A cynical occult expert partners with a skeptical police detective to investigate her twin sister’s mysterious suicide. Their case leads them through a hidden world of demons and angels lurking beneath Los Angeles. A film by Francis Lawrence, starring Keanu Reeves, Rachel Weisz, Shia LaBeouf, Tilda Swinton, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Djimon Hounsou, Gavin Rossdale, and Peter Stormare.
CONSTANTINE
Francis Lawrence
(2005)
“He who possesses the Spear of Destiny holds the fate of the world in his hands.”
In Mexico, Manuel (Jesse Ramirez), a scavenger, discovers the Spear of Destiny hidden beneath broken floorboards in an abandoned building. Wrapped in a Nazi flag, the artifact has been missing since World War II. As Manuel grasps the Spear, he feels something strange and hurries away. Suddenly struck by a car, he dies instantly. Moments later, a mysterious symbol appears on his wrist as the Spear’s mystical power resurrects him. Manuel awakens and flees with the ancient relic in hand.
The Spear of Destiny, also known as the Holy Lance, is a legendary artifact believed to be the spear used by the Roman centurion Longinus to pierce the side of Jesus Christ during His crucifixion. Over time, the spear gained mythical status, believed to possess supernatural powers that could grant invincibility and control over world events to its wielder. Historical figures like Charlemagne and Adolf Hitler were said to have sought or possessed the spear due to its supposed ability to influence destiny. Legends also claim that losing possession of the spear would bring ruin or death to its owner.
In Los Angeles, Father Hennessy (Pruitt Taylor Vince) calls on John Constantine (Keanu Reeves) to help exorcise a demon from a possessed girl. What should be routine work for an occult expert like Constantine quickly takes an unexpected turn when he realizes this is no ordinary demon they’re facing.
The demon John manages to pull out of the girl turns out to be a soldier demon attempting to cross into the Earth realm, something that should be impossible under the Rules of Engagement. These cosmic agreements between Heaven, Hell, and other occult forces strictly govern their interactions with Earth. John grows concerned that this incident might signal the beginning of something catastrophic.
At a psychiatric ward, Isabel Dodson (Rachel Weisz) awakens in the middle of the night. She sneaks out of her room and climbs to the roof, where she jumps, dying instantly upon impact with the pool below. On her wrist appears a symbolic wound identical to Manuel’s.
The next day, Detective Angela Dodson (Rachel Weisz) arrives at the scene where her twin sister Isabel’s body lies. Though Detective Weiss (José Zúñiga) insists that Isabel killed herself by jumping from the roof, Angela refuses to believe it. She knows her sister was a devout Catholic who would never have taken her own life, damning herself to Hell.
Angela encounters John again at the church after he refuses to hold the elevator door for her at the hospital. She meets with Father Garret (Francis Guinan) about arranging a Catholic funeral for her twin sister. Father Garret tells her that he Bishop denies the request because Isabel committed suicide, which the Church considers a mortal sin, and there’s nothing he can do about it.
Historically, the Catholic Church regarded suicide as an unforgivable sin because it was seen as a grave offense against God, depriving the person of the opportunity for repentance. This view led to practices such as denying Christian funerals and burial in sacred ground for those who died by suicide. The Catholic Church officially lifted its prohibition on conducting funerals for those who died by suicide in the 1980s. This change was reflected in the 1983 Code of Canon Law, which no longer specifically mentions suicide as an impediment to receiving a Catholic funeral or burial in a Catholic cemetery. This shift in policy was influenced by growing understanding of mental health issues and the recognition that many suicides occur under conditions of diminished responsibility.
Meanwhile, John arranges a meeting with Gabriel (Tilda Swinton) after being diagnosed with aggressive lung cancer. He hopes Gabriel will extend his life in exchange for his continued work sending demons back to Hell. Gabriel corrects him firmly, explaining that salvation does not work through deals. She asserts that only true self sacrifice can earn John a place in Heaven.
In the comics, Gabriel is a minor character introduced in the “Dangerous Habits” storyline. Unlike the film, where Gabriel is portrayed as a half-breed angel with a central role in the plot, comic Gabriel is a full-fledged archangel who serves as an agent of Heaven. The film reimagines Gabriel as a morally ambiguous character with a larger and more personal conflict, reflecting themes of self-righteousness and resentment toward humanity.
