Hellboy has gotten his recognition as a comic icon with some amazing cinematic scenes in his various adaptations, always promising at least one cool or memorable moment in his films. Called to the Earth to be a demon of destruction, Hellboy was raised by humans to become the most gifted paranormal investigator of the Bearau of Paranormal Research and Defense. With the release of Hellboy: The Crooked Man, the character now has four feature film appearances under his belt, not to mention two straight to DVD animated films, all of which contain some incredibly cool scenes.
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Admittedly, as comic book movies, the majority of the Hellboy’s coolest cinematic scenes revolve around creative battles with evil supernatural forces. However, a rare few of them also explore Hellboy’s skill as an actual detective, harnessing all the tricks of the trade he’s picked up over his lengthy career. With his nonchalant attitude and patented Hellboy one-liners, the infernal investigator is always an entertaining movie character.
10 Hellboy Breaks Out Big Baby
Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)
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One of the most immediately memorable Hellboy scenes occurs in Hellboy II: The Golden Army, in which Big Red finds himself going up against an ancient forest god. Seeing the size of his target, he quickly comments “I’m gonna get me Big Baby“, referring to a specialty firearm reserved for such dire occasions – A monstrous six-barreled shotgun/grenade launcher with a hilarious lullaby music box built into the cocking mechanism. A complication is put on the fight when Hellboy is also forced to rescue an actual baby from the forest god’s wrath.
Barely escaping the creature’s tentacles in time, Hellboy has to parkour across the city to keep himself and his new friend in one piece. He ends up literally juggling both babies in an effort to put down the gargantuan creature, eventually pulling the trigger with the line “You woke up the baby!“. In the end, the colossal plant creature is defeated, but things take a somber note with the realization that Hellboy just put down an endangered species, the forest god’s corpse blossoming into a massive flower. Spectacular, funny, and tinged with sadness, this scene is classic Ron Perlman Hellboy.
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9 Hellboy Finds A Talker
Hellboy (2004)
It’s important to remember that Hellboy isn’t just a fighter, but a gifted scholar of the paranormal, with a whole collection of trinkets and baubles aiding his investigations. Undermining the leadership of FBI director Tom Manning in the search for Rasputin’s mausoleum, Hellboy eschews fancy techniques for the old way. Using a strange ticking artifact, Hellboy digs up a particular corpse and startlingly brings it to life by dangling a strange pendant over it and reciting some words of power.
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The looks on the BPRD’s faces when Hellboy returns with the animated torso is nothing short of shock, doubly so when the dessicated creature speaks in a hacking Russian whisper. This scene is an incredible showcase of Hellboy’s ingenuity, know-how, and smug disregard for authority. The moment is made all the cooler by the fact that it’s a direct adaptation of a Hellboy comic, The Corpse, implemented into the events of 2004’s Hellboy.
8 Hellboy Vs Kroenen
Hellboy (2004)
One of the more memorable villains featured in any Hellboy movie was the insidious Nazi cyborg Kroenen. An officer present at Hellboy’s summoning that became addicted to surgical procedures, rendering him more machine than man over time, Kroenen kills Hellboy’s father earlier in the film, leading to a hate-filled revenge match deep within Rasputin’s mausoleum. This battle is one of the coolest in the entire franchise, with a properly angry Hellboy showing off the full extent of his strength.
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From the menacing churning of the gears in the background to Kroenen’s own suit that looks like it leapt off the pages of Mike Mignola’s artwork, Guillermo del Toro’s art direction is at full force in this scene. Kroenen’s eerie laughter, the bloodshot eyeball peering out of his crushed helmet, and the sand that leaks from his body instead of blood all add to the mystery of what exactly the depraved villain did to his own body. Hellboy’s defeat of the character leaves him with a fate worse than death, a deserved ending for the depraved man that killed Broom.
7 Demons Attack
Hellboy (2019)
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In truth, there isn’t much to admire about the 2019 version of Hellboy. As great as David Harbour was as the character, his single film was a mess of clashing tones, eclectic ideas from many different comics, and awkward action scenes. If there’s one scene that stands out as a jarringly cool break from the mediocrity, however, it’s the moment that Hellboy seems to actually fulfill his destiny as Amung Un Rama. Growing his horns out to their natural length and adorning his head with a fiery crown, Hellboy causes the earth to crack, allowing horrifying demons to spill forth.
These monsters go on a violent killing spree that gets full usage out of the film’s R-rating, making for one of the most harrowing depictions of demons in a movie ever. Their hauntingly unique designs and faceless sadism in not just killing, but painfully torturing any terrified victim they come across is a chilling sight. Even if it is a gut-wrenchingly terrifying sequence, it’s also one of the most jaw-dropping scenes to result from a Hellboy movie.
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6 Prince Nuada Kills King Balor
Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)
The best Hellboy movie scenes don’t necessarily need to feature Hellboy himself, with Guillermo del Toro in particular having a good mind for supporting characters to fill out the universe. Another of the franchise’s more engaging villains is the elf Prince Nuada, the mastermind behind the Golden Army’s activation who seeks to usurp the age of man. Going against the wishes of his father, King Balor, Nuada eventually makes the decision to commit regicide and patricide in order to make his vision a reality.
