Personality
Kojak is a very threatening character with a muscular build, always sporting an angry look most of the time. He especially seems to hold a strong grudge against T.J. (presumably because of the "ugly bald guy" comment made on T.J.'s tape recorder when he was snooping on them earlier in the film). In fact, during the climactic showdown in the auditorium, upon spotting T.J. after entering the room, he stomps up to him, intent on dealing with him one-on-one, that is, until Ms. Finster steps in to defend him.
Role in the film
Kojak first appears during Dr. Phillium Benedict's infiltration and raid on a military base outpost in the Southwestern United States, where he leads the bodyguard forces, also blowing down the door to the control center of the experimental weather altering laser before the base personnel could erase the access code after triggering the alarm, and then tasers them into unconsciousness. He eventually relocates with Benedict, Fenwick and their henchmen to Third Street School after it was closed for the summer where he presumably acts as the head of security and letting people cleared for entry to their new "base" from a suspicion of the outside authorities by Benedict's per orders. He chases off T.J Detweiler after the latter ends up witnessing one of their tests while fuming about his bad summer vacation so far (due to his friends having gone to different camps). Aside from making sure one of Dr. Benedict's plans don't fail, Kojak is ordered by Dr. Benedict to impersonate Principal Prickly while walking outside of the school while Benedict was holding the real Principal Prickly captive, (presumably in order to ensure to avoid that no one got anymore suspicious about Pricky's disappearance) after the latter was captured during an attempt by T.J. to have the school investigated (which also nearly causes T.J.'s friends to believe he lied to them as an excuse to get them back together as a result).
Later, while TJ was investigating the school directly for any evidence (and found Principal Prickly's discarded golf pants in the school dumpster), he also witnessed "Prickly" walking with some of Benedict's forces, with his unwittingly unmasking himself in front of T.J. Later that night, Kojak alongside an agent was ordered to escort and detain Dr. Rosenthal to "detention" after the latter failed to provide results for the weather altering laser for the second time to Benedict. He shortly afterwards witnessed an escape attempt by TJ and his friends from the lab-transformed school auditorium after they accidentally blows their cover, with his proceeding to be headbutted in the groin by Spinelli after the latter referred to him as "alien scum" and told him to get off the planet Earth (referring to Gus's earlier speculation that Benedict and his forces were actually aliens).
He also arrives and caught T.J. and Principal Prickly again when they located his office and took away T.J.'s (already confiscated) Walkie Talkie, although not before T.J. relayed to his friends what Benedict's true plan was (the elimination of Summer Vacation) after stumbling on a mural on the office door that was presumably painted by Benedict and his henchmen.
Eventually, T.J.'s friends manage to round all students for their to help reclaim the school, thanks to Gus's leadership. Despite this, Kojak later caught Spinelli, Gretchen, Gus, Vince, and Mikey in the halls on the stairs when they and the student body attacked the school to stop Benedict, but T.J. and Prickly dumped some vat of corn chowder on him before he could prepare to capture them, as well as the pot can on his head, which resulted in sending him from falling down the stairway and presumably being knocked out. After regaining consciousness and presumably removing the pot can and most of the chowder off his body with still some of it on his head and suit, he stormed into the lab-transformed auditorium while Benedict's henchmen and a joint effort combined groups of the faculty staffs and students were fighting against. Spotting T.J. in the scene, Kojak furiously attempts to beat up T.J. in revenge for his earlier humiliation. However, Ms. Finster stopped him by defending T.J. and got into a fistfight challenge with Kojak, only for him to end up easily punched many times and knocked out by Finster with a uppercut punch below his jaws before he could even make the first swing since he underestimated her for it, and also let alone land any hits on her. T.J. thanked Finster for saving his life, with Finster stating she was merely doing her job.
It is unknown what happens to him at the end of the movie after he got punched out by Ms. Finster during the final fight. Either he was smothered in the crash after the laser was destroyed, or was sent to jail with his boss.
Trivia
- The name Kojak is a reference to a TV-detective who is also bald. It's not his actual name, but rather a nickname given by Ms. Finster when she fought him in reference to his baldness.
- While voiced by Clancy Brown for the most part, he was briefly voiced by Dabney Coleman, the voice of Peter Prickly, while TJ was snooping around, owing to him being disguised as Prickly at the time.
- According to Kojak, he was a "man of many talents", including acting while in disguise (with some of the goons comparing his acting abilities to that of Robert de Niro). However, while he maintained it was easy to fool Prickly's wife, one of his henchmen implied the possibility that she was suspicious of him.
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