Written by Old Bluffer 15th Sep 2008
Written by Pyro
The Ripper is a serial killer who served as Jack Slater's archnemesis in the third fictional "Jack Slater" movie. Tall and gangly and sporting a snaggle-toothed grin, scarred face, everpresent poncho, and the huge customized battle-axe he uses as his weapon of choice, this guy looks like he'd be more at home in a teen slasher movie then an Arnie action film.
We see Jack go up against him in the beginning of the movie itself, where the Ripper is holding a group of school children hostage, including Jack's son Andy. Not willing to let his son remain in the Ripper's hands any longer, Jack dismisses the Chief's attempts to get a negotiator in and goes in to face off against the Ripper himself.
Once Jack reaches the top, though, the Ripper holds Andy on the business end of his axe, threatening to kill him if Jack does not disarm himself. When Jack complies (unloading a great deal of weapons), the Ripper explains he intends to kill Andy as revenge for Jack having imprisoned him long ago. Jack has another surprise though, and tosses what appears to be a live grenade at him. The Ripper calls his bluff, though, knowing Jack would not willingly endanger his son, but then Andy picks up the grenade and pulls it open, revealing it as a knife and stabs the Ripper through the leg, and, after dodging the Ripper's axe in a typical slow-motion fashion found in action movies, Jack grabs his gun and fires at the deranged psychopath, then the film's focus blurs.
Later in the film, we see what happened after; Jack successfully shoots the Ripper, causing the villain to lose his footing on the side of the roof and fall over, but not before grabbing Andy and resulting in his death as well.
As far as the Slater continuity goes, this was the end of the Ripper, but when the newest villain Benedict escapes into the real world with the magic ticket that brought young movie buff Danny into the film in the first place, Benedict uses it on a copy of Jack Slater III to resurrect the villain and recruit him to murder Arnold Schwarzenegger and thus make Jack cease to exist.
After Jack manages to foil the Ripper's assassination attempt, he finds him on a rainy rooftop holding Danny hostage. The Ripper, recalling the whole situation, simply resorts to throwing Danny over the side of the building and cutting to the fight by hurling his axe at Jack, who barely dodges it, but then notices a power box nearby. chopping it open with the Ripper's axe, he climbs up the side of the building and pushes the broken cables into the water puddles the Ripper is standing in, electrocuting him.
"I'll be back!" The Ripper cries out as his final words before collapsing lifelessly to the floor. "The hell you will." Jack answers.Editor Note: I don't remember this film too well - is The Ripper a major or minor villain, and does his death occur after Benedict's or before? - OB
I considered him a major villain as he was the main villain in the beginning(the Jack Slater movie preceeding the one the majority of the film revolves around), and appears several more times in flashbacks as well as having a very prominant role in the film's second half when Benedict resurrects him with the magic ticket. Also, he dies twice in the movie, once in the beginning; which I count it as a death because in the continuity of Jack Slater IV, he has been dead for years, that is, until Benedict brings him back in the real world presumably by saving him from the fall as he seems to remember everything including how he killed Jack's son, which happened just as he was falling to his death, so Time Travel (as Benedict visited a previous Jack Slater film to get him and thus would have journeyed several years into the past in the Slater continuity) may also be an aspect as it was used to bring him back.