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While his father can barely watch, Nuada expertly weaves between the attacks of the armored royal guard, carving through them easily, much to the dismay of his psychically-linked twin sister, Princess Nuala. Actor Luke Goss performs some impressive martial arts moves that keep the action believable, using the guards’ own weapons against them. It’s a bittersweet moment when Nuada makes it to the throne, tearfully killing his father, whose death morphs his body into a beautiful ivory statue. From here, Nuada is able to pry free the final piece of the crown allowing him to command the Golden Army.
5 The Tooth Fairies
Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)
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A great strength of the Hellboy series is the creativity of the various monsters Hellboy faces, usually presenting interesting twists on standard folklore. In Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Hellboy and the rest of the BPRD are faced with tooth fairies, far from the friendly quarter-dispensing fae of typical folklore. Initially cute, these creatures soon reveal themselves to be ravenous flying piranhas capable of stripping a grown man to the bone in mere moments, with a particular fondness for eating teeth. Their mouths whine like a dentist’s drill as they swarm Hellboy and co. in the thousands.
Things seem girm for the group as their guns are largely ineffective against the dense cloud of flying creatures, who manage to kill everyone but Hellboy, Liz, and Abe Sapien. As a last resort, Liz is forced to use her powers to explode with fire, flash-frying all the beasts as her crucifix necklace glows white-hot with heat. Luckily, Abe Sapien is able to escape to safety behind the doors of a massive safe just before the fireworks begin. A tense and creative action scene that twists a popular children’s figure, it’s hard to top the tooth fairies of Hellboy II: The Golden Army.
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4 I’m Fireproof…You’re Not
Hellboy (2004)
Hellboy’s “punch first, ask questions later” approach to monster battles in the first 2004 movie ends up getting him in deep trouble with Sammael, the horrific monster round raised by Rasputin to harass his demonic nemesis. Though Hellboy is able to overpower the beast earlier, it’s endlessly resilient to physical damage, earning it’s title as the Hound of Resurrection. In a second match, Hellboy takes on Sammael in the claustrophobic confines of a subway system.
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The dynamic fight on the train tracks goes through many creative beats, from the crown turning against Hellboy and smacking him off the carriage due to his monstrous appearance to the underside of the vehicle causing Hellboy’s horns to glow with heat when it strikes him. In the end, Hellboy is able to take out Sammael for good in a creative way, using his body as a conductor to channel the heat of the electrified railroad. Calmly lighting a cigar with his flaming hand, Hellboy calmly explains “I’m fireproof…you’re not.”.
3 Hellboy Vs The Kappa
Hellboy: Sword of Storms
In many respects, Hellboy is better suited for animation as a character, with his very appearance requiring hours in a makeup chair in live-action movies. The straight-to-DVD series Hellboy: Animated took advantage of this, stunningly rendering Mike Mignola’s original work in a style not dissimilar to Spectacular Spider-Man, one of the better Spider-Man animated shows. The first film, Hellboy: Sword of Storms, sees Hellboy travel to Japan, where he gets entangled with a variety of Yokai spirits from Japanese traditional folklore.
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The most memorable of his encounters is easily his battle with a kappa, a turtle-like lake demon. With the help of a local, Hellboy is able to wrestle his aquatic opponent in a tense battle, eventually subduing it when he’s able to spill the water from its saucer-like head. The scene also gives Hellboy a chance to do some classic paranormal investigation, interrogating the kappa for clues about the overarching plot as it shrivels and dies.
2 Hellboy Refuses Hecate
Hellboy: Blood and Iron
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Hellboy’s destiny as the herald of the apocalypse and his repeated refusal to accept it is one of the core tenets of his character. This is something that the second installment of Hellboy: Animated, Hellboy: Blood and Iron, understands perfectly, as shown in an encounter with one of Hellboy’s most important recurring enemies, the goddess Hecate. In the film, Hecate has an insidious background presence which comes to a boiling point when she finally confronts Hellboy deep underground.
Taunting what she views as a fellow deity, Hecate questions why he should continually refuse his birthright as Amung Un Rama, chiding him for a meager existence among mortals. Hellboy enrages her by callously disregarding her divine appeal, infuriating her enough to send giant snakes after him, eventually joining the fray herself in the form of a possessed iron maiden. This scene exemplifies Hellboy’s tenacity, commitment to humanity, and refusal to submit to his circumstances in an awesome way few live-action films can contend with.
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1 The Raccoon Scene
Hellboy: The Crooked Man
Despite leaning far further into horror than any other Hellboy movie, the recent Hellboy: The Crooked Man adapts folklore in a terrifyingly cool way, with one scene in particular standing out. On a chilling investigation in the mountains of Appalachia, Hellboy has to enlist the help of a shapeshifting witch, only to discover the empty skin of her body as the only chilling evidence of her existence. When her raccoon “familiar” returns, Hellboy and BPRD rookie Bobbie Jo Song are treated to a ghastly sight.
The raccoon is actually revealed to be the witch herself, having to crawl back into the husk of her original body and undergo a grueling transformation in order to speak freely. The stomach-churning practical effects of the scene are a wonderful sight to behold, as it’s difficult to spot the switch from prop to real actor. It’s disturbingly cool beats like these that keep the Hellboy movies interesting after 20 years.
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