Constantine (film)

Constantine
Promotional poster for Constantine
Directed by	Francis Lawrence
Produced by	Gilbert Adler Michael Aguilar
Written by	Comic Book: Alan Moore Jamie Delano Garth Ennis Screenplay: Kevin Brodbin Frank Cappello
Starring	Keanu Reeves Rachel Weisz Shia LaBeouf Tilda Swinton Pruitt Taylor Vince Djimon Hounsou Gavin Rossdale Peter Stormare
Music by	Klaus Badelt Brian Tyler
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	February 18, 2005 (2005-02-18)
Running time	121 min.
Language	English
Budget	$100,000,000
Gross revenue	$230,884,728
Official website
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Constantine is a 2005 American film loosely based on the Hellblazer comic book, with some plot elements being taken from the "Dangerous Habits" arc (issues #41-46). It was released on February 8, 2005 in Hong Kong, and on February 18, 2005 in the U.S. and Canada.

Plot

In a ruin in Mexico, a young man recovers the Spear of Destiny, which immediately possesses him and propels him on a journey to Los Angeles. In Los Angeles, John Constantine (Keanu Reeves) exorcises a demon from a teenage girl, unnerved by the demon's bold attempt at crossing over into humanity's realm. Later that night, disturbed mental patient Isabel Dodson commits suicide, provoking the sorrow and disbelief of her sister, Detective Angela Dodson (Rachel Weisz). At the same hospital, Constantine learns that he has lung cancer, a result of his decades-long chain-smoking habit. Disgusted by the news, he speaks with Gabriel, who while sympathetic rebuffs his attempts at reconciling with God, pointing out the selfish undertones beneath his good deeds. Dodson traces her leads to Constantine's apartment, asking his advice on why the devoutly Catholic Isabel would take her own life. Constantine reveals Earth as a neutral realm between Heaven and Hell where God and Satan wagered on who could win the most souls among humans. Though direct intervention by angels or demons is prohibited, "half-breeds," humans with mixed angel or demon ancestry, are allowed. Constantine, born with and traumatized by his ability to detect these unholy presences, committed suicide to escape the torment, allowing himself a momentary glimpse of Hell before being resuscitated by doctors. Damned to Hell by his "successful" suicide, Constantine battles their forces on Earth in an attempt to win God's favor and in the process enraging Satan, who harbors a personal grudge against Constantine. Constantine discovers that Dodson and her sister were psychics, a power repressed by Dodson as she grew older. Following her awakening, Dodson leads Constantine across the city to Balthazar, a half-breed conspiring with Satan's son Mammon to conquer Earth. After possessing a powerful psychic on Earth, Mammon can only cross over into Earth with divine assistance, notably the Spear of Destiny, encrusted with the blood of Jesus Christ, God's only son. As the two attempt to escape, Dodson is kidnapped. Constantine pursues her to the hospital where inside, the man from Mexico arrives with the Spear of Destiny and helps Mammon possess Dodson. Constantine and his apprentice, Chaz Kramer (Shia LaBeouf) struggle to repress Mammon in Dodson's body when Chaz is killed by Gabriel, who manifests and subdues Constantine. Gabriel, bitter over the effortless salvation gifted to humans by God, vows to infect Earth with Hell, declaring that humans only earn salvation when they are truly noble or heroic beneath true adversity and horror. As Gabriel prepares to release Mammon, Constantine takes his own life, winning an audience with Satan, whose arrival freezes time. At first giddy with excitement, Satan is dismayed to learn of Mammon's plot, which he promptly interrupts, returning Mammon to Hell and burning the wings from Gabriel as he tries to resist. Satan returns to Constantine and asks what reward he expects, to which Constantine asks that Isabel be returned to Heaven. Satan happily complies and begins dragging Constantine to Hell, only to be interrupted by the Divine light, which accepts Constantine into Heaven amidst his selfless sacrifice. Witnessing the escape of his most reviled enemy, an enraged Satan rips the cancer from Constantine's lungs, resurrecting him with the opportunity to condemn himself to Hell, before disappearing. Later that night, Constantine and Dodson reunite on the hospital's rooftop overlooking the city, Constantine hands Dodson the Spear of Destiny. As she leaves him to the solitary Los Angeles skyline Constantine, now in full possession of his fate, begins chewing gum to quit smoking. At the end of the film's credits, Constantine visits Chaz's grave, leaving his cigarette lighter atop the grave. As Constantine turns to leave, Chaz appears as an angel, and flies silently into a sky, leaving behind a smiling Constantine.

