Matthew Cordell

Officer Matthew "Matt" Cordell is the tragic villain and main antagonist/center piece of the Maniac Cop trilogy (as well as the upcoming reboot).

He was portrayed by Robert J. Zdarsky, also known as Robert Z'Dar.

Background
Although not much about Matt's background is known, it is known that Matt at some point got married to Sally Noland. He was a good-hearted, but violent and killer police officer with little regard for police protocols. Despite this he was mentioned to have been a respected officer amongst the police community. At some point, corrupt Mayor Jerry Killium and several other police authorities schemed to frame Matt for an 'People's Rights Violations' when he was closing in on crime Jerry was involved in. They succeeded and Matt was sentenced by Judge Author Claypool to the Sing Sing correctional Facility. While there, Matt was ambushed and killed by three inmates (so many of which Matt had helped incarcerated) in the shower room. The coroner who did the autopsy on Matt found that Matt showed very faint signs of life but was braindead. After Sally found out about Matt's death she attempted suicide by jumping from a window. She failed and only ended up with a broken leg. Sally later found out Matt was 'alive' and he was released into her custody. Matt, enraged at his predicament and the fact he was betrayed by the same police force that was once his ally, began a killing spree in New York.

Maniac Cop
In the opening credits scene reminiscent of Maniac, a man is shown putting on a policeman's uniform with a badge, gun belt, and cap. That same night, a young woman, named Cassie Phillips leaves a local bar at night and is attacked by two punks on the street who try to rob her. She runs and hides, then calls out to a police officer she sees in a nearby park square and runs up to him. She gasps when she sees his face and as the two punks watch from a distance, the policeman picks her up with his white-gloved hands and kills her by breaking her neck. The next day, the two punks are arrested where they tell the police that a cop was responsible. Detectives Frank McCrae and Lovejoy see the woman's body at the morgue and Frank believes the punk's claim of a murderous policeman.

The following night, a man named Sam and his girlfriend are driving through Manhattan late when they stop at a red traffic light. A cop approaches the car on foot and taps on the driver's side window with a baton. The unseen cop takes the man to the front of the car for a sobriety test and the woman watches as the unseen cop takes a large blade out of the baton and swipes twice and throws the dead man on the windshield of the car, splattering blood all over the windshield. The woman screams, gets in the driver's seat and speeds away, turning on the wiper blades to wash the blood off the windshield.

The next morning, Frank goes to see the police Commissioner Pike at his office and suggests giving policemen mental tests due to this latest killing. Pike refuses and tells Frank to keep quiet about the killings and makes a veiled threat by bringing up that Frank tried to shoot himself in an attempted suicide several years ago after his partner was killed in the line of duty.

That same evening, a unnamed musician walking alone on a street has an encounter with the unseen killer cop who throws him against a car and handcuffs him. The man runs when the unseen cop pulls out his blade from his baton. The cop catches up and shoves the man forward who trips and falls into the sidewalk pavement that is wet cement. The unseen cop puts his blade away and instead suffocates the man by shoving his face into the cement. The next day, work crews are forced to jackhammer the victim out of the dried cement.

After a morning news story of a so-called "Maniac Cop" responsible for the three recent homicides, people all over New York are in a panic. In a warehouse section of Queens, a woman has car trouble when a policeman pulls up behind her and gets out. When the policeman knocks on her window, the fearful woman pulls out a gun and shoots and kills the policeman, who is not the Maniac Cop.

Meanwhile, Jack W. Forrest Jr. is putting on his NYPD uniform and he and his wife Ellen argue about his job that he spends more time on the street then home. She says that she's afraid that he might hurt her in his sleep. After Jack leaves, Ellen gets a phone call from an unseen woman who has called her before and tells Ellen that Jack is the Maniac Cop and that he will kill again. Ellen gets a gun and follows Jack to a local motel somewhere in Manhattan. After talking to the manager who tells her that Jack has been there before, she goes to the room where Jack is and catches him in bed with another woman. Ellen points the gun at Jack and the woman without letting Jack explain. Angry over his infidelity, but relived that he is not the Maniac Cop, Ellen leaves. As she goes to her car, she is grabbed by the real Maniac Cop and pulled into a van which drives away.

