PHANTASM
THE RETCON THEORY
‘RETCON’. Everyone who loves DC Comics should know this word and its deepest meanings/implications. Superman was created in 1938, and somehow they managed to keep him “alive” for 70 years! It’s pretty natural that they (the writers) needed to “update” his origins and subsequent life in order to make him interact with a “real world” (the readers) changing decade by decade.
If the Superman of 1938 could leap an 1/8th of a mile or hurdle a 20 story building, was working for a newspaper called ‘Daily Star’ in his Clark Kent disguise and was very mean in his crime fighting antics, the Superman of 1948 was heavily different if not an entirely different character.
His origin story is different. He “always” worked for the ‘Daily Planet’, he can fly, he’s “now” your average costumed boy-scout imbued with the ol’ good American values, the ‘S’ on his chest is “no more” the same. Got it? Hope so.
‘RETCON’ means ‘Retroactive Continuity’. I’ll try to explain it by my terms. Skip Wikipedia. (laugh).
Given the fact I’m a comic book character, and my original writer established I own two nice cats, if a following writer (of my regular series) “re-arranges” my life and establish I have always had one cat… well, then my past has been “revised” and my continuity has been slightly “adjusted”. A RETCON happened, my friends. I never cleaned up the sh*t of two cats, just the sh*t of one cat.
I must confess in this case it’s not that much of deal, who cares how many cats I own.
However, ‘RETCONS’ are not supposed to happen because they are an intrinsic mechanism of the fictional story the characters inhabit. It’s not like I – comic-book character – could realize that an evil writer eliminated my second cat from my fictional life.
Example:
Tiziano: Marta, Scroof is sleeping. Where is Scrappy?
Marta: Scrappy who? We have just one cat, honey!
Tiziano: WTF? Are you crazy? I purchased two cats, five years ago, in 2003! Scroof and Scrappy!
Marta: Honey, you’re going crazy! We have just one cat, ONE! Scrappy!
It’s not supposed to go this way, if you know what I mean. Characters, fictional characters, are unaware of their fate as fictional characters, and are unaware if it happened a revisitation of their history, their story, and their life. They are not supposed to “remember” nor “notice” if a change happened in their continuity. Only we readers must accept the writers have chose to “mix the cards” and make a shift. If they do, then you can talk about “Breaking the Fourth Wall”.
But I’m digressing too much. Let’s go PHANTASM now.
PHANTASM is a groundbreaking series. There’s no thing like PHANTASM out of there, trust me. When Don Coscarelli put that “funny” suit on Angus Scrimm, and filmed those strange balls flying all over the place in 1978, he didn’t know he was changing the rules of the game forever. PHANTASM is like an unwanted revolution, and nobody still realizes that… nobody except us, the fans. Pardon, the Phans.
In PHANTASM, there’s a new, frightening variant of the RETCONS. They happen. They happen all over the place. And somehow… the characters “feel” them happening. They have reminiscences of their “past lives”. Or better, they have reminiscences of their life before some minimal (or consistent) upgrade would happen. That’s scary, in my book.
Everything you need has
already been put on the table: the ambiguous and malevolent ending of
'PHANTASM I'; the “double” beginning of 'PHANTASM II'; the
mysteriously-reloaded weapons in 'PHANTASM III: LORD OF THE DEAD'; the
time travelling and ambivalent conclusion in 'PHANTASM IV: OBLIVION'.
Everything now explained. At last!
Let’s start from “The
Incident”.
In 'PHANTASM I', Reggie disrupts the vibration of the main
interdimensional gateway (the giant diapason/tuning fork, or whatever you call
it). It’s like Reggie interfered with a chemical reaction: he somehow
“disturbed” the process and brought some unwanted consequences in the final
product.
In fact, that same sonic disruption induced a chain reaction which brought to
the Lair’s dramatic “dissolution” from existence. The disappearance worked as a
stone thrown into a lake… or even better, an arrow fending the air. The
perturbation heavily damaged the fabric of reality, turning it into an highly
unstable “tissue”.
Periodical glitches, travelling “backwards” and “forwards” in time, alter the events of the timeline.
From this point, Mike and Reggie's timeline (the Phantasm series timeline) will always be periodically shaken & shocked by glitches which re-write and re-arrange the continuity of the events.
Write how and what? How does the perturbation work in order to “re-write” events in the Phantasm timeline?
It’s very simple.
Well, no matter how it sounds weird, but… have you ever studied GENETICS, my phellow Phans? Time to open your science book:
Messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) is a molecule of RNA encoding a chemical "blueprint" for a protein product. mRNA is transcribed from a DNA template, and carries coding information to the sites of protein synthesis: the ribosomes.
