Reggie is a fictional character from the Phantasm series of horror films. In all of his appearances, Reggie has been portrayed by Reggie Bannister.
Concept and creation[]
Writer/director Don Coscarelli wrote the character for Reggie Bannister and based it on their friendship. They then pushed the character into new directions, divergent from Bannister's personality. Bannister describes the character as an everyman. According to Coscarelli, everyman characters like Reggie are important, because they ground the film and allow humor to unfold. Bannister further described the character as written to be extremely loyal; Bannister says that Coscarelli "wrote this character to be every guy's guy, every man's friend, the guy that would throw himself on the flames to the door of hell to save a friend." The character was named after Bannister himself, as Coscarelli liked to draw characters from his own experiences. Instead of struggling to find a unique name, Coscarelli named him after the inspiration. Bannister had much input into the character's portrayal, and Coscarelli frequently sought his opinion. Bannister was influenced by the comedy of Harold Lloyd and Charlie Chaplin; he states that Reggie is "a humorless character" who, like the characters of Lloyd and Chaplin, does not recognize the humor of his situations. Nate Yapp describes the character as rising in prominence from a third lead to main protagonist. Bannister states that the character starts as a simple ice cream vendor and progresses into an action hero, and his rise to series protagonist turns him into the Tall Man's nemesis. While working as a musician, Bannister was drafted during the Vietnam War, and he used this experience to guide his characterization of an ice cream vendor forced to confront evil.
Characteristics[]
Marc Savlov describes the character as "a shotgun and guitar-wielding mensch with a receding hairline and a turbo-charged libido". Brad Miska of Bloody Disgusting describes Reggie as "always horny" and identifies a traditional "Reggie Girl", a beautiful woman sent by The Tall Man to tempt Reggie.
Phantasm[]
Reggie lives and works in the town of China Grove as an ice cream man, and is part of a guitarist trio with Jody Pearson and Tommy. As the film opens, Tommy is killed, and Jody and Reggie attend his funeral, commenting on how Jody's little brother Mike is coping with the recent deaths in town. Reggie later has a jam session with Jody, where he uses his tuning fork to tune his guitar.
He later visits the brothers, only to find them in the middle of fighting one of the Tall Man's appendages, which has turned into a creepy insect.
After Mike and Jody discover that the Tall Man has turned Tommy into one of his Lurkers, they call Reggie for help and stuff Tommy into his ice cream truck. The three then formulate a plan in Jody's home, part of which involves Reggie taking Mike to the local antique shop for safety. On his way back, Tommy bursts out of the ice cream truck, frightening Reggie off.
He later reappears in the Morningside mausoleum just as Jody and Mike are about to enter the White Room, and reveals that he found a bunch of girls whom the Tall Man kept prisoner and rescued them. When the White Room temporarily shuts down and the Lurkers attack the trio, Reggie is the only one left in the White Room. Realizing the similarity between the Dimensional Fork and his tuning one, he cancels out the Fork by touching the poles, causing it to start sucking everything in.
Reggie escapes outside, where he finds the Lady In Lavender unconscious. He tries to help her, but is stabbed and killed for his trouble. At the end of the film, it's revealed that this was a dream, and that Jody died in a car accident, leaving Mike alone. Reggie promises to look after him in Jody's stead, and the two make plans to go on a road trip together.
Phantasm II[]
After Mike is attacked by the Tall Man, Reggie rescues him from the Lurkers and unloads gas into his house, making it explode.
This is later revealed to be another of Mike's dreams, and the older Reggie finds him digging up bodies in the Morningside cemetery. They return to Reggie's house, only for it to be blown up by the Tall Man, killing Reggie's wife and daughter. After that, Reggie and Mike hit the road to hunt down the Tall Man, picking up a hitchhiker called Alchemy in the process, who becomes romantically entangled with him.
They eventually track the Tall Man to Perigord, where Reggie poisons the Tall Man with hydrofluoric acid, seemingly killing him. After they drive off in the hearse, it's revealed that Alchemy was an agent of the Tall Man, and she assaults Reggie, leaving him unconscious on the side of the road.
Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead[]
Reggie recovers from his wounds and rescues Mike, though Liz has already died. Together, they restock in China Grove, but the Tall Man invades their house, kidnapping Mike and forcing Reggie to go on the road alone. Directed by the spirit of Jody through one of the Sentinels, Reggie makes his way to Holtsville, teaming up with a guntoting kid named Tim and a fierce nunchuck-wielding woman named Rocky, whom he crushes on.
During a wet dream, Jody interferes and gets Reggie to infiltrate the Tall Man's lair, where they retrieve Mike. When the Tall Man locks onto the Dimensional Fork, Reggie is forced to once again cancel it out much to his dismay.
At Mike's suggestion, they take refuge in the Boulton mausoleum, where they're attacked by the Tall Man's zombie goons. After fighting them off, Rocky departs in a hearse and Mike disappears, having begun to transform into one of the Tall Man's kind.
Reggie and Tim return to clear out anything they left behind, only for the Tall Man to pin Reggie against a wall with Sentinels and sending his Lurkers to attack Tim.
Phantasm IV: Oblivion[]
The Tall Man releases Reggie, so he could participate in "the final game". Reggie tries to return home, but Jody convinces him to pursue Mike once again. On the road, he comes across a demonic police officer and a woman named Jennifer who suffers from a car accident, leaving her stranded.
Reggie and Jennifer shack up in an abandoned motel, but it's revealed that like Alchemy, she's an agent of the Tall Man and Reggie is forced to kill her. He finally locates Mike's hearse in Death Valley and dresses in his ice cream man outfit for a final confrontation.
At the hearse, Mike and Jody emerge from the Dimensional Fork and Mike warns Reggie not to trust Jody. Reggie then gives Mike his tuning fork to use as a weapon before Mike travels through the Fork again. Once he returns, Reggie tries to defend him from the Tall Man, but is knocked aside so the Tall Man can remove the sphere from Mike's skull. As Mike lies dying, Reggie chases after the Tall Man through the Fork.
Phantasm V: Ravager[]
Reggie emerges from the desert, dehydrated and with nothing except his shotgun. Fortunately, the thief who stole his Barracuda picks him up, enabling Reggie to get it back. He picks up the thief's friend Dawn, who takes him to stay at her farmhouse, where Reggie tries to write her a song.
In another reality, Reggie is in a nursery home and Mike reveals that he's suffering from dementia, and that the Tall Man never existed. Eventually, both versions of Reggie travel through a Dimensional Fork, and he finds himself in a white space inhabited by the Tall Man, who offers him his wife and daughter back in exchange for ending the hunt.
Reggie refuses multiple times, and finds himself in a post-apocalyptic future where Mike reveals that he's been manipulated by the Tall Man for the past decade. In the nursery home reality, Mike tells him that he had the same dream as Reggie, and that the two should escape.
Outside the nursery home, Reggie sees a vision of the post-apocalypse Mike throwing him the shotgun, and turns around to kill the doctors-turned-Gravers. He and Mike then escape in a Barracuda driven by Jody. In the nursery home reality, Reggie passes away, with Mike and Jody attending.
Notes[]
- Reggie has a notable recurring inventory including his ice cream man's outfit, the four-barrelled shotgun and a tuning fork.
- Since Phantasm II, every film in the series has featured Reggie attempting to hook up with a woman unsuccessfully.
- Along with Angus Scrimm as the Tall Man, Reggie Bannister is one of two actors to reprise his role in every Phantasm film.
- Reggie's hair greys in Phantasm II, Phantasm III and a few scenes in Phantasm V. However, in Phantasm IV and most of Phantasm V, it is dyed jet black as seen in the original film.
- He was set to be the main protagonist of Roger Avary's unproduced Phantasm's End script. It would've allowed for us to see Reggie Bannister onscreen together with another B-movie cult legend, Bruce Campbell, known for his iconic role of Ash Williams in the Evil Dead films. The Evil Dead series has already been tied with Phantasm in Phantasm II, which feature some homage camera shots as well as a bag of ashes branded with Sam Raimi's name(who is the creator of the original Evil Dead trilogy). Sam Raimi and Phantasm creator Don Coscarelli are friends.