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In the Supernatural series, we find out about 'The Colt', a special gun, as John Winchester puts it:

John Winchester
Back in 1835, when Halley's Comet was overhead, same night those men died at the Alamo, they say Samuel Colt made a gun. A special gun. He made it for a hunter. A man like us, only on horseback. Story goes, he made thirteen bullets. This hunter used the gun a half dozen times before he disappeared, the gun along with him... Somehow Daniel got his hands on it. They say... they say this gun can kill anything.
Supernatural Season 1, Episode 20 - Dead Man's Blood

However, Compare and Contrast with:

LUCIFER
Don't feel too bad, Sam. There's only five things in all of creation that that gun can't kill, and I just happen to be one of them. But if you give me a minute, I'm almost done.
Supernatural Season 5, Episode 10 - Abandon All Hope

Clearly one of these five is Lucifer, but it's not clear if this is him specifically (so that the apocalypse can happen?) or all archangels? If the latter, does that mean that the angel knives can kill what the colt can't (Gabriel)?

The only other two I could think of is God, and Death.

Who else is on this list, and is it individuals or types of creature?

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    Given that Lucifer cannot be killed by the Colt, and that he is one among five, I would gather that the simplest explanation is: All Archangels (4), plus God. However, I'm not aware of this ever being specified in canon. What the angel blades can/cannot do should probably be a separate question. It's likely that angel blades are much more specifically attuned to angels/demons than they are other creatures, similar to how holy water would work on a demon but not on a werewolf or shapeshifter. The Colt is one of few weapons which are so generally effective.
    – Iszi
    Commented Oct 22, 2012 at 15:06
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    If you start with the assumption that Lucifer is an arch-angel, then there are at least 5 of them. The 4 traditional "good-guy" archangels are Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, and Rafael.
    – Rich
    Commented Oct 22, 2012 at 21:30
  • 4
    @JBKing Lucifer doesn't lie. He said so. He's like the internet. Commented Feb 26, 2013 at 13:47
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    The URL for this question is... unfortunate.
    – Beofett
    Commented May 30, 2013 at 18:01
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    I know this question is old but would Lucifer have known about all of the beings (such as Darkness) that have been introduced in later seasons. Is there some magic reason (like a tablet) he could specifically know how that gun effects all beings (like Cain)? At the time of watching I'd thought it would be revealed to be a melted angel blade which would explain his knowledge.
    – kaine
    Commented Dec 8, 2015 at 19:07

10 Answers 10

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There is no definitive answer to this question in the show itself; there have not been 5 distinct beings that were shot by the gun and did not die. In particular, the gun has never been used to shoot anyone since Lucifer, so we don't know if it would kill, for example, a Leviathan. All we know for sure is that it can kill demons, vampires, hellhounds, and Phoenix.

Another major part of the problem is that Lucifer's meaning isn't clear; are there five individuals or five types of creature that cannot be killed by the gun? Does God count as being in creation?

The basic idea here seems to be that the gun can only kill beings that are "below" its creator in the hierarchy of power. It's never clearly stated where Samuel Colt got the power to make the gun, though we know that in Season 3 onward the bullets had been made by Ruby, a demon. So, in theory, the gun shouldn't be able to kill anything strong than a demon. (As a side-note, this would also explain why an angel blade was able to kill Gabriel - he was killed by his own archangel blade, and thus not immune. It's unlikely that a standard angel's weapon could have done it.)

Some of the popular theories of who would be on this list include:

  • Archangels: this is almost certainly the group of beings that Lucifer belongs to that gives him immunity. If Lucifer's five means five individual beings, the 4 archangels probably make up 4 of those five. Note that Castiel believed that the gun would kill Lucifer, which strongly suggests that regular angels are vulnerable to it.

  • God: the obvious fifth Beatle, if that's what Lucifer means. The major flaw in this theory is nitpicking over Lucifer's words: does God really qualify as being part of creation, since he created creation? It seems self-evident that God cannot die by any means, so its questionable if Lucifer would have included him on his list.

