# Blankman
**Blankman** is a 1994 American superhero comedy film directed by Mike Binder, written by [Damon Wayans](https://www.edgepedia.org/damon-wayans) and J.F. Lawton, and starring Wayans as Darryl Walker, a nerdy inventor who becomes a costumed crime fighter with no superpowers beyond his tinkering skills.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/59742-BLANKMAN) It was produced by [Columbia Pictures](https://www.edgepedia.org/columbia-pictures) and the production company Wife 'n' Kids, and released in the United States on August 19, 1994.[2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109288/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | August 19, 1994 (United States); 92 minutes; PG-13[2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109288/) |
| Director / writers | Mike Binder; screenplay by Damon Wayans and J.F. Lawton, story by Wayans[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/59742-BLANKMAN) |
| Lead cast | Damon Wayans (Darryl Walker), David Alan Grier (Kevin Walker), Robin Givens (Kimberly Jonz), Jon Polito (Michael 'The Suit' Minelli), Jason Alexander (Mr. Stone)[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109288/fullcredits/) |
| Origin | Based in part on Wayans's "Handi-Man" character from the 1990s sketch series *In Living Color*[4](https://fowler.ucla.edu/events/striking-iron-film-series-blankman/) |
| Box office | Estimated budget $30,000,000; gross US and Canada $7,941,977[2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109288/) |
| Reception | 12% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (17 reviews); 41% audience score[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/blankman) |
| Setting | Filmed in Chicago, Illinois[2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109288/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot and premise
Darryl Walker is a socially awkward appliance repairman and electronics wizard who is obsessed with the 1960s *Batman* television show. When a crime wave in his neighborhood, capped by the murder of his grandmother ([Lynne Thigpen](https://www.edgepedia.org/lynne-thigpen)) in a Mafia hit, becomes too much for him, he fashions a bulletproof costume, an overcoat sprayed with a substance he devised to make clothing bulletproof, worn over red long johns, and adopts the name "Blankman."[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/blankman) • [6](https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/what-is-blankman-twisted-metals-superhero-parody-easter-egg) His more realistic older brother Kevin ([David Alan Grier](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-alan-grier)) reluctantly becomes his sidekick, Other Guy, partly to impress local news anchor Kimberly Jonz ([Robin Givens](https://www.edgepedia.org/robin-givens)), while mobster Michael "The Suit" Minelli (Jon Polito) fights back.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/blankman)
The film leans on Darryl's inventions: a robot named J-5, a vehicle called the Blank-wheel, and a junk-filled "fortress of solitude."[7](https://www.comingsoon.net/movies/features/1834226-blankman-retrospective-superhero-parody-movie) [Sony Pictures](https://www.edgepedia.org/sony-pictures)' own synopsis describes the hero as "clad in bulletproof underwear and his grandma's housecoat," pursuing "truth, justice and his first kiss."[8](https://www.sonypictures.com/movies/blankman)
## Origins and development
**From Handi-Man to Blankman.** The title character grew out of "Handi-Man," a superhero spoof Damon Wayans performed on the sketch comedy series *In Living Color* (1990–1994).[4](https://fowler.ucla.edu/events/striking-iron-film-series-blankman/) Wayans drew the concept from the 1960s *Batman* series; while the gadgets and [Batmobile](https://www.edgepedia.org/batmobile) of the 1989 *Batman* movie appealed to him, its overly earnest tone left him dissatisfied, and he pictured a Batman living on welfare rather than being the wealthy Bruce Wayne.[9](https://www.netflixmovies.com/blankman-1994) The film deliberately imitates the camp style of the old series, with logo transitions, overly complicated death traps, and onomatopoeia such as pow, smack, and splat.[7](https://www.comingsoon.net/movies/features/1834226-blankman-retrospective-superhero-parody-movie)
Writer J.F. Lawton has said the script began as a version of "Fartman," the [Howard Stern](https://www.edgepedia.org/howard-stern) character; when that project fell apart, he reworked the idea with Wayans into a film that kept the humor and lewdness but carried an overall positive message about standing up to be a hero in one's own way.[7](https://www.comingsoon.net/movies/features/1834226-blankman-retrospective-superhero-parody-movie)
A family detail from production: the young Darryl and Kevin are played by Michael Wayans and [Damon Wayans Jr.](https://www.edgepedia.org/damon-wayans-jr), both Damon Wayans's real-life sons.[2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109288/)
