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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 Darkman.
History[]
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 swear revenge against his gang as the vigilante, Darkman.
Skip continued his role in Durant's organization after the destruction of Westlake's lab. However, things begin to unravel when Rick is abducted and murdered by Darkman but not before divulging everything about the organization, including the time and place where Skip and Guzman meet with Pauly to deliver a briefcase filled with money. Darkman then impersonates Pauly and meets with Skip and Guzman at Erny's Best Deli to collect the briefcase. As he sits at the table across from "Pauly", Skip says Durant wants to know where Rick is and asks "Pauly" if he knows, to which the latter shakes his head. Though Skip and Guzman are puzzled by his behavior, they still give "Pauly" the briefcase. Skip isn't present when Durant and Guzman confront the real Pauly in his apartment and throw him out the window to his death under the false pretense that he was planning to betray them due to some incriminating albeit false clues left by Darkman.
Appearances in other media[]
Comics[]
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.
Durant's gang in Darkman's flashback.
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.
Novel[]
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 scenes[]
Skip was portrayed by the late Danny Hicks, who was a frequent collaborator of director Sam Raimi, appearing in numerous films. Most notably the cult classic Evil Dead II.
Deleted scene[]
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.