Knotcher

Knotcher is a minor antagonist in the first installment of the Iron Eagle series. He is an arrogant and Draco Malfoy-like high school bully, who, presumably, has a history of constantly humiliating, insulting, and antagonizing protagonist Doug Masters. Knotcher was portrayed by Michael Bowen, who, being born in 1953, was then 32-33 years old at the time.

## Character data

### Aliases

Bastard (by Doug Masters)Asshole (by Doug Masters)

## Appearance 1--*Iron Eagle* (1986)

Knotcher's only appearance (so far) is in the first installment of the *Iron Eagle* series. In the first movie, he is first seen riding recklessly on his motorcycle, along with his friends (Packer and Brillo), in their monster truck, following behind him. Knotcher then cuts in front of Katie's car, as she tries to swerve her way out of an accident. Knotcher and his goons then park their respective vehicles off screen. Katie then frantically parks at the diner. An eager Doug (who had driven there already, and after his application to the Air Force had been rejected), who witnessed Knotcher and his friends driving recklessly, asks the Katie what Knotcher and his friends (unnamed to the audience) were doing to her, and Katie complains that she was just driving, when Knotcher and his goons (unnamed to audience, still) came up behind her on the bridge. Doug, caring for Katie (as well as having a romantic interest in her), furiously charges at Knotcher and his goons, and loudly calls them bastards ("Bastards!"), before asking Knotcher why he has to be an asshole ("What is it with you, Knotcher? Can't you make it through a day without proving what an asshole you are?"). Knotcher responds by sugarcoating his behavior, via claiming that he was only "having some fun" with Doug's girlfriend, before mocking Doug for wanting to be in the Air Force, by saying that Katie should realize that she deserves more than an "air force brat" (a derogatory name for Doug). This insult prompts Doug to grow even more irate and lunge at Knotcher (possibly attempting to beat the latter up), only to be held back by his own friends, who tell the former to calm down, and that Knotcher is only trying to get him in trouble, and that if he (Doug) hurts Knotcher, Doug will be imprisoned until his dad gets back. Doug tells Knotcher has he is losing patience with him, and the latter returns those words. Reggie and Tony then stand up to Knotcher, asking whether he was learned from last time (signifying that Knotcher has repeatedly antagonized Doug). Doug and his friends later remark how Knotcher has not changed his behavior nor his breath. Later, Knotcher, who had broken into the microphone room, humiliates and infuriates Doug more, by announcing the latter's failure to get into the Air Force over the loudspeakers, and adds insult to injury, when he says how Doug would have looked "cute" in an Air Force suit, and insults the Air Force, by calling them "fairies". Doug, having enough of Knotcher's antics, surges to outside the microphone room, and threatens to kill the latter, as soon as he steps out of the microphone room. However, this does not intimidate Knotcher, who only remarks that if Doug fights him, the latter will have to deal with the police, but if he races him, he will only have to deal with mountains. Doug agrees to do this, and tells Knotcher to meet him at McIntyre mountain in an hour.

Then, Knotcher is seen next, when he races Doug at McIntyre mountain, the race named "the snake" (the entire sequence set to the song *Old enough to rock and roll* by Rainey Haynes). Doug is flying a civilian Cessna plane with Packer and Tony as passengers and Reggie in a separate plane, with Brillo as a passenger, while Knotcher is riding a motorcycle.

During the snake, the audience sees shots of Knotcher. In the shots, he is seen riding recklessly. He nearly has collisions with multiple vehicles on the road--This goes especially for a white sudan (that looks similar to Katie's car), that swerved off the road, in attempt to avoid a collision with Knotcher's motorcycle. Then, Knotcher cheats, by driving through the mountains. Doug and Reggie (from their respective planes) observe this, and loudly object to it.

Meanwhile, from his plane, Doug is winning, and all goes well, until the latter's plane, spewing smoke, starts to veer out of control and almost crash--Unbeknownst to Doug, this was caused by Knotcher and his friends, who deliberately sabotaged the Cessna off-screen, via loosening its oil cap off-screen; Doug looks at the oil pressure gauge, and sees it dropping, while Packer is loudly insulting Doug and the latter's chance of losing. Hearing the insults, Doug discovers that Packer (along with Knotcher and Brillo) sabotaged the plane, and admonishes the latter (who is sitting next to him), who timidly admits that he did it under Knotcher's command. Doug wins, but with a crash landing, and smoke spewing everywhere. Knotcher heads over to the plane, and Doug disembarks. Knotcher then insults the latter about his rough landing. Doug, now knowing that Knotcher was responsible for the plane's malfunction, coldly tells the latter that he almost killed him (the former). When Knotcher says he cannot hear (due to the motorcycle helmet), Doug punches him to the ground (knocking the helmet off), and asks Knotcher if he can hear now. Knotcher is not seen then for the rest of the film.

## Quotes

*She* *should realize that she deserves more than an Air Force brat*.

--Knotcher insulting Doug for wanting to join the Air Force.

*Bastards!!*

*-*Doug Masters scolds Knotcher and his goons, after Katie reported them driving recklessly around her.

*What is it with you, Knotcher? Can't you make it through a day without proving what an asshole you are?*

--Doug Masters continues scolding Knotcher, after the latter and his goons were reported driving recklessly around Katie.

