End of Days (1999)

End of Days poster

Universal Pictures
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kevin Pollak
Directed by: Peter Hyams

Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!

Synopsis: Security expert Jericho Cane (Arnold Schwarzenegger) finds himself between the Devil and a beautiful girl as Armageddon threatens to begin in New York City at the end of the 20th century.

Kitty Cameo: This is a classic example of a cat scare, or spring-loaded cat; an instance in which a cat is included in a film to do nothing but spring out at a high tension moment and scare the crap out of the characters and audience. In this instance, Jericho and his partner Bobby (Kevin Pollak) are looking around the dark, cramped quarters of a murderous priest. Bobby opens the door of a refrigerator and a black cat inside the icebox screeches.

End of Days - close up of black cat screaming

Bobby and Jericho both freak out for a moment as the cat yowls and then jumps out of the refrigerator. Bobby recovers and states “I knew that was going to happen.”

End of Days - another close up of black cat screeching