The Toxic Avenger
Theatrical one-sheet
Directed by	Lloyd Kaufman Michael Herz
Produced by	Michael Herz Lloyd Kaufman Stuart Strutin
Written by	Lloyd Kaufman Joe Ritter
Starring	Mitch Cohen Mark Torgl Andree Maranda
Cinematography	Lloyd Kaufman James London
Editing by	Richard W. Haines
Distributed by	Troma Entertainment
Release date(s)	April 11, 1986
Running time	82 min. (unrated) 110 min. (Director's Cut)
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$500,000
Followed by	The Toxic Avenger Part II
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Toxic Avenger is an American movie first released in late 1985 by Troma Entertainment, known for producing low budget B-movies with campy concepts. Virtually ignored upon its first release, The Toxic Avenger caught on with moviegoers after a long and successful midnight movie engagement at the famed Bleecker Street Cinemas in New York City in late 1985.

The film was followed by two unsuccessful sequels: The Toxic Avenger Part II and The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie (which were filmed as one movie. Director Lloyd Kaufman, however, realized that he had shot far too much footage for one movie, and reedited it into two.). A third independent film sequel/remake was also released, entitled Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV. Parts II and III were seen as disappointing by many fans, some of whom accused Troma of selling out, due to the films having far less violence and offensive humour when compared to the original film. There was also an animated children's TV series spinoff, Toxic Crusaders , where Toxie was the leader of a team of mutated superheroes who fought against evil alien polluters. The cartoon series was short-lived and it was quickly canceled. New Line Cinemas had planned a live action movie based off the cartoon, but the deal was ultimately canceled.

The Toxic Avenger has also been adapted to other media. From April 1991 to February 1992, Marvel Comics published The Toxic Avenger comic. The comic was written by Doug Moench, drawn by Rodney Ramos, and lasted for 11 issues. ^[1] On July 2000, Troma published an extremely rare comic book entitled The New Adventures of the Toxic Avenger. This comic is currently being offered to people who donate $75 or more to TromaDance 2007.^[2] Recently, Lloyd Kaufman and Adam Jahnke wrote a novelization entitled The Toxic Avenger: The Novel. It was released on May 10, 2006 and was published by Thunder's Mouth Press. It was also adapted as a musical, entitled . The script was adapted for the stage and lyrics were written by Ira Kortum, who also directed and starred in the production, which premiered in Portland, Oregon. The music was composed by Martin J. Gallagher, with the assistance of Marc Rose.^[3] Kaufman reportedly had nothing to do with the production, although he did verbally support Kortum's adaptation and attended the production on Opening Night. You can see excerpts from Toxic Avenger: The Musikill on the 21st Anniversay edition of the original Toxie. ^[4] A graphic novel about Toxie and other Troma properties, Lloyd Kaufman Presents: The Toxic Avenger and Other Tromatic Tales, is coming from Devil's Due Publishing. [1]

Plot

Melvin Ferd (Mark Torgl), is the stereotypical 98-pound weakling (later Toxic Avenger movies changed the character's name to Melvin Junko). He works at Tromaville Health Club, where the customers (particularly Bozo (Gary Schneider), Slug (Robert Pritchard), Wanda (Jennifer Babtist) and Julie (Cindy Manion)) harass him constantly. His tormentors get more and more violent until he is tricked into wearing a pink tutu and kissing a sheep. He is then chased around the health club by laughing witnesses of the event where he eventually jumps out of a second story window. He lands in a drum of toxic waste and is irradiated and deformed by the accident. He suddenly lights on fire and runs down the street in a screaming ball of flames.

Later, a group of drug dealers, led by Cigar Face (Dan Snow), are harassing a police officer by the name of O'Clancy (Dick Martinsen), trying to buy him off. When he refuses to accept the money, Cigar Face shows him how he got his name. He takes his cigar to Officer O'Clancy's forehead. Out of nowhere, a large creature (The Toxic Avenger) comes and saves the day, showing in a brutally violent way that he doesn't like evil in any form. When he is done taking care of them he puts a mop on all their faces, which becomes his call sign. Officer O'Clancy is initially terrified of the creature but soon learns he was only trying to help and will not hurt him. Toxie then tries to return home but his mother is terrified of him and will not even let him in the house. He then goes to the junkyard and builds himself a makeshift house.

Elsewhere in Tromaville, we see a gang of three men holding up a Mexican food restaurant. The men kill one of the patrons, and then attack a blind woman named Sarah (Andree Maranda). They kill her seeing eye dog and are about to rape her when The Toxic Avenger arrives. The Toxic Avenger then has another bloody brawl with crime, taking care of the gang with unforgiving ruthlessness. The Toxic Avenger sees that Sarah is beside herself by the loss of her dog and the traumatic experience. He takes her back to his home the junkyard, where they begin to get to know one another and subsequently become involved.

