10 Genius Movie Moments When Unreliable Narrators Changed EVERYTHING
3. It Was Azazel All Along - Fallen
An unreliable narrator can be utilised in a movie to devestating effect when done well, and can even be used to tell an audience exactly what is going to happen without them ever knowing it. This was done perfectly in 1998's Fallen.
The story pitted Detective John Hobbes (Denzel Washington) against the fallen angel Azazel, a demon of sorts able to shift between human hosts and who had eyes on Hobbes' body from the start. The very opening scene showed the detective struggling through the snow, with his voiceover narration saying that he wanted to tell of how he almost died. He also said he didn't think it would happen to him at this age, and that to go back to the beginning would take too long. Nothing out of the ordinary here, until the movie's conclusion where Azazel reveals that he has been narrating using Hobbes' voice from the very start.
The final showdown saw Hobbes poison himself and lure Azazel into his dying body, thus seemingly defeating the demon. When he said he didn't think it would happen at this age, it's because Azazel is thousands of years old, hence why it would take too long to start from the start. With no one else around for miles, it seemed like the end for the demon, until you remember this was the story of how he almost died, taking the body of a stray cat and leaving a trio of dead policemen behind him.