The Prophecy 3: The Ascent

Plot

Danyael Rosales is a street preacher who thinks God does not care about anyone because of the death of his parents, Valerie Rosales and the angel Danyael from the previous film. He is then forced to face his destiny. As a Nephilim, he has some of the angels' abilities, such as regeneration, and can only be killed if his heart is removed. One night, a blind assassin shoots Danyael as he preaches before a crowd, but the assassin is driven off before he can take out Danyael's heart. As punishment for his failure, Zophael kills the assassin and goes after Danyael himself with an extendable weapon with a blade that can be turned into a three-pronged hook. However, Danyael is protected by Gabriel, a now-human fallen angel who killed Danyael's father and performed many misdeeds. After being defeated by Danyael's mother, Gabriel was turned into a human as punishment. Having spent years as a human, he now realizes how wrong he was in the past.

Zophael convinces Danyael's girlfriend Maggie to work with him to stop Danyael, but when she becomes suspicious of his motives, she shoots the angel. It has little effect on Zophael, and he tells her what he is. Frightened and confused, Maggie agrees to help him, and the two catch up to Danyael on a Native American reservation, where he is going to confront Pyriel, another angel who wants to overthrow God. Danyael briefly meets Mary, a Native American woman (first introduced as a child in the first film). Mary informs Danyael that she dreamed of his coming, and that she believes he will be victorious against Pyriel. After parting from Mary, Danyael is attacked by Zophael, crashing Maggie's truck and badly injuring her. He then faces off against Danyael in battle and seemingly defeats him by impaling his chest with a motorcycle tailpipe, but the angel gets back up and uses his weapon to impale Danyael from behind. Before Zophael can remove Danyael's heart, Maggie empties her gun into him, stunning him. Danyael takes his chance and removes Zophael's heart through the hole he created earlier, finally killing him.

Danyael heads off to face Pyriel, armed with Zophael's weapon while Gabriel watches over Maggie. He confronts Pyriel, but is no match for him, although he succeeds in impaling him with Zophael's weapon. Danyael is about to lose when God seemingly sends down a lightning bolt, electrocuting the weapon and, through it, Pyriel, weakening him. Danyael extends the blade into its prong form and removes Pyriel's heart with it, killing him and apparently ending the war in Heaven. He returns to Gabriel and Maggie, who is on the verge of death. Maggie is saved when Gabriel's angel abilities return to him once again; he heals her wounds on his way back to Heaven. Then Danyael comes to realizes that God is not indifferent and does care.

Cast

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 17% of six surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 2.9/10. Robert Pardi of TV Guide rated it 1 out of 4 stars and wrote that Walken is not enough to save the film from its absurdities. Mike D'Angelo of Entertainment Weekly rated it D− and said the film series gets progressively worse with each sequel. Whitney Seibold of CraveOnline called it "a middling straight-to-video sequel" that has Walken to add a touch of class. Gordon Sullivan of DVD Verdict wrote, "The Ascent is not great filmmaking, but it aims squarely for genre conventions and hits its mark."