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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on May 19, 2008 15:50:56 GMT -5
It's countdown time again, bitches. Here's number 82: 82. Black Adam Who is he: A corrupted ancient Egyptian predecessor of Captain Marvel. What is he from: First appeared in The Marvel Family #1, a comic book for Fawcett Comics; now he’s a character in DC Comics, most notably in JSA, Villains United, Infinite Crisis, 52, and his own miniseries Black Adam: The Dark Age. What has he done: Becomes corrupted by his power and takes over ancient Egypt, killed Billy Batson’s parents, and killed many people out of revenge for the death of his wife Isis. Intelligence: Smart and cunning, but a little crazy. Power: He’s a superhuman who ruled an entire country. Vileness: Has killed without mercy many times and wouldn’t hesitate to do it again. Sway: His superpowers and vicious ways is a great motivator to get people to what he wants, or else. Purity: If he wants to do something, he’s gonna do it; and there ain’t a whole lot that can stop him. Physical Prowess: Magically bestowed aspects of various mythological figures which include superhuman strength, speed, stamina, physical and magical invulnerability, flight, fearlessness, and vast wisdom/enhanced mental perception; enhanced senses and can heal himself through magic lightning. Name Coolness: Just adding “Black” to “Adam” makes for one cool name. Created by: Otto Binder & C.C. Beck. Portrayed by: Lou Scheimer voiced Black Adam in the Kid Superpower Hour with Shazam! Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has agreed to appear as Black Adam in the film Billy Batson and the Legend of Shazam! The original Fawcett Comics version of Black Adam, which appeared only once during the original Fawcett run of Captain Marvel comics, is an ancient Egyptian prince named "Teth-Adam", who is chosen by the wizard Shazam to be his successor. When Adam says the magic word "Shazam", he is transformed into a super-powered being, Teth Adam (literally translating into "Mighty Human"). Possessing the same powers that Captain Marvel would later be granted, Adam is soon corrupted by the vastness of his powers. The wizard Shazam originally gives him ancient powers derived from Greco-Roman deities. Later stories establish that the names of gods from the Egyptian pantheon make up the acronym Shazam for Black Adam. Deciding that he should rule the world, Adam overthrows the pharaoh and assumes the throne. An angry Shazam gives his errant champion a new name, "Black Adam," and banishes him to the most distant star in the universe. Adam spends the next 5000 years flying back to Earth. By the time he makes it back, in 1945, Shazam has appointed three new champions to take his place: Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, and Captain Marvel Jr. Adam does battle with the trio, known as the Marvel Family, but since all are equally invulnerable, the fight goes on and on without resolution. At the suggestion of the wizard Shazam, Uncle Marvel tricks Black Adam into saying the wizard's name, transforming him back into his mortal form. Adam's natural aging process takes hold, and he withers away into a skeleton within moments. While he is defeated in the same story in which he debuted, Adam is resurrected nearly thirty years later (by Doctor Sivana) in DC Comics' Shazam! revival of the Marvel Family characters. According to Shazam! #28, Black Adam gets his powers from Shu (stamina), Hershef (strength), Amon (power), Zehuti (Thoth) (wisdom), Anpu (speed), and Menthu (courage). After several more defeats at Captain Marvel's hand, Adam joins Mister Mind's final pre-Crisis version of the Monster Society Of Evil. Adam's origin is revised for the 1987 miniseries Shazam! The New Beginning, in which the need for Captain Marvel to oppose him is made an integral reason of why Billy Batson is recruited. Soon after that call, the corrupted champion is drawn from the netherworld by an interdimensional transport device created by Dr. Sivana, whom Adam attempts to make his slave. Black Adam is reintroduced to the DC Universe in The Power of Shazam! graphic novel by Jerry Ordway in 1994. In that story and the subsequent Power of Shazam! ongoing series, Adam is a deadly and evil adversary for Captain Marvel. In this revised origin, Teth-Adam is the son of the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II, and impresses one of the high priests, the wizard Shazam, with his good deeds. The wizard gives Teth-Adam the power to become the superhero Mighty-Adam by speaking the name "Shazam", an acronym for Mighty Adam's powers: the stamina of Shu, the swiftness of Heru (Horus), the strength of Amon, the wisdom of Zehuti, the power of Aton, and the courage of Mehen. Mighty Adam serves as Egypt's champion for many centuries, but becomes corrupted by the charms of a mysterious woman, revealed to be Shazam's evil daughter Blaze in disguise. The bewitched Adam is convinced that he and his mistress should rule Egypt, so he kills the Pharaoh and appoint himself ruler. Shazam learns of this treachery and strips Adam of his powers, encasing them in a mystical scarab necklace. Adam's depowered body rapidly experiences the aging process that the magic had staved off, and the former hero withers away into a dried cadaver in seconds. Shazam buries both the body and the scarab in the tomb of Ramesses II, where he plans for it to remain for all eternity. In death, the former hero is referred to as "Khem-Adam" ("Black Adam"). Disillusioned by what he perceived as Adam's betrayal, Shazam waits several millennia before appointing a second champion