I know in this film they tout Arquette's character as the crazy/stupid one but what's going on with Toffler? He seems to either not talk but gesture and tap his feet when Calquon (spelling?) wakes up. It seems like some kind of mental retardation.
shareHe's just nervous and quirky.
"That is terrible advice, Ant1238."
Nothing.. the guy acts like that in every movie he`s in. He CANT act !!!
shareJeremy Davies isn't a very versatile actor , I'll give you that, but when he's cast in the right role he's fantastic. This film, I think, is one of those roles. Considering that he was a priest and the young man of the group, it worked well.
shareYeah, I never understood that choice for the character. He mumbles, can't seem to speak clearly, gestures and signals in place of actual words. He seems to suffer from some disorder.
"Johnny, you're about to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. How do you feel about that?"
He could have any number of social disorders that were not recognized in the 19th century.
shareAs this poster says. I would guess he is an autistic at some level on that spectrum. Probably consided simple or damaged by the Army in those times.
Every one is at Fort Spencer because the Army has cast them sideways to get them out of the way...Knox because he's a hopeless alcoholic, Reich was most likely too gung-ho and could have endangered fellow soldiers or was overly aggresive to his colleagues (I had read the character profile suggested he had been demoted from captain for serial misconduct). The others all seem to be either incompetent or just oddballs who would have struggled to be properly useful to any working Army hence them being transfered off to the middle of nowhere so they could carry out simple duties aiding in running the fort, helping pioneers and migrating families on their hard trek to a new life on the west coast.