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| “ | Its name is Quetzalcoatl… just call it "Q". That's all you'll have time to say before it tears you apart! | „ |
| ~ The film's tagline describing Q. |
Quetzalcoatl, or Q for short, is the titular secondary antagonist of the 1982 dark fantasy horror film Q - The Winged Serpent. She is the reincarnation of the mythical Aztec god of the same name.
Appearance[]
Q is depicted as a large reptilian dragon with flaky yellow skin, two wings, four legs with sharp claws, a long tail, and a beaked mouth.
Biography[]
During New York City's population growth in the early 1980s, a strange increase of bizarre police cases occur involving corpses found skinned alive with missing hearts. Also, rumors of a giant dragon flying around in the sun snatching civilians off building tops grab the interest of Detective Shepard and Sergeant Powell, who believe the two cases may be related to parts of an ancient sacrificial ritual. The dragon in question is Q, a reincarnation of the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl brought back to existence by the sacrifices performed by a secret Aztec cult. The more victims sacrificed by the cult, the more victims Q drags to her lair to devour.
Meanwhile, Jimmy Quinn, a crook on the run from the police and his fellow gangsters after abandoning them following a diamond heist, hides his stolen jewels at top of the Chrysler Building, where Q happened to make her nest to nurse her egg. Jimmy discovers this and tricks the gangsters to climb up to the top, where Q makes quick meals out of them to Jimmy's satisfaction. Jimmy offers the authorities the location of Q's nest in exchange for a million dollars, but is reneged when they only find the egg.
Shepard and Powell decide to trust Jimmy and take his words to wait for the creature to return to the building, luring it back by killing the embryo, while also planning on how to bring the cult responsible to justice. As Shepard and a paramilitary assault team raid the Chrysler Building, Powell and his men storm an abandoned warehouse to find the Aztec priest about to commit his next sacrifice, but he gets away when the sacrifice fights back, only to be shot dead by the police. As they rush to the roof of the building after the priest, Q arrives, angered that the group ruined her sacrifice before snatching Powell and dropping him to his death.
Upon returning to the Chrysler Building, Q discovers her dead offspring. This sends her into a violent rage, killing four of the assault team in her rampage. However, despite her excellent strength and stamina, and the fact that she is a descendant of an Aztec god, Q is no match for the weaponry used by Shepard and the team. Ultimately, she succumbs to her wounds and plummets down to the Manhattan streets below.
Although Q has been killed, the crazed priest (revealed to be the schizophrenic Kahea) attacks Jimmy in his apartment so that he could use his blood to revive Q, only to be shot and killed by Shepard. However, Kahea's plan ultimately succeeds and unbeknown to anyone, a second egg laid by Q hatches in an abandoned building.
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Trivia[]
- Q's design as a stop-motion monster in a live-action film may be a tribute to the late stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen.
- Plus, Q may also be a homage to the Rhedosaurus from the 1953 film The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, a creature edited by Harryhausen that also terrorized New York City.
- The portrayal of Q is inaccurate to the actual Quetzalcoatl from Aztec mythology:
- The mythical Quetzalcoatl was one of the only gods that did not receive human sacrifices.
- The mythical Quetzalcoatl was portrayed as a flying feathered serpent, not like in the film where Quetzalcoatl appears as a european dragon.
- The mythical Quetzalcoatl was a male. In this film, Q is a female.