Quill is the secondary antagonist of the 1996 film The Phantom.
He is portrayed by James Remar, who also played Ajax in The Warriors, Albert Ganz in 48 Hrs, Butch Pooch in Django Unchained, Vilgax in Ben 10 and Beauty Smith in White Fang.
Biography[]
Quill was a low-level member of the Sengh Brotherhood who also occasionally served as a hitman for the Zephro crime family in New York City. After being jailed for a crime he hadn't committed, the murder of a policeman, he escaped from prison and fled to the isle of Bangalla. He lived there for several years, encountering the 20th Phantom more than once. The first time, a punch in the face gave him a distinctive scar in the shape of the Phantom's skull ring.
The Phantom actually saved Quill's life when he was attacked and bitten by a rabid monkey while panning for hold in a stream. The Phantom nursed him back to health. In return, Quill promised to show him the stronghold of the Sengh Brotherhood. He instead murdered him and stole his belt. Thereafter, that Phantom's son took up the mantle of his father, but Quill was unaware of this.
In 1938, he was hired by businessman Xander Drax to find one of the Skulls of Touganda in the Bengalla Jungle. He and three other men, Styles, Morgan and Breen, enlisted the assistance of a native boy named Zak to take them to a forbidden area of the island where Quill thought the silver Skull might be hidden. Styles found it in a cave, but a skeleton came alive and killed him. Quill, Morgan and Breen ran off with the Skull, but were attacked by the 21st Phantom. Quill thought it was the same Phantom he'd killed years before, and was afraid.
Although the Phantom defeated and captured Morgan and Breen, Quill escaped with the Skull and took it to Sala, who'd captured Dave Palmer's niece Diana. The Phantom rescued her, but Quill and Sala escaped with the Skull again and took it to Drax in New York.
While in America, Quill served as Drax's enforcer and chauffeur. When Kit Walker (alias the Phantom) tried to take the jade Skull from the museum, Drax and his gang captured him and took the Skull. Taking Diana prisoner, Drax ordered Quill and two henchmen to take Kit to the roof, but he turned into the Phantom, defeated the henchmen, and escaped.
Quill accompanied Drax, Sala, Charlie Zephro and the captive Diana to the Devil's Vortex to get the third, gold Skull from the Sengh Brotherhood's lair. When they were captured by the pirates, Quill attempted to use his membership in the Brotherhood to barter with their leader, Kabai Sengh, but failed. The Phantom appeared to rescue Diana, and Quill and Drax ran away. Waiting until after the masked hero had defeated all of the pirates, Quill attacked him, and the two fought while Drax obtained the gold Skull.
The Phantom defeated Quill and took back his father's belt. Even as he did this, Drax combined the three skulls and a beam of pure energy shot forth from their eyes. When Quill yelled to Drax for help, Drax turned and accidentally destroyed Quill with the beam in amazement.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Quill's backstory and the circumstances surrounding his encounters with the 20th Phantom are not detailed in the film, and come from Rob MacGregor's novelization.
- Part of the plot of The Phantom involves the Phantom conversing with the spirit of his father, who Quill killed. By coincidence, this same dynamic would appear in Dexter, wherein James Remar (Quill) appears as the dead father.