to fight evil in his name. Thousands of years later, during the late 20th century, an unscrupulous archaeological aide named Theo Adam finds himself assigned to the Malcom Expedition, financed by the Sivana Foundation to excavate the tomb of Ramesses II. Adam uncovers Khem-Adam's tomb in a secret passageway, and leads his superiors, C. C. Batson and his wife Marilyn, to the discovery. Upon first sight of Khem-Adam's scarab, Theo Adam becomes obsessed with the artifact, and kills both Batsons in order to steal it. Escaping Egypt, Theo Adam soon made his way back to America. The Batsons' son, Billy, has been left behind in the United States, and is drafted by Shazam to become the wizard's second champion, Captain Marvel. When Theo Adam first encounters Captain Marvel, he notes both Marvel's identical appearance to C. C. Batson and the lightning-bolt insignia on Marvel's chest that had also decorated Khem-Adam's tomb. Adam therefore has a revelation, and realizes that he is a reincarnation of Khem-Adam. Grasping his stolen scarab, Adam speaks Shazam's name and is transformed into the super-powered Black Adam. Black Adam reveals himself to Captain Marvel as the Batsons' killer, and the two battle. Captain Marvel emerges victorious by snatching Adam's scarab, and therefore his power, away from him. Marvel brings Theo Adam to Shazam, who wipes Adam's memory and takes away his voice, so that he can not access his powers. This solution proves temporary, as Blaze re-enters her former lover's life and helps restore his voice, his memory, and access to his powers. Although Adam appears during the Power of Shazam! ongoing series' first year of publication as a villain, towards the end of the series' run, Adam returns and announces that Black Adam and Theo Adam are separate personalities. Black Adam stands trial again for the murders of the Batsons, and is acquitted when it is revealed that his fingerprints do not match those of Theo Adam's. The reformed Black Adam is still vulnerable to his murderous host's influence, and he attacks the Justice Society of America under Theo Adam's control in JSA #6 (1999). In subsequent issues, Adam joins supervillain Johnny Sorrow's Injustice Society after Sorrow removes a malignant brain tumor from Adam's brain. Adam soon betrays Sorrow, and he and the JSA defeat the Injustice Society. Claiming to be free of Theo's evil influence again, a repentant Black Adam requests membership in the Justice Society, and is granted a probationary membership in JSA #21 (2002). During his tenure in JSA, writers Geoff Johns and David S. Goyer redefined Adam's personality and background, focusing on the character's old-fashioned and militant ideals of justice, and his officious and strongly opinionated attitude. Despite this, he has stated on many occasions that he respects the Justice Society, particularly members such as the first Flash Jay Garrick. Several other JSA members are shown to be skeptical of Adam's reformation; primary among them is Atom Smasher, who later becomes Adam's close friend. The writers also created added tension in the book by having Captain Marvel, who is wholly unconvinced that Adam has reformed, join the team. One JSA story arc (issues 39 through 44) features Marvel, Hawkgirl, and Mr. Terrific venturing back in time to ancient Egypt, where they meet Mighty Adam before his corruption. During this visit, Mighty Adam is grateful to meet Captain Marvel, as Marvel's presence demonstrates that his legacy will survive him even with his children gone, and, when Marvel transforms back into Billy Batson, Adam expresses admiration for the young man's ability to handle the power of Shazam at such a young age, something he doubts he could have achieved himself. Johns and Goyer used this story arc to slightly alter Adam's origin. The hero now hails from the fictional North African nation of Kahndaq, not Egypt, although he serves for the Egyptian prince Khufu (who is later reincarnated as JSA member Hawkman). The character of Blaze is completely removed from the origin story, and Adam's rage is described as having resulted from the conquering of Kahndaq (and the murder of his wife and children) at the hands of a magically powered supervillain named Ahk-ton (whose powers resemble future hero Metamorpho), who is working with the notorious DC immortal Vandal Savage. Mighty Adam kills Ahk-ton during the struggle, and returns to Kahndaq to reclaim it by any means necessary, including murder. The wizard Shazam does not agree with Adam's actions, and robs Adam of his powers and kills him. In JSA #45 (2003), Black Adam and his teammate Atom Smasher both defect from the Justice Society. During the next few issues, Adam forms his own organization, which administers justice the way Adam wants it: "an eye for an eye". His roster includes a mix of DC heroes and villains, including Atom Smasher, Brainwave (who is possessed by Mister Mind), Northwind and the rest of the society of Feithera, Nemesis, and former JSA museum curator Alex Montez, the human host of the demon Eclipso. Adam's collective executes Kobra, a villain who has been acquitted by the legal justice system. Adam then turns his attentions to his old homeland of Kahndaq, now ruled by a militant dictator whose actions had long been ignored by the United Nations. Late 2003 began the publication of a JSA/Hawkman crossover story arc titled "Black Reign", written by Geoff Johns alone, which features Adam and his militia's hostile takeover of Kahndaq. A war soon breaks out, with Adam, his comrades, and the Kahndaqi people on one side, and the Justice Society on the other. By the end of the arc, the JSA leaves Adam