The next morning, a maid at the motel finds Ellen dead in the same room that Jack has rented hours earlier. The hot-headed Captain Ripley, Jack's superior, arrives at the Squad Room (where Jack was at) to inform him about his wife's murder and when Jack admits to being at the motel the previous night, Ripley arrests him for the murder. In an interrogation room, Ripley and Frank show Jack a collection of "Maniac Cop" news articles belonging to Ellen, and read a page from Ellen's diary saying that she thinks Jack is the killer. Jack continues to deny that he is the Maniac Cop but refuses to answer any more questions. Jack's lawyer arrives minutes later where Jack tells him that he has a witness who was with him around the time Ellen was murdered, but he would like to keep her out of it. Frank tells Captain Ripley that he believes that Jack is not the Maniac Cop, but he also believes that Jack is protecting someone. But Ripley refuses to accept this and tells Frank that he plots to charge Jack with all of the killings. Frank goes to visit Jack in his cell where he finally admits that he was with Theresa Mallory.

Meanwhile, Theresa Mallory is revealed to be a vice cop and is seen posing as a prostitute when she is attacked by the Maniac Cop. Frank arrives and they both open fire on the Maniac Cop who flees. They go to a local bar for drinks to talk about Jack's situation and Theresa says that the only person she told about her and Jack was Sally Noland, a middle-aged crippled policewoman who works in the clerical room at the precinct. Frank goes to see Sally (who walks with a cane and a leg brace) where he tells her about Theresa being attacked.

Later, Frank follows Sally in his car to a local pier on the Hudson River where she watches her talk to the stout, but still unseen Maniac Cop. Sally tells the killer cop about Jack's arrest and that if he relaxes with the killing spree, Jack will be blamed for all the killings and once they let their guard down, he can go after the commissioner, the mayor and everyone else responsible for his false incarceration. Sally calls the Maniac Cop "Matt" and tells him to save his murderous rampage for the people who only did wrong to him. She spots Frank spying on them and opens fire, forcing Frank to run to his car and drive away. Cordell vanishes afterwards, leaving Sally alone and confused.

Frank goes to see Clancy in the records department and reads old newspaper articles about a policeman named Matt Cordell, who was arrested and incarcerated in Sing Sing for "violation of people's rights". Clancy tells Frank that Matt Cordell has been dead for over ten years and that his wife, who was Sally Noland, attempted to commit suicide by jumping out of a window after his imprisonment, but was only crippled with a fractured left leg. Clancy tells Frank that Cordell was a well known and respected cop, but had little regard for the rules of the force. Cordell claimed during his trial that his own superiors plotted to frame him and send him to prison after seeing that he was a trouble maker on the force, but his conviction put the complaint at moot.

Meanwhile, the Maniac Cop, Cordell relaxes at his warehouse hideout where he thinks back to being sentenced to several years in prison by a judge and arrives in Sing Sing where he is recognized by all of the inmates that he arrested and put there. In the showers, Cordell is attacked by three knife-wielding inmates. Cordell puts up a fight and beats up the three men until one of them stabs him in the back. He falls and the rest of the men stab and slash him in the face over and over again.

Frank and Theresa go to see Jack in jail where they tell him about their suspicions that Matt Cordell, who may have died in prison as was detailed in the news ten years ago, may be committing the murders. Theresa and Jack are left alone to kiss, while Frank goes to the clerical room where he is beaten by Sally with her cane and says "He knows I'm no good to him anymore!" She leaves and suddenly sees a dead cop hung by his belt and screams: "He's here!". The still unseen Cordell appears and grabs Sally as Frank attempts to lead her away. Cordell beats Sally to death against a wall with clearly superhuman strength. Frank pulls out his gun, but is thrown across the room by the Maniac Cop.

During this, Theresa and Jack find six more dead cops outside of the cell blocks and knows the Maniac Cop is there at the station. She lets Jack out of his cell where he takes a gun off a dead policeman and tells Theresa to wait in Frank's car. When Theresa goes outside, Frank is thrown by Cordell through a window and is killed when he lands on a parked taxi next to Theresa. Back in the station, Detective Lovejoy arrives and points a gun at Jack, thinking that he is killing everyone. He goes for a phone and screams to touching Sally's dead fingers. Jack punches him out, gets his gun and runs outside where he meet Theresa and they drive away.

