Trivia: When Van Helsing is fighting Dracula towards the end as a werewolf, he stops to get out his claws. This is an obvious reference to Wolverine, whom Hugh Jackman played in both "X-Men" movies.
Trivia: In the scene with the antidote, when they turn around and one of the vampire brides is hanging upside down behind them, her jaw splits open down the middle, showing a very large, three-sided "mouth". This is exactly the way the 'Reapers' from Blade 2 look, though less pronounced.
Trivia: In real life, Richard Roxburgh (who played Dracula) was engaged to one of his three vampire brides at the time of filming, Italian actress Silvia Colloca. They've since got married.
Trivia: The scene with the Friar in the lab is an homage to all the James Bond movies with 007 and Q's lab. Coincidentally, Hugh Jackman (Van Helsing) was rumored at one point to a contender for the next Bond after Pierce Brosnan, though that never came to pass.
Trivia: The beginning of this movie is an homage to the ending of the original Frankenstein, where the Monster carries the dead doctor into a windmill which is then burned down around him by irate villagers.
Trivia: On two occasions during the film Frankenstein's Monster is referred to as "Frankenstein." This is a common error by moviegoers. The monster itself has no name - Frankenstein is his creator, Dr. Victor von Frankenstein.
Trivia: During filming, Hugh Jackman accidentally broke an extra's hand.
Trivia: The shot of Frankenstein's monster looking back at the pyre on the cliff is a reference to the 1994 version of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, where there's a very similar shot of Captain Walton looking back at the monster standing next to Frankenstein's pyre.
Trivia: The poem the Friar reads from the painting, "Even a man who is pure at heart and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolf bane blooms and the moon is shining bright" is a direct quote from the original Wolfman, it is spoken several times throughout the original classic.
Trivia: Kate Beckinsale said in interviews that the boots worn by her character Anna took 25-30 minutes to put on.
Trivia: At the beginning of the Vatican scene, choral chant is briefly heard in the background. It is identical to what you hear when you click on a church in the PC game "Warcraft II: The Tides of War" (1996).
Trivia: Van Helsing: The Musical? Not so far fetched when you consider that Hugh Jackman was and is a musical theatre actor, currently doing "Boy From Oz" on Broadway until Sept 2004. Shuler Hensley (Frankenstein's Monster) is also a musical theatre actor, and both of them were in the UK cast of "Oklahoma" at the same time, Hugh as Curly and Shuler as Jud Fry. Hugh said in a recent Entertainment Weekly that they'd joke about doing VH: The Musical and that "We'd sing show tunes," during the production of the movie. To top it all, Alun Armstrong, who plays the Cardinal, also is a well-known musical theatre actor who, among his many roles, has played Thénardier in Les Misérables.
Trivia: Due to the success of director Stephen Sommers' previous films, "Van Helsing" was originally intended to start a franchise. In addition to the possibility of a second film already being discussed, a spin-off television series called "Transylvania" had already been given the green-light. It was going to take place in the small Transylvania village seen in the movie and was going to utilize all the already-built sets and props from the film. The series reportedly would have revolved around a group of townsfolk who have decided to band together to protect the village from supernatural threats. However, the sequel never came about due to the film barely breaking even at the box office and the television series was cancelled before the pilot was filmed due to the estimated high production cost.
Trivia: Director Stephen Sommers wanted to create a unique new way for the werewolves to transform, rather than just growing hair and fangs as traditionally done. He ended up coming up with a novel concept. He figured that the victims of the werewolf would know that they needed to transform and would want to fight it... but like a drug addict or alcoholic, would become "so uncomfortable in their own skin" by the inevitable, they would eventually give in. He then made this idea literal, by having them go through so much pain as the curse took over, they would eventually rip off their own skin to reveal the werewolf underneath. This is also why Van Helsing's transformation is far quicker and less violent... he actually wants to transform, so he doesn't fight it.
Answer: Gabriel is the true name of the character described elsewhere as the Left Hand of God, responsible for Dracula's original death. Dracula uses this to try to remind Van Helsing of their history together. The implication is that Van Helsing is actually the archangel Gabriel, credited with (among other things) announcing the pending birth of Christ to Mary his mother, Joseph his father, and Elizabeth mother of John the Baptist.
Phoenix