When Toxie goes back to his crime fighting ways, he makes way for the health club. There, he takes care of Wanda who was involved in the plot that turned him into the creature he is now. Afterward, he is relieving himself in a back alley when a limo pulls up and a pimp tries to push a 12 year old girl onto him. When he starts to fight back to save the girl, a group of men come out of the limo, lead by none other than Cigar Face. The men surround him all pointing guns at him. Right before they fire he jumps up to a fire escape and they end up shooting each other. Toxie returns to the health club and takes out the other tormentors who were responsible for what happened to him. He then confronts Bozo and Slug, ending in Slug getting thrown out of a moving car and Bozo driving off the side of a cliff.

The leader of the crime ring in Tromaville, who turns out to be Mayor Belgoody (Pat Ryan Jr.), is horrified of what is happening to his goons. He is worried that it will lead back to him and wants The Toxic Avenger taken care of. The perfect opportunity arises when Toxie kills a seemingly innocent old woman in a dry cleaning store (she is in fact a leader of an underground white slave trade). The Mayor looks at this as his opportunity and calls in the National Guard.

Back in his junkyard home, Toxie is terrified of what he has become. He and Sarah decide to move away from the city and take a tent into nearby woods. They are not there long before they are discovered. The Mayor and the National Guard come to kill him but the people of Tromaville will have none of it. Toxie saved them on numerous occasions and they are now his friends. The Mayor's evil ways are revealed, and Toxie takes care of him by ripping out the Mayor's organs to see if he has "any guts". The movie ends with a reassurance that wherever evil brews in Tromaville, you will find the Toxic Avenger.

Cast

• Mark Torgl as Melvin Ferd
• Andree Maranda as Sara
• Jennifer Babtist as Wanda
• Cindy Manion as Julie
• Dan Snow as Cigar Face
• Robert Prichard as Slug
• Gary Schneider as Bozo
• Pat Ryan Jr. as Mayor Belgoody
• Dick Martinsen as Officer O'Clancy
• Chris Liano as Walter Harris
• David N. Weiss as Chief of Police
• Doug Isbecque as Knuckles
• Charles Lee, Jr. as Nipples
• Al Pia as Tom Wrightson
• Reuben Guss as Dr. Snodburger
• Sarabel Levinson as Melvin's Mom
• Mitch Cohen as The Toxic Avenger
• Matt Klan as Boy Hero
• Marisa Tomei as Locker Room Girl (Director's Cut)

Production

In 1975, Lloyd Kaufman had the idea to shoot a horror movie involving a health club while serving as the pre-production supervisor on the set of Rocky. At the Cannes Film Festival, Kaufman had read an article that said horror films were no longer popular, so Kaufman claims that he decided to produce his own version of the horror film. However, the film's final outcome was less a bona fide horror film and more of a violent campy comedy horror-spoof with extreme violence embedded through out. The setting of the movie in a health club and the movie was given a working title of Health Club Horror.^[4][5] Kaufman wrote the script with the help of writer Joe Ritter.

Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• The seeing eye dog that was shot had been trained to glide across the floor on command and its "guts" were spaghetti covered in gray paint.
• The character was referenced in Tiny Toon Adventures: some episodes featured Plucky Duck becoming The Toxic Revenger (an obvious play on the name) to stop the pollution from Montana Max's industries.
• A video game was created for the SEGA Genesis, Gameboy and Nintendo under the name Toxic Crusaders and was released for SEGA June 1, 1992; for Gameboy September 1, 1992 and for Nintendo April 1, 1992.
• A rare weapon in the computer game World of Warcraft is named the "Toxic Revenger" and is obtained by killing a radioactive ooze named "Viscous Fallout."
• In the DVDs Director's cut, actress Marisa Tomei makes a brief appearance; she is seen walking into the locker room while Toxie is going after Julie.
• The California punk rock band The Dickies has a song entitled "The Toxic Avenger" about the world's first superhero from New Jersey.
• The theme music is used in the intro for New York rap group the Beastie Boys' hit Intergalactic
• 'Toxic Tom', a character who once appeared in Dilbert representing an archetypical toxic co-worker, resembled the Toxic Avenger.
• In Japan, the Toxic Avenger is known as "Toppyoushimonai".

References

Notes

External links

• The Toxic Avenger at the Internet Movie Database
• ToxicAvenger.com
• Troma Entertainment

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