The next morning, Jack and Theresa go to visit Dr. Gruber at Sing Sing's infirmary (Jack tells him that he is Frank McCrae and that he has an appointment). After preliminary questions, Gruber finally admits that, on the day that Cordell was attacked in the showers, the doctor discovered that he was still alive, and revived the near-death officer. Despite being stabbed multiple times, Cordell was technically brain dead, yet he continued to live. Sympathetic to Cordell's plight and aware that Cordell was framed by his own superiors, Gruber declared Cordell legally dead and did not see any harm in making people think he was still alive (which he was technically not).

That same day, the St. Patrick's Day parade is being held. While Jack waits outside in Frank's car, Theresa goes to police headquarters to warn Commissioner Pike that Cordell will be coming after him. Theresa makes her way to the commissioner's office where she tells him who she thinks the real Maniac Cop is, but Pike and Ripley believe that Theresa aided in Jack's escape and refuse to believe her. (It is implied that both Commissioner Pike and Captain Ripley were part of the conspiracy to frame Cordell for trumped-up criminal charges to get rid of him). A policeman named Fowler arrives to arrest Theresa while Pike and Ripley leave and they are both murdered by Cordell. Fowler cuffs Theresa to him and as they are walking down a hallway, Cordell appears and stabs him in the stomach with his baton. Theresa gets to a room where she managed to free herself from the dead Fowler and climbs out onto a ledge as Jack watches. Just then, a group of policemen, whom still think that Jack is responsible for all the killings, see him and throw him into a police van.

The still-unseen Matt Cordell pulls the driver out of the police van and drives away with Jack. Theresa gets in cop car with an officer named Bremmer and they follow them to Pier 14, which is Cordell's hideout. Cordell goes on an motorized rampage through New York to get to the pier (killing a watchman and hitting several cars in the progress, in a scene known by some as The Chase).

He stops the vehicle in his warehouse hideout and he starts to axe the door open. When Jack attempts to break out, Cordell (who's horribly scarred and decomposing disfigured face is finally seen) picks Jack up and throws him on Theresa who arrives and approaches with a shotgun. Cordell picks up the shotgun and kills Bremmer as he runs in. Jack knocks the gun away from the murderous zombie and is punched by the super strong undead Cordell. When police sirens are heard, Cordell gets back into the police van and attempts to drive away. Jack jumps on and attempts to stop him from escaping. While driving erratically on the pier, the van runs into a suspended tube that crashes through the windshield and pierces Cordell's chest. The truck, Cordell and Jack fly off the end of the dock and crash into the water.

A little later, while Jack and Theresa watch, the paddy wagon is pulled from the water by a police salvage team, but Cordell is not inside. Unseen down in the water a short distance away, Cordell's hand comes out.

In the extended cut, corrupt mayor Jerry Killium relaxes in his office, content Cordell is gone. After Killium's assistant leaves, Cordell, who was hiding behind a curtain, murders the mayor offscreen as the credits roll.

Maniac Cop 2
After his defeat in the first film, the now even more rotten and decayed Matt Cordell escapes from the water and continues his killing spree in New York. He appears at a convenience store during a robbery and kills the store owner and vanishing before the robber himself is gunned down by responding police. Jack and Theresa are put back on duty by Edward Doyle and undergo evaluation by Susan Riley. While Jack is content that Cordell is dead and gone, Theresa is still skeptical that he is alive and still after them.

While out at a newsstand run by a blind war veteran named Harry, Cordell appears and murders Jack with his baton and leaves Harry alive. Theresa is horrified about Cordell's return and grieving over Jack's death, which leads her to appear on a talk show to attempt to convince New York that Cordell is alive and has returned. She is confronted by Doyle (who had a hand in framing Cordell) and her claims are dismissed. Later she and Susan are taking a cab to a hotel with Cordell stalking them in his car. She notices this and steals the cab, leaving the cabbie behind to get killed when Cordell runs him over and chases them. He eventually catches them and handcuffs Susan to the car's steering wheel and sends it on the road. Now having his true prey alone, Cordell finally kills Theresa by breaking her neck similar to Cassie in the first film. She tries to fight him with a chainsaw but this proves futile.