in control of Kahndaq, provided that he does not leave its borders, convincing him that he can't enforce his rule on the world or he is no better than the dictator he'd defeated. Brainwave is saved by the JSA, Mister Mind is apprehended thanks to the actions of the Atom, and Nemesis and Alex both die during the battle when Alex loses control of Eclipso. Only Northwind and Atom Smasher remain at Adam's side. As Kahndaq's ruler, Adam is depicted as fiercely working to protect his people and his nation. Black Adam is featured heavily in DC's 2005 Infinite Crisis crossover, primarily in the Villains United miniseries as a member of the Secret Society of Super Villains (which he only joins to protect Kahndaq from the Society). Concurrently, in JSA, Atom Smasher leaves Adam's side to return to the JSA. The Society is run by Alexander Luthor, Jr., a character from the alternate world Earth-3, who disguises himself as the Lex Luthor of the post-Crisis Earth. The Infinite Crisis limited series centers around Alexander Luthor's plan to restore the Multiverse. Needing a member of the Marvel Family to power the apparatus he has designed to recreate the alternate earths of the Multiverse, Luthor has the Society betray and capture Black Adam. With the help of the mind-controlling powers of the Psycho-Pirate, Luthor is able to control Adam and have him call down the magic Shazam lightning bolt to fuel the apparatus; the Spectre's rampage during the Day of Vengeance storyline has reverted all magic in the DC Universe to a raw, chaotic structure, and the death of the wizard Shazam has transformed him into a tether that can be used to harness the magic and use it to power his equipment. By the end of the miniseries, Black Adam is freed by Superboy and Nightwing. Adam quickly kills Psycho-Pirate and, following a failed attempt to defeat Superboy-Prime (which reveals that magic does not affect Superboy-Prime, as Adam's blows allegedly only 'tickled'), joins the heroes- although he is generally regarded as being on his own side by the other combatants- in the Battle of Metropolis, destroying Amazo shortly after his arrival. Black Adam appears as a featured character in DC's weekly 52 comic book. Depicted as the violent protector of the nation of Kahndaq, Adam kills several super-villains in public and on television to demonstrate his views. As a result, he is distrusted by the superhuman community. He creates an international metahuman coalition against the perceived metahuman supremacy of the United States. In 52, DC introduces Adrianna Tomaz, a slave offered to Adam by Intergang as a token to curry his favor. After Adam deals harshly with the slavers, Adrianna becomes Adam's love interest, and her counsel proves wise to him. In week 12 of the series, Adam uses a magical amulet, hidden on the scarab in which Shazam imprisoned him, to transform Adrianna into the superheroine Isis. Weeks later he proposes, and the two are married under the auspice of Captain Marvel and the rest of the Marvel Family. In 52 Week 23, Black Adam and Isis, with the assistance of the Question and Renee Montoya, find Isis' brother Amon. Due to a failed escape attempt, Amon suffers near-fatal wounds. In order to save his life Black Adam bestows a portion of his own power on the boy, as Captain Marvel did for Captain Marvel Jr. Isis' brother then becomes a new addition to the Marvel Family under the name Osiris. Osiris is accepted into the Teen Titans. Upon returning from a mission, he and the rest of the Black Marvel family are attacked by the Suicide Squad. The Black Marvels successfully defeat the Squad, but not before footage of them in battle (including Osiris' accidental killing of a Squad member) is captured by Amanda Waller, who uses it to further ruin the Black Marvel Family's reputation. Meanwhile, Kahndaq is struck with a number of natural disasters, which seem to have a supernatural origin. Wracked with guilt over the death of the Persuader, Osiris ventures to the Rock of Eternity and pleads with Captain Marvel to have his powers removed; as he fears Black Adam's influence (and those of his gods) has tainted him with evil. Black Adam arrives and the two battle until subdued by Isis and the Marvels. Osiris relents and accompanies the Black Marvel Family back home, only to be betrayed and brutally devoured by his friend, the talking crocodile Sobek, while in his mortal form. Isis and Adam confront Sobek, who reveals that he is Famine, the Fourth Horseman of Apokolips, one of four creatures created by Intergang to attack Black Adam. Adam swiftly disposes of Sobek, and does battle with the other three Horsemen. One of them, Pestilence, infects Isis with a deadly disease before Adam kills him and his partner War. A gravely ill Isis saves Adam from Death using her powers, and tells Adam with her dying breaths that she was wrong to try to change his views on justice, and that he should avenge both her and Osiris. Seething with fury, Adam flies to the neighboring nation of Bialya, where Death has taken refuge. Adam slaughters everyone within Bialya - the government, the army, and the citizens - while hunting for Death, whom he defeats in battle, then tortures the creature into revealing the whereabouts of its masters. Intent on revenge, Black Adam flies to Oolong Island, hideout of a coalition of evil DC Universe scientists who created the Horsemen. However, the scientists subdue him and he suffers weeks of torture at the hands of Dr. Sivana. The "Science Squad" then announces to the world that they plan to sell Black Adam as a living weapon to the highest bidder. The Justice Society assaults the island, freeing Adam. It