The Weekly Planet - The Phantom - Caravan Of Garbage

Episode Date: October 5, 2023

In 1996 Paramount Pictures took a shot at creating another Indiana Jones franchise with The Phantom. Starring Billy Zane as Kit Walker, the latest in the Ghost Who Walks lineage it mashes together action, adventure and romance into a pretty okay package with some wonky internal logic. Thanks for watching our Caravan Of Garbage review!SUBSCRIBE HERE ►► http://goo.gl/pQ39jNHelp support the show and get early episodes ► https://bigsandwich.co/Patreon ► https://patreon.com/mrsundaymoviesJames' Twitter ► http://twitter.com/mrsundaymoviesMaso's Twitter ► http://twitter.com/wikipediabrownPatreon ► https://patreon.com/mrsundaymoviesT-Shirts/Merch ► https://www.teepublic.com/stores/mr-sunday-movies The Weekly Planet iTunes ► https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-weekly-planet/id718158767?mt=2&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 The Weekly Planet Direct Download ► https://play.acast.com/s/theweeklyplanetAmazon Affiliate Link ► https://amzn.to/2nc12P4 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

FX's The Veil explores the surprising and fraught relationship between two women who play a deadly game of truth and lies on the road from Istanbul to Paris and London. One woman has a secret. The other, a mission to reveal it before thousands of lives are lost. FX's The Veil, starring Elizabeth Moss, is now streaming on Disney+. Will you rise with the sun to help change mental health care forever? Join the Sunrise Challenge to raise funds for CAMH, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, to support life-saving progress in mental health care.

From May 27th to 31st, people across Canada will rise together and show those living with mental illness and addiction that they're not alone. Help CAMH build a future where no one is left behind. So, who will you rise for? Register today at sunrisechallenge.ca. That's sunrisechallenge.ca.

Welcome back, everybody, to Caravan of Garbage, where we're going through five movies where they're sort of connected, but they're not really connected. They're not connected at all. No. They're connected in our minds. Yeah.

They're connected in our very souls. Well, I thought I found a connection last week. Tommy Guns? Tommy Guns, yeah. There's a Tommy Gun in this, I think. But is there a sequence of Tommy Gunning? No, there's not a sequence of Tommy Gunning. There's one half-hearted Tommy Gunning.

I think that might count then. Yeah, okay. All right, okay, we're still on track. But if anybody knows anything more definitive that links these movies and not comic book movies that nobody saw or whatever. The old-timey 30s, because that doesn't count either. No. You know it when you see it.

But also, I think next week is going to – if there's a Tommy Gun in the next one, I'll be very surprised. Well, we'll find out, won't we? Anyways, leave a like on this video because we're talking about 1996's The Phantom. The Phantom. Australia's own The Phantom. Now, why do you say that? Well, look, like...

Because it's not true. It's not true at all. But The Phantom is an American comic book created by American Lee Fork in the 30s, but like Neil Finn and Mel Gibson before he went bad, while created in America, we've claimed the Phantom as our own. That's right. And I think the reason for this is, if you'll indulge me, James, I'm going to have to explain to our mostly American audiences

about the show bag. Oh, okay, right. You love a show bag, right? No, they fucking suck. Because they're really expensive and filled with garbage? Yes. But also. So, folks, in Melbourne, which is where we're from,

there's a thing called the royal melbourne show and it started out like in the 1800s as like an agricultural show you show up and you bring your prize pigs or whatever and they give them a ribbon yeah and they cheer a sheep and a guy cuts a block of wood or whatever which i love by the way i love the i love the wood carving too i love a wood job but modern audiences james and modern uh show goers modern times call for modern methods exactly and that means selling people a bunch of garbage yep right we we were no longer happy with the the the bring in the the prize cow or whatever so the innovation of the royal melbourne show is a show bag which

used to be like a bag of samples and now it's just every year for a couple of weeks a year it's like thousands of bags of licensed crap yep right anything you can think of any sports team any movie franchise any candy bar there'll be a show bag specifically for that and it usually contains some stuff vaguely related to that brand and then it also contains cheap plastic garbage like a toy or whatever that'll break on the train ride home and it also contains a phantom comic for no reason like they sell thousands a year and i reckon at least 50 of them have a phantom comic in them for some reason so it's been drilled into our head stockholm syndrome style

that the phantom is ours and we love him just these black and white newsprint comics do you love the phantom though i hate the phantom i like the idea i didn't even i didn't even maybe it is stockholm syndrome because we've the idea of The Phantom. And I didn't even, maybe it is Stockholm Syndrome because we've been doing this for a month, but I didn't even hate this movie particularly. No, I didn't either. I think it's like, imagine if, I don't know, imagine a guy in purple tights beat up a bunch of guys who look like Indiana Jones.