Susan is led on a nearly-fatal rampage in the out of control car and eventually crashes. She survives the crash but has a broken arm and several other wounds.

Elsewhere a stripper named Cheryl is attacked in her apartment by psychotic serial killer Steven Turkell, who has strangled at least six other exotic dancers over the course of several months. As Turkell attempts to strangle Cheryl, Cordell arrives and murders two officers earlier called by Cheryl before helping Turkell escape. Grateful for the help, Turkell 'befriends' Cordell and takes him back to his apartment, where Cordell stays for a short while before leaving. It seems their 'friendship' is mostly one-sided, and it's even implied that Cordell told Turkell about his past (he actually says his first word in the film: "Cordell").

After Cordell leaves, Turkell goes out to find another victim, but is identified by the still-traumatized Cheryl at a strip club by and arrested by Susan and Lieutenant Sean McKinney. Placed in holding cell in the police station, Turkell taunts Susan, telling him Cordell will break him out. Turkell proves correct, as Cordell breaking into the police station and slaughters nineteen members of the police force in a hail of gunfire before breaking Turkell and several inmates out. Using Susan as a hostage Turkell, Cordell and another criminal named Joseph Blums hijack a prison bus and head to Sing Sing, Turkell having convinced himself Cordell wants to free all the inmates and create an army of criminals (Cordell even providing further evidence by killing an inmate who disagreed with him). Following Cordell are McKinney and Doyle, the former convincing the latter to reopen Cordell's case and dig up and then rebury his casket with full honors, McKinney believing this will appease Cordell.

Getting into the prison using Blums's (who was set to be transported to the prison the following day) paperwork Cordell and the others kill a guard for his keys. Shortly after entering death row, Cordell is contacted over the prison PA system by Doyle, who admits to Cordell that he was set up and states that his case has been reopened. After hearing Doyle's announcement, Cordell abandons Turkell, Blums and Susan and heads deeper into the prison, where he is attacked with a Molotov cocktail by the three inmates who originally mutilated him. While burning, Cordell finally gets revenge on the three people who mutilated him, along with two other inmates. This was his real intension all along. Turkell, enraged at this, stabs Cordell with his baton and they both fall through the wall and land on an exploding prison bus (killing both of them).

Sometime later, Cordell is buried with full honors alongside other fallen officers, two of the few attendees to his funeral being Susan and McKinney. As Cordell's casket is lowered McKinney throws Cordell's badge into the grave and leaves with Susan, giving a monologue about how there is a little bit of Cordell in every officer and that every member of the force needs to rise above becoming a Maniac Cop. Before the credits roll, Cordell's hand busts through the lid of his casket and grabs his badge, foreshadowing that he will return.

Maniac Cop III: Badge of Silence
A satanic priest named Houngan Malfaiteur practicing the Voodoo arts resurrects Matt Cordell from his defeat in the second film, who takes his badge and comes back from the dead to do his bidding. Meanwhile a pair of cameramen who are hoping to make it big come across a convenience store robbery where a police officer named Katie Sullivan intervenes in a hostage situation where she manages to wound the suspect, but she realizes that the clerk is his girlfriend and she had let him in purposefully to rob the store. There is a cross fire and while Kate is severely wounded and she ends up killing the clerk in return. When rushed to the hospital, she is rendered comatose and brain dead, much to the chagrin of investigating officer Sean McKinney, who had caught the report of Katie using excessive force in a hostage situation seeming to make the clerk an innocent victim and in response threatening to free the badly injured Frank Jessup. Meanwhile, stalking Katie's progress, Cordell goes to the hospital to watch her, seemingly sympathizing with her because her doctors were pondering on whether to remove her from life support. This is also similar to his own framing and death. A heckler shows up and starts talking down at Katie and Cordell kills him, seemingly the only one who can see through the people's ignorance of what really happened.

Cordell proceeds to murder Dr. Myerson with deliberators and Dr. Powell with an X-Ray, both of whom were planning on killing Katie. He also kills the four reporters Tribble, and his three unnamed friends for helping frame Katie.

While McKinney and a physician Susan are investigating the murders and the unusual behavior experienced by the comatose Kate. Their investigations lead them to Houngan who admits that he had brought Cordell back from the dead and he is interested in the dying Katie. Cordell frees the robber Katie shot to serve as cover while he gets Katie from the hospital. He and two cronies massacre hospital staff and they are killed in a shootout with McKinney.

