Dangling Threads
Untold tales. Essay. 1200 words, 6-minute read.
Dangling Threads
By Ray Tabler
There are so many spoilers below that I’ll just issue a general warning right off the bat. Read on at your peril.
The other day Indiana Jones-Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was playing on the cable, and I left it on, running in the background. This was probably my dozenth time watching the film, and I didn’t pay much attention, until near the end. I noticed a detail that had eluded me up until now. Crystal Skull is arguably the most incident-packed of the franchise, which explains why the wrinkle slipped my attention.
As the temple is collapsing around Indy and the gang, all of it being sucked up into an interdimensional portal, Mac (played by Ray Winstone) is clinging to Indy’s whip, dangling horizontally below the portal. Mac, a shady minor character, knows Indy won’t abandon him, regardless of the traitorous ways Mac has acted up to now. So, Mac delivers a roguish wink, says, “Jonesy...I'm gonna be alright.” And let’s go. Thus, redeeming himself for past sins by allowing Indy to flee before it’s too late.
All well and good, nice tidy redemption arc for a morally gray character with a heart of tarnished gold. But then it hit me. There’s a good chance Mac didn’t die. He was dragged through that portal, but he might’ve survived. Where/when did he go? What did he do there? That is an untold tale, about an interesting character. And, there are other such dangling threads in many books, movies, and TV shows.
Personally, I imagine Mac deposited in alien post-apocalyptic world, surrounded by the ruins of an advanced civilization and barbarians. He naturally seeks treasure and power. He was, let us not forget, sucked into the portal in the first place because of all the golden loot stuffed into his pockets. But Mac inadvertently finds love (alright, more likely lust) and does the right thing, in spite of his cowardly and greedy nature. Then, the portal reappears to whisk him off to another realm. Repeat as many times as practical. Think Captain Jack Sparrow meets Quantum Leap. I’d watch that show.
Another thread of an untold tale dangles from the end of the movie Land of the Lost. The character Will, played by Danny MacBride, stays behind in the Land of the Lost while his companions portal back to Earth. Will can’t escape because he has the villain, Enik the Altrusian, in a “big time wrasslin” hold to keep him from interfering. I think the hold was either a suplex or the Nicaraguan ball breaker. Challenging maneuver to execute properly, the ball breaker. Especially the notorious Nicaraguan evolution.
Will chooses to stay, and ends up living with the tribe of Chaka, a local ape-man. Chaka’s people (at the least the males) resemble bantam-weight Sasquatch. For some reason, the females are Victoria Secret models. The further adventures of Will and Chaka represent a tragically lost opportunity for story-telling.
The Quiet Earth is a 1985 sci fi movie from New Zealand. A scientist, Zac Lawrence, wakes up to find himself alone in the world. There are no people left, just vacant, echoing cities, abandoned cars on the roadways, and empty airliners fallen from the sky. Zac goes a bit crazy from the loneliness. Then he finds a couple of other people, and goes a bit crazy for an entirely different reason. Two’s a couple. Three’s a crowd.
Eventually, Zac and his new companions figure out that the source of the problem is an experiment he left running. Pulling the plug should set things right. But, probably spells death for the plug puller as well. He shuts the apparatus down. There’s an explosion, and a strange, red light. Zac awaken yet again, this time in an alien environment. Towering waterspouts(?) or trees(?) march off to the horizon. A giant, ringed planet fills much of the sky. (See the movie poster.) The credits roll. The Quite Earth was entertaining enough. But I really want to follow Lawrence through the world Zac now finds himself in.
The Monty Python-adjacent movie Brazil is a surreal version of Orwell’s 1984, complete with a soulless totalitarian state, and double-think galore. However, Big Brother in this story is long on casual cruelty and short on competence. Brazil is equal parts cautionary tale and screwball comedy, with bumbling buffoons in jack boots and glitchy, 1950s technology.
In the midst of it all is a minor character, who ninja’s his way through the nightmare, making fools of the authorities. Robert De Nero plays Tuttle, a former heating repairman, who has gone rogue. Tuttle sneaks around, fixing heating systems in the city without paperwork or permission. The authorities consider him a dangerous felon for doing so. As interesting as the main story is, I would like to see more of Tuttle’s escapades, undermining Big Brother, one broken heating unit at a time.
