Hellboy II: The Golden Army is a 2008 comic book film based on the fictional Dark Horse Comics character Hellboy. The film is directed by Guillermo del Toro and is a sequel to the 2004 film Hellboy, which del Toro also directed. Ron Perlman reprises his role as the titular character. The film was commercially released on July 11, 2008 in the United States and Canada.
Plot
In a Christmas of 1955, a young Hellboy is told a bedtime story by his father, Professor Trevor Bruttenholm (John Hurt), involving an ancient battle between humans and mythical creatures. A Goblin suggests to King Balor, King of the Elves, that he could create an unstoppable clockwork army. This ‘Golden Army’ of 4900 soldiers decimated the humans so mercilessly in battle that Balor regretted the army’s creation and offered a truce: man would keep his cities and the creatures would keep their forests. This truce was to be part of an unspoken chain passed from ruler to heir amongst the realm of men, until the end of time itself. The truce didn’t settle with Balor’s son, Prince Nuada (Luke Goss), who left in exile. The crown was soon broken into three, with two of the pieces going to the Elves and the last to the humans. The Golden Army was buried and quickly became legend.
In the present, Hellboy (Ron Perlman) is having relationship issues with his girlfriend Liz (Selma Blair). The duo, along with Abe Sapien (Doug Jones), are sent to an auction house where violence has erupted by thousands of ravenous tooth fairies, which Nuada set loose as he took the first piece of the crown, which was being auctioned off. The incident led to not only Abe accidentally scanning Liz and learning that she’s pregnant, but the disposal of the tooth fairies caused Hellboy to be blown out a window and exposed to the media, thus destroying the secrecy of the BPRD. Furious about this turn of events, the Washington sends down a new agent, Johann Krauss (voiced by Seth MacFarlane), to take command due to his notion of working completely by the book. While that occurs, Nuada goes to the court of his father, who fails to convince his son to avert his course of war with the humans and is forced to sentence Nuada to death. However, the Buthcher Guards are slaughtered before Balor is murdered by Nuada, who then takes the second piece of the crown from his stony corpse before hunting down the final piece, which is owned by his twin sister Princess Nuala (Anna Walton), with whom he possesses a magical bond; each is at least vaguely aware of what the other knows, and any wound delivered to one appears on the other as well. Investigating the tooth fairies, Johann leads a group to the Troll Market, an enormous merchant city hidden under The Brooklyn Bridge, for clues. While Hellboy and Johann ask around, Abe crosses paths with Nuala while she was looking for the map to where the Golden Army rests, quickly falling in love with her before they get attacked by Nuada’s pet troll, Mr. Wink.
Hellboy arrives and his fight with Mr. Wink results in the troll’s death, infuriating Nuada into unleashing an Elemental, a Forest God, on him and the city. The fight results in Hellboy realizing that people won’t accept him, and also causes him to question his place in the world as Nuala is brought under BPRD protection. Back at headquarters, Abe and Nuala examine the map, but find nothing about the whereabouts of the Golden Army. Nuada uses the bond with his sister to find BPRD headquarters. When Nuala senses her brother’s arrival, she burns the map, along with the canister in which it came, and hides the final piece of the crown within a book. However, Nuada reveals that the map was a misdirection and that the real map is on the canister. He removes the hot canister from the fire and burns the map into a nearby desk, uncovering the resting place of the Golden Army. Nuada kidnaps his sister and mortally wounds Hellboy in the process with his spear. Unable to remove the spear shard, Liz and Abe take Hellboy to the map’s location, Northern Ireland, joined by Johann after a sudden change of heart. There, they encounter the Goblin who oversaw the creation of the Golden Army, who brings them the old subterranean city of his people, devoid of all life since the army were placed within the depths of the city. It is there that Liz is brought before the only one who could remove the shard, the Angel of Death, who has been waiting for their arrival. Though told that Hellboy would doom humanity if he lives, and that she’ll suffer the most from it, Liz pleads for Hellboy not to die. Amused by her choice, the Angel easily removed the spear shard from Hellboy’s chest and tells Liz to give him a reason to life, with Liz revealing to Hellboy that he’s going to be a father.
