SCREEN IT! PARENTAL REVIEW: THE OMEGA CODE

"THE OMEGA CODE"
(1999) (Casper Van Dien, Michael York) (PG-13)

Alcohol/ Drugs	Blood/Gore	Disrespectful/ Bad Attitude	Frightening/ Tense Scenes	Guns/ Weapons
Mild	Moderate	Extreme	Moderate	Extreme

Imitative Behavior	Jump Scenes	Music (Scary/Tense)	Music (Inappropriate)	Profanity
Minor	None	Heavy	None	None

Sex/ Nudity	Smoking	Tense Family Scenes	Topics To Talk About	Violence
Minor	None	Mild	Mild	Extreme

QUICK TAKE:: Suspense/Thriller: A motivational speaker tries to prevent a megalomaniac from taking over the world with a deciphered bible code.

PLOT:

Dr. Gillen Lane (CASPER VAN DIEN) is a highly successful motivational speaker and mythology expert who lost his belief in God after his highly devout mother died in a car accident when he was just ten- years-old. Although he's well-known for his work, his time spent helping others has nearly ruined his marriage to wife Jennifer (DEVON ODESSA).

After being confronted by his longtime married friend, Senator Jack Thompson (GEORGE COE), Gillen decides to revamp his life and spend more time with his family including their young daughter, Maddie (AYLA KELL). Yet when he receives an invitation from billionaire philanthropist Stone Alexander (MICHAEL YORK) to join him for a week in promoting world peace, Gillen can't resist the calling and heads off for Rome.

Unbeknownst to Gillen, Alexander, who's helped the world by marketing his desalinized water and single-serving, life-sustaining wafers, is after world domination by deciphering a hidden code in the bible that contains all of human history, including the future. Having already had his right-hand man and ex- priest, Dominic (MICHAEL IRONSIDE), kill a rabbi to acquire his decoding work, Alexander is determined to conquer the world via the cryptic messages his team manages to retrieve from the code.

Gillen eventually figures this out, but then gets framed for Alexander's apparent assassination. On the run from his men and the police, Gillen, who also suffers from religious-based hallucinatory visions, gets helps from TV reporter Cassandra Barris (CATHERINE OXENBERG), as well as two prophets (JAN TRISKA and GREGORY WAGROWSKI) who are concerned with how events are unfolding.

With Alexander continuing his world domination plan, Gillen does what he can to avoid the authorities while trying to figure out how to stop the madman.

WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT?: Unless they're fans of someone in the cast or have succumbed to TBN's grassroots promotional efforts to get Christians to see this film, it's highly unlikely.

WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: PG-13: For several scenes of shootings.

CAST AS ROLE MODELS:: CASPER VAN DIEN plays a motivational guru who decides to help Alexander bring peace to the world but must then avoid his thugs once he realizes the maniac's plans.
MICHAEL YORK plays a billionaire mogul who turns out a megalomaniac with desires to take over the world (with references to him being Satan himself).
CATHERINE OXENBERG plays a TV reporter who helps Gillen but turns out to have ulterior motives.
MICHAEL IRONSIDE plays Alexander's right-hand man who kills -- or attempts to kill -- many people.
JAN TRISKA and GREGORY WAGROWSKI play two prophets sent to stop Alexander.
DEVON ODESSA plays Gillen's wife who's upset with him putting his career above his marriage and family.; MICHAEL YORK plays a billionaire mogul who turns out a megalomaniac with desires to take over the world (with references to him being Satan himself).
CATHERINE OXENBERG plays a TV reporter who helps Gillen but turns out to have ulterior motives.
MICHAEL IRONSIDE plays Alexander's right-hand man who kills -- or attempts to kill -- many people.
JAN TRISKA and GREGORY WAGROWSKI play two prophets sent to stop Alexander.
DEVON ODESSA plays Gillen's wife who's upset with him putting his career above his marriage and family.; CATHERINE OXENBERG plays a TV reporter who helps Gillen but turns out to have ulterior motives.
MICHAEL IRONSIDE plays Alexander's right-hand man who kills -- or attempts to kill -- many people.
JAN TRISKA and GREGORY WAGROWSKI play two prophets sent to stop Alexander.
DEVON ODESSA plays Gillen's wife who's upset with him putting his career above his marriage and family.; MICHAEL IRONSIDE plays Alexander's right-hand man who kills -- or attempts to kill -- many people.
JAN TRISKA and GREGORY WAGROWSKI play two prophets sent to stop Alexander.
DEVON ODESSA plays Gillen's wife who's upset with him putting his career above his marriage and family.; JAN TRISKA and GREGORY WAGROWSKI play two prophets sent to stop Alexander.
DEVON ODESSA plays Gillen's wife who's upset with him putting his career above his marriage and family.; DEVON ODESSA plays Gillen's wife who's upset with him putting his career above his marriage and family.

