Written by Mr. Mouseburger 17th Jun 2005
Penn is the ruthless leader of the mercenaries hired by Travis Dane to keep control of the train’s hostages. Highly trained, Penn does not even flinch when Sarah Ryback (Casey's niece) sprays mace into his eyes. In fact, to show how utterly tough he is, and therefore how wonderfully gratifying his death will be, Penn grabs the mace off of Sarah and spraying into his mouth says: "That's not mace sweetheart, it's pepper spray - sold to civilians. Once you get used to it, it just clears the sinuses"
However, upon discovering that the rogue passenger on the train is Ryback, the mercenary gang repeat his name with the sort of awe and respect I would have reserved for finding out that Jesus Christ was on board. Penn is a wily old goat though and not as easily scared as his skittish minions.
He realises that by using Ryback's niece as bait, he has an important psychological advantage over the Navy SEAL. This is something he subsequently throws away when Ryback is out in the open, stalking towards him. Instead of shooting Ryback using Sarah as a shield, as any sensible person would do, Penn decides to throw his gun away and engage Ryback in a knife fight. He makes Sarah hold a grenade with the pin removed, which is a pointless gesture in my opinion.
Aficionados of the first film will of course realise that Ryback is unbeatable in a martial arts/knife fight. Sure enough, when fighting commences Ryback is making all the headway. The pair grapple and end up falling down a flight of stairs into the train's kitchen. Ryback has lost his knife in this fall, but it does not really matter. One quick flick of his arms removes the knife from a stunned Penn's grasp, and Ryback follows this up with a flurry of punches and kicks (an uncountable number, even when played back in slow motion on my DVD player).
A bloodied Penn realises that he is in serious trouble and runs to the other end of the kitchen where he finds a rather hefty butchers knife to use. Ryback does a few kung fu shimmies and shuffles to dodge the lumbering swipes before he grabs Penn, gets him in a headlock, and chokes the life out of him.
I thought this death was quite good actually, it made me laugh anyway.
However, much as I enjoyed the over the top fighting, it would have been more original to have Ryback's niece take the hand grenade that he (as you quite rightly say) pointlessly gave her and just thrown it at his feet. I think she would have suffered moderate shrapnel damage but it would have been in keeping with her character as "sassy female teen with something to prove".
By the way, I think Penn should be a Major Villain - he isn't just a minion of Travis Dane's, they are roughly equal partners and once Dane's technical eminence is starting to show cracks, Penn has no compunction in threatening him with a knife.
heh, i think that it could be down to my crude cataloguing for archetypes, here is how i derive the archetypes, it is by no means definitive, so people should feel free to comment, and we can refine the criteria.
Baddy (Major) = the main villain which derives the success criteria for the films conclusion - only on rare occasions does more than one Baddy (major) appear in films, i would say Return of the Jedi is one, as Luke needs to defeat his father (or turn him back to the good side of the force), and he also needs to defeat the Emperor.
Baddy (Minor) = subsequent villains of Baddy (Major) which are basically bullet fodder for the hero of the film.
Goody (Major) = On occasion Hollywood likes to increase the impact of a film by having the main hero die, usually after or during the films objectives have been completed. An example of this is Braveheart, although personally i would count Wallace as Baddy (Major) as the hero has to be the noble King of England
Goody (Minor) = The henchmen of the hero, most likely to survive and help our hero acheive their goals, but once they start planning to marry their fiance or retire next week, they are as dead as flared trousers. A milder form of pathos than the above.
Ambivalent (Major) = Difficult to describe, but sometimes there is no baddy in a film and once you see things from their perspective it seems like they have a point. For example, Roy Batty is not evil, he just does not want to die, and at the end, though he can kill dekard, he does not, he just expires.
Ambivalent (Minor) = A character who neither helps or hinders the hero/villain of the film, but is integral to the film's progression - Lyssa from Krull is a good example.
Innocent Bystander = none of the above
What I love is how Penn is built as a bad ass, but then ends up getting absolutely clobbered by Ryback like a nameless baddy. It was almost refreshing if it was not so ludicrious.
Just ended up watching this again in censored form on the TV.
There are two great quotes from Penn:
(upon hearing that his minions didn't actually see Ryback's dead body) "Assumption is the mother of all f*** ups!"
The other one should probably be added to the writeup, but Mouseburger's review is so good I don't want to mess with it. It's when he is taunting Ryback's niece just prior to his fight: "I've never been afraid of anyone, but that uncle of yours scares me - and I like it!"
Sorry to bother you guys with something that really doesn't belong here, but more than 2,000 articles on the Net claim that Travis Dane uttered that line "Assumption is the mother ..."
I don't remember it so, but my DVD player is out of order, and I can't prove them wrong. Neither can I tell my spiteful best friend, who is now going around town telling everybody that he for the first time has caught me screwing up. He actually printed out the section from IMDB.com just to shove that line in my face.
So, could anyone that's actually seen the scene recently, tell me whether or not those were the very words of Major Penn or not?
With kind regards,
KenNet
Dalarna
Sweden
No, they weren't. Not even close.