The Phantom

1996
PG
1h 40m

IMDb RATING

5.1/10

36K

YOUR RATING

Home Video Trailer from Paramount Home Entertainment

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99+ Photos

Superhero Action Adventure Comedy Fantasy

The Phantom, descendent of a line of African superheroes, travels to New York City to thwart a wealthy criminal genius from obtaining three magic skulls which would give him the secret to ul... Read allThe Phantom, descendent of a line of African superheroes, travels to New York City to thwart a wealthy criminal genius from obtaining three magic skulls which would give him the secret to ultimate power.The Phantom, descendent of a line of African superheroes, travels to New York City to thwart a wealthy criminal genius from obtaining three magic skulls which would give him the secret to ultimate power.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.1/10

36K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 3 wins

Trivia
Billy Zane pumped iron for over a year to fill The Phantom's costume. A Batman-like costume with fake muscles was reportedly made, but by the time filming started, Zane was so beefed up that he did not need it.

Goofs
The float plane used to take Drax from New York City to the Devils Vortex (somewhere off the Malay Peninsula) is a Beechcraft Model 18. The range of this aircraft is 1200 miles. The plane could not fly the approximately 10,000 miles without stopping to refuel at which point the Phantom would most likely have been seen hanging onto the float by someone. Even if the plane could have made the full flight non-stop, with its top speed of 225 MPH, the Phantom would have had to hang on to the pontoon spar for nearly 2 days.

Quotes
Quill: Look, I once killed the Phantom.
The Great Kabai Sengh: Join the club. Many of us have killed him over the years. But he keeps coming back.

Crazy credits
The film title appears from the Phantom's skull ring.

Connections
Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Eddie/DragonHeart/The Arrival/Mission: Impossible/Spy Hard (1996)

User reviews191

Review

Featured review

My favorite adaptation of a pulp/comic strip hero.

Of all the recent pulp hero adaptation to the big screen, this one ranks as the best so far. Doc Savage was too campy. The Shadow was disappointing, The Spirit was too small and the Rocketeer was an echo of the entire genre. But the Phantom, thanks to performances from Billy Zane, Treat Williams and Catherine-Zeta Jones, came alive on the screen. There was humor, drama, excitement, suspense and action galore. This film had all the elements of a successful pulp novel or newspaper serial. The cinematography, especially on the location shots, was breathtaking. Billy Zane is very believable as Kit Walker both in and out of costume. The faithfulness of the film to the original stories is also excellent.