Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23838 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-07-23
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 100 minutes

Amazon.com
When it was released in 1999, The Omega Code surprised Hollywood by scoring $2.4 million in its opening weekend, following a promotional blitz on the Trinity Broadcasting Network. The Christian televangelical outlet, which funded this chaotic biblical thriller, had built widespread awareness among its viewership, and the film attracted an appreciative Christian audience. While it's true that The Omega Code offers a wealth of biblical prophecy that Christians will study for years, it remains a pedestrian, headache-inducing movie that's too busy "decoding" the Bible to make any dramatic sense. With a cast that could populate an Aaron Spelling miniseries, it's too badly written to inspire serious religious discussion, and not terrible enough to qualify as entertaining schlock. It's just painfully, pretentiously bad.

Rife with snippets from the book of Revelation, the convoluted plot finds a famous motivational speaker and "Bible Code" expert (Casper Van Dien) under the influence of an ultra-wealthy philanthropist (played by ultra-hammy Michael York) who schemes to crack the Bible's secret codes and take over the world. He's a vessel for the Antichrist (with snidely Michael Ironside as his henchman), and by the time Van Dien gets a clue from a pair of resurrected prophets, The Omega Code has jettisoned any pretense of religious importance. Rather than dare a meaningful examination of faith and the power of evil, the movie opts instead for cheesy pyrotechnics, hackneyed action, and enough bad acting to make Arnold Schwarzenegger's End of Days look like a masterpiece. Do you want to feel closer to God? Just read your Bible, forget about the code, and avoid this gawd-awful movie. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

The Omega of all movies
This movie is without a doubt a great stepping stone for the future of Christian filming. Christians went out in groves to support this TBN production. It just goes to show a film can be made today without graphic violence or harsh and filthy language, sex, etc. Those things aren't necessary and degrade any worth a film may have. The video release is March 28 on VHS and DVD. If you missed it in the theater, buy it on video!

A Christian End of Days film that really isn't very Christian at all
The Omega Code is a rather strange film; a product of the Trinity Broadcasting Network, it is an Armageddon film that portrays the End Times with increasingly little regard to actual Biblical prophecy and only mentions Jesus once in passing. Strictly as a film, it's not all that bad. Sure, there are some plot holes and a few goofs, but the cast is surprisingly well-known and the special effects are actually pretty good (especially for a $7 million dollar film). The real problem comes with the storyline and the tendency for lead players to ham it up. Frankly, I don't really consider this a Christian film at all, as it basically just exploits the popularity of the dubious Bible code and wanders far afield from actual Biblical prophecy.

The "hero" of this film is, of all things, a motivational speaker named Gillen Lane (Casper Van Dien) who just happens to be an expert of sorts on the Bible Code (despite the fact he is in no way religious). When we first meet him, he's jumping all over the furniture of a talk show set like Tom Cruise on Oprah, preaching his secular message of personal evolution through the proper mindset. A short while later, he joins up with the fabulously rich philanthropist Alexander Stone (Michael York) to help make the world a better place. Stone does so much good for less fortunate people that he is appointed chairman of the European Union. Stone isn't what he seems, however; as we in the audience know, he has gone to great lengths, including murder, to acquire the key to the biblical Omega Code. By reading the computer-generated prophecies of the code, he determines what to do and when to do it. So it is that he sets his Jerusalem Plan in motion, blowing up the Tomb of the Rock, only to swoop in and do the impossible: secure a genuine peace deal between Israel and Palestine. As part of the seven-year deal, he pledges to rebuild the Tomb of the Rock as well as Solomon's Temple side by side on the Temple Mount. Lane is with him all the way, handling all of the PR. Stone's henchman (Michael Ironside), a former priest turned bodyguard/hit man, gets jealous of Lane's influence and kills Stone, pinning the blame on Lane. While Lane is on the run, though, a miracle happens: Stone is resurrected (luckily, the hospital folks had just left him in a private room still hooked up to monitors for untold hours after declaring him deceased). Stone's resurrection only adds to his fame and influence. When he says the world needs one government, nations get in line to kiss his hand. Nationalism just vanishes overnight, which is absurd; there's certainly no way America would just sit idly by and let some pasty European become king of the world.

During his coronation inside the brand new Jerusalem Temple, Stone goes far beyond proclaiming himself king; he actually declares himself God. At that point, all masks are pretty much off, with Stone pledging to annihilate any nations who oppose his leadership. The only thing Stone lacks is the final piece of the Omega Code, crucial data which just so happens to fall in Lane's hands. There is one pretty effective plot twist that brings Stone and Lane back together at the end, but it's hard to categorize the ultimate conclusion as a contest between ultimate good and ultimate evil.

As a Christian, I have to say that this movie does not carry any sort of effective Christian message at all. While it does draw some material from actual Biblical prophecy, it increasingly goes its own way, relying on insipid pronouncements from its fictional Omega Code to push the apocalyptic story forward. Jesus and the Gospel are almost completely ignored altogether. To me, this is the kind of Biblical prophecy film that non-religious writers would produce - yet its origins lie with the Trinity Broadcasting Network, and that is what makes the whole movie experience somewhat unsettling. In the end, you're basically left with special effects and an increasingly sensationalist story to carry the day. As such, The Omega Code, whatever its origins and purported intentions, really does little to distinguish itself from all manner of End of Days films coming out of Hollywood in the last decade. Don't consign this film to viewers here in the Bible Belt, as it really doesn't have all that much to offer Christians.

Terrible!
Okay first of all It doesn't surprise me that TBN would make such a terrible movie. Besides being full of the heresy you would come to expect from the people who bring you the cultic prosperity movement. It laughable, Micheal Ironside as the false Prophet? He plays the same guy in every film he does. The plot is so laughable I dont see how any Christian could sit through it. The whole Bible Code idea is another TBN Shame.