  • Eve: Eve is stronger than any of the other supernatural creatures that she "birthed", she is unique, and she predated the angels themselves. This puts her in strong contention for being more powerful than the gun could possibly kill.

  • Death: Death claims that he's the only thing in the universe that pre-dates and will outlive God (claiming that, in the end, he would reap God as well.) If we take him at his word, that puts him above even the archangels in weight class, making it unlikely that anything could kill him.

  • The other Horsemen: mostly because they also seem to be something beyond normal demons, and their rings hold power that even Lucifer cannot break free from, putting them somewhere near Death on the immunity scale.

  • Leviathans: Mostly on the list because they are older and stronger than any other supernatural entity in the series, and because we've never seen one shot by the Colt. On top of that, the word of god says that the only thing that can kill a leviathan is a righteous bone soaked in the blood of the king of hell, an angel, and an alpha. (It is stated in different terms in the show)

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    Actually i'd argue against the other horsemen. I believe death is the exception when it comes to them because he specifically required a ritual to trap. The other horsemen seemed to just be entities of the apocolypse, maybe even strong demons. We know that removing their rings weakened them, except for death.
    – DForck42
    Commented Oct 22, 2012 at 19:22
  • "The Darkness" seems like a reasonable addition to this list, though with the same problem as God Commented Dec 17, 2015 at 2:07
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Are God and Death part of creation?

Lets assume God and Death are not part of "creation", since they are explained as the first entities to exist, and were not "created":

Dean: Well I gotta ask. How old are you
Death: As old as God. Maybe older. Neither of us can remember anymore. Life-death; chicken-egg. Regardless, I'll reap him too.
Dean: God? You'll reap God?
Death: Oh yes. God will die too, Dean.
S05E21 - Two Minutes to Midnight

What about the other three Horsemen?

It is not clear whether the lesser Horsemen are part of creation. Unlike Death, they gain their powers from rings. It is explained that they are powerless after Sam and Dean chopped off their rings:

Brady: See, War and Famine, even if I could cram the rings back on their bony fingers, I doubt it would do much good. They're withered husks right now, fetal position on the floor, all thanks to you. So I don't want the rings. What I want is retribution. And I'm going to rip it right out of your ass!
S05E20 - The Devil You Know

The lesser Horsemen are depicted as loyal to Lucifer and his apocolyptic plans, whereas Death was kept trapped and, even after being released, was forced to obey Lucifer by a spell:

Death: Lucifer has me bound to him, some unseemly little spell. He has me where he wants, when he wants. That's why I couldn't go to you, I had to wait for you to catch up. He made me his weapon. Hurricanes, floods, raising the dead. I'm more powerful than you can process, and I'm enslaved to a bratty child having a tantrum.
S05E21 - Two Minutes to Midnight

Sam and Dean never actually tried killing a lesser Horseman (only chopping off their fingers). One can speculate that they probably can be killed, since they were relatively easily dispatched by the Winchesters, and are now powerless.

It also makes sense that the lesser Horsemen are part of creation (and therefore not at the cosmic level of God and Death) because their roles in the apocalypse are more specific to afflictions that affect humans (War:violence, Famine:hunger, Pestilence:disease); whereas death is a more cosmic concept that can even affect God and the universe itself.

We know that the Horsemen are not demons from the Winchester's dealings with them (no sulfur in S05E02; Sam could not affect Famine with his demon blood powers in S05E14). There is a small amount of evidence that the Horsemen may actually be fallen angels (not Archangels) who are loyal to Lucifer. According to the Bible, angels are commonly referred to as stars:

Dean, reading from Revelation 8:10 about the Horseman War: And there fell a great star from Heaven, burning like a torch. And it fell upon a river, and the the name of the star was Wormwood, and many men died.
S05E14 - Good God, Y'All

Other deities

It's evident throughout the series that other so called "gods" can be easily killed through a number of methods. They would no doubt be killed by The Colt. For example:

  • Sam and Dean killed The Vanir by burning The First Tree.
    S01E11 - Scarecrow

  • Sam kills Leshii (in the form of Paris Hilton) by decapitation with an iron axe.
    S05E05 - Fallen Idol

  • Dean kills Zao Shen by stabbing him with a wooden stake.
    S05E19 - Hammer of the Gods

  • A single Archangel (Lucifer) slaughtered an entire room full of gods, including Odin, Ganesh, Baldur, & Mercury with no effort.
    S05E19 - Hammer of the Gods

So who, in creation, would be immune to The Colt?