You don’t need to know more on this mess which happens in our cells day by day; you just need to know this molecule of RNA is a transcription/replication of the original DNA but – unlikely the original DNA – can move and “transport” the basic data all around the place in order to create the proteins.
As the RNA molecule, the perturbation “tap” into alternate timelines set in parallel dimensions, and use them as a kind of source to re-write the one and only Phantasm timeline. It’s like the perturbation would “copy and paste” entire chunks of timelines (related to alternative Earths) and encapsulate them in the one and only Phantasm timeline. Of course, the perturbation is not a “(self-)conscious process”, but a cold mechanism run by a randomized nature.
Anyway, it’s important to specify that the perturbation taps into near alternative timelines where “counterpart” events and/or persons exist: each “copied” timeline has a Tall Man, a Reggie, a Mike, a Hemicuda and so on.
Even if the epicentre of the Peturbation/Interdimensional Replication Process is 1978, there are glitches which manage to propagate ‘til further points of the timeline, like a kind of twisted version of the ‘Butterfly Effect’. For instance, some details “change” from time to time in ‘PHANTASM III’ (in comparison with ‘PHANTASM II’) and so on.
A graphic demo. Uh, not so sophisticated:
BEFORE THE RETCON
PHANTASM TIMELINE: 11/131976 – Reggie goes to play a gig in Texas.
ALTERNATIVE TIMELINE: 11/13/1976 – Reggie dates a blonde girl.
AFTER THE RETCON
PHANTASM TIMELINE: 11/131976 – Reggie dates a blonde girl.
ALTERNATIVE TIMELINE: 11/13/1976 – Reggie dates a blonde girl.
And now, sit down please. Given this revolutionary concept, there’s an even more incredible corollary: the characters have a reminiscence of their Pre-Retcon life.
It’s like an old VHS. You can re-record it how many times you want… but in a way, the previous movie you had impressed on the tape “influences” the new movie you have now recorded, in a mysterious way.
For instance, the Tall Man knows about the glitches but can't do anything to stop them. He is aware of the occurrences thanks to his interdimensional nature (he's in part an alien machine, bestowed with the technology which caused the glitches to begin with) and so is Mike, who is able to remember (he's the Tall Man counterpart).
In ‘PHANTASM III’, Reggie somehow “remembers” to have touched the tuning fork, even if that event never happened in his Post-Retcon life! Granted, Reggie is not a ‘Tall Man’ like The Tall Man himself or Mike Pearson, but he must get a special “tuning” with the reality surrounding him (it should come as a no surprise, since the Tall Man regards him as his only adversary).
In ‘PHANTASM IV’, Mike is able to synch himself with one of those alternate timelines where the perturbation “grasps” events in order to copy and absorb them in the one and only Phantasm timeline: THE CIVIL WAR EVENT. That never happened in the Phantasm timeline, it just occurred on an alternative Earth, but Mike somehow managed to “see” it. What’s in his mind? Wait, I know that.
At this point, we must identify some of the “versions” of the one and only
Phantasm Timeline:
PHANTALINE ONE – 1978
Mike’s parents die in a car incident, some weeks before the events depicted in ‘PHANTASM’.
Reggie dies in the final confrontation with the Lady in Lavender.
Jody defeats the Tall Man.
PHANTALINE TWO – 1978
All the events depicted in ‘PHANTASM’ go “reformatted” (except the very ending).
Mike’s parents die in a car incident.
Following his parents, Jody also dies in a car accident, maybe orchestrated by the Tall Man.
Mike is legally adopted and/or taken under the tutelage of Reggie.
The Tall Man and a bunch of vicious Dwarves raid into Reggie’s house.
Reggie saves the day and makes the whole place blow up.
PHANTALINE THREE – 1978/1985/1988
Jody and Mike try to hang the Tall Man, unsuccessfully.
Jody dies in a car accident, orchestrated by the Tall Man. His spirit and part of his brain are “salvaged” and transformed into the (in)famous Black Sphere.
Mike lives with his parents. Because his “reminiscences” and twisted dreams, he is soon closed in a mental hospital.
Reggie marries Celeste and has a daughter, Bonnie.
… I think you know where I’m coming from. There could be other uncharted PHANTALINES, just take notice of all the “details” and/or “situations” varying from time to time (another example is the beginning of ‘PHANTASM IV: OBLIVION’ being slightly different from the ending of ‘PHANTASM III : LORD OF THE DEAD’). And then, who knows if a ‘PHANTASM V’ would mess with it even further…
BOTTOM LINE: PHANTASM is not a “dream”. PHANTASM is not a “contradiction”. PHANTASM is rather a “memory”, a memory of what once happened but went deleted and replaced with something else.
So watch out. Your life can suddenly change… and you’re not going to remember it.
TIZIANO CALIENDO a.k.a. SPHERICAL