Joan Hart is "very persuasive" in Damien—Omen II.
Joan Hart is a character who appears in Damien - Omen II. She is a journalist who uncovers the truth about Damien Thorn and suffers a harrowing demise for her efforts.
Biography[]
For years, Joan Hart — a friend of Charles Warren and former associate of photographer Keith Jennings — has been working on a biography of Carl Bugenhagen and has pieced together the true identity of Damien Thorn. She was present at the Thorn Museum dig at Hazor which uncovered the Whore of Babylon and Yigael's Wall and, ultimately, Bugenhagen's remains.
Damien - Omen II[]
Slide of Hart next to the recently unearthed Whore of Babylon
During a private slideshow for Richard and Ann Thorn, Charles Warren previews a collection of artifacts newly discovered at the Thorn dig at Hazor — including the Whore of Babylon statue. Joan Hart appears next to it and Charles tells Richard that she's a journalist who wants to interview him. Richard reminds Charles that he doesn't like giving interviews — of any kind.
Later, as Richard exits the Thorn Industries building he is acosted by Hart who pleads with him to give her a few minutes. Richard reluctantly agrees, inviting her to accompany him on a drive to the airport. But when she mentions his dead brother Robert Thorn and a photographer who was decapitated Richard throws her out.
Joan then finds Charles and Ann Thorn at the Thorn Museum. She tries to warn them about Damien but then realizes that she's not sure yet. She departs, leaving them confused, and drives to Davidson Military Academy where she sees Damien playing football. His identity confirmed, Joan flees in terror.
Joan and Raven Meet Cute
Reciting the Lord's Prayer as she speeds down a country road, her car suddenly stalls. She gets out to look for help and spots a farm in the distance. She reaches back into the car for her purse but when she comes out the raven is perched on the roof of her car. She makes a run for it but the bird follows and attacks, leaving her bloddy and blinded, facedown in a muddy ditch on the side of the road.
Joan slowly crawls to the road as a Mack truck approaches. As it bears down she rises and blindly staggers toward it. The truck strikes, sending her flying over the cab, hitting the front trailer, and slipping between the gap to the ground, only to be run over again by the trailer wheels.
Novelization[]
At some point in her life, Joan met archaeologist Michael Morgan; they fell in love, and were engaged to be married.
In June of 1971, Joan accompanied Morgan to Acre, Israel, where they met archaeologist and exorcist Bugenhagen. Bugenhagen told Morgan of the existence of the Antichrist on earth, in the form of Damien Thorn, the adopted son of U.S. Ambassador Robert Thorn; After Robert's death by police while trying to kill Damien, the boy was placed in the care of Robert's brother Richard Thorn in Chicago. Joan wanted to go to America, fearing for their safety, but was rebuffed. Bugenhagen convinced Morgan to accompany him to Belvoir Castle, where Yigael's wall was held, claiming that Damien's face was on the wall. Joan wanted to come, but was told to stay behind. At the hotel they were staying in, she waited for their return, but it was in vain; that night, Bugenhagen and Morgan were buried alive inside the castle ruins.
Driven by grief over Morgan's disappearance, Joan didn't accept that he was truly gone for a long time, and began a long crusade in search of the deaths surrounding Damien Thorn, having remembered Bugenhagen's claims that he was the Antichrist.
Seven years after the deaths of Bugenhagen and Morgan, Joan, who had been writing a biography on Bugenhagen, was assigned to write a report on Belvoir Castle. Seeing an opportunity to uncover what happened to Morgan, as well as an opportunity to prove Damien's identity as the Antichrist, she accompanied Charles Warren to the excavation site of Tel Hazor, funded by the Thorn Museum. They uncovered the Whore of Babylon and Yigael's Wall, as well as the skeletons of Bugenhagen and Morgan.
Having seen Yigael's wall, Joan realized Bugenhagen was telling the truth, and vowed to destroy Damien. Spending another week in Israel, Joan boarded an El-Air jet at Tel Aviv, and flew to Chicago to warn Damien's new guardian, Richard Thorn.
Trivia[]
- In the film's novelization, the truck that kills Joan is an eighteen-wheeler Peterbilt; in the film, it's a ten-wheeler Mack.
Gallery[]