Cast

Differences from Hellblazer

There are a vast number of differences between the film Constantine and the Hellblazer comic books which the film is based on.

• In the comic books, John Constantine is blonde and English as opposed to the raven haired American he is shown to be in the film. The character was intentionally drawn to resemble the physical appearance of British musician Sting.
• In the comic books, Constantine is doomed to hell because of his use of magic and his attempt to murder his father. In the film Constantine is condemned to hell because of a successful suicide.
• In the film, Chaz is slain by Gabriel and resurrected as an Angel. In the comic book, Chas (note the differently-spelled name), a family man, is one of John's longest surviving friends, many times getting involved in the demonic fighting against his will - and is, in fact, probably the only one of Constantine's long-term friends to avoid being killed at some point.
• During the film, Constantine frequently battles head on with demons in order to prevent hell from being created on earth. In Hellblazer Constantine's usually avoids fighting, preferring to use trickery in order to defeat his enemies. In the Dangerous Habits arc, his only combat with a demon was to save his recently deceased friend, Brendan, from having to go to hell. Even then, this was mostly trickery.
• Gabriel is shown to be somewhat of a primary villain in the film, whereas during Dangerous Habits, Gabriel was a neutral - if somewhat unlikeable - source that Constantine turned to, to seek a cure for cancer. In the Dangerous Habits arc, Gabriel is contemptuous of humans because he believes in divine providence. In the film, Gabriel loathes humans for the fact that they are given redemption with ease.
• In the film, Constantine is spared going to hell, because he sacrifices himself to do something noble. As a consequence, Satan could not pull Constantine down to hell. The result was the removal of the cancer (the only thing that Satan was able to pull from Constantine). Constantine is then shown chewing gum, as an alternative to smoking. In the comic book, Constantine tricks three different devils into a bargain for his soul. The demons realize what had gone on and, not wanting to go to war for his soul, heal his cancer as a way of keeping him alive. Unlike the movie, Constantine goes back to smoking.
• In the film, Constantine uses a 'holy shotgun' with bullets made from a cross blessed by the pope, as well as a 'dragon's breath' (from a real dragon) flamethrower addon. With it, he actively fights half-demons by (literally) blowing them to hell. In the comics, he has expressed a severe dislike of weapons and fighting in general and of guns especially. At one point he does acquire a gun, but in the same issue, he throws it away and states that 'guns are nothing but trouble'.

Types of Angels & Demons

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The only angels featured in the film are half-breeds, described below. Like demons, true angels are forbidden from entering the earthly plane. Unlike demons, however, angels appear to be too honest to cheat. Any other types of angel are thus unknown.

• Half-Breeds: These creatures are semi-angels and semi-demons, responsible for influencing mortals, but not directly interfering in their actions. They appear as normal humans, unless they come in contact with holy instruments. Because of their partly mortal nature, they are the only demons allowed to exist in the Earth plane. They corrupt human souls, making human beings commit evil and sin, and then kill them by turning their greatest pleasure into their worst nightmare. Being the only demons and angels permitted to be on Earth, they are John Constantine's most common targets. They become more vulnerable when exposed to blessed and holy instruments, such as holy water. Balthazar was a notable half-demon whom John seemed to personally despise.
• Soldier Demons: These creatures are the tormenters of Hell. They are depicted as wretched, naked, pale, corpse-like monsters and are sometimes missing body parts. They walk upright, but are often seen running on all-fours like wild animals. As the tormenters of Hell, they viciously attack the souls of the damned without hesitation or remorse. Although one soldier demon possessed a little girl's body, it was banished when John exorcised it. John has encountered them during his time in Hell.
• Scavenger Demons: These creatures bring damned souls to Hell. They appear bat-like, and fly in great numbers. Although demons are not allowed on Earth, a large number of them attacked John in a Los Angeles street.
• Vermin Demon: A creature composed of other, smaller, creatures including beetles, rats, snakes and crabs. It attacked John in the street, but was stunned by John's use of an Amityville Screech Beetle, and was then defeated.