CAST, CREW, & TECHNICAL INFO

HOW OTHERS RATED THIS MOVIE

Curious if this title is entertaining, any good, and/or has any artistic merit?
Then read OUR TAKE of this film.

(Note: The "Our Take" review of this title examines the film's artistic merits and does not take into account any of the possibly objectionable material listed below).

OUR WORD TO PARENTS:

Here's a quick look at the content found in this PG-13 rated suspense thriller. Violence is extreme due to several people being shot and killed (sometimes with somewhat bloody, but not overdone results), a mosque and synagogue being destroyed by dynamite, and several characters dying from supernatural forces. Other, non-lethal violence occurs in the form of people being punched.

The characters responsible for such violence and wanting to rule the world obviously have extreme cases of bad attitudes, while some of those violent scenes and several others may be suspenseful or unsettling to some viewers (and are accompanied by plenty of suspenseful music, although most of it's rather mild in overall tone).

Some drinking and even less smoking occurs, while some tense family scenes are present in the form of a strained marriage and a man taking about his mother dying when he was just ten. Beyond that, the remaining categories have little or nothing in the way of other, major objectionable material. Nonetheless, should you still be concerned about the film's appropriateness for yourself or anyone in your home, we suggest that you take a closer look at the detailed content listings.

ALCOHOL OR DRUG USE: Gillen shows up at one of Alexander's receptions stating that he's there to drink some fine champagne as well as support a worthy cause. We then see various people drinking champagne at it.
Senator Thompson has a drink.
Gillen and Alexander have wine.
On some TV footage we see Gillen and Alexander with drinks.
People have drinks in a bar.
Senator Thompson hands Gillen something to drink and notes that he put some whisky in it "to calm the nerves."
Alexander has a drink.

BLOOD/GORE: We briefly see a bird picking flesh off the carcass of a dead animal.
We see a tiny bit of blood on a man's shirt after he's just been shot and killed.
Cassandra's face is bloody/dirty after an explosion and her cameraman, who died from an explosion, is also bloody.
We briefly see a bloody hole in the back of man's clothing after he's been shot.
After being shot in the back of the head, we see a moderate amount of blood on Alexander's head.
We see some blood on a prophet who's been shot.
After being punched, Gillen's mouth is a little bloody and he then spits blood onto Alexander's face.
We see blood flowing backwards along the floor and presumably back into the previously murdered prophets' bodies.
Some spirits grab Alexander and he then feels the back of his head and we see that his hand is very bloody.

DISRESPECTFUL/BAD ATTITUDE: Obviously Alexander and his henchman, Dominic, have both for wanting to take over the world and killing people, and then threatening to kill even more, to assure their success.
Some may see Gillen's initial view of God being a myth as having some of both.
Catholics may take offense at their religion being associated with Alexander and his evil plans.
Senator Thompson tries to turn in Gillen to Alexander's men.
Cassandra turns out to be working for Alexander.

FRIGHTENING SCENES: Some viewers may find scenes listed under "Violence" as suspenseful or unsettling as they might several, brief hallucinatory visions that Gillen has during the film (where he sees odd, religious-based visions).
We see a sniper across the street from Gillen's house who's ordered to take the shot (and we see the scope point of view), but the sniper says that he's not clear.
The police chase Gillen through the streets at night and he then encounters a tractor trailer that pursues him through a tunnel until he gets to a fence that he can't climb (all of which turns out to be a dream).
Spirits or other supernatural beings enter Gillen's cell and whisk around him and some of them then turn into menacing looking skulls. Later, they confront and kill Alexander.

