What fresh h*** is this? After a ten-year absence from the silver screen, Hellboy made his return in a gory two-hour reboot of the franchise. Amid all the crushed skulls,the film leaves several loose ends in its wake, so let’s try making some sense of that unruly ending. Spoilers ahead!
Hellboy’s titular half-man, half-hellbeast is portrayed by Stranger Things’ David Harbour, who fills the formidable shoes of Ron Perlman, the actor who starred in Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy films. The film grabs imagery from the original comic book series by Mike Mignola, cribbing plot points and characters from The Wild Hunt, among several others.
Hellboy works for the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, battling supernatural creepos alongside his adoptive father, Professor Trevor Bruttenholm, played by Deadwood’s Ian McShane. Throughout the film, Hellboy is hot on the trail of a spiteful witch named Nimue the Blood Queen, portrayed by Milla Jovovich.
In the flashback sequence that opens the film, Nimue is chopped to bits by none other than King Arthur, who rips her apart with his mighty sword Excalibur. Nimue’s body parts are scattered throughout the land and remain buried for 1,500 years. Alas, she’s eventually pieced back together by her willing supplicant, the humanoid warthog Gruagach. Now, Hellboy must stop Nimue before she destroys humanity.
Beneath all the rotting flesh and gouged eyeballs, this is the story of a creature searching for his place in the world. If we were to boil down the character’s central dilemma, we’d say he vacillates between sympathizing with the supernatural world and siding with humans.
As the film lunges toward its conclusion, we learn that Hellboy is the spawn of a demon and a witch of Arthurian descent.
In the final confrontation, Nimue the Blood Queen temporarily seduces Hellboy to the dark side after killing Professor Bruttenholm before his eyes. Hellboy is garlanded in a kicky crown of h***-flame and immediately grows his horns out, because he’s evil now.
As Nimue’s squadron of unearthly creatures rip through the terrified London streets, Hellboy ultimately comes to his senses and overpowers Nimue. He decapitates her with Excalibur, sending her still-screaming head back into the fiery fathoms of h***.
What is that fish tank?
In the film’s final set piece, Hellboy finds himself on a dangerous mission in Siberia with two trusty cohorts from the BPRD: scrappy spirit medium Alice Monaghan, played by Sasha Lane, and moody Ben Daimio, played by Daniel Dae Kim. Ben is a downlow were-jaguar whose theoretically British accent also has a penchant for shapeshifting.
After dispatching the members of a secret cabal called the Atlantis Society, the trio notice a large fish tank. Suddenly, webbed fingers poke out from the murky water and touch the glass surface. Keep watching the video to see the ending of Hellboy explained!
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Hellboy in a nutshell | 0:17
Caught between two worlds | 1:16
What is that fish tank? | 2:05
Hellboy’s ghostly rendezvous | 3:06
Visiting Baba Yaga | 3:52