## Reception and box office
The film was a commercial and critical failure. Against an estimated $30 million budget it grossed $7,941,977 in the United States and Canada, with an opening weekend of $3,715,480.[2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109288/) It ended up on some "Worst Of" lists for 1994.[6](https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/what-is-blankman-twisted-metals-superhero-parody-easter-egg) On Rotten Tomatoes it holds a 12% Tomatometer from 17 reviews and a 41% audience score from more than 25,000 ratings.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/blankman)
Contemporary reviews were largely negative but not uniform. The *Washington Post* called it a naive, comic take on inner-city crime that "still manages some fresh and funny jabs at big-city politics and tabloid TV."[10](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/08/25/blankman-super-nerd-does-good/61e4f448-46fb-48c3-85e7-39895fbdc0c7/) The *Roanoke Times* found it an uneven comedy that wasted a potentially interesting premise, criticizing an unfocused script and an uncontrolled performance.[11](https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/ROA-Times/issues/1994/rt9408/940820/08230028.htm) The *Deseret News* compared it unfavorably to Robert Townsend's *The Meteor Man* (1993), another African-American comic superhero film that had underperformed the year before.[12](https://www.deseret.com/1994/9/13/20087155/film-review-blankman/)
## Place in Black superhero cinema
Scholarship on Black superhero film comedies groups *Blankman* with Robert Townsend's *The Meteor Man* (1993) and Louis CK's *Pootie Tang* (2001) as films in which the absurdity of the titular heroes provides both the characters and their communities with what one analysis calls a salvific equilibrium, and which share the exaggerated aesthetic conventions of comic-book treatments of superhero stories.[13](https://erevistas.publicaciones.uah.es/ojs/index.php/reden/article/view/2359) A retrospective critic noted that the film "at least tried to create a space for the Black superhero, even if, cinematically, this film is a failure," observing that young Black viewers in the 1990s may have seen themselves reflected as a superhero for the first time.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/blankman) The ordinary-jerk-as-urban-superhero premise was a popular one within African-American pop culture during the mid-1990s.[14](https://www.adrianmartinfilmcritic.com/reviews/b/blankman.html)
## Later life as a cult favorite
Although it flopped on release, the film has retained defenders. In 2023, the Peacock series *Twisted Metal* featured *Blankman* as an [Easter egg](https://www.edgepedia.org/easter-egg), with the character John pulling it out as an "absolute classic" in an abandoned movie theater; the SYFY WIRE write-up of the cameo called the film in some ways strangely ahead of its time.[6](https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/what-is-blankman-twisted-metals-superhero-parody-easter-egg) A 2024 retrospective similarly noted that the film has reached a kind of cult status, with a dedicated fan base that appreciates its spirit and its early portrayal of a Black nerd archetype.[7](https://www.comingsoon.net/movies/features/1834226-blankman-retrospective-superhero-parody-movie)
## References
1. [Blankman (1994), AFI Catalog](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/59742-BLANKMAN)
2. [Blankman (1994), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109288/)
3. [Blankman (1994) Full cast & crew, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109288/fullcredits/)
4. [Striking Iron Film Series: Blankman, Fowler Museum at UCLA](https://fowler.ucla.edu/events/striking-iron-film-series-blankman/)
5. [Blankman, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/blankman)
6. [What Is Blankman? A Closer Look at Twisted Metal's Superhero Parody Easter Egg, SYFY WIRE](https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/what-is-blankman-twisted-metals-superhero-parody-easter-egg)
7. [Blankman: Revisiting the Superhero Parody Movie 30 Years Later, ComingSoon.net](https://www.comingsoon.net/movies/features/1834226-blankman-retrospective-superhero-parody-movie)
8. [BLANKMAN, Sony Pictures Entertainment](https://www.sonypictures.com/movies/blankman)
9. [Blankman (1994) facts and trivia, NetflixMovies.com](https://www.netflixmovies.com/blankman-1994)
10. ['BLANKMAN': SUPER-NERD DOES GOOD, The Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/08/25/blankman-super-nerd-does-good/61e4f448-46fb-48c3-85e7-39895fbdc0c7/)
11. ['BLANKMAN' IS WEAK COMEDY, The Roanoke Times](https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/ROA-Times/issues/1994/rt9408/940820/08230028.htm)
12. [Film review: Blankman, Deseret News](https://www.deseret.com/1994/9/13/20087155/film-review-blankman/)
13. [Potential and Power in Black Superhero Film Comedies, REDEN](https://erevistas.publicaciones.uah.es/ojs/index.php/reden/article/view/2359)
14. [Blankman review, Adrian Martin](https://www.adrianmartinfilmcritic.com/reviews/b/blankman.html)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Science fiction and fantasy films (individual works) › Science fiction and fantasy films of the 1990s › Released 1990 to 1995*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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