GUNS/WEAPONS: Handguns/Machine Guns/Sniper rifle: Used to threaten, wound or kill people. See "Violence" for details.
Guns/Machine guns: Carried by guards and police.
Dynamite: Used to blow up a mosque and a synagogue.

IMITATIVE BEHAVIOR: Phrase: An incomplete "Son of a..."

JUMP SCENES: None.

MUSIC (SCARY/TENSE): A heavy amount of suspenseful and ominous music plays throughout the film, but much of it isn't too intense in overall tone.

MUSIC (INAPPROPRIATE): None.

PROFANITY: None.

SEX/NUDITY: Alexander talks about what he saw in Cassandra, including that she's someone "desirable" and then briefly, but passionately kisses her.

SMOKING: Dominic smokes several times, while a researcher smokes once as do some people at a world meeting and others in a bar do the same.

TENSE FAMILY SCENES: Gillen mentions that his mother died in a car accident when he was ten-years-old.
Gillen states that he's separated from his wife and we later hear that he's filed for divorce. After talking with a friend, however, Gillen tries going back with his wife who's initially reluctant (stating that if he only loved her half as much as their daughter) and then gets upset again when he decides to leave for a week.

TOPICS TO TALK ABOUT: Whether such a hidden code in the bible really exists.
That Gillen lost his faith after his devout mother was killed in a car accident.
Alexander coming back to life after dying of a gunshot wound to the head.

VIOLENCE: We see the red target light of a gun cross over a rabbi. He's then shot by a person who turns out to be Dominic. As Dominic then encounters the prophets on a narrow street, he grabs a little girl and holds his gun to her to keep them at bay. He then tries to shoot his gun at one of the prophets, but it suddenly doesn't work.
We see a mosque blow up from dynamite earlier planted in it and as Cassandra does a news report we hear another explosion (of a synagogue) and then see her news feed go dead. Although we don't know of other injuries, we see that Cassandra is somewhat wounded and her cameraman is dead (and a bit bloody).
We see TV footage of people shooting guns and others throwing things at a car and breaking its windows.
Gillen agrees to meet one of Alexander's code-breakers in a public place. Just as he does so, however, a person dressed as a clown walks up and shoots this man dead.
Dominic tries to hunt down Gillen who's hiding in their computer lair and then holds his gun on him when Gillen tries to run out. Alexander then comes in, Gillen tries to flee again and Dominic fires at him several times, but we then see that he hit Alexander instead (who has a bloody head wound).
Alexander squeezes Dominic's hand to make him submissive to him.
Dominic mentions Alexander killing his own father sometime in the past.
We see that Alexander's men are approaching Gillen in an abandoned monastery with their guns drawn. Once inside, one of the men kicks open a door and then fires a machine gun around the room, but no one is there. As Gillen flees down a stairwell, he accidentally runs into one of the men hard enough to knock him out.
Some cars smash into each other during a police chase.
A man shoots through a bathroom door lock to gain access to the room. We then hear one of them shoot the owner of the house.
Cassandra holds a gun on Gillen.
A guard/officer punches a man in a crowd and protesters then try storming some gates and struggle with guards/officers causing one of the latter to fire warning shots into the air with his machine gun and another to punch another man.
Dominic shoots and presumably kills the two prophets.
We see Dominic punching Gillen in the gut as a means of interrogation. He then punches him in the face and then again.
Dominic punches Gillen and then throws him across a table. He then pulls out his gun and prepares to shoot him when the prophets show up and prevent his gun from firing. One of them then uses some sort of mental power to kill Dominic (in a non-graphic way).
Some spirits grab Alexander and he then feels the back of his head and we see that his hand is very bloody. He then falls to the floor dead.

Reviewed November 12, 1999 / Posted November 14, 1999

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