is revealed that Chang Tzu had built the Horsemen under orders of China, who wanted Adam and his family to be assassinated after Adam left the Freedom of Power Treaty. Adam refuses to be taken into custody and once more flies off, seeking revenge for the death of his family. Enraged to the point of madness, and with his gods' blessings, Black Adam flies to China, causing massive civilian casualties and billions of dollars in property damage when various superhumans get in his way. He tears through the ranks of the world's superhumans, killing Young Frankenstein and Terra of the Teen Titans, and seriously injuring several others. He attacks China, continuing the destruction until the decimated Great Ten allows the Justice Society and a coalition of other metahumans onto Chinese soil. Captain Marvel, though unable to take away Black Adam's powers, works with a group of mystics, including Zatanna and the Phantom Stranger, to transform Black Adam into the mortal Teth-Adam. Using his abilities as the new guardian of the Rock of Eternity, Marvel changes Adam's magic word from "Shazam" to an unknown one (Later revealed to be "Chocolate Egg Cream") to prevent him from ever changing back. Despite his defeat, Teth-Adam escapes thanks to the intervention of his one-time ally Atom Smasher. He is left a mortal wandering the Middle East, unsuccessfully guessing at the word that will restore his power. In this six-issue mini-series, which begins sometime after his defeat in World War III, the still-powerless Teth-Adam orders his remaining loyal minions to savagely beat his face in order to alter his physical appearance. Effectively disguised, he leads the group to Kahndaq to retrieve the bones of Isis, while the JSA is in Bialya searching for him. Adam and his men are attacked by unidentified soldiers (who are also searching for Teth-Adam) while leaving the tomb of Isis and Osiris. Adam's followers sacrifice their lives so that he can escape with his wife's remains. Adam then travels to the frozen Himalays, where he cannibalizes the corpse of his last henchman after running out of food. The text indicates that his henchman voluntarily sacrifices his body to keep Black Adam alive. This serves to indicate both Black Adam's undying dedication to resurrecting Isis as well as the equally powerful loyalty that his remaining followers had for him. Finally reaching a secluded cave, Teth Adam resurrects Isis using a Lazarus Pit. The process is imperfect however, and Isis' new skin decays and her body literally falls apart. Adam returns her to death to end her suffering. Teth-Adam then journeys to Doctor Fate's tower, hoping to retrieve Isis' amulet. He encounters Felix Faust, who offers his assistance in return for being freed from the tower, in which he was trapped by Ralph Dibny during 52. It is also revealed here that Teth Adam's previous attempt at bringing Isis back at the Lazarus Pit failed because one of Isis's fingers was missing; an individual's remains must be fully intact for a Lazarus Pit to work properly. With Faust's help, Black Adam's power source is changed from his six patron gods to the residual mystic energy contained in Isis' corpse. "Isis" now works as his new magic word of transformation. Once again in his superhuman form, he sets off to retrieve the scattered pieces of Isis' amulet. Faust warns Adam that this is only a temporary solution, as every time he draws power from Isis' bones, they become more fragile and less able to sustain her resurrection. In retrieving the first part of the amulet, Teth Adam encounters Hawkman. The two have a savage battle in the sky, leading to Hawkman's serious injury. After the fight, the Justice League is notified and the team begins trying to find Black Adam. Meanwhile, while resting at a riverbank and contemplating his mission to bring back his wife, Teth Adam is shot down and badly wounded by members of the same organization that attacked him in issue one. He is, however, strong enough to speak the magic word "Isis" and transform into Black Adam. After promptly dispatching the assassins with extreme prejudice, he visits a veterinary hospital to have his wounds repaired. After leaving the hospital, the doctors who save Teth Adam's life are attacked by the assassins. Teth Adam sees this happening, saves the two doctors, and kills one of the assassins and captures the other two. He kills them both, one by striking him with lightning and one by flying him up into the thermosphere, after getting information from them. The Justice League talks to the two doctors as part of their hunt for Teth Adam, and learn about his heroic act of saving them from the assassins. This further develops Teth Adam's anti-hero character, as it is one of his first acts of heroism since the events of World War III. Black Adam via traveling by train as a stoe-away and happens to arrive at Fawcett City. Seeing this as his chance to look for clues as to what Captain Marvel changed his magic word too Teth Adam roams Fawcett City reading signs and guessing what the word is. After hours of searching he enters a malt shop and accidentally discovers that the new transformation word Captain Marvel changed back in 52 was in fact "Chocolate Egg Cream". With his original power returned, he flies to Fate's Tower and confronts Faust. Faust attempts to resurrect Isis, but the resurrection fails, and Isis' bones crumble to the floor. Faust blames Black Adam for using Isis' power too much, and distraught, Black Adam flies away, ending up in the Kahndaq embassy in Gotham City. It is revealed that the bones that Faust showed to Black Adam belonged to Ralph Dibny, and Faust resurrects Isis