- Prophets of God, like Thomas, are given visions of the First and Second Angel War, and how horrific they are. These maddening visions drive them insane. It's also what resulted in Thomas giving up on his call to be a priest.
- Whenever an angel is sitting perched atop of something like a bird, displaying unnatural balance and defiance of gravity in a way no human can normally do.
- Thomas comes home to find Simon sitting atop his kitchen chair without falling.
- The whole notion of the Archangel Gabriel, basically God's Big Good Nice Guy "Left Hand," having maddened into misanthropy and wanting humanity to die is terrifying to any religious viewer. The fact that nothing short of God or another archangel can stop him when he's on Earth even more so, especially for the human protagonists who are notably Catholic and basically have one of their figures of praise trying to actively murder them.
- The bloody fight between Simon and Uzziel.
- Simon sticks his sharpened thumbnails into Uzziel's empty eye sockets before throwing him five stories down into an alleyway, where he is crushed into a wall by a speeding car.
- The amount of blood shed in the fight is ridiculous. Even Thomas's fellow police officer Barrows makes note of this.Thomas: Anything interesting inside?Barrows: Well, there are what an experienced detective, like yourself, could possibly construe as signs of a struggle. [opens the door into Simon's apartment, revealing the wall, floor, and broken furniture caked in blood and gore]
- Uzziel has his glasses removed and is revealed to have no eyes.
- The vessels that angels inhabit have no eyes at all. No optical pores and nerves, nada. In fact, the eyes we do see are manifested by the angels. Whenever an angel is slain, they close their eyes and reopen them to show that they're empty black sockets.
- The whole notion of tearing out an angel's heart being the only way to kill them is unsettling, especially when the film shows angels ripping out each other's hearts.
- Some odd noises like hissing and pig squeals are heard whenever Colonel Hawthorne's soul is absorbed into another's body like Simon's and Mary's. A sign of how evil the colonel was.
- Gabriel torturing Simon by setting him aflame when he refuses to give up the location of Hawthorne's soul, leaving him a burnt shell of his former self. Then Gabriel tears his heart out in one swipe.
- Everything about Mary being possessed with Colonel Hawthorne's soul.
- When Simon passes the colonel's soul into Mary's body through a kiss, she begins a coughing fit and falls ill almost immediately.
- Mary makes some...interesting drawings.
- The nightmare that Mary has of herself standing by Hawthorne's grave with Hawthorne standing right behind her with his hands on her shoulders. And he's looking directly at the camera.
- Through Mary, Hawthorne remarks that the Chinese soldiers don't bleed like Americans do, and that they needed to have their hearts cut out.
- When Hawthorne's soul is exorcised from Mary, its form looks like something right out of H. P. Lovecraft's nightmares.
- The military tribunal film implies that Hawthorne ate the hearts of those he assassinated. Not to mention the fact he cut off his victims' faces and kept them in his footlocker, as Thomas is repulsed to find out.
- Rebel angels, like Gabriel, have no qualms with resurrecting or keeping dying humans from passing on and using them as pawns to do their dirty work. Even loyal angels like Simon are rather sociopathic.
- Humans are not able to go to Heaven (because of the war going on among the angels) after they die. Gabriel also makes it clear that his henchmen are just "dying slower." Despite their mobility, they're probably still suffering from whatever was killing them in the first place.Gabriel: Eternity. Here. In that sagging skin suit. Or, one more day with me.Rachel: [sniffling] Why?Gabriel: Can't drive. But...I can wait. Until the stars burn out, for you to make up your mind.
- Humans are not able to go to Heaven (because of the war going on among the angels) after they die. Gabriel also makes it clear that his henchmen are just "dying slower." Despite their mobility, they're probably still suffering from whatever was killing them in the first place.
- The angels that are impaled on giant spikes, spears and other war implements, left out in the sun, in the fields of Heaven; trapped withering and decaying, unable to exit their physical forms; forever screaming and dying under the sun. Thomas and Katherine are unlucky enough to see this (pictured above).
- Gabriel describing his acts of killing firstborns "while their mamas watch" and turning cities into salt
, which allude to the Tenth Plague of Egypt and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, heavily implying he was the one responsible. He says this before he plans to tear apart Mary to get Hawthorne's evil soul. - Thomas orders an unconscious Gabriel to be handcuffed by the police. After being loaded into a police cruiser, Gabriel opens his eyes, looks right at Thomas, and winks before the door is closed on him. Not long after, Thomas, Katherine, and Mary come upon the wreckage of the cruiser accompanied by the bodies of police officers, with Gabriel nowhere in sight.
- Viggo Mortensen as Lucifer is an intelligently evil and hauntingly creepy portrayal.Lucifer: [to Thomas, in a shrill whisper] I love you! I love you more than Jeesssussss!
- Katherine is frightened by Lucifer when he suddenly appears, sitting perched stop a stone like a bird. His calm threats don't help, either.Lucifer: Hello, Katherine. We must talk.Katherine: Oh my God.Lucifer: God? God is love. I don't love you.Katherine: I can't. I can't do this.Lucifer: I can lay you out and fill your mouth with your mother's feces, or we can talk.
- Then there's that blood-curdling roar he gives his pale, bald, sharp-toothed demonic henchman when it attempts to move toward Katherine.
- Lucifer sneaks up on Thomas and recounts how, as a child, Thomas would jump into bed, thinking Lucifer was hiding under the bed. Then he tells Thomas, "And I was!"
- Katherine is frightened by Lucifer when he suddenly appears, sitting perched stop a stone like a bird. His calm threats don't help, either.
- Lucifer's description of souls being trapped in their bodies left on Earth for thousands of years and unable to meet God in Heaven due to the Second Angel War closing off Heaven. He mentions the fate being so terrible that some souls willingly chose to come to him in Hell because, despite Heaven being closed, Hell is always open. Even on Christmas. (It's hinted he's lying, since Rachael says she was about to Go into the Light.)
