Characters from the film Constantine, based on the comic book Hellblazer.
open/close all folders
John Constantine
- Played by: Keanu ReevesDubbed by: Jean-Pierre Michaël (European French)
The Protagonist and an accomplished exorcist. He learns that he has a fatal case of lung cancer and is finally going to Hell. Eventually, he meets and agrees to help Detective Angela Dodson.
- Adaptational Attractiveness: While comic John certainly has a rough charm and no problem attracting partners (he was originally based on Sting), he is nowhere near as pretty as Keanu Reeves.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Here played by the dark-haired Keanu Reeves, but a blond in the comics.
- Adaptational Badass: He's just as much of a badass in the original comics, but here, he is a noticeably better fighter than the poor one that the John Constantine of the Hellblazer comics is established to be.
- Adaptational Nationality: He's changed from British to American.
- Adaptational Sexuality: Downplayed; there are no hints to his comic counterpart's canonical bisexuality in the film, though several villains seem to enjoy feeling him up quite a bit, but there aren't necessarily any hints that he isn't bi either.
- Back from the Dead: His suicide resulted in a clinical death he was revived from in his backstory. At the end of the movie, he is resurrected by Lucifer when on the verge of ascending to Heaven.
- Badass Abnormal: Though, honestly, John's powers as an exorcist is not high.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Unlike his comic book counterpart, he wears a pretty sharp black suit, and he's a capable ass-kicker of the supernatural.
- Batman Gambit: What he does to Balthazar to get him to talk.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: A Nay-Theist exorcist.
- Cain and Abel: It's implied by Gabriel that he killed his own twin in the womb.
- Catchphrase: "Constantine. John Constantine, asshole." Said two or three times throughout.
- Canon Immigrant: The comics would include an off-hand comment about him being a distant cousin of the British Constantine.
- Deadpan Snarker: One thing he shares with his comic book counterpart is his incredibly dry wit, though this version is more sour about it.
- Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: He manages to get a favor from Lucifer, who expects him to cash it in by saving him from his imminent death. Instead, John tells Lucifer to save Isabel and leave himself to die, which Lucifer accepts, not knowing that this act redeems John in God's eyes and qualifies him for Heaven, thus denying the Devil of both souls. As a last-ditch attempt to prevent John from winning completely, the Devil resurrects him in the hope that he will sin again, allowing John to not only save his and Isabelle's soul but also get another chance at life. In other words, John manages to obtain three separate things from only one favor, and the Devil was implicitly interested only in giving him an extension instead of outright curing his cancer to boot (and it's suggested he wasn't actually trying to scam anyone at this point anyway, as he required a truly selfless good deed to get into Heaven)
- Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Fulfills the trope almost to the letter, with the exception that he flips off the Devil himself when he escapes Hell and begins to ascend to Heaven, so casually that it doubles as both a Moment of Awesome and a Funny Moment. It may or may not have backfired, depending on how John felt about getting brought back. The novelization of the film reveals that it was actually God controlling John's hand to flip Lucifer off.note
- Driven to Suicide: He killed himself when he couldn't take the things he saw with his Psychic Powers anymore. Since suicide is worthy of damnation, his soul went to Hell; he came back, his mission now to do enough good to have his suicide forgiven by Heaven so he isn't trapped in Hell forever when he dies for real. He kills himself again to summon Lucifer to stop the Evil Plan of the Big Bad Duumvirate. Don't worry, though, he makes it out alive, with the bonus of having finally earned that absolution he's been looking for.
- Dull Surprise: In part because of Keanu's typical delivery, he isn't all too frazzled by anything he encounters, though that could also be explained as him having Seen It All.
- How the Mighty Have Fallen:Constantine: Before you were a "bartender"...you were one witch doctor against, what...thirty Ashgar? And I...Papa Midnite: You were...Constantine. The John Constantine. Once.
- Impossibly Cool Weapon: The crucifix flamethrower-shotgun.
- In-Series Nickname: 'Johnny-boy', courtesy of Balthazar
- Incurable Cough of Death: The recurring reminder of his upcoming death with Death; he is diagnosed early in the movie with terminal lung cancer from smoking. It turns out to not be the cancer that actually kills him but a second suicide. Even then, Lucifer rips out John's cancer to ensure he lives long enough to damn himself, completely curing him.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold:Often aloof and impolite, sometimes bordering on cruel. There's a reason Lucifer thinks he belongs in Hell. That being said, when the chips are down, he still goes out of his way to save people. He was even willing to commit suicide just to summon Lucifer in order to stop Gabriel and Mammon, even though he knew he'd be fast-tracking his way to eternal torment in the process.
