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Post by nitelinger on Feb 15, 2008 14:46:38 GMT -5
Forgive me if this has all been covered already: I have always wondered about the source of Tall Man's powers. When I first saw P1 I really wasnt sure what to think. Is he a Demon, or is he an alien, or is he a bit of both. I knew he used the space gate, (which as we know is like a big tuning fork) that uses some kind of vibration technology to shift phases. But do all his powers come from this technology? Reggie's tuning fork being able to pause him made me think so. Is there some mechine stashed someplace? Like the old 1800s one Mike went through, but new and more powerful? If there is, could it be found and shut down? Or is he really Demonic, and get his powers through some kind of spiritual , satanic source, and just uses some technology?.... What do you all think?.....I havent seen Phantasm 1 since before some of you were born so forgivre me if my recall on it is poor. But I came away thinking he is a pure alien and was just useing Morningside to kind of hide out and work on taking over the world. It seemed to me he uderstood humans and knew our worst and darkest fears, so he uses those fears as a tool. Hence the whole demonic graveyard front. I recall near the end of the movie the guys were talking about how The Tall Man was taking the bodies and squeezing them down and sending them back to his planet?...Where am I going wrong? ....Whats your take on the the true source of his powers?.....It would be cool to see Reggie learn to "tune" the forks so he could phase shift to where and when he wants to!
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Post by DustinM on Feb 17, 2008 21:38:38 GMT -5
Very interesting idea, Nitelinger. Is this evil simply using techonlogy to unleash itself? Or did technology corrupt an innocent until they wound up becoming the Tall Man? Could that person have been Jebediah Morningside, perhaps?
This raises an interesting question about the role of technology in the series. Is technology merely an instrument of evil or does it influence, corrupt and shape evil? Maybe Jebediah learned too much for his own good back in the 1800s.
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Post by pinheadsconcubine on Feb 18, 2008 13:31:48 GMT -5
or he was just opening doors to other dimensions a form of time travel and then the "enity" took the human shell of jebadiah morningside to "collect" the slaves for his planet and leave the sentinels behind... maybe some form of "evil" but not satainic
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Post by 4barrelhemi on Feb 19, 2008 6:31:44 GMT -5
Whatever it was we can be assured "Jebodiah Morningsie never does come back" For whatever reason that line Jody says is just really creepy.
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Post by spherical on Jun 12, 2008 14:03:50 GMT -5
I'm wondering: What is his REAL source of energy? Maybe each Tall Man draws energy straight from the matrix/template set on the Crimson Planet... or maybe "they" tap into some parallel plane of existence... Just wondering that.
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Post by Hellbound on Sept 29, 2008 18:17:53 GMT -5
I believe the Tall Man is an alien whose powers probably come from technology derived from or related to the dimensional gates Jebediah Morningside created. The gates themselves probably explain a lot of the phantasms and reality-warping events of the series.
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Post by Hellbound on Sept 30, 2008 22:30:23 GMT -5
Speaking of the illusions, such as the grave stones popping up in front of Mike in the chase scene at the end, what do you all interpret that as, the Tall Man warping reality or transmitting illusions into Mike's head with his psychic powers?
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Post by Natalie on Oct 1, 2008 5:59:42 GMT -5
I think that the Tall Man is trying to say something to Mike. The fortune teller's granddaughter, who in turn recieved from the fortune teller to tell Mike, told him "don't fear". When the grave stones popped up from the ground, it was that specific image that causes Mike to remember the words, "don't fear". Now, what do the grave stones symbolize? Death. Maybe the Tall Man is trying to tell Mike not to fear death. Probably because that is what his initial plans for Mike are - to kill, or to take the already dead, back to the Tall Man's world, and possibly to replace him as undertaker. There he will be surrounded by death, therfore he cannot be scared of it or try to run from it. Mike's the next Tall Man in training.
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Post by Hellbound on Oct 2, 2008 20:36:37 GMT -5
Well I'm not getting at why the Tall Man's doing it so much as how. Is he putting illusions in Mike's head with some sortof psychic ability or does he have some kindof control over reality?
