Phantasm: Ravager (also known as Phantasm V or Phantasm V: Ravager) is a 2016 American horror film, and the fifth and final installment in the Phantasm series. It marks the only film in the series not directed by Don Coscarelli, although he acts as producer and co-writer. It is directed by David Hartman and stars A. Michael Baldwin, Reggie Bannister and Angus Scrimm in his final appearance as The Tall Man.
Plot[]
The film begins with Reggie, running about in the desert, still on the trail of his nemesis - the Tall Man. He then pays a man to offer him a ride, but realizes it's actually his car they're in, and the man stole it when he recalls putting a gun in the middle compartment. He chucks the man out almost totally naked, but two spheres suddenly fly by, and one sphere kills the man on the road while the other chases after Reggie. He manages to defeat them however, but then wakes up in a hospital sitting with Mike talking to him as he sits in a wheelchair, who apparently looks after him due to him having an early stage of dementia. He then tells Mike his story.
In an apparent dream setting, Reggie meets a woman who mistakes him for a friend. Her car isn't working, so Reggie offers her a lift. They go to a cabin on a farm, and Reggie learns that a Bulgarian man named Demeter helps out. Reggie explains to her about his dealings with The Tall Man over the years, and she is amazed by his tale. He tries his usual lady wooing, but is turned down.
As he plays a song, he cannot remember her name, and goes to sleep. Later, The Tall Man shows up with more of his deadly spheres. A flashback scene then shows Reggie in the hospital, but it is the hospital from the 1860s. The Tall Man (or his original identity, Jebediah) is lying in the bed next to him. They then talk. Jebediah explains he's nearly finished, and has lost many friends. He says they are both there basically to die.
Reggie wakes up the next morning, remembering the lady's name is Dawn. He gets no answer when he asks her a question, and finds that she's been killed by spheres, that then give chase. Reggie equips himself with a shotgun. The spheres force him into a nearby barn. A man armed with an axe confronts him, and it's revealed he is Demeter. A sphere kills a horse. Another sphere then manages to get inside the barn, killing Demeter, before Reggie fights it off. Reggie speaks to Mike again in the hospital. Mike tells him about a new threat looming.
Back in his dream, Reggie goes through the woods. Along a path, he encounters a gigantic sphere hovering in the sky, and Reggie is back at the hospital again. Reggie alternates between the other world in both his dream, and the present time. The Tall Man appears, and says their paths cross again. It's 1979; a younger self will attend a funeral in Morningside, and that all his efforts got him nowhere. The Tall Man proclaims he can resurrect Reggie's dead family in exchange for him ceasing his meddling.
Reggie is next seen in a mortuary, contending with the dwarf "Lurker" followers of The Tall Man, and the Lady in Lavender appears. She is shot by Reggie and seemingly killed. Continuing on, Reggie goes into a large cave, shooting a dwarf and the place shakes. The Tall Man asks him if he's considered his offer, but when Reggie retaliates, The Tall Man again reminds him his chances are depleting. Reggie wants his friends Jodie and Mike back, but The Tall Man recognizes his "loyalty" for his friends as foolishness.
In yet another dream sequence which he alternates with the nightmare world, Reggie is strapped to a gurney as armed masked people appear. One is called Chunk and the other is revealed to be the person Reggie knew as Dawn despite her death, but she says her name is actually Jane and she thinks Reggie is delusional. She radios in some people. Reggie fails to convince her they know each other, but she gets him medical attention instead. More evil dwarf things show up to attack Reggie, but Chunk saves him and gives him a weapon. Dawn & Chunk take Reggie to other members of their group who are fighting the Tall Man. It is here that Mike reunites with Reggie. They then escape the nightmare hospital. Mike tells Reggie he's been out of action for a decade in a coma, and the Earth has changed. He says it's no longer their home, it's The Tall Man's now.
In the dream world, Reggie wanders around the hospital hallways, but a nurse orders him back to his room. In the nightmare world, an enemy has grabbed him. A spiked sphere then kills one of the people helping Reggie. Mike visits Reggie at the hospital, and says his dream orientates him. Mike reveals he had a dream too where he was in the desert, looking for Reggie. It turns out Mike still has his connection to The Tall Man, from Phantasm IV: Oblivion. Mike reveals The Tall Man unleashed an alien virus that caused an apocalypse on society worldwide.
Jane is caught by The Tall Man, so Chunk, Mike and Reggie go after The Tall Man. In his own red planet world, they face and battle The Tall Man. Jane is killed. Chunk, who posed as a dwarf next to the Tall Man, then turns the tables. Chunk blows himself up to try to kill The Tall Man. Back at the hospital, Reggie fights some Gravers alongside Mike. Jodie shows up in a car spewing bullets to save them. After driving awhile, they decide to drive north as The Tall Man hates the cold. In a flashback to the hospital, however, Reggie seemingly passes away in bed while Mike & Jody are holding his hands, and the film ends. During the end-credits, Chunk appears through a portal along a desert road, missing a hand, and meets up with Rocky, a survivor from Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead who helped Reggie. Chunk flirts with her, asking Rocky if he has a chance. Rocky teases back saying that there are no other guys around, but Rocky then sees Reggie and the others pulling up in the Barricuda heading north, and they get in. Lots of giant spheres are then shown in the sky in the distance, indicating the war with The Tall Man is far from finished.
Notes[]
- Several aspects of Ravager are cannibalised from Roger Avary's Phantasm's End script: these include the design of the spiky red sphere, the BattleCuda, the disease spreading throughout humanity(and its exact symptoms) and the post-apocalyptic environment.
- Angus Scrimm's final performance as the Tall Man. He died several months before the film's release.
- The mausoleum in which Reggie fights the Lady In Lavender is actually the same one featured in Phantasm III: Lord Of The Dead and Phantasm IV: Oblivion. In the former, it's described as being in Boulton and being the largest gothic mausoleum in the western US.
- This is the first film since 1988's Phantasm II to depict the Red Planet.