*Good morning, boys and girls, I have an announcement*. *One of special interest to you military personnel. Little Dougie Masters has regretfully been denied admission to the Air Force Academy. Too bad.* (laughs) *He would have looked cute in his little uniform and haircut, marching around with with the other fairies.* (notices a highly irate Doug standing outside the microphone room) *What's the matter, flybaby?*

--Knotcher publicly humiliating Doug over the loudspeakers, by announcing into the microphone Doug's failure to get into the Air Force academy.

*Hey. If you fight me, you have to deal with the sheriff. If you race me, you only have to deal with the mountains and me*.

--Knotcher, unintimidated, snidely responding to Doug's death threats [after Knotcher announced the latter's failure to get into the Air Force academy], still over the loudspeakers (in the microphone).

*Rough landing, flybaby?*

--Knotcher mocking Doug, after the latter's plane had a crash landing at the end of the race at McIntyre mountain.

## Personality

As evidenced by his insults towards Doug and his implied history of bullying the latter, Knotcher is arrogant, snide, and plain mean--His quotes, especially insulting the Air Force and insulting Doug, shows that Knotcher does actions without thinking, and that he thinks that he is "higher than" others. He has a similar personality to rich equity trader Glenn Gulia (Matthew Glave), the main antagonist in the romantic musical comedy *The Wedding Singer* (1998), as both are arrogant and insulting towards the respective protagonist in their respective movie (Doug, in Knotcher's case, Robbie Hart [Adam Sandler], in Glenn's case).

Knotcher, to an extent, is also sadistic, as seen by him deliberately endangering a character on-screen twice, and seeming to either enjoy his sadistic acts or not caring about how he was endangering the victim--First, we can see it, when he, leading his gang (in their monster truck), drives recklessly and cuts in front of Katie's car, almost causing a crash with the latter; Knotcher says he was only "having fun" with "Doug's girlfriend" (Katie), meaning that Knotcher does not care about how he could have hurt Katie and/or he enjoyed almost crashing into Katie. Second, we can see it, when Knotcher [indirectly] causes Doug's plane, a civilian Cessna, to malfunction during the race at McIntyre mountain; when the plane starts to malfunction and spiral out of control, and Doug notices this and tries to find the culprit, Packer confesses to sabotaging the latter's Cessa, but says that Knotcher made him do it. Then, when the plane has a rough landing, Knotcher mocks Doug for the plane's malfunction. This shows us that he (the former) does not care that he could have killed Doug and/or he enjoyed almost killing Doug.

It is possible that Knotcher is suffering either Narcissist personality disorder (NPD) and/or Sadistic personality disorder (SPD): Symptoms of NPD that Knotcher exhibits are him insulting/humiliating Doug and insulting the Air Force. Symptoms of SPD that Knotcher exhibits are him not caring about/enjoying almost causing Katie's car to crash and the former not caring about/enjoying almost killing Doug, by (indirectly) causing the latter's plane to malfunction.

## Trivia

* Knotcher was portrayed by a then 33-year-old Michael Bowen, which can explain why the character looks like a grown or middle-aged man.
* Although Knotcher is his display name, it is unknown if this is the character's real first name, or if it is just his nick name.
	+ Knotcher's last name is also unknown.
		- Knotcher may be the character's last name.
* Knotcher can be compared to the following characters:
	+ Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) in the *Harry Potter* saga:
		- Both constantly mock and humiliate the protagonist in their respective movie (Harry Potter, in Malfoy's case, and Doug, in Knotcher's case). These insults prompt the victim to try and attack the insulter.
		- Both have two cronies, to help them bully the film's respective protagonist.
			* Packer and Brillo are like Crabbe and Goyle.
	+ Glenn Gulia (Matthew Glave) in *The Wedding Singer*:
		- Both are arrogant, and see themselves as above others.
		- Both insult and humiliate the protagonist, prompting him/her to attack him.
			* In his respective movie, both said to the respective protagonist that the girl he (the protagonist) likes would rather not be with the latter, whom Glenn/Knotcher called [the protagonist] a demeaning name ("Air Force brat" for Doug Masters, "Poor singing orphan" for Robbie Hart).
	+ Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) in *The Karate Kid* saga:
		- Both are arrogant.
		- Both have mistreated a female figure, who was the protagonist's girlfriend:
			* Knotcher almost had a road accident Katie (with whom the former was "having fun with").
			* Johnny continually made unwanted advances towards Ali Mills (Elisabeth Shue).
		- Both bullied another character, using a motorcycle.
			* Knotcher, followed by Packer and Brillo in the monster truck, rode his motorcycle recklessly, almost crashing into Katie's car. It was also reported that Knotcher and his friends drove recklessly around Katie on the bridge.
			* Johnny and his friends, on their motorcylces, swarmed protagonist Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), who was biking home, and forced the latter's bike veering down an adjacent hill. The bike then hit a few rocks, sending Daniel flying off and tumbling into a ravine. Johnny and his friends did all this, while loudly/vocally taunting Daniel for wanting to learn Karate, and decided to "give him his first lesson".

## Gallery

Knotcher (front center) with his friends Packer and Brillo.Knotcher (on the motorcycle) driving recklessly, with his friends (in the pickup truck behind Knotcher's motorcycle), and almost crashing into Katie's car (the white car, in front of Packer and Brillo's monster truck).