Hellboy (2004)

A demon, raised from infancy after being conjured by and rescued from the Nazis, grows up to become a defender against the forces of darkness.

Director:

Guillermo del Toro

Writers:

Guillermo del Toro (screenplay), Guillermo del Toro (screen story)

Stars:

Ron Perlman, Doug Jones, Selma Blair

3 wins & 23 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ron Perlman	...	Hellboy
John Hurt	...	Trevor "Broom" Bruttenholm
Selma Blair	...	Liz Sherman
Rupert Evans	...	John Myers
Karel Roden	...	Grigori Rasputin
Jeffrey Tambor	...	Tom Manning
Doug Jones	...	Abe Sapien
Brian Steele	...	Sammael
Ladislav Beran	...	Karl Ruprecht Kroenen
Biddy Hodson	...	Ilsa Haupstein (as Bridget Hodson)
Corey Johnson	...	Agent Clay
Kevin Trainor	...	Young "Broom"
Brian Caspe	...	Agent Lime
James Babson	...	Agent Moss
Stephen Fisher	...	Agent Quarry

Storyline

At the end of World War II, Nazi officers Karl Ruprecht Kroenen and Ilsa Haupstein start an experiment to raise the forces of Hell trough Russian dark mystic Rasputin on a Scottish island, but it's interrupted by an allied commando guided by professor Trevor "Broom" Bruttenholm. He prevents killing the human-demonic half-blood, which was accidentally created and raises this "Hellboy", while rising to head of a secret C.I.A.-linked U.S. agency Bureau of Paranormal Research, which secretly studies and uses the occult, including supernatural freaks. As "father" Broom is aging, he hand-picks brilliant, sensitive Agent John Myers as new minder-companion, as regular "warrior" Agent Clay can't empathize and lacks flexibility mental. Hellboy is quite a handful, regularly spotted by worried civilians on unauthorized excursions, especially to pyro-telekinetic freak friend in a mental asylum. Johnny, Hellboy, and Clay team up on missions against paranormal threats with aquatic-bionic freak Abe ...

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Plot Keywords:

nazi | demon | superhero | hero | assassin | 

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Taglines:

Give Evil Hell

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Genres:

Action | Fantasy | Horror

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Certificate:

14A

Did You Know?

Trivia

The tombstone we see right after Hellboy enters the Russian cemetery was digitally altered. The name on it was changed to Mike Mignola's in Russian, and the epitaph below the date reads "Born in fire, died in fire", also in Russian.

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Goofs

When Myers enters the study for the first time, he is wearing a scarf and is carrying his luggage and a helmet. When Abe asks him to turn the pages, the scarf, luggage and helmet are gone.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Professor Trevor 'Broom' Bruttenholm: What is it that makes a man a man? Is it his origins, the way things start? Or is it something else, something harder to describe? For me it all began in 1944, a classified mission off the coast of Scotland. The Nazis were desperate. Combining science and black magic, they intended to upset the balance of the war. I was 28, already a paranormal advisor to President Roosevelt. I could never have suspected that what would transpire that night would not only effect the course of ...

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Crazy Credits

The film title is formed from a cathedral passageway, accompanied by documents of Hellboy's sightings.

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Alternate Versions

The Hellboy 3-disc director's cut DVD is ten minutes longer. (132 minute director's cut versus 122 minute regular version). Restores a few deleted/extended scenes back into the movie.

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Connections

Referenced in Hollywood's Top Ten: Holding Out for a Superhero (2011)

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Soundtracks

Let's Stay Together
Written by Al Green, Al Jackson Jr. and Willie Mitchell
Performed by Al Green
Courtesy of Hi Records
Under license from EMI Film & Television Music

User Reviews

An amazing spectacle

This movie is a fun watch, but mainly because of Ron Perlman. The action is well done and the story is great, but Perlman makes the character of Hellboy (a demon raised by "the good guys") just amazingly human, with a wry sense of humor. You would be hard pressed to find anyone anywhere who could do this character as well as Perlman, let alone better. The physicality seems to have been tailor made to fit Perlman's features and the delivery of the lines is just so understatedly comedic that there are few who could pull it off at all.

Of course, there are a couple times when the special effects are a little weaker than you would hope, but it doesn't detract from the movie as a whole. For instance, in the final battle scene, there are a couple shots where the Hellboy character clearly appears to be GC. But the fight moves so fast that you don't have much time to focus on those shots before something else amazing happens.

See it. Love it.

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Sony Pictures [United States]

Country:

USA

Language:

English Russian

Release Date:

2 April 2004 (Canada)

Also Known As:

Hellboy

Filming Locations:

Czech Republic

Box Office

Budget:

$66,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$23,172,440, 4 April 2004

Gross USA:

$59,623,958

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$99,378,985

Company Credits

Production Co:

Revolution Studios, Lawrence Gordon Productions, Starlite Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

122 min 132 min (director's cut)

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS D-Cinema 48kHz 5.1 (D-Cinema prints) Dolby Atmos

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1