successfully. With her under his power, he exits the tower. In Countdown #49 a depowered Mary Marvel stumbles upon Black Adam at the embassy and finds that he has killed several others that have had the misfortune to find their way into the building. It appears that Adam is about to harm Mary as well, but transfers all of his powers to her (including those he recovered from Isis). He departs in his mortal form, telling her to tell Billy Batson "Sorry". Appearing again in the final issue, Black Adam is once again empowered by unknown means (possibly when Mary lost her power above Earth against Eclipso.) Mary Marvel seeks to join forces with him in a new Black Marvel Family, but he dismisses her as arrogant and childish, leaving her entirely alone. There are many adjectives that describe Black Adam: ruthless, cruel, vicious, etc. But, the most apt one would have to be “obsessed.” It wasn’t always this way. Black Adam was basically created to be an evil version of Captain Marvel. Then, he reformed and became a superhero, even becoming a member of the Justice Society. However, his evil ways were always lurking underneath the surface. He quit the Justice Society, became the ruler of Kahndaq by force, and alienated the superhero community by killing supervillains on live TV. Then, he fell in love with Isis and found a son in Osiris. Sadly, their time together would not last as Isis and Osiris were both killed. Soon, Black Adam become obsessed with revenge, killing thousands in two countries and basically starting a war to get vengeance from the people who were responsible for their deaths. Then, he became obsessed with bringing Isis back from the dead, killing more people who dared to get in his way. Though, some would say Black Adam is more of anti-hero than a villain, but dead bodies are dead bodies; and he is pretty much responsible for them. But, that doesn’t really matter. All that matters is that Black Adam is one bad man.
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on May 19, 2008 16:20:21 GMT -5
81. Herr Starr Who is he: A former German special forces soldier and a member (later leader) of the secretive organization known as The Grail. What is he from: Preacher. What has he done: Killed the boys who blinded his eyes, did some “dirty” jobs for the Grail, murders his way through the ranks of the Grail, etc. Intelligence: Military. Power: Had a powerful position in the Grail. Vileness: Will kill anyone without a second thought. Sway: He carries a gun, which is pretty persuasive. Purity: Said he would kill “a million little girls to win” the war he has been fighting all his life. Physical Prowess: Is pretty deadly with a gun, but sucks in unarmed combat. Name Coolness: “Herr Starr” is pretty cool. Created by: Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon. Portrayed by: The character hasn’t made an appearance outside of the Preacher comic book yet. However, there are talks of a Preacher series being made for HBO. But, that was back in 2006, and there’s hardly been a word about it since. The child who would become Herr Starr was always quiet and studious. The son of a British serviceman and a German mother who died in labor, he had hoped to avoid the unwanted attention of bullies by keeping to himself. Unfortunately a gang of children, led by one particularly brutal child, targeted him because of this. This bullying ultimately led to an attack where they gave "A star for Starr" and with a broken bottle carved 5 jagged lines around and over his right eye. As well as blinding him in that eye the stress from the event caused all his hair to fall out and his cries forever turned his voice into a harsh grating sound. After that Starr's life (until meeting Jesse Custer) would become dedicated to seeking order in the world. One by one the children responsible for his attack died in a series of accidents and unfortunate tragedies. Their deaths were always at least one year apart, although two were brothers and together were burned to death in a house fire. The last, the gang leader, died on Starr's 10th birthday from drinking herbicide, the result of which caused his spine to contract until the back of his head touched his heels. Starr, though obviously responsible, was never implicated in these deaths as he had refused to name his attackers after he was assaulted, wanting to exact revenge by himself. Herr Starr began his career as an agent of the German anti-terrorism unit GSG 9. (This is an anachronism, as GSG 9 is presented as being operational and well-established in 1972, when it did not exist until 1973) He excelled in all fields of training, except unarmed combat. During this class the instructor, a bully well known for victimizing and humiliating his students, challenged Starr to a sparring match. In response Starr pulled out his handgun and shot the instructor in the knee-caps. When challenged as to how he would survive without training in unarmed combat Starr replied that he had "no intention of being unarmed." In the late 1970s, Starr was recruited into the Grail, the most secret and powerful organization on Earth. The Grail's secret is that Christ did not die at all but was drugged in a death like state, later rescued and eventually marrying and having children. The Grail protects the bloodline, planning to set off a partial Armageddon in 2000, with the intent of making the descendant of Christ now the new Savior. As such, the Grail went about controlling the world, making all decisions for every leader on the planet in preparation for the day when nuclear war would be seemingly averted by the return of the Messiah and peace would reign on Earth. Starr proved his