The Phantom

The Phantom (1996) is a pulp comic-book adventure you can watch online on iFILM, with Billy Zane suiting up as the purple-clad masked hero who has guarded the jungles of Bengalla for four hundred years.

Set in the 1930s, the story pits the Phantom against Xander Drax (Treat Williams), a power-mad tycoon chasing three ancient Skulls of Touganda that together could level half the planet. Kit Walker, twenty-first in the Phantom bloodline, leaves the tropics for New York to grab the relics first. Along the way he picks up sharp-tongued reporter Diana Palmer (Kristy Swanson) and tangles with a sky-pirate named Sala, played by a young Catherine Zeta-Jones. Gangsters, biplane chases and lost temples come standard.

Director Simon Wincer plays it straight, an earnest throwback to old movie serials with none of the gloom that later superhero films piled on. Good company for anyone who misses the breezy spirit of Indiana Jones and The Rocketeer. Stream The Phantom (1996) online on iFILM.