I love that. But it's not as good as Indiana Jones. Nope. Yeah, there's a lot of that going on. Man, they really chew through the origin of this at the start, don't they? Yeah, uh-huh. But I feel like that would have been a really good opportunity to do like a 10-minute pirate kind of prologue adventure, you know?

Oh, I see what you're saying. Right, right, right. But I think- Phantom Origins, year zero. Oh my god. And we could show how he got the purple cow. Exactly. Where'd he get the purple dye?

In Ben Gala or wherever. Nobody else has anything purple. It's the 30s. Purple. A laser did it. A's the 30s purple a laser did it oh probably a laser did it yeah yeah yeah no you're probably absolutely right but i think they probably went you know what let's get to the meat of it straight away yeah fair enough i think they didn't want audience to be like this is a pirate movie i'm signing for a pirate movie i signed up for a purple tights movie guy yeah gina dav Davis's pirate movie had recently bombed. Cutthroat Island, yeah, right.

But also Muppet Treasure Island. So what do you do? That's right. It's so hard to thread that needle, you know what I mean? Anyways, I really like Billy Zane in the role, even if I don't love the character. Yes, I think you're absolutely right. Again, he does have a look of a man who doesn't know what a sports walkman is.

He's got great hair or a wig. I don't know what his deal is. I'll talk about it later. I don't know what his deal is. I'll talk about it later. I don't know what his deal is ultimately. I've got notes. Okay, I'm glad. But he's also got the experience of a crime fighter and a man who fights evil,

but he's also got a certain naivete about the real world kind of thing. Like how he doesn't understand US currency despite living there for quite a long time. Or women. Or women, yeah. There's a moment where he's had a brief adventure with Diana. He's had a brief adventure with the woman of the piece. And then they're chilling and relaxing in his skull cave.

And he's like, oh, to commemorate this occasion, just a beautiful piece of priceless jewelry. That is a terrible mistake to make on a first date. What are you thinking? What are you thinking, Kit Walker, which is your real name by the way it's true the thing is about this character of this movie is i don't like him that much and that's his fault right because i want to like this guy like i like billy's name but yeah it is that naivety there's kind of a i don't know if it's a smugness but kind of a wishy-washy kind of whatever kind of attitude.

Okay. Do you think it's because he's a nepo baby? I think that's it. Okay. So for those who- He's riding on the good graces of his dead ancestors. Oh, let's talk about that. So the way the Phantom works is, it's a guy-

Oh, he's a ghost? No, Mason. He's an immortal man and he lives forever and he's a what? No, you missed- What do you mean? You missed the multiple parts in the movie where they explain that he's not an immortal man. He's a regular man. A magic man.

No, it's a lineage of superheroes passed from father to son. Not always. Sometimes there's a woman phantom, but not that often. Well, I mean, you know, how are I to know? I'm a simple man who looks like Indiana Jones with like a dirty Henley and a hat on.

And I just think everything's... I'm so credulous, if I may. There's a moment, the idea that the bandits encountering the Phantom and thinking that he's some kind of immortal spirit would be more believable to me if it wasn't just daytime when they first see him. And it's obviously just a bloke in purple tights. With guns.

With guns. Because why would he need them? It's just, he's like, I killed the Phantom. That's a man in a mask. It could be anybody. You killed his dad, but you could have killed anybody and anybody could have found the costume. Well, his dad, like, no wonder James Rebar killed him.

Yes. So apparently that version of the Phantom was born in 1872 and died in 1932, which makes him 50. But Patrick McGoohan was clearly 67 at time of filming. That dude should not be the Phantom. Absolutely not. What are you doing? Unless you continue to age in your death, like in the afterlife.