Grieving her sister’s death, Angela reviews security footage that shows Isabel was alone on the roof that night. Head bowed, tears streaming down her face, Angela doesn’t even look at the screen when she suddenly hears Isabel whisper “Constantine.” Heart pounding, she rewinds the footage but there’s no sound as Isabel stares directly into the camera before stepping off the edge.
Convinced that “Constantine” might be the key to understanding her sister’s mysterious suicide, Angela scrawls the name on a scrap of paper. Suddenly, her phone rings. When she answers, there’s nothing but static. Then, one by one, every phone in her apartment begins to ring.
Meanwhile, at the gas station, Constantine is attacked by Vermin Man (Larry Cedar), who summons a swarm of insects and crawling creatures to physically manifest himself. Constantine manages to repel Vermin Man using a matchbox filled with Amityville’s screech beetles which he recently acquired from Beeman.
Screech beetles are a unique tool provided by Beeman, Constantine’s supplier of supernatural equipment. These beetles are contained in a small matchbox and produce a sound that is unbearable to demons, likened to “nails on a blackboard” for the fallen. The beetles are sourced from Amityville, adding to their mystique and effectiveness against supernatural foes.
John’s young apprentice Chase (Shia LaBeouf) follows him to Midnite’s Club, knowing John plans to meet Papa Midnite, a legendary crusader for good. Chase pleads with John to help him get inside, but John responds with sarcasm, telling Chase he can enter if he manages to gain entry on his own.
When they arrive at the club, the bouncer (Tanoai Reed) presents a card to John. Without hesitation, John correctly identifies the image on the back as two frogs on a bench, earning him passage inside. The bouncer then turns to Chase with another card, but Chase doesn’t possess any psychic ability and attempts to fake it by giving the same answer as John’s. His answer proves incorrect, and the bouncer immediately blocks his way, denying him entry to the club.
In the Hellblazer comics, Papa Midnite is a much darker and more complex character. He is an immortal mob boss, businessman, and voodoo practitioner who often oscillates between being Constantine’s uneasy ally and outright enemy. In the film, Papa Midnite is depicted as a neutral party who runs a nightclub that serves as a safe haven for supernatural beings, including half-breeds. He is reluctant to get involved in Constantine’s battles.
John voices his concerns after being attacked by a full-fledged demon. Midnite (Djimon Hounsou) dismisses him, asserting that it’s impossible and insisting that demons stay in Hell and angels in Heaven. Since Midnite doesn’t believe him, John expresses his desire to use the chair to see for himself. However, Midnite refuses, pointing out that the chair almost killed John the last time he used it. He reminds John that he remains neutral and takes no sides as long as the balance is maintained.
The electric chair from Sing Sing prison is a mystical artifact, believed to have absorbed the spiritual energy of over 200 souls who were executed in it, granting it supernatural properties. This chair allows Constantine to access visions and uncover hidden truths about demonic activities.
Angela tracks down Constantine and visits him at his apartment, hoping to ask him a few questions. John initially refuses to talk, but eventually lets Angela inside after she shows him her detective police badge. Angela tells Constantine that she believes her sister was brainwashed by some kind of cult that made her jump off the roof. John, however, dismisses her theory and offers no help whatsoever. Angela becomes upset and leaves.
As Angela leaves his apartment, John spots dark winged figures moving outside the window. He chases after her and explains that God and the Devil have an ancient agreement where they wager on human souls but cannot interfere directly. Their conversation is cut short when a swarm of Seplavites attacks them. John instantly understands these demons are after Angela.
Seplavites are winged, sightless sub-demons that inhabit Hell. These creatures were once human but have been transformed into grotesque beings with no souls, brains, or eyes — only sinus passages and mouths. They are depicted as spindly, bent-bodied entities that crawl around in search of food, preying on new human arrivals to Hell.
John performs a dangerous ritual to journey into Hell, determined to discover whether Isabel truly took her own life. In the nightmarish landscape, he finds Isabel herself. Without a word, she removes her hospital wristband and lets it flutter away on the hellish winds. As scavenger demons swarm toward him, John desperately chases after the drifting band.
Back in the human world, John hands the recovered wristband to Angela. The grim evidence confirms her worst fears. Isabel did commit suicide, and her soul now suffers eternal damnation for it.
