City of Angels 🎥 1998 Movie Info

Plot Summary

Seth is one of many angels who watch over humans, protecting them in unseen ways. His main responsibility is to appear to those who are close to death and guide them to the next life. During this task, Seth and one of his fellow angels, Cassiel, ask people what their favorite thing in life was. Despite these daily encounters, they have trouble understanding human beings and their ways, as angels lack human senses. While waiting to escort a man undergoing heart surgery to the other world, Seth is impressed by the vigorous efforts of the surgeon, Maggie Rice, to save the ill-fated man’s life and her sincere anguish at her failure to do so.

Seth soon becomes focused on Maggie and makes himself visible to her. They develop a connection, which soon turns to mutual attraction, although she is already involved with one of her colleagues, Jordan Ferris. Seth then meets Nathaniel Messinger, one of Maggie’s patients, who senses Seth’s presence. He tells him that he, too, had once been an angel. But, as free will is granted equally to mortals and angels, Nathaniel decided to become human by “falling”. Seth begins to consider being with Maggie, and she learns through Nathaniel that he is an angel.

Seth becomes human by jumping from the top of a skyscraper. Immediately upon awakening, he starts to experience many human feelings and sensations that he had never been able to understand, beginning with physical pain. As a human, Seth heads to the hospital to see Maggie but is told she has gone to her uncle’s mountain cabin at Lake Tahoe. Penniless and naïve, he cannot pay for the journey and gets mugged. He eventually hitches a ride to Lake Tahoe and appears, soaked and cold, at Maggie’s doorstep. She realizes he has become mortal for her love, and they have sex.

Meet the Cast