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Post by OblivionGoon on Oct 3, 2008 16:17:16 GMT -5
I think that Mike and The Tall Man connect in some way. That is how Mike is able to see things, he has his own powers. It all branches out of the sphere in Mike's head. It really was "all in his head."
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Post by tallman3 on May 7, 2009 14:49:08 GMT -5
The Tall Man was definitely part of an alien race that could shape shift. In Phantasm I, the lady in the lavender dress was the Tall Man. If you remember he would take the shape of a pretty woman and lure men to the cemetery from the nearby bar. He would then murder them with a large knife, while having sex with them. In Phantasm II, Reggie catches Mike by the leg as he is being sucked through the tuning fork portal to the Tall Man's planet. If you remember, the Tall Man's planet has a gravity 12 times that on the Earth (similar to Jupiter) and has a very hot desert terrain. The Tall Man and his zombie henchmen shrink dead humans down to stocky dwarfs, then reanimate them by pumping the yellow stuff into them with embalming equipment. The dwarfs are sent to the Tall Man's planet in black containers through the tuning fork portal. The dwarfs are then used as slaves on their planet and can work harder because they can handle the heavy gravity and the heat. Also the Tall Man uses mental telepathy to control the flying silver balls through the yellow stuff inside the center of the silver balls. Because he comes from a planet with extra heavy gravity, he has superhuman strength on the earth. Remember, he can lift an 800 lb. coffin with a body inside by himself and load it into the hearse. Because his planet has high temperatures, he is attracted to cold air.
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Post by tallman3 on May 7, 2009 15:22:13 GMT -5
In Phantasm IV Oblivion, when Mike is mentally transported back to the early 1860's, he sees Jebediah Morningside as an embalmer for the Union Army, during the Civil War. The Tall Man was stealing dead Union soldier's bodies and turning them into dwarfs all the way back to that time. He had a more primative portal to his planet back then. The yellow stuff inside the Tall Man keeps him alive just like the dwarfs. The Tall Man is obviously immortal because he has been stealing bodies from the Moringside Mortuary since the 1860's right up through the late 1970's to the Perigord Mortuary in the 1980's to the 1990's in Phantasm IV. In Phantasm I (1979), remember in the antique shop owned by his girl friend's family, Mike saw an old 1800's tin type image of Jebediah Morningside, driving the horse drawn funeral wagon, sitting in front of the Morningside Mortuary large white house.
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Post by nightflier51 on May 25, 2009 20:45:28 GMT -5
Going through the dimension fork has nothing to do with physical distance as we know. If you look into endless space, you are looking at physical distance. but once inside the dimension fork it is something else beside what we know of. The device ( 2 silver poles), are the gateway. Here is something else we might think about. The Philidelphia Experiment done by the Navy was true and it is the closest thing to Phantasm that i know of. If you like, go on search and click on it.