At the city morgue, Father Hennessy is startled to discover a mysterious symbol on Isabel’s wrist. A half-breed demon Balthazar (Gavin Rossdale) places a cruel curse on him that creates an unquenchable thirst while simultaneously causing him to drown from within. As death approaches, Hennessy desperately stabs his own hand with a corkscrew, etching the symbol he saw earlier as a final message for John to find.
When John discovers Hennessy’s unnatural death and the bloody symbol carved into his hand, he reaches out to Beeman to identify the mysterious marking. Meanwhile, John and Angela uncover a hidden message Isabel left on a window before taking her life, a reference to “Corinthians Act 17:1,” which doesn’t exist in the standard Bible. John reveals that in Hell’s version of the Bible, Corinthians contains 21 Acts.
Beeman (Max Baker) later identifies the symbol as the mark of Mammon, the devil’s son, who seeks to create his own kingdom of fire and blood. For Mammon to cross into the earthly realm, he would need both a powerful psychic as a vessel and divine intervention.
Directed by American filmmaker Francis Lawrence in his directorial debut from a screenplay written by Kevin Brodbin and Frank Cappello, CONSTANTINE is a supernatural action film loosely based on DC Comics/Vertigo Comics Hellblazer graphic novels.
The Hellblazer graphic novels are a series of contemporary horror and occult detective comics centered on John Constantine, a morally complex English magician and con man. Published by DC Comics, initially under its Vertigo imprint, the series ran from 1988 to 2013, with 300 issues in its original run. It was later revived briefly under DC Black Label as part of The Sandman Universe in 2019. Known for its dark themes, political commentary, and realistic aging of its protagonist, Hellblazer explores supernatural conflicts intertwined with real-world issues like social injustice and ecological crises.
This film felt to me like the screenwriters were trying to stretch out the story. I think it might be because CONSTANTINE was loosely adapted elements from the Hellblazer graphic novels, particularly the ‘Dangerous Habits’ storyline written by Garth Ennis. This arc focuses on John Constantine’s battle with terminal lung cancer and his attempts to outwit both Heaven and Hell to save his soul.
John Constantine is portrayed as a flawed antihero who uses guile and manipulation to navigate the dangerous world of magic and demons. The series is distinct for blending supernatural horror with noir and surrealism, often addressing cultural and political issues of its time. Constantine’s character design was inspired by Sting and reflects the gritty underbelly of society.
It seems like they were trying to force Constantine’s story for viewers who hadn’t read the comics before, but it felt incomplete and somehow at odds with the main plot in a way that’s difficult to explain.
They craft John Constantine as a man of few words who processes silently before taking action, rarely explaining himself in detail. Yet the screenwriters still give him sharp, memorable one-liners. Though Keanu Reeves looks nothing like the original Hellblazer comic character (who was modeled after Sting), his performance ultimately proves both entertaining and iconic.
Sting is an English musician, actor, and former frontman of the band The Police, best known for hits like “Roxanne” and “Every Breath You Take.” Beyond his music career, Sting holds a unique place in comic book history: the iconic John Constantine character from Hellblazer was visually modeled after Sting’s 1980s appearance, particularly his roles in films like Brimstone and Treacle and Quadrophenia. Artists Steve Bissette and John Totleben designed Constantine’s trenchcoat-clad, blonde-haired look to mirror Sting’s style, creating a lasting cultural connection. Decades later, Sting humorously acknowledged this inspiration in a foreword for Hellblazer’s 30th-anniversary comic, referencing their “spiritual link.”
As for my favorite scenes, I particularly enjoyed the street blackout sequence, the hospital fight scene, and Gabriel’s appearance toward the end. And I absolutely loved Lucifer’s white outfit.
CONSTANTINE was theatrically released in the United States on 18 February 18 2005.
CONSTANTINE was released on 4K Blu-ray on 18 February 2025. The 20th Anniversary 4K Blu-ray release of Constantine marks the film’s debut in 4K UHD resolution, offering significant upgrades over previous editions. This version includes a Dolby Atmos audio mix and HDR10 support, enhancing both sound and visual quality.
Warner Bros. created the 4K transfer using the original camera negatives, ensuring superior clarity and detail. The release is available in two editions: a standard version and a Limited Edition Steelbook, which features stylized artwork of John Constantine surrounded by demons and apocalyptic imagery. Additionally, it comes with a digital copy of the movie and includes all previously released special features along with a new feature titled “Two Decades of Damnation,” reflecting on the film’s legacy.