After the Goblin honors his part of the deal upon getting the shard, Hellboy leads his team to the resting place of the Golden Army where Nuada awaits them. However, as the others learn too late, Abe had found the last piece of the crown that Nuala hid and gives it up to Prince Nuada in exchange for her life. With the crown reformed, Nuada invokes the Golden Army and has them immediately attack the agents. After a fierce battle, the agents realize that the army cannot be destroyed because they can magically reconstruct themselves. Getting an idea, Hellboy challenges Nuada for the right to the crown, but the Prince refuses, claiming that Hellboy is not of royal blood. However, his sister points out that Hellboy, being the son of the Fallen One, is therefore a prince of Hell itself and Prince Nuada is forced to accept his challenge. Hellboy defeats Nuada, but the Prince tells him he must be killed, as he will never stop fighting. Hellboy refuses and the Prince tries to attack once more with his back turned, forcing Nuala to take her own life to stop her brother. Abe rushes to Nuala’s body and psychically tells her his feelings before she dies as Liz then melts the crown, shutting down the Golden Army forever. As the BPRD agents leave the underground compound, Agent Manning (Jeffrey Tambor) reprimands them for their actions. To his surprise, Hellboy, Liz, Abe, and Johann all hand over their belts and announce their resignation from the bureau. As they walk away, Hellboy contemplates his future life with his baby. Liz stops and corrects him, saying “babies”, which made Hellboy stop and turn to look at her as she holds up two fingers, revealing that she is pregnant with twins.
Cast
Ron Perlman as Hellboy: A demon who works for the government organization Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD). Guillermo del Toro described the character’s dilemma in the sequel, “[He] has always fought on the side of humans, but this [destruction of fantasy] pushes his buttons to reconsider.”[1] In the sequel, Hellboy is armed with an enormous new gun called “The Big Baby”, which fires flare-like bullets.[2]
Selma Blair as Liz Sherman: A pyrokinetic member of BPRD and Hellboy’s girlfriend. Blair described her character as more engaging in the sequel, “In the first one she was afraid to take a step. She was completely a zombie, not wanting to own up to her power and having the memory of what she’d created in her life… I was really eager to come and play Liz with a little more vibrancy.” Blair also had short hair for her role, avoiding long hair from her portrayal in the first film, which she felt “brought her face down”. The actress emphasized Liz Sherman’s growth in the sequel, “She’s looking to the future much more, and things are happening in this one that she has to buck up… I think you’re dealing with a lot knowing this young girl that we last saw as very damaged, and now she’s with this guy, and all these people around her, I think, we’ve really had to step up a strength, and a confidence in her so that I don’t look like the little baby kid sister tagging along.”[3]
Doug Jones as Abe Sapien: An aquatic empath who works for BPRD with Hellboy. Jones said of his return to the role after the first film, “He’s been an absolute treat for me to play this time. He’s written with so many different colors and levels and there’s a love interest… And his buddy time with Hellboy is more concrete and his brother/sister time with Liz is even better.” Jones believed that Abe Sapien became “the brains, the intellect of the team” while Hellboy protects his character because he is still “kind of innocent”. The actor pointed to his character’s adolescence with love,[4] “His love life is something that’s never been tapped into before… So just like a 13-year-old with his first crush, this is how you’re going to see Abe this time. A portion of him. Will this affect his decision-making powers?”[5] In addition to Abe, Jones also portrayed two more characters in the film.
- The Angel of Death: A female angel with androgynous characteristics. Jones explained his portrayal, “The script refers to the angel as a her and that’s what I do. I think she has feminine qualities, but she’s not totally a woman either. And that’s okay. I like characters that keep you guessing.”[4]
- The Chamberlain: The door keeper for the Elfen King of the Underworld.[6] The creature is long, gangly, eight feet tall and wears silk and velvet robes. It also has long, spindly fingers, which filmmakers mobilized with servos and which Jones wore as extensions of his own hands.[7]
Luke Goss as Prince Nuada: The Elf Prince of the Underworld. Goss was originally cast as the mutant vampire Jared Nomak in del Toro’s 2002 film Blade II, and the director approached the actor to be cast in Hellboy II. Goss trained with swords and spears for six to seven months for his role.[8] He and Anna Walton also learned ancient Gaelic from a dialog coach for their lines.[9] Goss did not perceive Nuada as evil, explaining, “It’s issues, his people, he’s part of what he truly believes. I don’t think, really, he’s so deluded… [He] is driven by an ethic that was instilled by the person he has problems [with] his father, and inevitably, that leads into the conflict with him and Hellboy.” Goss also noted that his character admired and revered his twin sister, portrayed by Anna Walton. He said of the prince and the princess, “There is an incestuous relationship that’s not maybe overly obvious to everybody, but some people hopefully will pick up on the fact, certainly from my direction towards her.”[8]
