Trivia / End of Days

• Cast the Runner-Up: Udo Kier claimed in an interview that he was considered for the role of Satan in the film but the producers didn't want the hero and villain to both have German/Austrian accents, and he was eventually cast in a secondary role.
• Completely Different Title:
  • Austria: Night Without Tomorrow
  • Croatia: The Beginning of the End
  • Greece: The End of the World
  • Hungary: Judgment Day
  • Latin America: The Final Day
  • Lithuania: End of the World
  • Poland: And the End Will Come
  • Romania: Revelation
  • Taiwan: The End of the Devil
  • Turkey: Devil's Day
• Creator Backlash: Upon the film's failure, Schwarzenegger stated he had always been aware that Peter Hyams was not the right director for the premise, but had been forced to trust him anyway because Hyams was friends with James Cameron.
• Disabled Character, Disabled Actor: Victor Varnado, a real-life albino, plays the albino villain.
• Dueling Movies: With Stigmata, another Religious Horror film featuring Gabriel Byrne. Also, although less so given that it premiered half a year later, with Bless the Child.
• Focus Group Ending: An alternate ending was filmed in which Jericho resurrects after impaling himself on the sword of the statue and then leaves the church with Christine. Test audiences preferred the ending where Jericho dies. Even though the "resurrection" ending was never released, it was used in a novelization of the movie.
• Hey, It's That Place!: After Jericho runs out of the church with Christine, the alleyway they enter is the same as that used in Angel.
• Irony as She Is Cast: Gabriel Byrne as Satan. His namesake archangel serves God, i.e. Satan's enemy.
• Playing with Character Type: The movie was sold on the premise of "Arnold Schwarzenegger fights The Devil". However, instead of depicting Arnold as an unstoppable force of nature that can destroy everything in sight, this movie depicts his character, Jericho, as being genuinely flawed, such as being suicidal, not being able to do the death-defying acts that the other heroes Arnold has played (not counting the scene where he uses a rope on a helicopter to lower himself mid-flight) and, in the end, there was not any other way to stop Satan from causing the End unless Jericho killed himself but, at least Jericho can be with his family again. In interviews, Schwarzenegger said that he took this role because he thought it was the perfect script to make his return to action movies (he'd been doing comedies for several years before this), which makes this part even more weird.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Reportedly, both Sam Raimi and Guillermo del Toro were offered the chance to direct.
  • The role of Jericho Cane was originally written for Tom Cruise, but he instead chose to work on Magnolia.
  • The role of Christine York was initially going to be played by Kate Winslet, but she turned it down. Liv Tyler was also offered the role, but she backed out over contractual issues.
  • Marcus Nispel was the film's original director, but quit before the start of shooting after someone at the studio leaked a 64-page "manifesto" — including demands such as his personal assistant being an attractive woman, that the producer was not to speak to him more than three times a day, and that all cast and crew were to be given a "pertinent procedures" list detailing when and how they were allowed to talk to him — he had sent them. Contrary to what is often reported, Nispel didn't quit because he was embarrassed by his demands becoming public knowledge, but because he felt unable to trust the studio after the document was leaked.

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