To be ‘right-hand man’ to the main villain in 80s action movies is
no cinematic cake-walk. For even the
casual movie lover it is known that this individual must die as there can be no
resolution to the film without it.
Take Beverly Hills Cop (1984) for example: Zack (Jonathan Banks) is the muscle behind art
and coke dealer Victor Maitland (Steven Berkoff). He is responsible for the death of Axel Foley’s (Eddie Murphy) best buddy from Detroit. He
is a thug deserving of a criminal’s denouement and subsequently gunned down in
Maitland’s mansion.
It’s in the cards.
Eddie Murphy (Reggie Hammond) was part of that same scenario in 48 Hrs. (1982). He warns Billy Bear (Sonny Landham), cohort of money-grubbing scumbag Ganz (James Remar), “Billy, you’re
gonna lose.” Billy approaches with a 12" blade, to which Hammond guns him
down. Jack Kates (Nick Nolte) and
Hammond ultimately corner Ganz and eliminate him, ending his rampage.
There are some exceptions to the order of to the bad guys’ end,
though.
Should the head honcho get his come-uppance before the 2nd
in command, the rule still applies.
In Die Hard (1988), Karl (Alexander Godunov) is the right-hand man
for Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) and not only wants our hero John McClane (Bruce Willis) to be more than ‘neutralized’.
Karl wants him dead for all the killings of his terrorist cohorts. Gruber goes out first, falling many stories
to his death from the top of Nakatomi Plaza.
The viewer is convinced to believe that all is well and the movie
concludes, until Karl pops up and tries to gun down McClane. But thanks to Sgt. Powell (ReginaldVelJohnson) and a Twinkie sugar rush, Karl gets the lead poisoning.
What does all this mean?
No matter, when it happens within the story, the 2nd in
command has the life expectancy akin to a random Enterprise trainee on Star
Trek.
They must value their screen time for they will be toast… count on
it.