Maybe that's it, yeah. Or, again, maybe Kit Walker hasn't seen his dad in so long that he can't really remember what he looks like. Because is this guy magic or is he not magic? Is this guy a ghost or is it just all in his head? That's a big problem for me of this movie is the vagueness concerning all the mystical, magical

stuff. There's a moment at the start where they have an Indiana Jones-esque sequence where they go into a temple and then a skeleton strangles a man. First thought I was like, oh it's a guy playing a trick. And then I'm like, oh it's probably some cables and some gears or whatever.

The Phantom set that up. No. Like, I could even get around, like, a bunch of skulls that probably have some diamonds in it that make a laser. I'll happily accept that. Sure, sure, sure. But I will not accept that you put a couple of those together and they point to a picture of a map on the wall. Like, what if you put them together in a different room? Does it go and find a map?

Yeah. Oh. Okay, if it does that, how? It hails the trolley car and it gets on and it pays its nickel or whatever. And then it takes a trip ding, ding down the road to the Museum of Natural History. I'm sorry. There needs to be more specifics in terms of how the magic and the mysticism in this movie operates.

The thing about the Indiana Jones movies are, and it's all of them, I would say, even the ones you don't like, there is an in-universe logic to the way things operate. You know, the traps and the trials and the things that he goes through and the like. There's like a mechanism behind it. And I know they're far-fetched. And then sometimes he sees God or an alien or whatever. Whatever. But there is a structure to that that they adhere to

that this movie just doesn't do at all. Absolutely. And I fucking hate that. Like if maybe Kit Walker, the Phantom, thinks that his father's just a hallucination in his mind, but then it turns out the power of the skulls is, you know, bringing him back from the afterlife or something. At least it would tie it all together.

Sure, yeah. Anyway, the costume's good. I was yeah. Anyway, the costume's good. I was going to say, the costume's good. The costume is... It's textured and form-fitting. It is, and look, first of all, he's ripped as hell, which doesn't hurt at all. Big time.

In a way you did not have to be for a superhero movie in this era at all. The Shadow, we just talked about it. But yeah, this sort of pioneered that MCU costuming trick of you take the four-colour, flat, textured costume from the comic books and you add... Raised webbings. You add the raised webbings and so forth. That being said, I think they could have gone harder

and made it look more sort of armoured because now it sort of looks like a rash guard for people who don't want to take their shirt off at the beach. You know what I mean? And if you're this guy, though, you would want to take your shirt off. You would absolutely do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, if I look like that, I would podcast shirtless.

Absolutely. 100%. I think, though, there are some good stunts in this. I would even say Indiana Jones-esque. So one of the earlier action sequences, they take the truck stunt from Raiders and the bridge stunt from Temple of Doom and they just kind of mash them together. That's right. It's a pretty solid effect, I would say.

There's a moment where a horse is running as fast as a plane somehow, caught up to a plane. Whatever, I guess, internal logic of this movie. Who am I to question that, I guess? That's right. And, you know, they drop down onto the horse and it all looks very convincing and practical. And I think there's some genuinely good stuff in this.

And what else could you expect from the director of Free Willy? Or Lightning Jack? Lightning Jack! Lightning Jack! Australia's own Lightning Jack! Australian director, that's right. Love that. See, I told you this was Australia's own.

The Phantom. I told you. Yeah, you did. Who else could we talk about? We've got Treat Williams. Oh, yeah. As Drax. And let me tell you, that man is a treat.

Yeah. Not that much. I'm enjoying his... He's chewing a bit of scenery. He's a successful businessman, but he's also just an insane murderer for no reason. Do you like his microscope knife machine? Just stab him. What are you doing?

Just a very specific microscope with hidden telescoping blades that leaves a dead body just right dead centre of your office, and then you have to drag it away. I also feel like that wouldn't kill somebody. You'd have a man stumbling around spraying blood from... You'd have a man stumbling around spraying blood from... As women, our life stages come with unique risk factors. Like when our estrogen levels drop during menopause, causing the risk of heart disease to go up.