- Maybe Ever After: John develops feelings for Angela and they share a few Almost Kisses, but nothing concrete comes of it by the time the credits roll. The only thing keeping this out of Did Not Get the Girl territory is Angela's offer to see him around and John's agreeing to it.
- Nay-Theist: John's opinion of God is not high.
- Power Tattoo: Has a two-part tattoo called 'The Red King' on both forearms that can force half-demons and angels to reveal themselves.
- Psychic Powers: He can see the half-breed angels and demons.
- Smoking Is Cool: Averted Trope. His frequent smoking is framed negatively by both the movie and the other characters, especially as he already has lung cancer from it and smoking isn't going to make it kill him any slower.
- Spanner in the Works: What John is, ultimately, to both Heaven and Hell.
- To Hell and Back: Can travel between Hell and Earth with the use of holy water.
- The Trickster: Preserved from the comics.
Angela Dodson
- Played by: Rachel Weisz
- Agent Scully: Is as first skeptical about the supernatural in general, and even suppresses her own talent. But after her time with Constantine she comes around.
- Always Identical Twins: With her sister Isabel.
- Angsty Surviving Twin: Angela feels guilty that she wasn't there for Isabel and didn't support her. This guilt helps drive her to find out what Isabel had been going through when she died.
- Audience Surrogate: Her role in the story. Played With somewhat when John drops an infodump on her about the Spear of Destiny. As she's Catholic, she's a bit annoyed that she's being lectured about the Crucifixion.
- Demonic Possession: She becomes possessed by Mammon as part of his scheme to make it onto Earth. After an exorcism by John and Chas fails to get the job done, Lucifer, of all people, steps in to tear his son out of Angela and fling him back into Hell.
- Fair Cop: Her attractiveness doesn't go unnoticed by John, either. He has to take a moment to think if he should say "yes" or "no" when she asks if she needs to take the rest of her clothes off to get in the bathtub. (It Makes Sense In Context.)
- Maybe Ever After: John develops feelings for Angela and they share a few Almost Kisses, but nothing concrete comes of it by the time the credits roll. The only thing keeping this out of Did Not Get the Girl territory is Angela's offer to see him around and John's agreeing to it.
- Obliviously Superpowered: Unconsciously suppressed her abilities in childhood after seeing Isabel being committed to a mental hospital after her own powers were dismissed as schizophrenia. In the present, Angela is still unconsciously psychic, but despite owing quite a few inexplicable successes at work to this power, she refuses to acknowledge it. However, after gradually learning that Isabel wasn't insane after all and that the supernatural is real, Angela asks Constantine to reawaken her powers.
- Psychic Powers: Awakens her powers with Constantine's help. She is said to be quite a powerful one, at that, which turns out not to be a good thing, as that's exactly what Mammon needs to enact his plan.
- Red Is Heroic: A red-haired cop and the female lead of the movie.
Isabel Dodson
- Played by: Rachel Weisz
- Always Identical Twins: With Angela.
- Demonic Possession: To make her commit suicide.
- Heroic Sacrifice: It's implied her suicide was this. The Powers That Be didn't see it as this and damned her.
- Psychic Powers: Unlike Angela she never repressed hers, and told their parents what she could see. Which resulted in her being sent to a mental ward.
Gabriel
- Played by: Tilda Swinton
- Adaptational Badass: Is powerful enough that Contantine has to make a deal with Lucifer to stop him.
- Adaptational Villainy: Gabriel in Hellblazer was still a Holier Than Thou Jerkass snob, but wasn't trying to unleash Hell on Earth.
- Archangel Gabriel: Not stated, but going off of the name and Archangel Lucifer's recognition of them...
- Big Bad Duumvirate: With Mammon. Gabriel is helping to bring him into the world and create hell on Earth.
- Broken Pedestal: Lucifer laments that Gabriel had been "the best of all of us," though he may have also just been messing with Gabriel.
- Devil in Plain Sight: A rather ironic example, especially during the movie's climax, where he plans to literally bring up hell on Earth with the help of Mammon, which is in stark contrast to the already Fallen Angel Lucifer (whose literal dark side is even shown on him).
- Driven to Suicide: Is horrified enough by the results at the end of the movie that he pressed John to kill him and end his life.
- Graceful Loser: Commented on John's improvement after everything.
- Holier Than Thou: Condescends John at every opportunity.
- Invisibility: How he sneaked up to kill Chas.
- Ironic Hell: Stripped of wings, power, and God's support, Gabriel is left a human.
- Knight Templar: Bringing immense suffering to mankind is a-okay in his book as long as he thinks that it will benefit humanity's character in the long run.
- Light Is Not Good: Wears white, is frequently bathed in light, and tries to bring Hell to Earth.
- Misery Builds Character: What motivated him to bring Hell to Earth. He believes that humanity's best qualities are only on display when they are suffering.