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Post by pumpmonkey on May 30, 2009 2:26:21 GMT -5
nightflier51 = Interesting that you should bring up the Philly Exp. That's a good analogy! one I had not thought of; personally, I was making a connection to TESLA. Anyway... Based on what we've "seen" in the films, (ergo = a tricky assumption as this is a 'Phantasm') --> I think we can presume that the primary powers of TTM are; a) Superior Knowledge- Physics, (time and space; making the gates, etc) - Anatomy, (human & xenophobic; knowing what & how to embalm, how to resize & reanimate, and infect) - Technology (constructing more gates; the sphere-key in P-II, etc) b) Mega Strength- No examples needed = we've seen this many times~! c) Telekenisis- Used to cause Mike's bike to kill and throw him in P-I; the choking the priest in P-II, etc. d) Telepathy- Communicating with images and words to Mike & Liz; receiving information to the spheres e) Domination- Working with conjunction with Telepathy, he is able to use his force of will and control the spheres. f) The Power of Thought-into-Energy (for lack of a better term)- This is a power that the SPHERE'S have as well as TTM (i.e. P-II the one that chases MIKE & LIZ down the hall then kills the GRAVER). TTM usually makes whatever he wants to happen, happen. (Usually). In P-IV he informed MIKE that he also possesses this power, and MIKE used it. So, we have been informed that JEBIDIAH manufactured a gate from Earth to a different place. Perhaps as simple as a different planet, and whether he did this on his own, or he was manipulated, or perhaps even 'guided' is unclear at this time, but build it he did. He steps through, and what comes back, although it looks like JEBIDIAH, we are informed by JODY that it is not him. But it is always the same manifestation. Why this is so might be written into the next movie (if there is one)The TTM obviously uses technology, but there is no clear indication in my mind that the technology is evil (MIKE and REGGIE have used his tech as well). REGGIE & MIKE have beaten TTM on several occasions, and as we all know, in the beginning of P-III we see him throwing his old corpse back through the gate~!!! So, just beating him here will not be the end of him. Defeating TTM here is not the answer, and if what JODY showed MIKE is true, then TTM has discovered how to infect the populace - making him something of a WARDEN. So what's behind sending these versions of JEBIDIAH aka TTM through? How many other worlds are falling prey or have already fallen when an intrepid inventor opens up a portal to the unknown? So, at the end of P-IV when REGGIE follows TTM through the gate? Where does the gate go? To the where he sprung MIKE earlier? Will MIKE be a "Living Sentential" (like JODY)? Will it lead to TTM'S domain where they either have to kill the entity that is behind it all or will the original JEBIDIAH be imprisoned there? Must they kill him or free him? -= E-gad~!! =- (I'm starting to sound like the beginning of the TV show "SOAP")** Back on track ** TTM has displayed strengths and weakness. The Gates are not exactly 'fixed'. REGGIE & MIKE have beaten TTM on several occasions and should now realize that they cannot simply 'beat him' here, but must develop a new plan. In retrospect, something that never occurred to me until now; we understand now, that The Tall Man (TTM) has been creeping around for centuries, and he most likely started on his own, then enlisted the assistance of 'gravers', 'Dwarves' and the 'Spheres'/'Sententials'. I have to ask: Are the Gravers truly human? Who would do such a thing! If memory serves; we never fully see the TTM take and embalm a living subject. He was about to with LIZ, but when we see him in the army tent, it is my belief he was placing a tube up MIKE'S nose to plant a 'seed' that will grow and create the SPHERE around his brain. Sheesh...its 2:30 AM here. I'm off to bed. G'nite folks!
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vitaman2007
Sentinel Sphere
"Be de be de be de...f#@ you Buck!"
Posts: 698
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Post by vitaman2007 on May 30, 2009 9:40:14 GMT -5
...personally, I was making a connection to TESLA. That's a great connection. www.stargazing.net/Astroman/NTBio.htmlThough not the inventor of resonance (the reinforcement or prolongation of sound by reflection from a surface or by the synchronous vibration of a neighboring object), he took research on it to new heights. He also was developing wireless communication that we depend on so much nowadays, way back when. (re: link above ["...Tesla had a dream of providing free energy to the world. In 1900, backed by $150,000 from financier J.P. Morgan, Tesla began construction of his so called "Wireless Broadcasting System" tower on Long Island, New York. This broadcasting tower was intended to link the world's telephone and telegraph services, as well as transmit pictures, stock reports, and weather information worldwide. Unfortunately, Morgan cut funding when he realized that it meant FREE energy for the world."]) It's funny how the Morgan conglomerate are involved in the worlds present financial breakdown. The story of Tesla would make a great movie, as well as serving as a wake up call to what we consider factual in our history books. Just saw these guys recently. Great freakin' band.
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Post by nightflier51 on May 31, 2009 0:06:18 GMT -5
The Philidelphia experiment used some of teslas ideas as well as other ideas to acheive what they done. Not only time travel but inter dimension research was done as well. It was told that a creature came through a gate during that time but im not sure of the source. Youtube.com has interviews with people who were involved in the experments. I think in the Phantasm films the gates could time travel and dimensional travel as well.
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