Know your risks. Visit heartandstroke.ca. FX's The Veil explores the surprising and fraught relationship between two women who play a deadly game of truth and lies on the road from Istanbul to Paris and London. One woman has a secret. The other, a mission to reveal it before thousands of lives are lost. Fx's The Veil, starring Elizabeth Moss, is now streaming on Disney+. Will you rise with the sun to help change mental health care forever? Join the Sunrise Challenge to raise funds for CAMH, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health,

to support life-saving progress in mental health care. From May 27th to 31st, people across Canada will rise together and show those living with mental illness and addiction that they're not alone. Help CAMH build a future where no one is left behind. So, who will you rise for? Register today at sunrisechallenge.ca. That's sunrisechallenge.ca.

Yeah, on all your priceless paintings and leather-bound books and so forth. You have to push him out a window or something. You have to guide him to a window. Guide him to a window. I'm actually taking you to the doctor's office. Oh, thank you. Push out the window. I don actually taking you to the doctor's office. Oh, thank you. Push out the window. I don't know how those knives got there in that microscope.

Yeah, it's so the mechanism of death. He's like, why don't you look in this microscope? And he's like, I can't see anything. Why don't you adjust it on the side there? It's there. There's a dial. If you could just know the other dial. No, no, you're changing that.

No, no, no, that's not it. Gotcha. I think Christy Swanson as Diana Palmer is good. They have a good no, the other dial. No, no, you're changing that. No, no, no, that's not it. Ah, gotcha. He did get it. I think Christy Swanson as Diana Palmer is good. They have a good chemistry for the most part, I guess. Yeah. I guess. Apparently they cut out a lot of the more romantic subplot.

And of course, one Catherine Zeta-Jones appears in this movie. That's right. That's right. As the bad girl turned good. Spoiler alert. She's like, sure, I'll murder all these people, but also. I'm sorry? Yeah.

Maybe. I don't know I've stopped it's been a big whirlwind of a couple of days so I don't know honestly also Shao Kahn turns up in the end

he sure does he's like hello I'm from Mortal Kombat that's right it's always good to see that guy he also killed the Phantom

yeah like from what era exactly how old's that guy did he kill Kit Walker's son did he kill a four year old boy

maybe maybe the Phantom's dad had two kids and he killed the better one How old's that guy? Did he kill Kit Walker's son? Did he kill a four-year-old boy? Maybe. Maybe the Phantom's dad had two kids and he killed the better one. Oh, okay. Maybe this guy's like the understudy. Second Phantom. Second Phantom. I guess that's how the Phantom can work.

Also, if I was the Phantom, I would be having kids straight away. To pass it on immediately? Yeah, man. Get out of the game. Obviously, his dad did it way too long. You don't want to be doing that at 67. No. Well, his son had to go and study art at college or whatever. Unbelievable.

No, you live in a cave. You live in a cave and you ride a tiger or whatever you do, Mason. Don't you think? You ride your phantom-arm horse. Thank you. Very good, yeah. I also think the ultimate kind of weapon that they're after here is we need to get all the skulls together because the skulls shoot a laser.

Yep. Who cares? Right? You're on the cusp of nuclear technology. You have seaplanes. This movie's sponsored by big seaplanes. There's so many of them. It can nearly outrun a horse.

That's their slogan. Nearly. Yeah. One day. If you keep buying these seaplanes, one day we'll invent one that's faster than a horse. Maybe you'd get a good wind? Oh, no, then the horse would get the wind.

Anyway, but just like what are you going to do with a collection of laser skulls? It's like having a Tommy gun really, isn't it? It's only good if you can run in and laser someone with it. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you could write your name on the moon potentially, but that would be hard. I think so too. Do you think so?

Yeah. But I did love at the end when they figure out that there's a fourth skull. name on the moon potentially but that would be hard i think so too do you think so yeah but i did love at the end yes when they figure out that there's a fourth skull oh yeah it's the phantoms ring they have a dragon ball battle they have a dragon ball battle and then the villain does the smooth criminal lane before he explains that's right and he says unbelievable yeah i love that i wouldn't believe it either no that being, I've just connected three skulls together and started shooting lasers at them, so maybe I would believe it. Oh, this was probably how the day was going to go, honestly. Earlier I saw it point to a map.

