I have one question about Prophecy (1979), in particular the ending...

[Joe the Destroyer]

As anyone who has seen the film may know, we get the typical horror ending at the end in which the good guys fly away with triumphant music playing, the camera cuts away to them flying off in the distance, and the serenity is suddenly broken as another creature, or possibly the surviving Katahdin pops up into the screen and roars a few times.  We gather that it just isn't over yet...

Anyway, as you can probably tell, my question is was the creature at the end supposed to be Katahdin or another animal that mutated from the mercury?  To me, it almost seems like the latter since you can clearly see that the creature still has its right eye where Katahdin's was poked out (followed by a nice gush of blood), and the fact that the monster looks slightly different. 

[Kooshmeister]

It's another mutated bear, specifically the father of the two cubs ("Katahdin" was the mother). This is according to the novelization, which was written by screenwriter David Seltzer and therefore unlike most movie novelizations, we can take this as the official word since Seltzer also wrote the script. The only difference is that in the book, the creature is seen from afar by a forest ranger. See my list of stuff different/the same about the book and film over in Prophecy's reader comments thread on this very forum for more interesting tidbits.

In fact, to save you the trouble, I'll just repost the stuff here. :)

The novelization at least had an epilogue wherein Victor Shusette (Rob's EPA friend from the beginning of the movie) comes and sees Rob and Maggie at the hospital in Portland and there's some more about whether or not Maggie's baby will be all right, and the revelation of there being another mutated bear is also handled better, too.

In fact, here's a list of all the differences in the novelization that I did for Wikipedia's entry for the film:

1. There is prologue, set during the winter, in which an ordinary bear is stalking a deer but is ultimately itself attacked and killed by the mutant one. The deer, injured by the regular bear, later reappears in the story too and is seen by Rob and Maggie.

2. The scene involving the three men out searching for the lumberjacks actually occurs as the third chapter after the prologue, rather than the opener. The party members also die differently than they do in the movie: rather than rappelling down to retrieve the fallen bloodhound, they are all yanked off the cliff at once by the unseen monster at the opposite end of the leash.

3. Instead of being introduced at the orchestra and discussing being pregnant with her friend, Maggie is introduced going to see gynocologist Peter Hamlisch, a character who does not appear in the film.

4. The tenament woman is very hostile towards Rob, rather than grateful, and instead of running into Victor Shusette outside the slum as in the movie, Rob rides with the sick infant to the hospital, where it ultimately succumbs to its fever and dies. Shusette then arrives and they have their conversation about Rob needing to find a new line of work there in the hospital hallway.

5. Shusette does not suggest Rob take Maggie with him to Maine. Rather, he and Maggie make this decision by themselves at their apartment prior to Rob leaving. Maggie comes because she hopes the calm country setting will make it easier for her to tell her husband about her pregnancy.

6. The Nelson family out camping also includes Jeannine Nelson, wife of Travis and mother of Paul and Kathleen, unlike in the film where it's only the father and two children. It is also revealed that Travis is employed as a history teacher.

7. Sheriff Pilgrim dies differently. Instead of surviving Katahdin's attack long enough to make it into the underground tunnels with the others, and perishing later, he is killed during the initial attack when Katahdin steps on his head. (Also, Rob and the others collect the guns of Pilgrim and his deputy after the attack, and use them against the monster later, to no effect.)

8. Katahdin's attack on the carrier vehicle is longer and more drawn out. She pursues the truck for some length before finally tipping it over. Hawks falls behind not because he tries to assist Huntoon, the pilot, but because he becomes trapped in the cab of the truck, but manages to get away while Huntoon is being killed. (This works better in my opinion, as I disliked the way Hawks just gives up trying to untie him and runs away leaving him to die.)

9. M'Rai dies differently, and his reason for remaining behind to confront Katahdin is actually given. He is crushed instead of picked up and thrown, and the reason he remains behind is because he believes he can reason with what he believes to be his people's protector.

10. The revelation of another monster bear is revealed through the eyes of an alcoholic forest ranger, suffering the effects of mercury poisoning just as M'Rai had been (this character was introduced earlier in the novel shortly after the incident with the raccoon). The second bear is also described as having more cubs.

