On The Final Scene in Constantine
How a mediocre movie can transform to a brilliant one within a few minutes. Spoilers.
Constantine (2005) for the most part exists as a pretty forgettable movie besides its ending sequence, where a lot of the tired biblical tropes come together in a brilliant fashion to bring the film to a satisfying conclusion. The movie is directed by Francis Lawrence, and the key characters that are portrayed in the ending scene are played by Keanu Reeves — who plays the as the protagonist and central figure in most of the exorcism sequences we see — and Peter Stormare as the devil. The movie employs and plays on a number of themes and visuals that occur as standard fare in occult, action, and thriller films that involve an exorcist.
For example, possession of various characters in spirit or one that involves a physical manifestation. The frequent use of a cross, the theme of forgiveness, the arrogance of a character that leads to their downfall, and so on. Watching the movie, one will discover several scenes scattered throughout that embody these generic themes and tropes.
A brief discussion is offered on these more generic and tired scenes before we shift towards an analysis of how the ending scene differs. While Constantine (2005) utilizes a number of generic tropes and themes, it redeems itself in how it manages to render all of these techniques into a coherent conclusion that gives the viewer a sense of consistency with the biblical values and virtues it originally deviates from when the film focuses on violence and action.
Primarily, the film’s initial focus on violence and action cause its simultaneous urging of biblical values to appear as a confusing subtext for moving forward the plot, action, and violence of the film. For instance, the movie begins with the possession of some random man in Mexico and then involves John Constantine (or Keanu Reeves) in a number of bloody, predictable action scenes loosely related to exorcism.
One of the early scenes in the movie involves Constantine breaking into some group building and using a number of violent methods to restrain and destroy a demon possessing a local girl. The scene ends with Constantine trapping the demon in a mirror and then throwing the mirror out a window where it shatters and destroys the demon. The inclusion of biblical values appears as a rushed pretense for the action scenes as well as the romantic subplot.
Essentially, a rollercoaster of violent exorcisms guided by some notion of heaven, hell, and competing heavenly and demonic powers summarizes Constantine very well. The most important plot point to understand amid all of the violence is that Gabriel, a powerful angel, has been plotting with Mammon, one of Satan’s children, to unleash hell on earth by using the Lance of Longinus to cut Mammon’s physical manifestation out of a pregnant woman (who was raped offscreen by the random Mexican man possessed by Mammon).
Mammon’s transition into Earth needs to be mediated by an angel, which is why Gabriel is required. Again, the film should be pardoned for its clumsy plot transitions. A secondary plot point to understand is that John Constantine is doomed to hell no matter how many people he saves through exorcisms because he attempted to commit suicide at one point in the past and that he currently is almost dead from lung cancer as a frequent smoker.
For the entire movie, the power of biblical virtues takes an apparent backseat to the sheer power of both angelic and demonic beings until the ending scene where Constantine, realizing the futility of his actions to prevent an alliance from Gabriel and Mammon from succeeding, commits suicide. Constantine is subverted first when he is knocked against a glass door by Gabriel in a confrontation. Unable to stand, he slits his wrists with the shattered glass and waits to bleed out.
It is at this point that the viewer realizes that Constantine has committed suicide as part of a latch ditch attempt to salvage the situation. At this point, the film makes great use of visuals in order to send a message about what is happening. It focuses on Constantine’s watch and a bloody stream that seeps onto the floor next to him as he dies from blood loss. The scene of Gabriel about to cut Mammon loose are juxtaposed with the time on Constantine’s watch in a dramatic fashion.
The watch’s second hand stops along with the dramatic percussion in the background music, bringing the scene to a coherent point where time has fully stopped as a result of Constantine’s suicide. This ending sequence is done incredibly well because of how it builds a sense of dramatic tension. Satan or Lucifer appears literally out of thin air, with his presence announced by burning, tarrish black liquid hitting the floor. He appears in a white suit and begins taunting Constantine about coming personally to collect his soul because of Constantine’s consistent exorcism work, which is viewed as an affront and effort against the demons as a whole.
Constantine goes for a cigarette while he has a conversation with Lucifer, with Lucifer continually mocking him through a number of actions like telling Constantine that he can’t use his fingers because he severed his tendons while committing suicide and pulling the lighter away from him as Constantine attempts to smoke. As they converse, Constantine mentions that Mammon is plotting to overthrow Lucifer under his nose, and Lucifer counters that there’s no use in stalling the collection of his soul.
The verbal dialogue and the process of negotiation from a powerless position that Constantine performs is what makes the scene so compelling. Constantine replies to Lucier something to the effect that Lucifer has waited over a decade to collect his soul, so what will a few more seconds of difference make. Lucifer, swayed by Constantine’s confidence, reluctantly goes to check the other room where he sees the truth of the situation: Gabriel is indeed trying to cut Mammon loose, subvert his rule, and set hell on to Earth.
Lucifer easily overpowers Gabriel after resuming time and banishes Mammon from the body of the girl by using an overlooked reflection — a puddle of water. This echoes back to Constantine’s first exorcism which used the reflection of a mirror, but shows Lucifer’s cunning, his power, and gives the narrative a sense of cohesion. Lucifer comes back to Constantine and asks him what he wants in return, and Constantine replies that he wants the soul of a girl to be saved. Lucifer puzzles over Constantine’s choice but simply dismisses that there is anything wrong with it, grants it, and then prepares to drag Constantine’s soul down to hell.
As Lucifer drags Constantine along, he finds it increasingly hard to move Constantine’s body to the point where the ground deforms as he drags upwards. Soon, we see Constantine enveloped in a bright light and a vision of heaven before Lucifer finally realizes his mistake and remarks, “the sacrifice” in reference to the wish he granted Constantine.
In an ironic twist, Lucifer actually grants Constantine salvation because he complies with Constantine’s self-sacrificial will to use his wish to for someone else, which doubly functions as Constantine’s redemption. Not to be outdone, Lucifer abruptly shoves his hands into Constantine’s body and removes all of the cancerous parts, saving Constantine’s life voluntarily and remarking that he will have time to “prove” that he belongs in hell. This outcome is humiliating for Lucifer because he has taunted Constantine minutes before and now is forced to make a situation in which he was a clear winner a draw.
In short, the final scene is a subtle and clever shakeup or deconstruction of the regular tropes in the occult thriller-type movies because its bottom line prizes biblical values over the violence and power. That explains how the weakest character in terms of divinity, John Constantine, is able to win against Lucifer, Mammon, and Gabriel and manipulate circumstances to his own favor.
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