worth to the Grail when assigned to eliminate a former member living in a mental hospital: Starr blew up the entire hospital so the member is lost with the other inmates, reasoning that while one death would be investigated, the destruction of the whole hospital would leave the authorities without any idea where to start looking. When questioned about the innocent deaths, he replies rhetorically "How many children died at Sodom and Gomorrah?" Starr rose quickly in the ranks of the Grail, eventually becoming Sacred Executioner, second only to the Grail's leader Allfather D'Aronique. He becomes notable for his ruthlessness and the fact he doesn't care for relationships, only sex. In 1990, he comes to the conclusion the Grail is doomed. After 2000 years of in-breeding "to keep the bloodline pure", the would-be savior is a mentally retarded and physically gawky child who frequently urinates in public and speaks gibberish. Starr knows the world would never accept this and decides to kill the child and find someone more acceptable, even though the rest of the Grail, including Allfather D'Aronique, hangs on to the faith that the child would manifest divine powers and become a worthy leader. When he hears of Jesse Custer and his power of "the Word," Starr decided that he made the perfect candidate for an alternative Messiah and planned to use Custer in his scheme to overthrow the Grail's leadership. In "Proud Americans," Starr murders his way to the position of Allfather, (he pushes D'Aronique out of a helicopter, which results in the death of Christ's descendant and an unnamed soldier as well, when D'Aronique lands on them) giving him control over the Grail. With the position comes immense power, and Starr is able to commandeer a United States army tank division to attack Jesse and the Saint of Killers in Utah and then order the American President to order a nuclear warhead dropped on the Saint in Monument Valley. Throughout the course of the series, Starr undergoes one humiliating injury after another: When an underling is ordered to find him a hooker, he accidentally hires a male prostitute who sexually assaults Starr; he has his left ear shot off by Tulip; Jesse cuts a massive gash across his bald scalp so Starr's head resembles a giant penis, and he spends the rest of the series hiding it with a Panama hat; when a nuclear bomb knocks his helicopter out of the sky, Starr wakes up in the company of three inbred hillbillies who turn out to be cannibals who have already eaten his right leg, but Starr tricks a mentally retarded cannibal into handing over his gun by wiping the man's overly sloppy rear end ("For what I am now forced to do, I will one day wreak vengeance on God Himself.") and manages to shoot and kill all three cannibals, only to have two of them land on top of him; getting out from under them, Starr hops one-footed across the desert, tripping and falling all the way and finally calls for rescue and when asked what he wanted, answers "A hot bath, a week's sleep, a prosthetic limb and Armageddon, in that order"; when a member of the Grail Council gets close to proving Starr's treason, Starr kills him and his Russian bodyguard, only to be attacked by the man's savage Rottweiler, but he manages to shoot it but not before it has chewed off his genitalia. All this takes its toll on Starr's mind and he decides the Grail and its dreams of control and order are not worth what he's sacrificed. He kills the Grail Council, assembling a private army and hunting down Jesse at the Alamo. He finally ends up charging Tulip, who shoots him several times, finally jamming the gun under his chin and blowing the entire top of his head off. He has time to utter a final, disgusted "Shit" before collapsing dead. Faith. It is one of the things that drives people, and it is very hard to stop a person who is driven by it. You see, faith is belief without proof. A person driven by faith does not need proof to believe in what they believe in; he or she just believes. Herr Starr is such a person. He has faith in the Grail and their goals. He believes so much in the Grail that he feels their chosen messiah is not a worthy messiah and kills him. He also believes that the Grail cannot ultimately achieve their own goals and believes they should be overthrown. Starr feels the new messiah is Jesse Cutter and goes through hell to use him to take over the Grail. However, he goes through hell trying to do this, goes crazy, and then decides just to kill the Grail and Jesse because all that he went through was not worth it. Nevertheless, he is a driven man who will not stop for anything. Herr Starr pretty much sums up who he is: “I am at war. I have been all my life. And, I would kill a million little girls to win.”
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on May 19, 2008 16:24:35 GMT -5
Okay, here's a recap of 100-81:
100. Walter Peck 99. Sideshow Bob 98. Dean Vernon Wormer 97. Bill Lumbergh 96. The French Taunter 95. Col. Kurtz 94. Baby Jane Hudson 93. Auric Goldfinger 92. The Nosferatu 91. M. Bison 90. Luther 89. The Wicked Witch of the West 88. Frank Booth 87. Bullseye 86. R.J. Fletcher 85. Alonzo Harris 84. Sephiroth 83. Norman Bates 82. Black Adam 81. Herr Starr
Tomorrow, numbers 80 and 79. Here are the hints:
Stuck in the middle with you, and she gives a whole new meaning to "obsessive fan."
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Vengeance Of War
Bubba Ho-Tep
You say you want everyone happy? Well...we're not laughing.
Posts: 619
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Post by Vengeance Of War on May 19, 2008 16:29:58 GMT -5
I'm guessing Mr. Blonde and Annie Wilkes.
