Podcast 247: Hellboy (2004)

Movie Title: Hellboy
Release Date: April 2, 2004
Runtime: 122 minutes
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Screenplay Written By: Guillermo del Toro
Based On: The Dark Horse Comics character Hellboy, created by Mike Mignola
Is it a remake?: No. It is the first live-action Hellboy film, followed by Hellboy II: The Golden Army in 2008 and a separate reboot in 2019.

Main Cast:

• Ron Perlman
• Selma Blair
• Jeffrey Tambor
• Karel Roden
• Rupert Evans
• John Hurt
• Doug Jones
• Brian Steele
• Ladislav Beran

Budget: Approximately $60–66 million

Box Office:

• Domestic: $59,623,958
• Worldwide: Approximately $99.8 million
• Note: The Numbers lists a $60 million production budget; Wikipedia and trade summaries commonly report a $60–66 million range.

Awards:

• Saturn Award winner — Best Make-Up: Jake Garber, Matt Rose, Mike Elizalde
• Saturn Award nominations — Best Fantasy Film and Best Costumes
• IMDb lists 3 wins and 23 nominations total.
  
  

Short Plot Summary:

During World War II, Nazi occultists open a portal that brings a demon child into the human world. Raised by Professor Trevor Bruttenholm, Hellboy grows up working for the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, fighting supernatural threats while hiding from the public. When Rasputin returns with plans to unleash apocalyptic forces, Hellboy must confront his origin, his destiny, and his own choice to protect humanity.

Key Quotes:

• “I’m fireproof. You’re not.” — Hellboy
• “There are things that go bump in the night. We are the ones who bump back.” — Professor Bruttenholm
• “What makes a man a man?” — Professor Bruttenholm
• “In the absence of light, darkness prevails.” — Professor Bruttenholm
• “Red means stop!” — Hellboy
  
  

Trivia

• Director:

  • Guillermo del Toro wrote and directed the film, with Peter Briggs sharing screen story credit and Mike Mignola credited for the comic books.
  • Del Toro had long been a fan of Mignola’s comics and pushed for Ron Perlman to play Hellboy, even though Perlman was not the studio’s obvious blockbuster choice at the time.
  • The film combines del Toro’s recurring interests: monsters as sympathetic outsiders, occult history, Catholic imagery, clockwork/mechanical design, and underground hidden worlds.
  • Hellboy was produced by Revolution Studios, Dark Horse Entertainment, and Lawrence Gordon/Lloyd Levin Productions, with Columbia Pictures/Sony handling distribution.

• Cast / Casting:

  • Ron Perlman plays Hellboy, a demon raised by humans who works as a paranormal investigator.
  • John Hurt plays Professor Trevor Bruttenholm, Hellboy’s adoptive father and the head of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense.
  • Selma Blair plays Liz Sherman, a pyrokinetic former B.P.R.D. agent whose powers and emotional control are central to the story.
  • Doug Jones physically performed Abe Sapien, while David Hyde Pierce provided Abe’s voice in the original release. Jones later voiced Abe himself in Hellboy II: The Golden Army.
  • Karel Roden plays Grigori Rasputin, the occult villain who brings Hellboy into the world and later tries to use him as a key to the apocalypse.

• Soundtrack / Score:

  • Marco Beltrami composed the score.
  • The soundtrack uses a mix of gothic orchestration, action scoring, and character-driven themes to balance pulp adventure with supernatural horror.
  • Tom Waits’ “Heartattack and Vine” appears in the film’s soundtrack listings and fits Hellboy’s gritty, blue-collar monster-detective attitude.
  • The score supports the film’s odd tonal mix: comic-book action, occult menace, monster romance, and deadpan humor.

• Location:

  • The film’s story moves between World War II Scotland, the B.P.R.D. headquarters, New York City, subway tunnels, museums, cemeteries, and occult ruins.
  • Production used extensive sets and visual effects to create the hidden B.P.R.D. world, including creature labs, underground spaces, and Rasputin’s supernatural machinery.
  • Tippett Studio handled visual-effects work involving multiple creatures and complex fight animation, including Abe Sapien underwater material and Hellboy’s battle with the Behemoth/Sammael-style monster work.
  • The film’s production design leans heavily into del Toro’s love of industrial machinery, relics, ancient symbols, and monster anatomy.

• Act 1:

  • The opening prologue shows Nazi occultists and Rasputin opening a portal during World War II, introducing Hellboy as a supernatural weapon intercepted by Allied forces.
  • Professor Bruttenholm adopts the infant Hellboy, reframing him from “demon” into son, agent, and reluctant hero.
  • The present-day story introduces the B.P.R.D., a hidden agency that investigates paranormal threats.
  • FBI agent John Myers functions as the audience-entry character into Hellboy’s secret world.

• Act 2:

  • Hellboy’s jealousy over Liz and Myers gives the monster-action plot a romantic-comedy undercurrent.
  • Sammael, the resurrecting hound-like creature, creates a repeating monster problem: killing one can make the threat multiply.
  • Abe Sapien’s psychic and aquatic abilities expand the B.P.R.D. team beyond brute force, making him the film’s investigator/forensic specialist.
  • Rasputin manipulates Hellboy toward accepting his apocalyptic identity as Anung Un Rama, while Bruttenholm’s influence pushes him toward humanity.

• Act 3:

  • The climax centers on Hellboy being forced to choose between his foretold destiny and the human identity Bruttenholm helped create.
  • Hellboy breaks off his regrown horns, visually rejecting his demonic/apocalyptic role.
  • Liz’s power becomes a decisive force in the finale, tying her emotional awakening to the film’s supernatural conflict.
  • The ending leaves Hellboy as a public rumor rather than a conventional superhero celebrity, preserving the secret-monster-agency setup for future stories.

• Easter Eggs:

  • The B.P.R.D. comes directly from the Hellboy comics and would later become a major part of the broader comic mythology.
  • The name Anung Un Rama is Hellboy’s true name in the comics and is tied to his apocalyptic destiny.
  • Hellboy’s oversized revolver, the Samaritan, and his stone “Right Hand of Doom” are central visual icons from the comics.
  • The film’s occult-Nazi prologue connects to one of the most persistent pulp-comics traditions: secret World War II experiments unleashing modern supernatural consequences.
  • Some theaters and retailers reportedly objected to the word “hell” in the title; Wikipedia notes that some locations marketed the movie as “Helloboy” or refused to carry related products. Treat this as release/marketing trivia rather than a core production fact.

• Misc:

  • Hellboy opened domestically on April 2, 2004 and earned $23,172,440 in its opening weekend.
  • Box Office Mojo lists the domestic total at $59,623,958, while Wikipedia reports a worldwide total of approximately $99.8 million.
  • The film’s PG-13 rating, supernatural horror imagery, comic-book roots, and monster romance made it less conventional than many early-2000s superhero films.
  • Ron Perlman’s makeup transformation was central to the film’s identity, and the makeup team’s work won the Saturn Award for Best Make-Up.
  • The film’s sequel, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, followed in 2008; the later 2019 Hellboy was a reboot rather than a continuation of del Toro’s two-film continuity.
    
    

Sources Cited:

• IMDb: Hellboy title, full credits, awards, and soundtrack listings.
• Wikipedia: Hellboy film entry.
• Box Office Mojo: Hellboy title/franchise box-office listings.
• The Numbers: Hellboy financial information.
• FilmAffinity / Saturn Awards summary.
• Tippett Studio: Hellboy visual-effects work.