Weapons

A plethora of weapons are used or tested out by Constantine in order to kill or incapacitate various demons. These include weapons from all across religions, including a dragon's breath flamethrower (Pagan), gold brassknuckles with crosses (Christian), vials of holy water from the River Jordan (Jewish/Christian), a silver cross to sanctify water and a holy cross shotgun resembling an Armsel Striker (Christian) and cups of Krishna's cow's essence (Hindu) and the sign of the holy trinity (Christian). These serve either as combat weapons or defensive amulets. John also uses an Amityville Screech Beetle, a small insect kept inside a matchbox. When shaken, it emits a high-pitched sound which stuns demons. This is an Ancient Egyptian reference to the high pitched clicks of the sacred scarab beetle, which lives in tombs.

Box Office and Proposed sequel

Constantine earned US$229 million in worldwide box office receipts. It was rumored that a sequel was being planned for release in 2007; however, the film failed to materialize. Reeves did not commit to the project, sometimes expressing interest and other times not. Recently, movie producer Lauren Shuler Donner has commented that a sequel (with Reeves attached) is in the works, but that Francis Lawrence would not be directing^[1] Movie producer Lauren Shuler Donner stated in a November 18-19, 2006 interview that writers are currently developing a script for Constantine 2. She claims that Keanu Reeves is willing to reprise his role as John Constantine. Donner also stated that Constantine 2 would be filmed in a South American country, and a different director would replace Francis Lawrence who directed the first film. Nevertheless, Lawrence will act as a producer on the sequel. The film is expected to be rated "R", similar to the first film.^[2][3][4] Constantine has been rated R For Violence and Demonic Images by the MPAA. It also contains mild language. Warner Home Video announced that the film was to be released on HD DVD on March 28, 2006.^[5] It would be one of the earliest titles to be released on that media format. However, following delays to the launch of the HD DVD format (which pushed back the release of many of the initially announced titles), Constantine eventually made its debut on HD DVD on June 6, 2006. There was also a video game of the movie Constantine for PlayStation 2. The game was a 3rd person adventure game, and it did not feature Keanu Reeves' voice, but a close impersonator.

Trivia

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• The possessed girl (Jhoanna Trias) uttered Tagalog words while being possessed by the devil, "Patayin natin sila" (Let's kill them), but when she woke up she talked with her mother in Mandarin Chinese. This line, sampled from the film, is used at the start of the 2005 remake of the song 'Alt Lys Er Svunnet Hen' by Norwegian Black Metal band Dimmu Borgir.
• This movie marks the second time that Rachel Weisz and Keanu Reeves starred together in a feature film, the first being Chain Reaction in 1996.
• Domino Harvey appeared as an angel seated at a table with a demon, who is affectionately biting her ear, during the first of two scenes at Papa Midnite's bar.
• Both Domino Harvey, who portrays an angel in the movie, and Matthew McGrory, who portrays a demon, died the same year the movie came out.
• The film's title was changed to Constantine because the comic title Hellblazer was too similar to the Clive Barker Hellraiser horror film series. Ironically, the comic was originally to be called Hellraiser and was changed because DC Comics thought it would be confused with the original film which was released the previous year.
• A sign with the phrase "Got Faith?" is visible in the scene with the man carrying the Spear of Destiny carjacking a vehicle to get to Los Angeles.
• In biblical canon Mammon is not said to be the outright son the of the Devil, and in most classic literature, such as Paradise Lost, he is another fallen angel but is one of Satan's most trusted.

References

1. ^ CHUD News November 19, 2006.
2. ^ IESB Interview with Lauren Shula Donner November 18, 2006.
3. ^ IESB Interview with Lauren Shula Donner part 2 November 19, 2006.
4. ^ "Constantine 2 Confirmed Coming Soon", IESB.net, November 18, 2006, Retrieved on 2007-05-23.
5. ^ Business Wire. Warner Home Video Announces Titles and Release Dates for HD DVD. January 5, 2006.

See also

• The Spear of Destiny

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Constantine

• Official site
• Constantine at the Internet Movie Database
• Constantine at Rotten Tomatoes
• Constantine at Box Office Mojo