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on May 20, 2008 17:39:15 GMT -5
Countdown time. Here's 80: 80. Annie Wilkes Who is she: An obsessed fan of Paul Sheldon. What is she from: Misery (novel and movie). What has she done: Tortured Sheldon into bring back a character of his that loved. Intelligence: She did her part to keep Paul in the dark but couldn’t throw the law off her trail. Power: She’s doesn’t have any “take-over-the-world” king of power. Vileness: Broke Paul’s ankles just to keep him captive and shot poor Sheriff Buster. Sway: Very friendly with the small town folks; even with Paul; no one would suspect her of evil doing. Purity: So obsessed with keeping Paul there, she did just about everything to make it so. Physical Prowess: Not physically strong, but it was enough to keep the injured Paul off his feet and in the house. Name Coolness: It’s sounds like an ordinary female name. Created by: Stephen King. Portrayed by: Kathy Bates, who won the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal. Novel: Paul Sheldon is the author of a best-selling series of romance novels featuring the Victorian-era heroine Misery Chastain. Since 1974, he has finished the first drafts of all his books in the same suite at the Boulderado Hotel in Boulder, Colorado. He is determined to finish his new novel, Fast Cars. After he has completed his manuscript, he has an impulse (fueled by three bottles of champagne) to drive to L.A. rather than back to his home in New York. In his inebriated state he is unaware that the Colorado Western Slope is going to be hit with one of the biggest snowstorms of the year in a few hours. Determined to drive through this, he loses control of his car, drives off the road, and tumbles down the steep hill, falling unconscious. Paul is rescued from the car wreck by a woman named Annie Wilkes, an experienced nurse who lives nearby. As Paul waves in and out of consciousness, he hears a voice (Annie's) telling him that she's his number one fan. After extricating Paul from the wreck, Annie takes him not to a hospital, but to her home, putting him in a spare bedroom. As Paul regains consciousness, he lies there completely helpless, being unable to move anything from his waist down. Having been a registered nurse for almost twenty years, Annie knows how to take care of his injuries. She feeds and bathes him and splints his broken legs, giving him Novril (a fictitious codeine-based painkiller invented by King specifically for the story) for his pain. Annie reads his new manuscript and doesn't like it, believing that there is too much use of profanity. When Paul tries to reason with her that "everybody talks like that", she goes into a fit. Paul begins to grow concerned over Annie's mental state, but he remains optimistic, believing once the roads are cleared Annie will take him to a hospital and life will continue normally. It's around this time that Misery's Child, the latest and intended final book starring Misery Chastain, hits the shelves. Completely unaware that this is the last book, Annie, whose life revolves around the character, buys the copy she has reserved. Upon reading the book, and learning of her beloved Misery's death, she goes into a rage. She tells Paul that she hasn't spoken to anyone about him. Paul, an only child of deceased parents and two-time divorcé, realizes that it may be a long time before he is missed. As Paul begins to regain strength in his legs, he is forced to use a wheelchair. He wants to leave, but Annie holds him prisoner, forces him to burn his manuscript for Fast Cars, and demands that he write a new book, which will bring Misery back to life. As he tries to come up with a credible plot premise, an early attempt at retconning is roundly rejected by Annie, Paul has little else to do, locked alone in his room. One afternoon, when Annie's away, Paul formulates a plan to escape. Although the plan is unsuccessful, he finally gets out of his room, and secures some needed pain medication, which she had been intentionally withholding from him. A few weeks later, he sneaks out of his room to tour the house again. This time, he finds Annie’s scrapbook, containing newspaper clippings from her entire life. Paul is disturbed to note that Annie has saved news accounts of the untimely deaths of her childhood next-door neighbors and college roommate. The ones that shock him the most, however, are from her time as a nurse. Initially, she worked in medical wards across the Midwest, and intentionally caused (or hastened) the deaths of elderly patients. In Colorado, however, after a brief marriage, Annie worked in the neonatal department, and while there she was charged with several infant deaths. She was tried but acquitted, and thereafter gave up nursing for good. The last entry in the scrapbook is a squib article from Newsweek indicating that Paul's literary agent has not heard from him for some time and has become concerned, although not overly so. Paul overlooked some of the signs of his unauthorized trips, and Annie soon found out he had left his room and hidden a butcher knife underneath his mattress. Eventually she confronts Paul, intent not on killing him, as that would be like "junking an expensive car because of a broken spring," but rather on "hobbling" him, by cutting his foot off with an axe, then cauterizing the wound with a blowtorch. Paul has come to hate and fear Annie, but realizes he is dependent on her because, in his weakened state, he cannot care for himself (and in addition is thoroughly addicted to the painkillers she supplies). He goes on with his writing, even though another spat with Annie results in her impromptu amputation of his left thumb. In early May, a Colorado State Police officer comes to Annie’s house with a picture of Paul. Paul throws an ashtray out the window and shouts. The surprised officer doesn't notice Annie sneaking up behind him. She hits the officer several times with a Wooden cross she had used for the burial of one of her cows, then runs over him with a riding lawnmower. She then backs over him to make sure he was dead—blood and gore flies all over the place. After disposing of the officer's body and his cruiser at her unspecified "Laughing Place," she comes to Paul with the officer's pistol and two bullets in it. She wants to be with him forever. Paul quickly explains that he is almost done with the book, however, and Annie believes him. As Paul finishes the last