I guess this is on brand for the skulls. It is a skull you have there, and you're wearing a skull. I mean, skulls, it's a popular motif all the way around the world, I suppose. I mean, the internal logic of this universe is fucked. I guess this is fairly common. Probably fine. I bequeath my knife microscope to my henchman in my will. For I go.

So, if you don't mind, it's time for the fanvia. Okay. We're doing some phantom trivia, Mason. I see. So, like with last week's movie, whatever it was. Was it Dark? No, Shadow. Yes. It was The Shadow, wasn't it? It was The Shadow, yes. Yeah Phantom trivia, Mason. I see. So like with last week's movie, whatever it was, Dark, no, Shadow. Yes. It was The Shadow, wasn't it?

It was The Shadow, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sam Raimi was actually considered as director for this and Bruce Campbell was considered for the role of The Phantom. Oh, that could have worked. I don't mind that at all. But reportedly Billy Zane was a huge fan of the property and had been for a little bit leading up to this.

Would you say he was a big fan? Yeah. Spelled F-A-N, just the regular way? Yes. That's great. Very fortuitous then. I think so. Spelled with a P-H, fortuitous.

Billy Zane pumped iron for over a year to fill out the Phantom's costume. Damn. Now initially a Batman-like costume was created with fake muscles, like that coward Michael Keaton. But then he simply burst out of it. That's right. So they didn't need that by the time filming had started. Batman-like costume was created with fake muscles, like that coward Michael Keaton. But then he simply burst out of it. That's right. So they didn't need that by the time filming had started.

Now, here's where we get into some wig logic. Okay. I have some issues here. Because I would say Billy Zane, famously, just a very good-looking bald head, I would say. Agreed. But I've always wondered, like when he's in Titanic, is that a wig? That's a wig.

That's a wig. So, okay. Go for it. Shoot. The word on IMDb is that Billy Zane shaved his head to get the Phantom cowl to fit as closely as possible. Okay. But this was obviously difficult because when the Phantom was out of costume,

he needed a full head of hair. So apparently all those scenes needed to be shot earlier in production. And the scene where the Phantom removes the cowl, apparently that was shot in two parts in reverse order over several weeks. But that is simply not true. I did some research. If you look at Billy Zane from this era,

he was a balding man, which is totally fine. I think he just shaved his head. Again, looks incredible with a shaved head. Because when you have him on a movie, when you see someone with a full head of hair and they put a bald cap on him, it is seamless and completely flat. So the idea that you would need to shave your entire head to put on like like a decently bulky cow it's not true it's not true is it it's not it's simply not true

yeah anyways billy zane should have been lex luther at some point as people say great yeah i know right 90s superman movie yes please kidding Now, this movie was originally going to be the first of a trilogy, like I think all of these movies that we've talked about. Yeah, absolutely. Billy Zane originally signed up to do two sequels, but obviously because this made about this much money. Oh, you've made it going to the toilet, Sam. I did, didn't I?

Which is very rarely positive when it comes to box office. That is correct. Because on a budget of $45 million, it only made $23.5 million. Ouchie, ouchies. I mean, there's movies from this era that did much better than this, which are much worse. Oh, absolutely. That's just my thinking.

Now, in 2008, Paramount Pictures were considering actually creating a sequel to The Phantom with Zayn Swanson and Catherine Zeta-Jones returning in their roles. But instead of a sequel, a reboot of The Phantom was in the works and it's called The Phantom Legacy. Now you're going to love this. Go on. Australia's own Sam Worthington.

Sam Worthington is Australian. Yeah, he was being considered for the role because there was that four-year window where he was tapped to be in everything. They were like, well, this guy's going to be the next big star. We better get him in the movie and fulfill the prophecy. Exactly. Spelled with a PH, but not where you'd think. But of course, I know you probably want to talk about

the Phantom reboot TV show, so go on. James, I'll be honest, I didn't watch it, and I don't know anything about it. All I know of it is there's... You bring it up all the time. I know. All I know about it. This is when you would do it.

How are you not prepared for this? I didn't think about it. You even mentioned it in a previous video. I'm fairly confident. But I didn't have time to watch it. But all I know. And also, where am I going to get it? What's it on?

Am I going to get it on a burnt VCD? I bet it's on YouTube. What was it called? Let me check. Just The Phantom, I guess, on SyFy. But I'll give you this, James. All I've ever watched is the trailer, and there's a moment where the new guy's revealed to me.

