Sources: Wikidata · OpenAlex · Library of Congress. The record of the motion picture, not an assessment of this cell.
FILM NOTES
FILM NOTES
Released in 2004 by Lionsgate, The Punisher arrived as an attempt to relaunch the Marvel vigilante for a grimmer, post-Blade era of comic adaptations, before the character's later screen incarnations. Thomas Jane took the lead as Frank Castle, with the film leaning on crime-family melodrama and revenge plotting rather than superhero spectacle, distinguishing it from its Marvel contemporaries and giving it a lasting cult following among genre collectors.
This cell centers on Quentin Glass and Howard Saint, the film's chief antagonists, caught together in the detonation sequence tied to Castle's campaign against the Saint organization. Glass, the coldly loyal enforcer, and Saint, the crime boss whose family was shattered by Castle, anchor the film's escalating destruction. A cell marking a detonation moment captures a pivotal turn in the story's violence, the kind of sequence collectors seek out for its narrative weight and its place in the film's climactic unraveling of the Saint empire.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print of The Punisher (2004).
Gauge
35mm, confirmed by four perforations per frame on both edges; the strip holds two complete frames plus a partial third frame.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges; spacing appears even and the punched holes appear cleanly formed with no visible tearing.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area, appearing as a dual bilateral variable-area pattern; Dolby Digital data blocks are visible in the inter-perforation gaps on the same edge, indicating a hybrid optical/Dolby Digital soundtrack configuration.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture at sufficient resolution to quote alphanumeric key numbers or stock codes.
Base & colour
The base reads with a slight warm-amber tint on the leftmost partial frame, consistent with a dye-coupler image; the two main frames show a neutral-to-cool base with a dense colour image.
Projection history
No splices or cue marks are visible; faint longitudinal lines are present across the frame area, consistent with projection wear.
Picture
Positive colour image; the two main frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single shot, consistent with a release print of a 2004 theatrical feature.
Era check
The hybrid Dolby Digital plus variable-area optical soundtrack configuration and the colour dye-coupler positive stock are consistent with a mid-2000s theatrical release print, 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 000064422
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
