The Aztec god Quetzalcoatl, a winged, dragon-like, female lizard, decides to take up residence in the art-deco spire of the Chrysler Building, taking frequent jaunts in the midday sun to devour various hapless New Yorkers. The resulting bloody mess confounds detectives Dr. Shepard (David Carradine) and Sgt. Powell (Richard Roundtree), who are already occupied with a case involving a series of bizarre ritual murders linked to a secret Aztec cult. Meanwhile, Jimmy Quinn (Michael Moriarty), a cheap, paranoid crook who wishes to be a jazz pianist, takes part in a botched diamond heist that leads him to the creature's lair atop the building. This causes Quinn's attempts to settle down and turn over a new leaf from crime to be in vain as he decides to extort from the city an enormous amount of money in exchange for directions to the creature's nest, which houses a colossal egg.
The details of the location fall into Shepard's hands, and he leads a paramilitary assault on the Chrysler Building. After the showdown, the creature, riddled with bullets, falls to the streets of Manhattan. In the final scene, the egg hatches as the screen fades to black, leaving the audience on a cliffhanger for a sequel that has never been made.



The film was given a limited release theatrically in the United States by United Film Distribution Company in October 1982. It grossed approximately $255,000 at the box office.[2]
The film was later released on VHS by MCA/Universal Home Video.[3] It was released on DVD by Blue Underground in 2003.[4]
Shout! Factory released the film on DVD and Blu-ray Disc August 27th, 2013, through their Scream Factory branch.

Roger Ebert gave the film 2 and 1/2 stars in his original review but was bursting with praise for Moriarty's performance. He relates the anecdote that, when movie reviewer Rex Reed met Q's producer, Samuel Z. Arkoff, Reed told him "What a surprise! All that dreck—and right in the middle of it, a great Method performance by Michael Moriarty!" Arkoff replied "The dreck was my idea."[5] Andrew Smith at Popcorn Pictures said that the film was tough going at times but picked up whenever the monster was on scre