You may have noticed that Frank Castle, a.k.a. The Punisher, was conspicuously absent from Daredevil: Born Again season two. There’s a reason for that, though, and that’s because Jon Bernthal was busy working on The Punisher: One Last Kill, a forty-five-ish minute short film that’s out now on Disney+. Bernthal co-wrote the script with the film’s director, Reinaldo Marcus Green (We Own This City), in an attempt to really deliver on the character. Do they succeed? Let’s find out.
It’s not 100% clear when One Last Kill takes place on the timeline. It’s most certainly before the upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day, but it’s a bit ambiguous when it takes place in relation to season two of Born Again, whether it’s before or after it. It ultimately doesn’t really matter, as we follow Frank living under the radar in a completely crime-ridden Brooklyn, suffering from some pretty extreme levels of PTSD. He’s finally avenged his family by killing off the members of the Gnucci crime family, leaving him without a sense of purpose as he roams the streets, not getting involved in the violence at all. Frank has always been motivated to kill those responsible for taking his family away from him, and now all that’s left are ghosts. That is, until Ma Gnucci (Judith Light) reveals herself as still in the game and places an open bounty on Frank’s head in retaliation for the murder of her family. What follows is almost non-stop action and violence as Frank has to not only get out, but figure out who he’s supposed to be now.
Depending on what you’re looking for in a Punisher special, it will dictate your enjoyment of it. Bernthal acts largely with himself for most of the special, suffering from his PTSD and hallucinating his deceased family and Curtis Hoyle, who torments him from beyond the grave, and even Karen Paige. The characterization is subtle, even if the tragicness is profound. But Castle doesn’t really get much time to talk and interact with physical beings in a more dramatic sense. He stares, grunts, and talks to himself most of the time, with most of the growth happening from non-verbal understanding. Instead, Bernthal and Marcus Green elected to unleash Castle as a primal force of nature, dishing out violence and pain to the mob that’s come for him and for the streets of Brooklyn.
The action was reminiscent of action heavy-hitters such as The Raid or John Wick. Castle starts weaponless, and as the rampage continues, going from his apartment to the rooftops, to the streets below, he picks up weapons from his fallen victims to help issue maximum pain on the next wave. The camera staging is frenetic but easy to follow, and the choreography is primal and visceral. You almost feel like you need to come up for air due to all the mayhem, and by the end, Castle is coated in blood. While in the midst of the action, Castle ends up finding solace in saving people on the streets of Brooklyn, including a young child at a local bakery he frequents.
I do feel like the special feels a little underdeveloped. Ma Gnucci is still out and about, and the bounty is still in play technically as well. What happens between them? We don’t know. But Frank basically resolves to punish anyone who does evil now, as opposed to those who have personally wronged him. With the innocents of Brooklyn being attacked by vicious criminals, Frank finds himself in a position to do some good, and that’s enough to don the skull vest yet again by the end. Will he turn his vendetta against Ma Gnucci, though or let that one slide? Unknown! But Ma does emphasize that one of her sons was very much an innocent, not involved in the criminal side of things, and yet Frank still killed him. So, Frank is kind of a villain, and those actions cause Ma to, as she states, punish him for his crimes. But without closure on this thread, I’m not sure what to think of Frank and his vendetta. Did he learn self-control, or did he just shrug it off and widen his scope? I would’ve liked a bit more definitive closure to this.
So if you want Frank kicking ass and taking names in the vein of The Raid while Hatebreed’s I Will Be Heard blasts, you’ll be in for a kick. If you want a bit more nuance with Frank’s psyche and characterization, you may be left wanting a bit. I found it entertaining enough in the action department, but it could’ve used a bit more story as well.
