Skip Altwater

Skip Altwater General information Gender Male First appearance Darkman (film) Last appearance Portrayed by Danny Hicks

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Skip Altwater was a member of Robert G. Durant's criminal organization and one of the few people responsible for turning Peyton Westlake into his current state as Darkman.

HistoryEdit

Durant's one-legged henchmen, Skip had a machine gun hidden inside his artificial left leg, having lost his original leg. Skip was present alongside Rick, Pauly, Smiley, Guzman, and Durant himself during their arranged meeting with rival mobster, Eddie Black, who refused to sell his property to Durant and threatened to make an example out of them. Unaware of Skip's hidden leg gun, Smiley uses it to kill Eddie's men under Durant's orders. Skip continued hopping to maintain his balance while the rest eventually managed to wipe out all of Eddie's men, leaving only the mob boss left for Durant to torture.

Skip and the others then joined Durant on a favor for corrupt businessman Louis Strack Jr. to retrieve the incriminating document, the "Bellasarious Memorandum" that was left in Peyton Westlake's laboratory. Upon breaking into Westlake's laboratory, they proceeded to beat the scientist, as well as his assistant, Yakitito. Skip was suffocating Yakitito with a plastic bag until Rick was ordered by Durant to execute the helpless lab assistant. After retrieving the memorandum, they subjected Westlake to painful torture that horribly disfigured him and then left him to die in the lab's explosion. Skip and his gang were unaware that Westlake had in fact survived the explosion and would swore revenge against his gang as the vigilante, Darkman.

Appearances in other mediaEdit

ComicsEdit

Skip appeared in the comic book adaptation of the first film. His appearance greatly differs to his film counterpart, sporting a shorter haircut. After Darkman had killed both Durant and the rest of his fellow gang members, he managed to track down Skip who was the last one left alive. After revealing where Strack and Julie are, Skip was presumably killed by Darkman.

Skip also appeared in the succeeding 1993 comic, as well as the crossover comic Darkman vs. Army of Darkness during a flashback depicting Durant's gang breaking into Westlake's lab.

NovelEdit

Skip appeared in the Darkman novel, where its revealed that his surname was Altwater and that he lost his leg in a farming accident when he was a child. Darkman interrogated Skip for Strack and Julie's whereabouts, though he was spared and gradually driven insane by the experience.

Behind the scenesEdit

Skip was portrayed by actor Danny Hicks, who is a frequent collaborator of director Sam Raimi, appearing in numerous films. Most notably the cult classic Evil Dead II.

Deleted sceneEdit

The film originally included Skip's death scene where he would meet his end at the hands of Darkman, who ironically used his own prosthetic leg to gun him down. No such scene exists in the film, and according to Dan Hicks the scene was cut because of technical problems.