Prophecy (film)
| Prophecy | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | John Frankenheimer |
| Produced by | Robert L. Rosen |
| Written by | David Seltzer |
| Starring |
Robert Foxworth Talia Shire Armand Assante |
| Music by | Leonard Rosenman |
| Cinematography | Harry Stradling Jr. |
| Edited by | Tom Rolf |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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102 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $12 million |
| Box office | $54,000,000 |
Prophecy is a 1979 American science fiction horror film directed by John Frankenheimer and written by David Seltzer. It stars Robert Foxworth, Talia Shire and Armand Assante. Set in the Androscoggin River, the film follows an environmental agent and his wife filing a report on a paper mill in the river, not knowing that the paper mill's waste made a local bear mutated, having the bear turn rampant in the wilderness.
A novelization of the film, written by Seltzer as well, was also published, with the tagline "A Novel of Unrelenting Terror".
Tracking two lost lumberjacks through the night, a rescue team nearly follows a hound over a cliff. Two men rappel down to retrieve the fallen hound, but they are killed. The third, hearing screams down below, rappels down to investigate where he finds his teammates dead and is killed by an unseen creature.
Dr. Robert Verne (Robert Foxworth) is fed up with dealing with the squalor of city tenements, where he feels he isn't making a difference. He accepts a job from the Environmental Protection Agency to write a report on a logging operation near the Androscoggin River in Maine. The loggers are in a dispute with the local American Indian "Opies" (i.e., "O.P.s"), the original people. Dr. Verne's wife Maggie (Talia Shire) accompanies him on the trip. She is pregnant, but is apprehensive to tell her husband as he against having children. When flying in, they meet Travis Nelson (Burke Byrnes) and his two children Paul and Kathleen who are embarking on a trek into the wilderness. They also meet paper mill director Bethel Isely (Richard A. Dysart), who is to be their host. He tells them about his missing rescue team and lays the blame at Opies. The latter have their own explanation; Katahdin, a vengeful spirit of the forest that has been awakened by the activities of the loggers, which Isely describes as "larger than a dragon with the eyes of a cat". As Isely drives the couple to their cabin, their path is barred by a party of Opies who refuse to let Isely's people pass and a fight ensues between the leader of the Opies John Hawks (Armand Assante) and Kelso (Everett Creach), one of Isely's heavies. The heavy is armed with a chainsaw while Hawks has only a double-bit axe. The scuffle ends with Hawks laid on the ground with the chainsaw nearly at his throat, causing the Opies to relent and let the cars pass. Verne and Maggie are then shocked by the incident.
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