Another Robert De Nero minor character who shines is captain Shakespeare in the movie Stardust. Shakespeare is a sky pirate, stealing lightning from thunderstorms. The captain is a rough, tough, manly scalawag, leading a fearless, scurvy crew of cut-throats. Only, Shakespeare is secretly gay, cross-dressing and prancing around in the privacy of his cabin aboard the flying pirate ship, Caspartine. But his crew know all about Shakespeare’s wardrobe and sexual preferences, and play along anyway. The loyal crew turn out to be a kind-hearted bunch after all. The previous and subsequent adventures of Shakespeare and his airborne buccaneers are buried treasure, and X marks the spot.
Vasquez, the female Colonial Marine smartgunner from Aliens, deserves her own movie, for this comeback line alone.
Hudson (Bill Paxton): "Hey, Vasquez. Have you ever been mistaken for a man?"
Vasquez (Jennette Goldstein): "No. Have you?"
The Johnses, a clan of interstellar mercenaries from the Riddick universe, always struck me as a story I’d like to hear. Think Yellowstone, or Dallas, in space. But the family business is organized violence for hire instead of cattle or oil. A fragile, reluctant alliance of convenience, with Riddick and Boss Johns in uneasy joint command, might be the only thing which can save the galaxy from the Necromancers. Mercenaries and scum of human space on one side, and a fanatical death cult on the other. Cue the blasters and nukes!
Roy Batty, the renegade replicant from Blade Runner, delivered possibly the best dying scene in all of science fiction. “...like tears in the rain...” There has to be some appetite for a movie of Roy’s formative experiences, watching “...Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion...” and “...C-beams glitter[ing] in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate.”
Star Trek did explore a couple of fascinating minor characters further. Harcourt Fenton Mudd was an interstellar con man, who was scamming dilithium miners with mail-order brides in one episode. Then, he almost caused an away team from the Enterprise to be trapped on a planet full of overly-attentive androids in a subsequent appearance. Khan Noonien Singh was a genetically-engineered superman, rescued from suspended animation by Kirk. Khan repaid that good deed by briefly seizing control of the Enterprise. Kirk essentially let Khan go, settling him and his followers on an uninhabited planet. Khan exacted revenge in the Wrath of Khan movie, arguably the best of the franchise.
With the exception of Zac Lawrence in The Quiet Earth, all of the characters mentioned above are minor, players. Yet, they’ve captured the imagination of the viewer. I’d tune in, or buy a ticket to watch more of each and every one of these dangling threads. Maybe you know of others.
END.
Reference links:
· Mac https://indianajones.fandom.com/wiki/George_McHale
· Will, Land of the Lost https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0457400/
· Zac Lawrence, The Quiet Earth https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089869/
· Tuttle, Brazil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil_(1985_film)
· Captain Shakespeare, Stardust https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0486655/
· Vasquez, Aliens https://avp.fandom.com/wiki/Jenette_Vasquez
· Boss Johns, Riddick universe https://riddick.fandom.com/wiki/Boss_Johns
· Roy Batty, Blade Runner https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Roy_Batty
· Star Trek
o Harcourt Fenton Mudd https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Harcourt_Fenton_Mudd
o Khan Noonien Singh https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Khan_Noonien_Singh
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"Shakespeare is secretly gay, cross-dressing and prancing around in the privacy of his cabin aboard the flying pirate ship, Caspartine. But his crew know all about Shakespeare’s wardrobe and sexual preferences, and play along anyway."
This film is based on a novel by Neil Gaiman, and is a typical example of his subversive attitude toward genre tropes.
Minor characters often take on a much bigger life in stories and sometimes move into starring roles in a sequel. They are like the stage actor in a TV show who takes over every scene they are in and you can’t wait until they show up again. These are the most fun of all when you discover you’ve written one of these gem characters. Ray, no doubt you’ve done that a time or two. I think Nohfa could be one of those characters if you let her.