In 1944 during World War II, with the help of Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin, the Nazis build a dimensional portal off the coast of Scotland and intend to free the Ogdru Jahad to aid them in defeating the Allies. Rasputin opens the portal with the aid of his disciples, Ilsa von Haupstein and Obersturmbannführer Karl Ruprecht Kroenen. An Allied strike force, guided by a young scientist named Trevor Bruttenholm (colloquially known as "Broom"), attacks the Germans and the portal is destroyed, in the process absorbing Rasputin, while Haupstein and Kroenen escape. The Allied team discovers that an infant demon with a right hand made of stone has come through the portal. They dub him "Hellboy" and Bruttenholm adopts him as his son. Sixty years later, the eternally youthful Kroenen and Haupstein resurrect Rasputin. FBI agent John Myers is transferred to the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD) at the request of Bruttenholm, where he meets the adult Hellboy and an amphibious psychic humanoid named Abraham Sapien. Hellboy is sent to investigate an incident at a museum and battles a creature named Samael. After defeating it, Hellboy visits former BPRD member Liz Sherman at a mental hospital to which she committed herself due to her unstable pyrokinetic abilities. Abe learns that Samael was resurrected by Rasputin, who has imbued Samael with the power to reincarnate and split his essence, causing two of the creature's eggs to hatch and mature each time one dies. Abe also sadly learns that Bruttenholm is dying.