Omen III: The Final Conflict is the third installment in a cycle of horror movies documenting the rise and eventual fall of the Antichrist. It follows The Omen and Damien: Omen II.
Released in 1981, the film charts the progress of the now-adult Damien Thorn to a position of earthly power (becoming United States ambassador to the United Kingdom with an eye on the U.S. Presidency) as a springboard for triggering the Apocalypse.
The movie was directed by Graham Baker. It stars Sam Neill as Thorn, with Lisa Harrow as journalist Kate Reynolds, and Rossano Brazzi as the priest Father DeCarlo, charged with the divine task of killing the Antichrist.
The movie tells two simultaneous stories: the rise of Thorn and his hold over his increasing flock of worshippers and the work of DeCarlo to kill Thorn, set against the countdown to the second coming of Christ and the showdown between good and evil.
Story
Damien Thorn (Sam Neill is appointed Ambassador to the Court of St James, the same position his adoptive father held in The Omen, the first film in the Omen cycle. Unlike the two incarnations of Damien portrayed in previous Omen films, the adult Damien is entirely aware of his unholy lineage, and his destiny.
An alignment of the stars in the Cassiopeia region of the night sky (the traditional ___location of the stellar signal of the second coming) causes the creation of a super "star", described in the film as a second Star of Bethlehem.
Thorn realises it is a sign of the second coming of Jesus and he orders all male children in England born on the morning of March 24, 1981 (the morning when, in the story, the Cassiopeia alignment occurred) to be killed in order to prevent the Christ-child's return to power, as predicted in the Book of Revelation.
Thorn has also become involved with journalist Kate Reynolds Lisa Harrow, a complex relationship which undermines his plans to dominate the world. Initially the pair become romantically involved, but later, as Reynolds begins to understand Damien's nature, he focuses his attention on her teenaged son Peter Barnaby Holm, whom he takes as a disciple.
Ultimately the relationship is his undoing.
Meanwhile, Father DeCarlo Rossano Brazzi and six other priests armed with the Seven Daggers of Meggido - ancient holy weapons; the only earthly weapons which can harm the Antichrist - hunt Thorn in the hope of killing him before he can destroy the "Christ child".
Analysis
Like the two previous movies in the Omen series, The Final Conflict it is largely dependent on showpiece effects sequences and stunt-centred deaths for its horror impact, in particular a montage showing babies being brutally murdered in progressively unsettling ways, including a baptismal drowning and a car accident which is quite similar to the famous pram sequence in Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin.
The film's plot re-uses the series McGuffin - the Seven Daggers of Megiddo - introduced in The Omen.
According to the story they are the only earthly weapon which can harm Damien. In The Omen it is explained that the first blade must be used to strike the heart (thus extinguishing physical life) and the remaining six daggers are used to form a cross (extinguishing spiritual life) with the first as a centrepoint.
The use of the Seven Daggers of Meggido in the film is inconsistent with the manner in which The Omen explained they had to be used. In The Omen all seven were required in a specific arrangement (see above) to kill the Antichrist. In The Final Conflict, however, the priests arm themselves with one dagger each.
It is unclear in the movie if the one-dagger approach is a deliberate plot ploy to allow further sequels (the tack used in Gordon McGill's sequel novels and in the TV-movie sequel Omen IV: The Awakening, which largely retells the storyline of the first movie) or simply an oversight by the writer.
Retconning
In order for the story to be enacted in the then-contemporary 1981, the series timeline required substantial editing, moving events from the first two movies back in time. This allowed Thorn, a child in 1976 and a teen in 1978, to be an adult by 1981.
Though not commonly used, this is an example of retconning, where a film director will change the "retrospective continuity" of an earlier story in order to make a subsequent story consistent with the overall mythology.
Alternative Title
When first released in 1981, the film's original official title was simply The Final Conflict. Later, as often happens with video and DVD releases, the title was adjusted to Omen III: The Final Conflict in order to accentuate its link to the other two films in The Omen cycle.
Today it is better known by its second title.