Yeah, it's on YouTube. The new guy's he learns of his destiny to be the next Phantom. And he's like, well, I'll be the Phantom, but I won't wear that stupid costume. He's wearing the stupidest costume imaginable. The worst thing I've ever seen. Looks like he's got a cardboard box that they've painted purple on his head. Like a cereal box or something.

Wasn't it supposed to be his box account, Chocula? That's really good stuff. Would you like to see more Phantom in the future? Say, for example, they could take some characters like the Phantom, Mandrake the Magician, Lothar. Flash Gordon? Flash Gordon. And then you make a Defenders of the Earth movie based on all of a sudden.

You could do that. Yeah. Yeah. I'm just kind of surprised they haven't attempted that yet. Yeah, there was a comic book series called King's Watch. Oh, yeah. Which was something similar and was kind of like a modern day take on that. They got all the characters from King Features Syndicate,

which is where the Phantom is from, and they put them together. No, he's from Australia. Oh, yeah. And made a little limited series, and I think that's actually quite good, so people should check that out, I reckon. Maybe they should. And you know another thing people can check out? The Phantom 2040 animated series?

No. The Phantom 2040 video game series. Oh, okay. I'm listening. Is it good? No. You should check that out, though. Okay, great.

You specifically. Nobody else. Mason will report back next week. Maybe he'll do his homework this time. Maybe I will. Hey, here's a fun fact. Did you know that originally the Phantom was going to be an idol playboy named Jimmy Wells? Why would I know that? You would never know that

but I'm telling you now and I'm going to quiz you next week so you better remember that fact. But he's in this he's in the movie. He's just like a supporting character. Oh, he's the one who's like, I'm in love with you. And a lot of people have said perhaps the reason that the Phantom isn't as popular in America is because he wasn't that. He wasn't an American playboy. He's Australian.

New York City style. Instead, he was an Australian legend. He's an Aussie bloke. That's right. A real larrikin is what he is. That's it. But do you know what, Mason? Spell with a PH.

Yeah. A farrikin. I don't know what that is. Do you know what, Mason? Spell with a PH. Yeah. Farrakhan. I don't know what that is. Do you know what, though? What's that? You can actually see these videos early if you'd have it at bigsandwich.co. It's basically our private Patreon.

Oh, basically? Well, it is. If you like what we do here and you want to support, but also you want to get some bonus stuff, you can, because we do movie commentaries. We've actually done one on The Phantom. I, halfway through watching this movie this time, I was like, oh, yeah. We watched that recently. We watched that very recently.

Yeah. There's also bonus podcasts. There's video game Let's Plays. There's just a whole bunch of good stuff there that you might be interested in, including our podcast, The Weekly Planet, where we talk movies and comics and TV shows. That comes out there Sunday as opposed to Monday. All of that is ad-free and exclusive if you are interested. I love that.

Or just subscribe here or whatever. Let's do that. Whatever. Let's do that. Whatever. Let's do whatever. Yeah. Just a couple of Aussie larrikins, you know? That's right.

Not unlike the Phantom. Correct. Yeah. Anyways, thank you to Ben and Lawrence for the edit. Thank you, Ben and Lawrence. And we'll see you on the next one. Oh, we're doing the Green Hornet.

I think people probably know that. The Seth Rogen one that no one's seen. I don't know if that fits in this, but we're doing five. Yeah, you already made that graphic where you put the five. I mean, I didn't. Someone did fits in this, but we're doing five. Yeah, you already made that graphic where you put the five. I mean, I didn't.

Someone did. Ben did, yeah. You commanded it to happen. All right, thanks, everyone. Grab that gem, you guys. We'll see you next time. Grab that laser skull. Do a big lean.

Okay, if this video does really well, I'll switch over to saying that. If it gets a million views? Yeah, if it gets a million views. Okay, great. FX's The Veil explores the surprising and fraught relationship between two women who play a deadly game of truth and lies on the road from Istanbul to Paris and London. One woman has a secret. The other, a mission to reveal it before thousands of lives are lost.

FX's The Veil, starring Elizabeth Moss, is now streaming on Disney+.