History Film / CONSTANTINE

-->'''Roger Ebert:''' Why do movies about {{Satan}} always have Catholics? You never see Methodists or Episcopalians putting down demons.

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* ToHellAndBack: Constantine is such an expert at doing this, he even teaches Angela to do it once.

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* RedemptionEarnsLife: [[spoiler:By giving up his soul to save the world and freeing an innocent soul from Hell, Constantine is redeemed of his past sins and allowed to go to Heaven. Refusing to let that happen, Satan restores him to life and cures his lung cancer]].

** A major plot point in the film is that, according to Catholic doctrine, people who commit suicide always go to Hell. This has not been the case since 1997, when the Church decided that people who were mentally ill were not entirely responsible for their actions if they chose to take their own life. At least one of the suicides in the film was committed by a mental patient. Constantine's suicide is more complicated, since suicide is only an unforgivable sin because you can't repent for it before you die. Constantine is brought back to life, so he can repent. However, as Constantine died and saw hell, he has ''already'' been condemned in the eyes of God. Also, as the concept of brain death has become better understood, there's been serious debate in the Catholic community as to whether or not a person can commit suicide, and repent in the few seconds before the brain shuts down.
** When Constantine mentions the "SpearOfDestiny" and says "Jesus wasn't killed by crucifixion," the Catholic he's responding to replies with "I'm a Catholic, John. I know the Crucifixion story." Except in the Bible, Jesus ''was'' killed by crucifixion, and a spear was only used to poke his corpse to demonstrate he was already dead. There are people who think that Jesus was "really" killed by the spear, but those tend to be people who claim the Biblical account is ''wrong''. No one would be able to teach the theory from the Bible, certainly not in Sunday School.

->''"Keanu Reeves plays a man in a black trench coat chosen by fate to uncover the shocking truth that Earth is not as we believe it to be, but merely a mundane illusion hiding an army of insidious and overwhelming enemies. So, basically, it's ''Film/TheMatrix'' [[XMeetsY with crosses]]."''

* DeadSidekick

''Constantine'' is a 2005 American film very loosely based on VertigoComics' ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}'' comic book, with some plot elements being taken from the "Dangerous Habits" story arc (issues #41-46) and others - such as the inclusion of Papa Midnite - from the "Original Sins" trade paperback. It was released on February 8, 2005 in Hong Kong, and on February 18, 2005 in the U.S. and Canada. It is rated R for violence and demonic images by the MPAA. It also contains [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking mild language]].

** When Constantine mentions the "SpearOfDestiny" and says "Jesus wasn't killed by crucifixion," the Catholic he's responding to replies with "I know, he was killed by a spear. I paid attention in Sunday School, you know." Except in the Bible, Jesus ''was'' killed by crucifixion, and a spear was only used to poke his corpse to demonstrate he was already dead. There are people who think that Jesus was "really" killed by the spear, but those tend to be people who claim the Biblical account is ''wrong''. No one would be able to teach the theory from the Bible, certainly not in Sunday School.
** Not to mention that the main point of the plot, a non-priest exorcist is completelly non acceptable by Catholic doctrine.

* ArchangelGabriel: Played by {{Bifauxnen}} TildaSwinton. [[spoiler:Resents God's love for an unworthy humanity and plots to release Hell on Earth so that humanity can earn God's love.]]

* OtherworldlyAndSexuallyAmbiguous: TildaSwinton played the ArchangelGabriel.

* HeroicSacrifice: Subverted. [[spoiler:John dies by suicide, drawing Satan to Earth, gets him to save the world, and only wants Isabel's soul freed from hell. By this act of self-sacrifce, his previous suicide is wiped away and John, still dead, is on his way to Heaven. That is until Satan heals John of his cut wrists ''and'' cancer.]]

* CondensationClue: Constantine is sure that Isabel Dodson didn't commit suicide without leaving a message for her sister Angela. He uses a repeated Armor-Piercing Question on a reluctant Angela to force her to admit that she and Isabel used this technique as children. Angela then breathes on the window in Isabel's room, revealing her final message to her sister.

* CeilingSmash: Near the end of the movie, [spoiler:Chaz]] is thrown into the ceiling by [[spoiler:Gabriel]] and mortally wounded. He dies a few moments later.

* MinorCrimeRevealsMajorPlot: On a cosmic scale.

* RefusingParadise: Forced, and thereby possible subverted. [[spoiler: The dying main character is about to enter heaven, when the devil deliberately heals him to make sure he has another chance at messing up his salvation on earth.]]

* ReligiousHorror

* FantasticCatholicism

* BadGuyBar: The Bar.

* CulturalTranslation

* AntiHero: Constantine is rude, unhelpful to most people, requests his friends to put themselves in dangerous situations (and gets two of them killed because of this) and only performs exorcisms and sends half breed demons back to Hell because he wants to buy his way into Heaven.