Since Lucifer is an Archangel and he is one of the 5 things in creation that cannot be killed by The Colt, it makes logical sense that other Archangels are likewise immune to it. The Archangels are:

  • Michael

  • Gabriel

  • Lucifer

  • Raphael

Who's the 5th one then? Sorry, that's complete speculation because there's no reference to it in the series. I am only in season 6, so I don't know all of the characters yet. Again, God and Death are excluded from this list of 5, since they are not part of creation (they existed before creation).

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  • Uriel is the 4th of the "current" archangels.
    – Verdan
    Commented Feb 17, 2017 at 19:21
  • Uriel was not an archangel. He was a regular angel who was killed by an angel blade. Angel blades cannot kill archangels.
    – Lakey
    Commented Jan 27, 2018 at 4:27
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God is certainly one of the beings that is immune to it even if this has not been explicitly shown to be the case. I'd also speculate that Death is, if not God's equal, then close enough that he's on the list too. If more proof is needed, I'd like to point out that when Crowley sends Dean to kill Death, he doesn't try to use the Colt for this.

Lucifer makes 3. Whether it applies to all archangels or not is uncertain, but there are too many for them to be listed individually, and the way Lucifer words it makes it sound like he's talking about named individuals and not categories.

With the Leviathans however, they are dozens or hundreds. They can't all be on the list individually, though it would seem they should still be immune to it (else they'd work hard to recover the Colt and use it to eradicate them).

The only conclusion I can reach is that this was a throw-away line that was never meant to be expanded upon.

3

Following season 10, I don't agree with this creation thing, so because of that the list must be revised.

The Darkness, God, Death, Archangels, ?

The Darkness' introduction by Death confirms that God didn't actually make the universe, and it existed before him with the Darkness inside it. Therefore, God is a part of creation, hence why he's on the list. The Darkness is no doubt on the list, since it took God and his Archangels just to lock her up, so I doubt a human gunsmith could create something which can kill a being that the former couldn't.

I put Death on this list since he's probably the third most powerful being we've seen on the show (Darkness and God before him). It's highly unlikely that an Archangel could harm him as if we recall, he was almost going to kill God-Cas, who was definitely at Archangel level.

Initially I thought like some of the other answers that the fifth must be Leviathans, Eve, or the collective name for both of them. But then I recall in the same episode that we find out about the Darkness, we discover more about the Mark of Cain.

The Mark was so powerful, that Death said he could only remove it, and that nothing could kill Dean. I believe Death's words are confirmation enough: if he couldn't kill Dean, then what hope has the Colt got? Therefore, the fifth is anybody with the Mark of Cain.

A final note: the only thing that could kill Dean is another person with the Mark and the First Blade. A person with the Mark and the First Blade couldn't kill themselves, as I imagine the Mark wouldn't allow them.

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Lucifer clearly states that there are "5 things in all 'creation' that gun can't kill". God, Death, the Leviathan and Eve all appear to pre-date creation, since God & Death pre-date everything, and God made Eve and the Leviathan before anything else (Earth, Heaven, Hell, Purgatory and the soul).

For the purposes of Lucifer's statement, I think that he was referring to all things that came after the 'creation' of the 'worlds' in the series, and that the four Archangels ( Michael, Lucifer, Raphael, Gabriel), as the first and most powerful beings 'in creation', would be four of the five immune to the colt.

