Consume All Media! Hop Harrigan: "Chapter Six: A Flaming Trap"

Joe Heath is a big fan of comic books and watching things in order. So they made this spreadsheet containing every serial, short, film, television episode, commercial, motion comic, and web series based on a comic book. Now they're watching them all. Previously, Joe watched the fifth chapter of Hop Harrigan. This time, they continue with the sixth.

Hop Harrigan: “Chapter Six: A Flaming Trap” - 18:53 (Available on Dailymotion)

The bad guys pat themselves on the backs for killing Hop and taking down the plane. But Hop rolled out of the way of the blast and Jackie figured out how to fix the plane. These are quite possibly the stupidest henchmen.

Keeping with that theme, they have no idea how Tobor’s plane works. Tobor refuses to explain it, but says he will give them a demonstration. Hunter thinks Tobor is trying to pull a fast one, so they all just leave instead. So basically a long pointless scene!

Hop waves down the plane that Retner, Tank, and Jackie are in. They all have a conversation about what strategy they are going to utilize to get Tobor’s plane back. Tank apparently doesn’t know what the word strategy means and makes some “jokes” about it.

The “strategy” they come up with is to have Jackie make coyote howls to distract the henchmen. This almost backfires when one of the henchmen starts talking about how he’s always wanted to shoot a coyote. Way to put a kid in danger, Hop. Anyway, Hop and Tank sneak up behind them and disarm them.

Retner takes Tobor’s plane back to the lab to recharge it.

Hop takes Hunter’s men to Arnold’s office to hold them for the police. Instead of just… you know… taking them to the police. Craven sneakily unlocks the door so they can escape.

Gwen brings in a guy named Alex Ballard (Wheeler Oakman) to see Arnold, but Arnold is a little too busy to talk. Ballard calls someone and says he’s made contact… Is he in league with The Chief Pilot??

Actor Highlights

Wheeler Oakman (1890-1949)

Other comic book media: Dr. Fredrick Larkin in Superman (1948), his final film role

Nope! But Ballard is one of the better characters in this. You don’t know what his deal is for a very long time and you’re never sure whether or not he can be trusted. Plus he’s one of the stronger actors in the serial.

Hunter’s men sneak out of the unlocked door, but Jackie notices them leaving. So Hop follows them by plane while signaling their movements to Gail and Tank as they follow by car.

One of the henchman spots the plane and thinks it’s following them. They call Hunter on the radio and he sends another car to join them.

Hop dips both wings of his plane to indicate that there are two cars now, but Tank misreads this and thinks it means to speed up. The henchmen stop them and shoot one of their tires out. They careen off the road and crash into a haystack.

Then it catches on fire for some reason.

Should you watch it, though? Painfully slow and boring. Following the bad guys in a plane is an interesting idea, but not fun to watch.

Tune in next time for Hop Harrigan: "Chapter Seven: One Chance for Life" (Available on Dailymotion.)

A version of this article was previously published on The Dipp.

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