MovieChat Forums > Angel Heart (1987) Discussion > Whole movie explained please?

Whole movie explained please?

posted 7 years ago by Badlands1
11 replies | jump to latest

SPOILERS*

Ok from what I get; Johnny favorite sold his soul for music stardom, with the advisement of toots, and the krusemarks.
He finds Harold Angel a soldier and transfers his soul inside of Harry, to escape the devil, yet Johnny's now soulless body gets killed in war.
Johnny in Harry's body is now a PI sent on a goose chase by the devil to find Johnny?

Johhny wants to kill all these accomplices; Fowler, Toots, the Kreusmarks?

If the devil is so powerful wouldn't he know where Johnny's soul ended up?

How did Harry suddenly become a PI instead of a soldier home from war?

Why the Epiphany family story line, he essentially ended up sleeping with his daughter, only unknowingly in harry's body, then his grandson is a reincarnated devil at the end too?

Great movie, acting, and sets, but makes no sense to me...

[–] 7 years ago

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[–] Badlands1 7 years ago

If the devil knew it was Johnny the whole time as the facially reconstructed Angel, why did he lead him around on that goose chase, and how did he zone out when he killed?
You mean the devils hands were tied to collect Johnny to hell, because in Angels body the devil doesn't have the right to take him to hell until he sins/murders?
I thought the soul of Johnny in the new body would be enough to take?

[–] 7 years ago

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[–] Badlands1 7 years ago

Btw, thanks for the great explanation, it really cleared up every point.

But as great as this movie is acted, shot, and written, it just fails overall for me, it's like a "whodunnit" the whole 2hrs is spent following/asking one question, then we get our answer, do we really want to watch it again? (or at least within that year)
Similar to The Machinist or other whodunnit's. Birdy was much different it offered relative drama throughout I could come back to.

But AH just seemed a bit silly as a story, especially the demon baby at the end,
I think the final explanation really gets muddled from all the clues being so spaced out, we as viewers are not sure what to pay attention to and what to disregard.

[–] 7 years ago

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[–] sonofbeach-sheet 7 years ago

So from the time the bomb hit North Africa, Johnny had amnesia, face damaged, then Ethan and Margaret release him from the hospital, take him to Time's Square, then he's turned loose. So he's unresponsive and still bandaged up when they release him, then he just gets on his own with no one helping him or someone had mercy on him and took him in. This is where it's muddled.

[–] mider2009 7 years ago

The whole point was to get Johnny to admit or remember he was Johnny and thus lucifer could collect his soul.

[–] Drooch (5333) 5 years ago

so Johnny’s original plan would have been worthless and he just got lucky with the amnesia which made it harder for Lucifer to find his soul? Doesn’t make much sense.

[–] R_Kane (15828) 5 years ago

Lucifer knew who Johnny was all along. He was torturing Johnny to get HIM to remember who he truly was. The birth of the demon baby at the end, the fruit of Johnny’s literally damned incest, was the final torture.

[–] Drooch (5333) 5 years ago

I know Lucifer knows who Johnny is, but how? Wasn’t the point of the ritual to hide Johnny’s soul?

Did the shell shock and amnesia accidentally help with this process?

Isn’t the kid Lucifer’s, not Johnny’s, from when Epiphany was ‘mounted by Satan’ during a ritual?

[–] mider2009 7 years ago

Are you dumb?