Useless Movie Trivia For
Hellboy

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Memorable Movie Quotes

Hellboy: Second date, no tongue!

Hellboy: Mmmmmm nachos.

Hellboy: I'm gonna be sore in the mornin'!

Hellboy: You killed my father, your ass is mine!

Abe Sapien: If there's trouble, all us freaks have is each other.
John Myers: What makes a man a man? A friend of mine once wondered. It's the choices he makes. Not how he starts things, but how he finishes them.
Hellboy: I hate those comic books. They never get the eyes right.

Professor Trevor 'Broom' Bruttenholm: Unique. That is a word you will hear frequently around here.

Trivia

Director Guillermo del Toro for years considered this film a dream project and had always wanted to cast Ron Perlman in the lead, but could never secure a budget or studio approval. After the massive success of Blade II (2002), del Toro was offered Blade: Trinity (2004) or Hellboy, and though he briefly considered trying to schedule both in, he chose Hellboy.

Baby Hellboy, Sammael, Ivan the corpse, Train Driver and Kroenen were all voiced by Guillermo del Toro.

Upon meeting to discuss the movie, Hellboy creator Mike Mignola and director Guillermo del Toro decided to reveal to each other their choice for the lead role of Hellboy. They both said at the same time, Ron Perlman.

The Hellboy movie takes its story from more than one Hellboy comic. The meat of the story comes from the "Seed of Destruction" storyline, but the rest is taken from the "Right Hand of Doom" and "Box Full of Evil" short stories. The movie also contains little homages to other stories such as "The Corpse" and "Pancakes".

When Professor Bruttenholm is showing Agent Myers through the BPRD when he first arrives, a greyish male humanoid statue with a large ring on its groin is momentarily seen. This is actually Roger the Homunculus, a supporting character introduced late in the Hellboy comics (in the story arc "Almost Colossus"), who often goes through periods of dormancy; when active, he is a special BPRD agent much like Abe. Roger did not make it into the movie script as a character, but made it into the film as a piece of set decoration instead. Another comic-book prop reference in the same scene is the large set of metal boots sitting in one of the glass display cases. These belonged to a supernatural creature called "The Iron Shoes" from the short story of the same name.

One of Sammael's titles, as read by Abe, is the "Seed of Destruction", the title of one of the Hellboy comics upon which the movie is based.

The filmmakers decided not to make the film too bloody so as to avoid an R-rating and thought of things they could substitute for the blood. While filming the fight between Hellboy and the monster in front of the people in the subway, actor Ron Perlman suggested that Hellboy could grab a gumball machine and start beating the monster over the head with it, with the flying gumballs standing in for the blood. Instead, Hellboy rips a payphone off the wall and beats the monster over the head with the phone, with the coins that go flying out standing in for the blood.

The scenes where Abe is in the medical tank were shot on Doug Jones's birthday. He spent several hours in a harness to make it look like he was floating in water. By the time he was taken out of the harness, he was all scraped up and bloody from it.

When Hellboy says to Myers "what got you this job pushing Pam-cakes" Pancakes is purposely said wrong referring to a two page story which appears in the "Right Hand of Doom" graphic novel.

Very early on in the film's preproduction, the filmmakers considered putting Hellboy's giant stone hand on his left arm rather than the right, so as to grant the actor playing Hellboy the full use of his right hand. Ron Perlman turned out to be left-handed, so the filmmakers were able to preserve the Right Hand of Doom.

The US soldiers' unit patches identify them as from the 2nd Infantry Division, the "Indian Head" division. In real life, they were actually defending the town of St Vith, Belgium during the events in the opening scene.

The Spear of Longinus seen briefly in the movie is an exact replica of what is thought to be the actual Spear (which is in the possession of the Hofsburg Treasure House in Vienna), right down to the golden sheath wrapped around its center.

The studio wanted Vin Diesel to play Hellboy.

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.

Ron Perlman's make up took four hours to apply.

It took anywhere from five to seven hours to apply Doug Jones's make-up. It took another three hours to reverse the process. Sometimes, some of the pieces were not removed so that it would be easier to put the costume on the next day.

To prepare for his role, Ron Perlman read all the Hellboy comics and worked out three hours a day, five to seven days a week (varied). He also worked out while shooting, every day he had off from filming, he would workout.

Much of the demonology in the film is inspired by the Cthulhu Mythos developed by H.P. Lovecraft, a horror writer in the 1930s. The Sammael creatures have characteristics of both Nyarlathotep and Cthulhu. Elder gods, many eyed and tentacled, sleeping at the edge of the universe, are a staple of his books.

Ron Perlman broke a rib while filming the subway scenes. He jumped onto a train that was coming towards him at about 45 mph.

The quote at the beginning of the film is from a book mentioned many times in the H.P. Lovecraft mythos.

Hellboy's line to Liz, "I'll always look this good," was originally spoken by Guillermo del Toro to his future wife when she took issue with his casual mode of dressing.

After completion of the Hellboy make-up, the only part of Ron Perlman's body that can actually be seen are his eyelids.

Doug Jones's (Abe Sapien) voice was dubbed by David Hyde Pierce, but Pierce refused a credit, because he felt that Abe was entirely Doug's creation and did not wish to detract from his performance.

There is no Palmer Street subway station in the New York City subway; however, Palmer is the last name of the film's executive producer, Patrick J. Palmer.

Hellboy was originally going to have cloven hooves for feet, like in the comics, but it was decided that it would be easier and safer for Ron Perlman to perform his stunts with normal, booted feet.

When John Myers first gets to the front gate of the BPRD, he has to get past a security check. The voice of the security guard is the property master, Michael Lindsay who was standing behind the pillar during the shot.

Goofs

Flopped shot: In the underground tunnels next to the subway, Hellboy's big arm, which should be his right, is on his left side.

When Agent Myers talks to Professor Bruttenholm about how he's not right for the BPRD he's wearing his casual clothing from earlier in the film. In previous and subsequent shots he is wearing a black suit.

Although Abraham Lincoln was shot on 14 April 1865, he actually died on 15 April 1865.

When Hellboy saves John Meyers, he punches the hood of the jeep and causes the it to flip and the front bumper to come off. When the Jeep lands the front bumper is still attached.

When Liz and Myers are on their date, he goes to get their coffee, and Liz opens her camera. Next shot, they are together, and Liz opens her camera again.

The motto of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense inscribed around the table reads: "In Absentia Luci Tenebrae Vicunt". The correct Latin should be "In Absentia Lucis Tenebrae Vincunt" to translate correctly as "In the absence of light, darkness conquers".

At two different times, it is stated that six guards have died in the museum. Yet, when Abe shows Professor Broom what happened, we see seven guards killed by Kroenen. Two on the catwalk and five on the floor with Kroenen.

Hellboy is fireproof. He isn't affected by fire in any of the scenes in the whole movie. Yet after Hellboy emerges from under the train in scene nine, he touches his stunted horns which are now scolding hot and reacts in pain.

On the Bridge scene under the graveyard, Tom Manning is thrown and slides under the door just before it closes. However Hellboy also slides under later in the scene when the door should have already been closed.

When Agent Myers was at the gates of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, he had a retina scan. The machine scanned his right eye, but it identified it as his left eye.

Box Office Info USA

Budget: $66,000,000

Opening Weekend: $23,172,440

Gross: $59,035,104

Rentals: $50,000,000

Filming Dats: 4 March 2003 - August 2003

Filming Locations