1986: Batman, The Punisher cross paths in short fan film

A very interesting Batman and The Punisher crossover fan film has been making the rounds the last few weeks and even caught the attention of The Punisher (2004) star Thomas Jane, who shared it on his Twitter account and said it’s “Really cool and a lotta fun”… so we’ve decided to go ahead and share it here on Arrow in the Head. Written and directed by James Campbell, the short is called 1986 and draws inspiration from Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns comic book series, the works of John Carpenter, and the early films of Michael Mann and James Cameron. Check it out in the embed above!

1986 has a short and simple synopsis:

In 1986, Gotham’s Dark Knight comes face-to-face with The Punisher as they hunt the same man.

The cast includes Lee Charles (Gangs of London) as Batman, Mark Griffin (I Am Vengeance) as The Punisher, Cornelius Geaney Jr. (Escape Room) as The Joker, Laurence R. Harvey (The Human Centipede 2: Full Sequence) as The Penguin, and Michelle Bayly (Mirrorvael) as Petra Lebedev. There are also multiple credits for “Penguin Thugs” and “Russian Bodyguards”, because Batman and The Punisher need some goons to take down while they’re doing their thing.

Campbell warns that 1986 is not suitable for children, and you’ll quickly understand why.

Here’s another fair warning before you click play on the video above: it’s very likely that 1986 is going to leave you wanting more, because the short film comes to an end as soon as it reaches the most interesting moment. You get to watch some fun performances on the way to that ending, though, and get to witness a good amount of violent action courtesy of a rather comic accurate Punisher (of course the skull logo is there, but this Punisher even comes complete with white boots) and a beast of a Batman.