's heart, killing him for good. However, Danyael is protected by Gabriel, a now-human fallen angel who killed Danyael's father and performed many misdeeds. After being defeated by Danyael's mother, Gabriel was turned into a human as punishment. He has spent eighteen years as a human, and realized how wrong he was in the past so has now switched sides.
Zophael manages to convince Danyael's girlfriend Maggie to work with him on killing Danyael, but she realizes she's on the wrong side and tries to shoot the angel. It has little effect on Zophael, and he tells her what he is. Frightened, Maggie agrees to help him, and the two catch up to Danyael on a Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
reservation, where he is going to confront Pyriel, another angel who wants to overthrow God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
. Danyael briefly meets Mary, a Native American woman (first introduced as a child in the first film
The Prophecy
The Prophecy is a 1995 fantasy horror-thriller film starring Elias Koteas, Virginia Madsen, Christopher Walken, Eric Stoltz, and Viggo Mortensen. It was written and directed by Gregory Widen, and is the first motion picture of The Prophecy series including four sequels...
). Mary informs Danyael that she dreamed of his coming, and that she believes he will be victorious against Pyriel. After parting from Mary, Danyael is attacked by Zophael, crashing Maggie's truck and badly injuring her. He then faces off against Danyael in battle, and seemingly defeats him by impaling his chest with a motorcycle
Motorcycle
A motorcycle is a single-track, two-wheeled motor vehicle. Motorcycles vary considerably depending on the task for which they are designed, such as long distance travel, navigating congested urban traffic, cruising, sport and racing, or off-road conditions.Motorcycles are one of the most...
tailpipe, but the angel gets back up and uses his weapon to impale Danyael from behind. Before Zophael can remove Danyael's heart, Maggie empties her gun into him, stunning him. Danyael takes his chance and removes Zophael's heart through the hole he created earlier, finally killing him.
Danyael heads off to face Pyriel, armed with Zophael's weapon while Gabriel watches over Maggie. He confronts Pyriel, but is no match for him, although he succeeds in impaling him with Zophael's weapon. Pyriel is about to win when God seemingly sends down a lightning bolt
Thunderbolt
A thunderbolt is a discharge of lightning accompanied by a loud thunderclap or its symbolic representation. In its original usage the word may also have been a description of meteors, or, as Plato suggested in Timaeus, of the consequences of a close approach between two planetary cosmic bodies,...
, electrocuting the weapon and, through it, Pyriel, weakening him. Danyael extends the blade into its prong form and removes Pyriel's heart with it, killing him and apparently ending the war in Heaven. He returns to Gabriel and Maggie, who is on the verge of death. Maggie is saved when Gabriel is given a second chance and becomes an angel again; he heals her wounds on his way back to Heaven.