At gunpoint, Cordell forces Houngan to attempt the resurrection on her, but he is unable to do so, stating her spirit is refusing to return from the dead to be with him. Cordell kills Houngan and both he and Kate are set on fire in the process and she is immolated. As they escape, Susan and McKinney are chased by Cordell who survived the fire while remaining ablaze, he chases them in a beat up police car while they ride in an ambulance. They manage to throw an oxygen tank into the burning car before both crash, before Cordell can back up on the other disabled vehicle, the canister goes off, blowing up the car. Later the charred corpse of Cordell is rolled into a morgue next to the burned remains of Katie. While the lone coroner, who rolled Cordell into the morgue, is busy with his computer, the camera pans to Katie's hand which shows Cordell's hand moving over to hold Katie's hand, implying he survived.

Maniac Cop (2018)
In 2015, confirmation was released about a remake of the first film will begin production in the summer this year.

Before the film

 * 1: An Unseen Terrorist is murdered by an unknown method. Mentioned in newspaper.
 * 2: An Unseen Terrorist is killed by an unknown method. Mentioned in newspaper.
 * 3: An Unseen Terrorist is killed by an unknown method. Mentioned in newspaper.
 * 4: An Unseen Mafia Chief is brutally slain by Matt. Mentioned in newspaper.
 * 5: An Unseen Rapist is killed by an unknown method. Mentioned in newspaper.

Maniac Cop

 * 6: Cassie Philips has her neck snapped.
 * 7: Sam has his face and throat slit by Matt's baton and is thrown into a windshield.
 * 8: An Unnamed Musician is drowned in wet cement.
 * 9: An Unnamed United States Delegate is murdered by Matt through and unseen method (off-camera).
 * 10: Ellen Forrest has her throat slit by Matt's baton sword.
 * 11: An Unnamed Officer is hung from the ceiling by a belt. (Offscreen)
 * 12: An Unnamed Officer has his face crushed against the bars of a cell. (Offscreen)
 * 13: An Unnamed Officer is strangled with handcuffs. (Offscreen)
 * 14: An Unnamed Officer is hung. (Offscreen)
 * 15: An Unnamed Officer is killed presumably by blunt-trauma.(method unknown; Offscreen)
 * 16: An Unnamed Officer is killed presumably by stabbing. (method unknown; Offscreen)
 * 17: An Unnamed Officer is killed seemingly by being burned/electrocuted by a generator. (method unknown; Offscreen).
 * 18: It's mentioned by Killium's assistant that Cordell killed two additional officers besides Sally, Frank, and the seven shown. Thus this unseen cop is killed by an unknown method.
 * 19: It's mentioned by Killium's assistant that Cordell killed two additional officers besides Sally, Frank, and the seven shown. Thus this unseen cop is killed by an unknown method.
 * 20: Sally Noland is beaten to death against a wall.
 * 21: Frank McCrac is thrown through a window and he lands on a taxi.
 * 22: Pike is impaled on Matt's baton.
 * 23: Ripley is stabbed twice in the stomach by Matt's baton.
 * 24: Fowler is impaled by Matt's baton.
 * 25: A Watchman is run over by a police van.
 * 26: Bremmer is shot in the chest with a shotgun.
 * 27: Jerry Killium is stabbed by Matt's baton.

