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Dogma
An abortion clinic worker with a special heritage is called upon to save the existence of humanity from being negated by two renegade angels trying to exploit a loophole and re-enter Heaven.
1999 · Directed by Kevin Smith · 130 min · Fantasy · Comedy · Adventure · Screenplay in the scene database · 5 frames
Tagline
Get "touched" by an angel.
Plot
Bartleby and Loki are fallen angels, eternally banished from Heaven to Wisconsin for insubordination, after an inebriated Loki resigned as the Angel of Death at Bartleby's suggestion. In a newspaper article that arrives anonymously, the angels discover a way home: Cardinal Ignatius Glick is rededicating his church in Red Bank, New Jersey, in the image of the "Buddy Christ." Anyone who enters the church during the rededication festivities will receive a plenary indulgence, remitting all sins. Were the banished angels to undergo this rite—and then die after transmuting into human form—God would have no choice but to allow them re-entry into Heaven. They are encouraged by the demon Azrael and the Stygian triplets, three teenage hoodlums who serve Azrael in hell.
Bethany Sloane, a despondent abortion clinic counselor, attends a service at her church in McHenry, Illinois. Donations are solicited for a campaign to stop a Red Bank hospital from disconnecting life support on John Doe Jersey, a homeless man who was beaten into a coma by the triplets. Metatron—a seraph, and the voice of God—appears to Bethany in a pillar of fire and explains that if Bartleby and Loki succeed in re-entering Heaven, they will overrule the word of God, disprove the fundamental concept of God's omnipotence, and nullify all of existence. Bethany, aided by two prophets, must stop the angels and save the universe.
Now a target, Bethany is attacked by the triplets, who are driven off by the two foretold prophets, drug-dealing stoners Jay and Silent Bob. Bethany and the prophets are joined by Rufus, the 13th apostle, and Serendipity, the Muse of creative inspiration, who now works at a strip club in search of inspiration of her own. Azrael summons the Golgothan, a vile creature made of human excrement, but Bob immobilizes it with aerosol air freshener.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Written by: Kevin Smith
- Cinematography: Robert D. Yeoman
- Edited by: Scott Mosier, Kevin Smith
- Music: Howard Shore
- Production design: Robert Holtzman
- Produced by: Scott Mosier
Cast
- Ben Affleck as Bartleby
- Matt Damon as Loki
- Linda Fiorentino as Bethany
- Salma Hayek Pinault as Serendipity
- Jason Lee as Azrael
- Jason Mewes as Jay
- Alan Rickman as Metatron
- Chris Rock as Rufus
- George Carlin as Cardinal Glick
- Bud Cort as John Doe Jersey
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: English
- Studios: View Askew Productions, Miramax, Lionsgate
- Budget: $10,000,000
- Box office: $33,535,478
- Themes: angel, wisconsin, dark comedy, satire, church service, religion, church, aftercreditsstinger, duringcreditsstinger, view askewniverse
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