Other Titles • Q: The Winged Serpent • Serpent (1982) • The Winged Serpent • American Monster (1982)
Synopses for Q (1982)
1.
OK, who's Q, anyway? "Q" is short for Quetzacoatl, an enormous winged serpent and Aztec deity who's called back to life after a series of ritual human sacrifices in Manhattan. It takes a lot to keep a critter like Q satisfied, so he flies around and lops the heads off sunbathers, window washers and swimmers as handily as popping grapes off the vine. The police are confounded by the murders, decapitated bodies (blood rains from the skies on NYC denizens) and Q-sightings. The solution comes in the unlikely form of Jimmy (Michael Moriarty), a petty thief. After a heist goes bad, he hides from his cronies in the uppermost spires of the Chrysler Building and stumbles on the giant bird's nest and egg. He leads the NYPD up to the lair for a big showdown with Q, but it's not quite as easy as anybody thought, of course. Director/screenwriter Larry Cohen was one of the more inventive, original voices of Seventies B-movies, with credits that include God Told Me To, Black Caesar, It's Alive!, Hell Up in Harlem and The Stuff. With Q, Cohen put together an interesting, entertaining mix of Fifties sci-fi homage (complete with great stop-motion special effects for the terrifying beast), action movie, and crime drama. It also touches on the metaphysical question of how exactly one goes about killing off a god. It'd be difficult to think of a more compelling performance from Moriarty; as the piano-playing, scat-singing small-time crook Jimmy, he's repellent and sleazy. However, he's struck on something that will give him 15 minutes to bask in the spotlight ("I'm the most important man in New York!", he gloats) and give him a chance to redeem himself and save thousands of lives. Moriarty brings a depth to the character that makes him absorbing, if not quite sympathetic, and gets to come across with the choice line, "Stick it up your…brain! Your small little brain!". With plenty of humor, suspense, a gallon or two of gore, and great performances from Moriarty and David Carradine and Richard Roundtree as his cop nemeses, this is great, original, entertaining sci-fi fare. --Jerry Renshaw
2.
A New York loser indebted to the mob finds an unlikely ally in a flying prehistoric creature nesting atop a skyscraper.
The NYPD investigates eyewitness accounts of a gargantuan winged serpent in Manhattan and a string a senseless "ritual" killings. Against this backdrop, ex-junkie Jimmy Quinn finds work as a getaway driver for the mafia. One heist goes awry, so Jimmy hides out at the Chrysler Building's apogee. There, he sees "Q" -- an Aztec god-beast that has been feasting on window cleaners and apartment residents.
Then Jimmy gets a bloody good idea...
3.
It's name is Quetzalcoatl, a dragon-like Aztec god that is summoned to modern day Manhattan by gory human sacrifices. But just call it "Q," because that is all you'll have time to say before it tears you apart. Directed by the multi-talented Larry Cohen, this cult favorite delivers exceptionally winning performances by Michael Moriarty and David Carradine resulting in fasten-your-seatbelt entertainment with a touch of class.
4.
It's another monstrous day in New York City where window washers have their heads bitten off, topless sunbathers are plucked from rooftops, bloody body parts rain onto the streets and small-time crook Jimmy Quinn discovers a humongous nest in the spire of The Chrysler Building. Meanwhile, an NYPD detective investigates a series of ritual sacrifice murders that may have unleashed a giant flying Aztec Serpent God into the skies of Manhattan. It's name is Quetzalcoatl, but just call it Q... that's all you'll have time to say before it tears you apart!
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