Anna Walton as Princess Nuala: The Elf Princess of the Underworld and Nuada’s twin sister. She is described as “very light” while Nuada is “very dark”, creating a yin and yang dynamic.[2] She elaborated on the incestuous tones between her character and Prince Nuada, “He’s the dark side and she’s the light side and they’re pulled apart and pulled back together again, and she’s trying to get away because she knows there is something she has to do. He can’t let that go and they can’t really do anything without each other so it’s a really interesting thing.” Her character also forms a relationship with Abe Sapien, and Walton noted their similarities, “They are both slightly lost souls and they understand each other.” Walton spoke of her character’s sense of purpose, “She feels very strongly about what she has to do in the film, and then her absolute connection and love for the Earth and what we are given. That’s what she’s here to protect… Her relationship with her brother, and how he is almost a part of her but she has to break away and will do whatever it takes to stop him from achieving what he wants to achieve which is the mass destruction of mankind.”[9]
Seth MacFarlane voices Johann Krauss: Actors John Alexander and James Dodd wore the suit. Krauss is a German psychic whose ectoplasmic being is contained in a suit after a botched séance. Originally, filmmakers planned to create a computer-generated version of the glass fishbowl helmet, but with the cost being prohibitive, they created an actual helmet. To ensure the invisibility of the actor’s head under the glass, perspective and mirror tricks were used. The helmet was controlled by two puppeteers, so the heavy contraption had to be shared between Alexander and Dodd.[7] McFarlane took over voicing duties from Thomas Kretschmann, after del Toro realized that Kretschmann’s voice and the mechanical sound FX to Johann’s suit did not mesh well.[10]
Brian Steele as Mr. Wink: A giant cave troll who was originally conceived by Guillermo del Toro. Wink was sculpted by Mario Torres, and the costume was worn by Brian Steele. In the film, Wink’s right arm has a giant metal fist. The fist was designed by filmmakers to be made of heavy plastic to stay light enough for motors to operate the mechanical fingers. The fist could also be physically detached and used as a projectile without any computer-generated imagery used.[7] Steele also plays a different troll, Cathedral Head (the map shop owner) and Fragglewump.[11]
Other cast members include:
- Jeffrey Tambor as Tom Manning
- John Hurt as Trevor Bruttenholm: Hellboy’s adopted “father”, he is seen in the beginning of the film telling a young Hellboy the story of the Golden Army.
- Roy Dotrice as King Balor: The Elf King of the Underworld.
Production
Development
In May 2004, following the release of Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy the previous month, a sequel was announced by Revolution Studios with del Toro returning to direct and Ron Perlman reprising his lead role as the titular character.[12] The director sought to create a film trilogy with the first sequel anticipated for release in 2006.[13] Revolution Studios planned to produce the film and distribute it through a deal with Columbia Pictures, but by 2006, Revolution had gone out of business. In August 2006, Universal Studios acquired the project with the intent to finance and distribute the sequel, which was newly scheduled to be released in summer of 2008. Production was scheduled to begin in April 2007 in Budapest, Hungary and London, England.[14]
Writing
Director Guillermo del Toro explored several concepts for the sequel, initially planning to recreate the classic versions of Frankenstein, Dracula and The Wolf Man.[15] He and comic book creator Mike Mignola also spent a few days adapting the Almost Colossus story, featuring Roger the Homunculus. They then found it easier to create an original story based on folklore, because Del Toro was planning Pan’s Labyrinth, and Mignola’s comics were becoming increasingly based on mythology.[16] Later, Del Toro pitched a premise to Revolution Studios that involved four Titans from the four corners of Earth—Wind, Water, Fire, and Earth—before he replaced the Titans with a Golden Army.[17] Mignola described the theme of the sequel, “The focus is more on the folklore and fairy tale aspect of Hellboy. It’s not Nazis, machines and mad scientists but the old gods and characters who have been kind of shoved out of our world.”[18]
Filming
Del Toro released Pan’s Labyrinth in 2006, and the film earned multiple Academy Awards, providing the director enough clout to begin production on Hellboy II.[1] Guillermo del Toro began filming Hellboy II in June 2007 in Budapest and concluded in December 2007.[19] The film was the first American production to shoot at Korda Studios in Hungary, then newly built outside Budapest.[20] The creature shop was led by the company Spectral Motion,[21] and Filmefex contributed work in makeup and prosthetics. The latter company designed a creature for the troll market scene and built several statues and full-sized replicas of the Golden Army.[22]