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    but of a late follow up but... when we finally meet Metatron he denies actually being an archangel.
    – KutuluMike
    Commented May 10, 2013 at 22:34
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  1. Death
  2. God
  3. Archangels/OP-angels(mutated Cass) (remember that Castiel suggested using the colt, which means it must be able to kill his kind).
  4. Leviathans (In Gods word, only a stake washed in the 3 bloods of the fallen could kill them. And obviously Death too, because he is Death).
  5. Damn... good question... I think the mother of all stood among the Leviathans (Black goo, some type of leviathan spawn?) But that would merely put her in the same category. No, I think this one has yet to show itself. And since one might argue that God is not created, there might be another one missing as well
  6. Horsemen
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  • There were multiple hellhounds with meg. Hellhounds can indeed be killed by The Colt, as well as Ruby's Knife, and even rocksalt shotgun shells and regular explosions.
    – Lakey
    Commented Jan 9, 2015 at 3:10
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I think we are searching Supernatural episodes for answers when religious texts would work better. Normally I would list death, but death is(well) death and if the Colt could kill him it wouldn't really matter as he could choose not to reap himself, and it would appear as if it had no effect when in reality it had the desired effect to "kill" death. It would be like asking a five year old if he wanted to go to time out instead of sending him there, the kids always gonna say no.

1)Lucifer

2)God

3)Leviathan

4)Behemoth

5)Ziz

-3

Lucifer said 5 beings :

  • one is himself (an archangel)
  • another is God
  • another is Death (of the Horsemen)
  • leviathans maybe
  • and hell hounds in season 5 episode 10

Dean uses the colt against a hellhound. They didnt show whether it died or not.

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    Hi Natsu! Welcome to Stack Exchange! Where are you getting this information? On the stack exchange network we like our answers to have a good objective basis. When you get a chance, check out the faq! :-)
    – AncientSwordRage
    Commented May 23, 2013 at 21:27
  • Hi Pureferret! 3 of them were sure god death and archangels cannot be killed by colt the rest 2 i discussed with my friends some of them came up with hellhounds so watched the episodes where hellhounds come and on season 5 episode 10 dean uses the colt on one of them but it was unclear if it ded or not so it is an possibility and all the lores and books and bibles there was no way listed to kill a hellhound and finally leviathans in one episode according to god stake washed in the blood of the fallen for 3 times could kill them Commented May 24, 2013 at 8:37
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    In the more recent episodes, Hellhounds have been killed without the Colt a few times
    – Izkata
    Commented May 24, 2013 at 10:54
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If they're talking about things in creation, it probably rules out God himself.

I would probably say the five are Lucifer and the Four Horsemen, since they are aspects of the world itself. I.e to destroy War you would need to eradicate all wars. It would make sense that they could not be destroyed by the Colt.

Since Lucifer is a "modified" archangel it may make sense that Castiel when pumped up with the souls of Pergatory may have been immune as an additional sixth.

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  • War is a being who is known for causing wars by tricking people. He could be killed, and wars would still occur. He is currently powerless after the Winchesters removed his ring; yet plenty of wars still occur. War is a personification of war, but he is not war itself, which is just a concept. The same can be applied to Famine and Pestilence. Death is different because he is the equal-but-opposite of God. Where God is creation (existence), Death is nihilation (non-existence).
    – Lakey
    Commented Jan 9, 2015 at 16:06
-3

We are talking about "The 5 beings In God's Creation that can't be killed by the COLT". So certainly we can rule out god himself.

  1. Lucifer
  2. St. Gabriel
  3. St. Michael
  4. St. Raphael
  5. Leviathans

I highly doubt Hellhounds. They are not in God's Creation since they where created by Lucifer himself.

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    What is your source for this answer? Commented May 30, 2013 at 18:27
  • Hellhounds are part of creation in general (meaning they were created at some point in time). Nothing in Lucifer's quote implies that it matters who did the creating. But this is all a moot point because hellhounds can be (and have been) killed by The Colt, as well as by lesser weapons like rock-salt shotgun shells and iron nails in an explosion. I'm not sure why you are mentioning hellhounds at all.
    – Lakey
    Commented Jan 9, 2015 at 15:24

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