Was the whole franchise merely Reggie’s delusion?!
True to the franchise, brand new sequel Phantasm: Ravager is a convoluted mess that seems to make very little actual sense, so if you found yourself utterly confused by the whole damn thing, trust us when we say that you weren’t alone. The film begins with Reggie emerging from the desert some time after the events of Phantasm 4: Oblivion, but from there he time-hops into alternate realities that see him joining forces with Mike to fight the Tall Man in a post-apocalyptic wasteland and, alternately, battling dementia at a nursing home.
So what the hell was really going on?
As a word of warning, there will be spoilers below, so proceed with caution!
Let’s cut right to the chase. The ending. There are actually two endings to Phantasm: Ravager, the first of which sees Reggie dying in the aforementioned nursing home. With Mike and Jody by his side, Reggie shuffles off this mortal coil, and the film seems to suggest that everything we’ve ever seen in the Phantasm franchise was a delusion taking place inside his brain; at the very least, the events of Ravager did not happen. In the other ending, Reggie reunites with both Mike and Jody, and they drive off in a souped-up Cuda to bring the fight to the Tall Man one last time.
Which ending is the true ending? Well, the film is of course completely open to interpretation, but I thought it’d at least be fun to spitball a little bit together and try to figure this thing out. My own interpretation? Reggie died in the nursing home, and in death, the Tall Man gave him back what he wanted most: Mike and Jody. A benevolent act from the evil dimension-hopper? Well not exactly. Because though he gave Reggie what he wanted, he also gave himself what he needed.
Let me try to explain. This shit is BONKERS.
Phantasm: Ravager is built around the concept of the Tall Man making Reggie an offer: leave me be and let me take over the world, and you can have back your family. Reggie declines the offer, telling the Tall Man that he also wants Mike and Jody back. Tall Man, disgusted by Reggie’s loyalty, flat-out refuses, but by the end of the film, both Tall Man and Reggie seem to each get what they wanted out of the deal. With giant spheres hovering in the sky, the Earth has been turned into the Tall Man’s personal playground, and Reggie, if only in death, is once again riding around in that Plymouth Cuda with his best friends Mike and Jody. By distracting Reggie with trips into alternate realities (via that brain device he was strapped into for ten years), Tall Man was able to take over the world, and after doing so he was kind enough to gift Reggie with Mike and Jody.
But again, it wasn’t quite an act of benevolence.
As Reggie dies off in one brain-warped reality, he then jumps into the Tall Man’s preferred reality, where he, Mike, and Jody are doomed, as they have been throughout the franchise, to fight the Tall Man (and his many clones) FOREVER. And you know what? Though that may seem like an unsatisfying non-ending, that is actually the PERFECT ending to the Phantasm saga. The series, dating back to 1979, presented what can only be described as a never-ending story, so it only makes sense that the story, well, it doesn’t end. Nearly 40 years later, the fight continues, and for Reggie, Mike, and Jody, it will continue literally forever.
So why does the Tall Man give Jody and Mike back to Reggie? Because he needs them. He needs them in the way that Joker needs Batman. Many times throughout the series, the Tall Man could have easily killed each of his adversaries, but he never actually did. They are a huge part of his game, and without them, there really is no Tall Man. At the end of Ravager, they are forever trapped in his game. They completely belong to him now, if they didn’t already.
As the Tall Man said at the end of Phantasm 3, “It’s never over.”
A satisfying ending to the decades-long saga? It was the ONLY ending.
What did you make of Phantasm: Ravager? Let’s talk about it!
