Hellboy (2019)

January 30, 2020

568 5 minutes read

Film and Plot Synopsis

Hellboy is a supernatural being who is the son of a fallen angel. He came to our world back in 1944 as part of a mystical ritual from the Third Reich. They had wanted to gain an advantage in the war with a super soldier of their own. While Hellboy was what they needed, they never managed to make their plans come to fruition. He soon fell into American hands, and began to serve them; protecting the world from mysterious threats. Now, he must go to England to meet with Merlin’s wife. From there, a battle with the Blood Queen leads to the end of the world scenarion, which the mighty demon tried to avoid all his life.

‘Hellboy’ Movie Summary

The summary below contains spoilers.

Our story begins in 517 A.D. with the evil Blood Queen, Vivienne Nimue (Milla Jovovich), unleashing a plaque on England. She marches over all the forces united against her until King Arthur stops her. With the help of Ganeida (Penelope Mitchell), another witch member of Nimue’s coven, they kill her. Arthur dismembers Nimue with his magic sword, Excalibur. He then spreads her remains around the world to prevent her from threatening the human race ever again.

The film then jumps to modern day Tijuana, Mexico. Hellboy (David Harbour), a demon paranormal investigator, tracks his friend, and fellow investigator, Esteban Ruiz (Mario de la Rosa). Esteban disappeared on assignment, but our hero finds him at a Mexican wrestling match. There he kills his friend after he discovers that Esteban’s now a vampire. Before he dies, Esteban tells Hellboy that the end is coming.

Depressed, he drinks himself silly as the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (B.P.R.D.) summons him back to Colorado. His adoptive father, and leader of B.P.R.D., Trevor “Broom” Bruttenholm (Ian McShane) dispatches Hellboy on a new assignment to Great Britain. He’s to assist the Osiris Club, the British equivalent of the B.P.R.D., in the hunting down and killing of three giants.

While at the Osiris, the club’s seer, Lady Hatton (Sophie Okonedo) reveals that Broom was originally ordered to kill the little demon. Back in the 1940’s he was part of the Nazis Project Ragna Rok. However, Broom spared the demon’s life, and chose to raise him as his own son instead.

While Hellboy travels to Great Britain, a pig-like fairy; known as Gruagach (Stephen Graham) seeks the assistance of a Russian witch named Baba Yaga (Emma Tate). Gruagach wants revenge against Hellboy, and Baba Yaga, who has a grudge against him too is willing to help. Apparently, our demon fighter was the one responsible for the loss of Baba Yaga’s eye. The witch tells the fairy to retrieve all the pieces of Nimue in order to resurrect the Blood Queen.

With on the hunt for the giants in Great Britain, The Osiris Club hunters betray Hellboy. They make an attempt on his life, but fortunately for him, the giants show up. They kill the members of the Osiris Club hunting party before concentrating their attack on Hellboy. He’s barely able to defeat the giants before collapsing from exhaustion.

Alice Monaghan (Sasha Lane) shows up to save him, and then whisks him back to her flat. The two are already quite acquainted as he once rescued Alice from Gruagach as a baby. Soon, Broom sends another team to retrieve Hellboy so they can inform him that someone stole Nimue’s remains from around the world. Broom directs Hellboy back to the Osiris Club as that is the hiding place for the last remaining piece; Nimue’s arm. M11 Agent Ben Daimio (Daniel Dae Kim) joins him and Alice, but he seems to hold a grudge against the demon.

Once at the club, they find everyone dead. Using her powers as a medium, Alice channels Lady Hatton’s spirit. She informs the group that Nimue needs Hellboy himself in order to cause the apocalypse. Gruagach does steal Nimue’s arm as Nimue appeals to Hellboy’s frustrations with his father to temporarily distract him. This allows the fairy to escape.

Apparently, Gruagach is a changeling fairy who attempted to take Alice as a baby before Hellboy stopped him and branded him with iron. He forced Gruagach to return the child, and the changeling hated him ever since.

They all head back to the London branch of M11 headquarters. After dropping the pair off, Daimio leaves headquarters to secretly acquire a special bullet which can kill Hellboy dead. Back at headquarters, Broom and Hellboy get into an argument about adoping him as a child. Hellboy angrily storms off, but suddenly finds himself transported to Baba Yaga’s house.

She offers to provide him with Nimue’s location in exchange for one of his eyes to replace her missing one. Hellboy agrees to the deal, but reneges on it after Baby Yaga gives him the information he needs. She curses him for breaking the deal, and tells him that he’ll lose a loved one.

He heads out again to tell Alice and Daimio that Nimue is at Pendleton. They all then set out to kill the Blood Queen. While in route, Daimio reveals to Alice that he was the sole survivor of a demonic jaguar attack. The trio arrives at Pendleton just as Nimue completes her full resurrection. Once her full power is returns, she kills her entire coven with the exception of Ganeida. Hellboy tries to stop Nimue, but her power overwhelms him. She poisons Alice before fleeing.

Ganeida leads Hellboy to Merlin’s (Brian Gleeson) resting place to save Alice. Merlin saves her, but immediately puts her and Daimio to sleep. Then he reveals Hellboy is Anung Un Rama, heir of King Arthur through his mother. Merlin tells him to take Excalibur, but he refuses after seeing a vision of himself causing the apocalypse when he touches the ancient sword. Merlin disintegrates in front of him once he exhausts his magic.

Meanwhile, Nimue attacks M11 and kidnaps Broom. She retreats to St. Paul’s Cathedral and the trio of heroes follow her there. Daimio, in his jaguar form, and Hellboy battle a powered up Gruagach. However, Nimue interrupts the battle and kills Gruagach. She then throws Hellboy into King Arthur’s hidden tomb that holds Excalibur. Nimue kills Broom as his adopted son pulls out the sword in a rage. This allows the demons to escape from Hell.

Once again, Alice, using her powers as a medium, channels Broom’s spirit to try to reach Hellboy now under the full influence of his demon side. Broom is successful, and Hellboy decapitates the Blood Queen with Excalibur. He then throws her head through the open portal to Hell before placing Excalibur back into the rock. It closes the portal, and sending the demons back to Hell. Hellboy and Broom share one last goodbye before Alice breaks the connection. With the good guys victorious, Daimio, now back in human form, throws the special bullet away.

Six months later, Hellboy, Daimio, and Alice raid the Oannes Society; a cult club. There they find the water tank of Abe Sapien, a paranormal underwater creature and future ally of Hellboy. In a mid-credits scene, Hellboy visits Broom’s grave, and the ghost of superhero Lobster Johnson (Thomas Haden Church) approaches him. In a post-credits scene, Baba Yaga enlists an unseen entity to seek out Hellboy with the promise of allowing him to finally die.

Add the film to your collection today!