Synopsis

When Pittsburgh hairdresser Frankie Paige begins suffering violent wounds resembling the crucifixion injuries of Jesus, an atheist with no religious background becomes the focus of a Vatican investigation. Jesuit priest Andrew Kiernan, assigned to examine possible miracles, discovers that Frankie's condition may be connected to a forbidden early-Christian text and a conspiracy within the Church.

Factoids & Trivia

• Rupert Wainwright encountered Tom Lazarus' screenplay in 1992, but the project took roughly five years to reach production. Rick Ramage was later brought in to address script issues over a nine-month period.

• The film was an American-Mexican co-production. Mexico City's Palacio de Bellas Artes doubled for Vatican interiors and several Pittsburgh archdiocese locations, while Tijuana stood in for the fictional Brazilian town of Belo Quinto.

• The movie's religious mythology incorporates the Gospel of Thomas, a non-canonical text that is not recognized as scripture by the Catholic Church.

• The soundtrack combined film scoring with late-1990s alternative and electronic music. Billy Corgan and Mike Garson wrote the end-credit song "Identify," performed by Natalie Imbruglia, while Elia Cmiral also contributed to the score.

• MGM released the film in the United States on September 10, 1999. Made for approximately $29 million, it earned about $89.4 million worldwide despite receiving largely negative critical reviews.

• The subway sequence contains a continuity oddity: some exterior shots show cars carrying New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority markings, even though the story identifies the system as Pittsburgh's.