Maniac Cop 2

 * 28: A Store Clerk is shot in the chest with a shotgun.
 * 29: Jack W Forrest Jr. is impaled through the back of his neck with Matt's baton.
 * 30: A Traffic Officer is bludgeoned with Matt's nightstick.
 * 31: A Cab Driver is run over with Matt's police car.
 * 32: Theresa Mallory has her neck snapped.
 * 33: An Unnamed Officer is thrown at a dressing table.
 * 34: An Unnamed Officer is thrown at the wall.
 * 35: A Range Officer is shot with a revolver.
 * 36: An Unnamed Police Officer is shot in the head with a revolver.
 * 37: An Unnamed Police Officer is shot in the head with a revolver.
 * 38: An Unnamed Police Officer is shot in the head with a revolver.
 * 39: An Unnamed Police Officer is shot in the head with a revolver.
 * 40: An Unnamed Police Officer is shot in the head with a revolver.
 * 41: An Unnamed Officer is blasted with a calico pistol and is knocked down the stairs.
 * 42: An Unnamed Officer is blasted with a calico pistol and is knocked down the stairs.
 * 43: An Unnamed Officer is shot 8 times with a machine gun.
 * 44: An Unnamed Officer is shot in the back with a machine gun.
 * 45: An Unnamed Officer is shot with a machine gun.
 * 46: An Unnamed Officer is shot through the stomach with a machine gun.
 * 47 An Unnamed Officer is seen slumped over dead at his desk (presumably killed by Matt's calico).
 * 48: An Unnamed Officer is shot through the chest with a machine gun.
 * 49: An Unnamed Officer is shot through the back with a machine gun.
 * 50. An unnamed Officer is shot through with a machine gun through another cop.
 * 51: An Unnamed Police Captain is thrown through multiple walls.
 * 52: An Unnamed Police Butler is thrown through a door.
 * 53: An Unnamed Police Officer is thrown through a door.
 * 54: An Unnamed Convict has his head bludgeoned with Matt's nightstick.
 * 55: An Unnamed Prison Guard has his neck snapped.
 * 56: An Unnamed Prisoner is caught on fire and kicked.
 * 57: An Unnamed Prisoner is thrown into a wall.
 * 58: An Unnamed Prisoner is caught on fire and is thrown at a balcony.
 * 59: An Unnamed Prisoner is strangled.
 * 60: Steven Turkell is caught on fire and falls through a 7 story window. He lands on a jail bus and dies when the bus explodes on contact with him.

Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence

 * 61: An Unnamed Heckler is shot 5 times in his chest while he is flying towards a car Matt threw him at.
 * 62: Dr. Peter Myerson has his face electrocuted by a deliberator.
 * 63: Dr. Powell is strapped to a table and has his face exposed to high levels of radiation.
 * 64: Tribble has his throat slit by Matt's baton.
 * 65: An Unnamed Reporter is has his throat slit off-screen.
 * 66: An Unnamed Reporter is killed by Matt off-screen.
 * 67: An Unnamed Reporter is stabbed through the back with Matt's baton.
 * 68: Katie Sullivan is killed when Matt removes her from her life support. Her corpse is later charred by him when he kills Houngan.
 * 69: Houngan Malfaiteur is shot in the back with a shotgun and is light on fire by a candle.

Trivia

 * In the first film, Matt was screaming in pain when he was impaled by a suspended pipe going through his chest, despite the fact he can't feel pain due to being brain dead. It's possible that he could have simply gotten angry at such a thing happening to him, rather than feeling pain.
 * Matt only said a few words in the second and third film. He has said: "Cordell", "Finish it", and he screamed when he was impaled.
 * Interestingly, all three Maniac Cop films end with a shot of Matt's hand.
 * Matt has been lit on fire twice.
 * Matt Cordell appears in the game Terrordrome: Rise of the Boogeyman as a playable character.
 * His story is as follows:
 * Intro: "In the past, during some usual slaughter in a CIA Department, Cordell discovered West's existence and experiments. Since then, he actively searched for him. And he was good at finding people. Wasn't it his job?"
 * Outro: "After Cordell found West, he needed to persuade him to give him what he always wanted. Cordell wanted a healthy body, a perfect one. Surprisingly, West seemed to be rather enthusiastic. The fact is Cordell was very efficient at finding...material. And such assistance was so valuable to West! The best part: he was an undead and immortal guinea pig! So great to experiment Nanoplasma transfer. Such a strange alliance, but how long will it last? Cordell began to wonder if the scientist wasn't just using him.
 * Matt Cordell was introduced into the game in version 2.6.
 * Although he is referred to as Matthew Cordell in-game, the promotional images refer to him as Maniac Cop.
 * His Unleash Move "Dead Air" is directly taken from his movie Maniac Cop 3: Badge Of Silence. He uses this technique to murder a heckler.
 * How exactly Matt became undead and immortal by the second film is still unknown and unexplained. Although since he was resurrected with voodoo in the third film, it's possible that voodoo or similar dark/supernatural forces may have played a role in resurrecting him in the second movie as well.