We also learn a lot more about the various main characters, especially John Hawks, who is half-white, and lived as a white man for several years, in fact, after the Pitneys (the founders of the lumber company) paid for him to have an education. He returned to assist his people in their struggle against the lumber company after several years abroad. Also Ramona ("Romona" in the book) is given the last name of Peters and is an old girlfriend of John Hawks', rather than his wife or even his sister (as some reviews for the film have suggested).

A few of the problems (like Rob's idiotic explanation for the Katahdin thing) remain, but a lot of the other problems in the movie are fixed. It's also worth noting that despite being a novelization written after the release of the film, the actual movie is not mentioned anywhere in the book or on it. So I have this amusing theory that Seltzer disliked what Frankenheimer did with his script and so stuck it to him by turning the script into a book (which reads like an actual original novel as opposed to just a film novelization, btw) and avoid mentioning the movie anywhere.

I'm not saying the novel is perfect. Practically every white character in the story except for Rob and Maggie is depicted as being horrifically racist, including ones who did not come across as racists in the movie (namely Sheriff Pilgrim and Huntoon the pilot). Talk about stacking the deck against the Establishment! Also, although the novel's ending is better than the movie because of the added epilogue in which we catch up with Rob and Maggie and see how they're doing after the incident, it still suffers from some pacing problems. It get the distinct feeling that Seltzer wanted to end the book as quickly as possible, so the last couple of chapters do actually read like they were copied from a screenplay, especially the attack on M'Rai's camp, with its broad and vague descriptions of carnage like "body parts flying everywhere." This last half of the book immediately prior to the epilogue in Portland really does reek of sensational Hollywood screenwriting.

[Joe the Destroyer]

Wow!  I remember hearing there was a novel, but not finding out much on it particularly.  I thought the premise for the story was great, but the follow through could have been done a lot better.  I also thought the film would have worked better as a novel, particularly if it were written by someone who can write characterization well.   Thanks for all the info!

[Kooshmeister]

Hey, no problem. The book goes fairly cheap on eBay, if you're interested in getting a copy. I actually read it before I saw the film, and I prefer the book for the most part.

[GoHawks]

I have a question for Kooshmeister or anyone else who can answer it.  I remember reading this story in a book way back in 1980.  (I know it was 1980 because I remember going to see The Empire Strikes Back at about the same time.)

My question is, could the book I read have been the original story that the movie was based on, and not the novelization written after the movie?

The softcover book I read mentioned on the cover that the story was "based on real life events" or some similar wording.  I also seem to recall, but I may be mistaken about this, that the cover mentioned that the story had been made into a movie, or was about to be.

I generally dislike horror and gory stories; the only reason I read the book in the first place was the "based on real life" blurb.  In my youthful naïveté, I thought I was reading something that was much closer to nonfiction than fiction.  Overall, I was left unsatisfied with the story.

P.S.  I've never seen the movie.

[Kooshmeister]

Well, the movie and its novelization were written in 1979. My copy of the book reads, inside the front, Copyright 1979 by Paramount Pictures Corporation, the only time anywhere in the book that its connection to the film is mentioned, and in fact it's so miniscule a mention I overlooked it until just now. (Also, oddly, the book says "For Hector M'Ral," whose surname is suspiciously close to that of Hector M'Rai in the book/movie, leading me to believe M'Ral was a friend of Seltzer's and he named the character of M'Rai after him.)

As far as Prophecy supposedly being based on a true story, the back of the book does mention what happened "twenty years ago" (at the time of the book's writing) in Minamata, Japan. This is as close as my copy claims to having been based on a true story, since the Minamata event did happen in the 60's.

In any event, I've never found anything claiming Seltzer's book was written prior to the movie, and everything points to it being a novelization of the movie, not the other way around. Besides, novelizations tend to come out before the movies they're based on hit theaters anyway, as a way of promoting them. So either you're remembering wrong (no offense) or we're talking about a different Prophecy, or you got ahold of a '79 copy, which isn't outside the realm of possibility, since you say this was in 1980, a mere year later. Sometimes at Barnes and Noble I still find copies of the 2000 X-Men movie novelization!