- Oh, Crap!: Gets a wide-eyed look of horror when he realizes Lucifer has come to stop their plan.
- Otherworldly and Sexually Ambiguous: Since Gabriel never wears very revealing clothes, it is unclear what their gender actually is. The novelization describes them as a male.
- Inevitably given gender in localisations into gender-specific languages. In Russian dub Gabriel is referred as female.
- Our Angels Are Different: John refers to them as "half-breed." While Gabriel doesn't contradict him, it is possibly implied that this is not true and that he had been created as a full angel long ago, as Lucifer's dialogue implies that they knew each other from before.
- Supernatural Gold Eyes: When shown as a half-breed angel.
- Super-Breath: Gabriel is a fan of this, blowing away the disintegrating remains of Balthazar and later sending John flying into the next room.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: He loves God and want to make humans worthy of God's love... so he decided to unleash Hell on Earth because he believes that it is only during true suffering that humanity's noblest qualities come through.
- Winged Humanoid: Like all half-angels, Gabriel has a set of feathered wings. Until the end when they get burned off by Lucifer.
Balthazar
- Played by: Gavin Rossdale
- Badass Boast: "Fire? I was born from this!"
- Coin Walk Flexing: In his first and quite a few of his later scenes, Balthazar ends up walking an old coin across his fingers. It's because of this tic that Angela finds out, for sure, that he killed a friend of Constantine's.
- Demon Lords and Archdevils: Is a half-breed demon.
- The Dragon: Fancies himself to be this to Mammon.
- Noodle Incident: He and Constantine know each other from before and Constantine obviously has a grudge against him, but it's neither hinted nor explained how or why. The novelization adds dialogue to their first meeting that reveals Balthazar had manipulated a girl Constantine cared deeply about into overdosing on drugs.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: His eyes appear red when he's shown to be a half-breed.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Always wears a pristine, pinstriped blue suit...with a polka-dot tie.
- Suicidal Overconfidence: He's so sure he's won their fight he doesn't even try to stop John getting out his brass knuckles... until he sees they have crossed carved into them and are blessed weapons. A glorious and predictable beatdown ensues.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Has this done to him by Gabriel.
Mammon
- Ambition Is Evil: He plots to turn the mortal plane into his own personal kingdom.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Plots alongside Gabriel to unleash himself on Earth.
- Demon Lords and Archdevils: Mammon is a Prince of Hell and Balthazar's boss.
- Generic Doomsday Villain: Mammon serves as one half of the movie's Big Bad Duumvirate, but his personality is very underdeveloped compared to other villains like Balthazar, Lucifer and Gabriel. All he wants is take over the world... And that is about the extent of his character.
- Hell on Earth: His end goal is to cross over to Earth and turn it into his own personal kingdom.
- Humanoid Abomination: Even more so than his father, who at least could pass for a human being.
Lucifer
- Played by: Peter Stormare
- Actually Pretty Funny: He's quite amused by the classical terms for Satan that Gabriel hurls at him."I do miss the old names."
- Affably Evil: While sleazy and gross, this version of Lucifer conducts himself with a fair amount of honor. Furthermore his conversation with John comes off as two friends catching up, talking about family and stocks and making puns. But John is clearly terrified the whole time and Lucifer makes no secret of his intention of torturing him for the rest of eternity.
- Arch-Enemy: God by default, with Constantine as a strong second.
- Archangel Lucifer: Obviously. When he appears he has to dirty the ground to walk on it.
- Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: He ends up saving the day when he stops Gabriel from summoning Mammon to Earth. It's downplayed in that what he does isn't so much villainous as the fact that no one else could do it.
- Character Tic: He sniffes frequently. It is much creepier than it sounds.
- Composite Character: Although he's called Lucifer, the character incorporates many elements from The First of the Fallen aka Satan from the Hellblazer comics, whom Hellblazer and The Sandman (1989) have established as being two separate characters. Like the First, he is very eager to possess Constantine's soul to torture for having conned him multiple times, whereas Lucifer doesn't care about accumulating souls, and like the First in the Dangerous Habits arc, he resurrects John and heal his cancer.
- Cruel Mercy: Cures John's cancer because he's determined Constantine prove his soul belongs in Hell, and he's not going to allow God to take him instead.
- Demon Lords and Archdevils: Is the ruler of Hell and capable of releasing souls to Heaven.
- Evil Is Hammy: Satan clearly enjoys dicking around with Constantine and Gabriel both when he shows up. He's played by Peter Stormare, what did you expect?
