Casey Jones Fan Film Proves TMNT Character Deserves His Own Movie
For a franchise that’s been around for 40 years, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has surprisingly few spinoffs. Thirteen years ago, indie filmmaker Polaris Banks decided to change this with a fan film devoted to the Turtle’s sidekick, Casey Jones. Casey Jones: The Movie proves that if Nickelodeon ever does decide to expand the TMNT universe, they should start with everyone’s favorite hockey stick-wielding psychopath.
For anyone unfamiliar with the Turtles’ colorful cast of supporting characters, Casey Jones has been around almost as long as April O’Neil. The Turtles’ Casey started out as a parody character. Trading guns for sporting equipment, Jones was the TMNT version of Marvel’s Punisher.
On patrol, Casey faces street thugs, gang members, foot soldiers, and even a mutant turtle—all of which receive the full extent of Jones’s fury.
Much like Frank Castle, Casey Jones was more than a little unhinged. The character would often pursue petty crimes with the same severity as felonies. In Casey’s warped reality, a graffiti artist deserved the same savage beating as a purse snatcher.
Polaris Banks brings that brutality to Casey Jones. The film begins with Jones (Polaris’s cousin, Hilarion Banks) getting kicked off his hockey team for being too violent. Do you know how rough you have to be to get kicked off of a hockey team?
You have to practically be a wild animal.
He has no combat training, he’s not smart, and all of his gear is available in the sports section at Walmart.
A destitute Casey Jones moves back in with his mother and becomes a handyman in her apartment building. After a savage beat-down by the Purple Dragons street gang, Jones snaps and starts lifting weights while making plans to become a crime fighter. He makes a new hockey mask, grabs a bunch of old sports equipment, and starts going out on nightly patrols.
On patrol, Casey faces street thugs, gang members, foot soldiers, and even a mutant turtle—all of which receive the full extent of Jones’s fury.
The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic has spawned countless adaptations, and Casey has been featured in almost all of them. And yet, other than a few solo comic book issues, Casey Jones has yet to receive a proper solo adventure—aside from Banks’s fan film, that is. Why nobody at Viacom has seen fit to give Jones his own film is a genuine mystery.
As Banks’s fan film shows, Casey Jones is unique among comic book vigilantes. He has no combat training, he’s not smart, and all of his gear is available in the sports section at Walmart. He has more in common with Kick-Ass than he does Batman.
Actually, scratch that. Casey Jones has more in common with the protagonists of Death Wish and Walking Tall. He’s an average Joe who’s seen one too many violent films and thinks the crime in his neighborhood has gotten out of hand.
The character is the Punisher by way of Taxi Driver, which should be all Hollywood needs to hear.
For anyone unfamiliar with the Turtles’ colorful cast of supporting characters, Casey Jones has been around almost as long as April O’Neil.
The success of The Last Ronin has proven just how hungry TMNT fans are for more adult content. A Joker-style movie about Casey Jones using Banks’s blueprint would be a guaranteed moneymaker. I’m not saying it would gross over $1 billion like Joker, but it would definitely make a profit.
Should Viacom ever decide to give Casey Jones a shot, they would be wise to use Polaris Banks’s fan film for reference. As of right now, it’s the closest thing to a Casey Jones solo film we have, and a perfect jumping-off point for the further adventures of Arnold Bernid Jones.
