Sources: Wikidata · OpenAlex · Library of Congress. The record of the motion picture, not an assessment of this cell.
FILM NOTES
THE PUNISHER arrived in 2004 from Lionsgate, adapting the Marvel vigilante for a post-2000s wave of darker comic adaptations that leaned into crime drama over spectacle. Directed by Jonathan Hensleigh and starring Thomas Jane, it positioned itself apart from the era's brighter superhero fare, drawing on revenge thriller conventions and a grim moral code. It found its audience among comic readers and action collectors who valued its willingness to sit in bleaker territory, helping keep Frank Castle viable on screen before later reinterpretations.
This cell holds Frank Castle himself, the character whose name carries the whole mythology of loss, justice, and violence turned into purpose. Collectors seek him out because he is the film's entire center of gravity, the former agent turned one-man reckoning. A cell built around him alone, without other figures sharing the frame, suggests a moment of isolation befitting his arc, the kind of solitary presence that print collections prize as a clean visual anchor to the character rather than to any single scene's plot mechanics.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm colour release print of The Punisher (2004).
Gauge
35mm, confirmed by four perforations per frame on both edges; the strip holds three frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges; spacing appears even and the punched edges appear clean with no torn or missing perforations visible.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible along one edge, appearing as a dual bilateral variable-area (two-track) waveform; Dolby Digital pixel blocks are also visible in the inter-perforation gaps on the same edge, indicating a composite optical/digital soundtrack.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture at sufficient resolution to read manufacturer text or key numbers.
Base & colour
Base appears with a slight warm-neutral tint consistent with a colour print stock; dye image shows no obvious fading or red shift.
Projection history
No splices, cue marks or prominent scratches are visible in this capture.
Picture
Positive colour image; all three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single continuous shot, consistent with a release print of the film on record.
Era check
The composite Dolby Digital plus variable-area optical soundtrack configuration is consistent with a theatrical release print from the early 2000s, matching the 2004 release date of the film on record.
Read from the original intake capture shown below. Observations only — film is authenticated, not graded.
This original motion picture film element has been examined and authenticated by Crown Grading in partnership with National Film Vault, and encapsulated for archival preservation.
Why so little survivesRelease prints were leased to theaters, not sold. When the run ended they went back to the distributor to be destroyed, and most were. What collectors hold today came from the prints that escaped that order, and no new 35mm prints of these films are being struck.
CROWN SERIAL 000064418
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
