The First Omen’s Twist Ending Was Spoiled In The Opening Scene Thanks To This Subtle Clue

Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for The First Omen

Although The First Omen gives away its big twist as early as the movie’s opening scene, this doesn’t stop the prequel from being one of 2024’s strongest horror movies so far. The First Omen is a prequel to 1976’s The Omen, a seminal horror movie wherein a diplomat unknowingly adopts and raises the Antichrist. The First Omen’s story revolves around the circumstances of the Antichrist’s birth, which were only alluded to vaguely in the original movie. It turns out Damien’s mother wasn’t the jackal that The Omen referenced, but rather a human being whose fate was shaped by a cult.

Throughout most of The First Omen’s story, it seems as though a zealous cult is planning to impregnate the young Carlita with the Antichrist. However, in The First Omen’s twist ending, it turns out that Carlita was never the cult’s intended target. Instead, it was the novitiate trying to save her, Margaret, who was in real peril. Margaret is impregnated with the offspring of a demonic jackal and gives birth to both Damien and his hitherto-unmentioned twin sister. This revelation is the second of The First Omen’s big Damien twists but the first, Margaret’s fate, is a surprisingly predictable one.

The First Omen’s Opening Scene Foreshadows Margaret Is Damien’s Mother

Bill Nighy’s Villain Gives Away The First Omen’s Big Twist

When Bill Nighy’s Cardinal Lawrence meets Margaret off the plane, he welcomes her to Rome with open arms. He is eager to see her, and Nighy’s character tells Margaret that he always knew she was destined for great things since birth. This is a pretty obvious hint of the cult’s true intentions, particularly when The First Omen never tries to hide Cardinal Lawrence’s shadiness. During the taxi ride back from the airport, he laments the growing popularity of left-wing protests and longs for a way to subdue the masses with fear as he says the church did in earlier times.

As such, it is hardly a major shock when The First Omen’s ending reveals that Lawrence began planning to use Margaret to bring about Damien’s birth years earlier. Although Carlita was also born via the same demonic jackal, Margaret was the first successful instance of the church’s cult using the demon to produce viable offspring. The First Omen changes a lot of the franchise’s lore, but the most important alteration is switching Damian’s mother from a jackal to Margaret. This could have been a shocking twist, but The First Omen hints at the revelation from the opening scene onwards.

Margaret’s Backstory Mirrors Carlita’s Story

The First Omen’s Heroine Notes How Similar She Is To Carlita

Even though Margaret thinks Carlita must be the cult’s target, The First Omen’s heroine shares many formative experiences with the troubled child she thinks the cult is after. Both were plagued by hallucinations in their youth, both were mistreated by nuns, and both became wards of the church after they were orphaned at birth. The prequel’s ending reveals that both were also never orphaned at all, but rather born of an unholy union between a jackal demon and a human. However, long before this revelation, the similarities between their biographies are striking and draw an obvious parallel between the two characters.

The First Omen’s heroine obstinately refuses to consider the possibility that she is the one the cult wants, even though this becomes glaringly obvious to viewers as the movie continues. Since Carlita and Margaret share so many unlikely similarities, it is clear that they are both viable candidates for demonic impregnation. However, the fact that Margaret has suffered from nightmarish visions since arriving in Rome, and the fact these escalate as the story continues, makes it increasingly clear that she is the real victim. Unfortunately for Margaret, she doesn’t realize this until long after the viewer has already guessed it.

Paulo’s First Omen Death Confirms Margaret’s Fate

Margaret Was Warned That Tragic Horrors Would Surround Carlita

The positive reviews The First Omen received prove that this predictable twist isn’t a problem for the prequel. Particularly canny viewers might even have guessed the twist during the movie’s pre-credits opening sequence, where Charles Dance’s short-lived priest admits that he was involved in the ritual involving the demonic jackal. The victim of this ritual has their face obscured by a hood throughout, meaning it is not as much of a shock when The First Omen‘s ending subjects Margaret to the same fate. Hiding the victim’s identity makes the possibility of Margaret eventually sharing this fate more obvious.

However, it is Paulo’s brutal death in a car accident that confirms Margaret’s destiny. Father Brennan tells Margaret that strange, awful things will start happening around Carlita, assuming Carlita will be the one who will carry Satan’s baby. This does happen when a nun self-immolates in front of Carlita, but Margaret is also present for this awful event. When Paulo dies gruesomely and Carlita is nowhere to be seen, it becomes clear that Margaret is the one who is cursed. Paulo’s death is the tipping point where viewers will likely realize that the heroine’s misfortune is much more pronounced than Carlita’s handful of horrifying experiences.

Why The First Omen’s Twist Ending Still Works

The Omen’s Story Makes Margaret’s Fate Terrifying And Inevitable

The reason that The First Omen’s twist ending works, despite how obvious it is, is that the movie’s status as a prequel makes a certain level of predictability inevitable. Knowing that Damien has to be born means that The First Omen’s ending only gets scarier the sooner viewers realize that the movie’s heroine, not Carlita, is his mother. The Omen movies utilize this throughout their overarching story, as viewers always know Damien is the Antichrist but the fun comes from seeing how it takes everyone around him to make this connection. The First Omen follows this approach to a tee.

From the opening scenes onward, it is possible to guess that The First Omen’s heroine will be Damien’s mother. However, knowing this doesn’t make the movie any less scary or effective. If anything, the sooner viewers work out the big twist, the more painful it is to see the well-meaning heroine get stuck deeper and deeper in a labyrinthine trap set up by the duplicitous cult. The awful inevitability of Margaret’s fate means it is no relief to already know what eventually happens to her. Instead, this knowledge only makes The First Omen an even scarier, more impactful horror prequel.