- Evil Is Petty: It's stated by
Word of God that this Lucifer is more like Fagin than Milton's Lucifer, an impossibly old being who enjoys leading (to him) children astray. Demonstrates this with how he chooses to handle John's "redemption." The pointlessly dickish way he (eventually) lights John's last cigarette is just the cherry on top. - Greater-Scope Villain: Is this to Mammon, Gabriel and really every demon Constantine has faced in his career.
- Humanoid Abomination: Lucifer is not human and never has been so he reacts in a way very different way from other characters. His appearence also evoke this trope: tellingly, while all the demons have obvious otherworldy features, Lucifer only has hidden tattoos, tar emitting from him for unknown reasons, and the eyes of someone who hasn't slept in a week but somehow he manages to come off as the scariest one thanks to the Nothing Is Scarier nature of these features as the audience can sense that something is seriously wrong with him.
- Loophole Abuse: Since only the dead can go to Heaven, Lucifer resurrects John right after his death to stop him from going up there, thereby forcing him to live on Earth once more so that he may sin again and ruin his redemption.
- Noodle Incident: According to Lucifer, Constantine has pulled off multiple cons on him but we don't learn of their nature or how he was affected by them.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: He sends his son back to Hell and burns off Gabriel's wings, rendering him human, the both of them having worked together to bring about the Apocalypse.
- Physical God: Has this quality more than anyone but Gabriel. Even his own son, The Antichrist is nothing to him.
- Pragmatic Villainy:
- Doesn't want the world destroyed because it's a regular source of fresh souls he benefits from.
- He chooses to bring Constantine back to life and cure his cancer as he knows that giving Constantine a second shot at life also means giving him a second shot at damning himself, allowing Lucifer another opportunity to get his soul.
- Reality Warper: Is implied to be this with his ability to stop time, sending his son to Hell and transfering Isabelle's soul to Heaven.
- Summon Bigger Fish: As Lucifer, he's the only one allowed to conquer the world one day. John knows this and slits his own wrist to summon him to the mortal plane, thereby clueing him in on his son's plan to conquer the world first.
- Tattoo as Character Type: Possibly played with. He has a likely full-body tattoo, since the parts shown are on his neck, wrists and feet but, it's unknown if it gives him any special abilities or such.
- Villain in a White Suit: Wears a white suit when he appears and is the ruler of Hell.
- Winged Humanoid: Averted. Even though Lucifer likely had wings as an angel, he doesn't have them anymore.
- Worthy Opponent: Exploited by John, who knows that Lucifer considers him such a worthy adversary that he will personally go to Earth to collect him, thus finding out and foiling the main villains' plan in the process.
Chas Kramer
- Played by: Shia LaBeouf
- Adaptational Attractiveness: In the comic and the Tv series Chas is not bad looking but he's a grizzled, older man. Here he is Shia LaBeouf at his most fresh faced and cute.
- The Driver: He drives a cab and tranports Constantine.
- Sidekick: Like Hennessy and Beeman, Chas is the sidekick.
Father Hennesey
- Played by: Pruitt Taylor Vince
- Couldn't Find a Pen: Hennessy carves a message into his own hand with a corkscrew.
- I See Dead People: Could "listen to the ether" and get psychic impressions and speak with the dead. He had to drink to suppress some of the voices of the dead constantly talking to him.
- Meaningful Name: Hennessy for the priest who drinks and for the foreshadow the way he dies.
- Psychometry: He can run his hands over printed newspaper stories and psychically detect which ones are significant. Constantine asks him to do this to get information he needs. Later on he tries to read the body of Angela Dodson's dead sister Isabel.
Papa Midnite
- Played by: Djimon Hounsou
- Adaptational Heroism: To the point of almost being In Name Only. The Papa Midnite of the comics was a magician who used his abilities to become the head of a criminal empire for himself, enjoying the pain and suffering of his victims, and tormented Constantine for an entire arc to settle a petty grudge, though Depending on the Writer he wasn't beyond forming an Enemy Mine with him. This version of Papa Midnite is a mage who used his powers to fight the forces Hell before opening a club for neutral meetings between angels and demons, and eventually breaks off his neutrality to help Constantine at the end of the movie.
- Mind over Matter: Displayed when Papa Midnite flings John into a wall with a simple hand gesture.
- Retired Badass: Papa Midnite, a mage so powerful that he took on 30 demons by himself. Doesn't need special tools as he has actual magical powers. And powerful enough to create his own embassy of neutrality where hybrids mix and behave under his watch.
- Team Switzerland: Has built his club long lines of strict neutrality, favoring neither Heaven or Hell. And he means it. Unfortunately, it takes multiple deaths and the looming apocalypse for John to remind him that his neutrality won't mean anything when everyone else is busy fighting a war that won't stop at his front door.
- Witch Doctor: This version is a former witch doctor but he still has the gifts.
Beeman
- Played by: Max Baker