chapter, he comes up with a plan. He asks Annie for a cigarette and a match to light it with, to celebrate the completion of the manuscript. When Annie steps out of his room briefly, Paul prepares the final stages of his plan, and when she returns, he tells her that Misery's Return is the best thing he's ever written -- but that Annie will never get to read it. He then drops the lit match into a trash can nearby, which he has doused with a squirreled-away bottle of lighter fluid. Stunned, Annie runs to the pile and tries to put it out. She sticks her head in the flames, and emerges with all the flesh on her face burnt off. Paul flings his typewriter at her head, and it becomes wielded into her face. Although this does not kill her, it gives Paul the upper hand and after breaking a glass bottle and shoving the jagged stump into Annie's neck he believes he has managed to overpower her. Paul takes several handfuls of burning pages and shoves them down her throat, one by one, until she lies still, seemingly dead. He crawls to the bathroom, knowing that Annie has to be dead but still not believing it, and loads himself with Novril as he waits. Due to the overdose, he falls unconscious. When more police arrive, looking for their missing colleague, they find Paul awake in the house, but there is no sign of Annie. They would later find Annie's body in the barn, with one hand wrapped around the handle of a chainsaw. The cause of death was in fact a fractured skull sustained when the typewriter banged her head. Paul finds this ironic. Also, the reader learns, Paul did not burn his book at all. The pile of papers consisted of notes and discarded pages; the top piece of paper on the pile showed the book's title in order to fool Annie into thinking Paul was burning the actual manuscript. Returning home to New York, Paul is fitted with a prosthetic foot. He learns that his foot had been infected with gangrene, and that Annie's amputation of the foot actually saved his life. He submits Misery's Return to his publisher, who tells him that it is certain to become his best-selling book ever. However, the ordeal is far from over for Paul: he suffers nightmares about Annie as well as symptoms of withdrawal from the Novril. He also drinks too much, has writer's block and cannot bring himself to get back to work. However, one day, he gets an idea and begins to type a story based on his experiences from a new view. Movie: Nurse Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates) saves the life of novelist Paul Sheldon (James Caan) after a car accident brought on by a severe blizzard. Wilkes, an obsessive fan of Sheldon's "Misery" romance series, takes him home and serves as his caretaker. Annie turns out to be severely mentally disturbed (very possibly suffering from erotomania), and she prevents him from leaving or contacting the rest of the world. Once Annie finds out he kills Misery Chastain, the series' namesake, in his latest published book, she flies into a rage and nearly kills him. She also coldly tells him that she never called the doctors, Paul's agent or his daughter, as she'd previously said she'd done. After leaving for a few days, she forces him to burn the manuscript he had carried with him and write a new "Misery" story, Misery's Return, in which Misery is somehow brought back to life. Paul eventually escapes from his room. He finds a photograph album with newspaper clippings of Annie's history; she had been acquitted on charges of infanticide while serving as head maternity nurse in a hospital. She has also killed several other hospital patients over the years, and also killed her father and college roommate. Annie discovers Paul's forays into the rest of the house and, to prevent further ones, cripples (or "hobbles") him in the infamous "sledgehammer scene" by breaking his ankles with a sledgehammer. A local sheriff, Buster (Richard Farnsworth), who is investigating Sheldon's disappearance comes to suspect Annie. After a visit, a noise from inside the house leads him to find Paul in the basement, where Annie hid him when she saw Buster coming. However, Buster is immediately killed by Annie with a shotgun. Upon completion of the "Misery" book, Annie is ecstatic and wants to celebrate by a murder-suicide with Paul. However, Paul acquires a chance and lights his finished novel afire. He takes advantage of her anguish by attempting to knock her unconscious with the typewriter he used. This fails, and the two engage in an intense brawl that ends in Annie's death. Paul is assumed to be rescued. The movie then continues eighteen months after Paul was rescued; he is shown in New York City having a meal with his agent, Marcia Sindell (Lauren Bacall). They discuss his new novel, which is separate from the "Misery" series. Paul rejects a suggestion to write about his experiences with Annie because he is constantly haunted by them; he mistakes a waitress, another one of his fans, for Annie in a haunting, daydream-like vision. Annie Wilkes is one crazy, obsessed fan. However, she certainly would not classify herself as a villain. In fact, when we meet her, she is doing a heroic act. She simply did what any good citizen would do if they happened to run across a person, who just happened to be her favorite writer, injured in a car accident in the dead of winter. She took him in and helped him get better. It’s the least his #1 Fan could do. Of course, she went a bit over the line. Just as Paul Sheldon was ready to leave, Annie felt the desire to keep him there longer, especially after finding out that Sheldon was killing off her very favorite fictional character from his novels, Misery. Annie felt it was necessary for Paul to stay longer and make things right, and when Paul disagreed, she needed to take steps to keep him there. Whether it was by lying, drugging him, or using the occasional sledgehammer to the ankles to keep him off his feet (in the novel, it was an axe, and she cut off his foot), Annie did it. She felt what she was doing was right, but we know it’s wrong. Beside the obvious (kidnapping and torturing Sheldon), she is also very selfish. Sheldon wants to move on from the “Misery” series. He wants to open up his literary prowess and explore new worlds and possibilities with his writing. However, Annie can’t accept that. She wants Misery; she wants Sheldon the same stories he has always been writing. In a way, she represents us all. Don’t we hate it when a certain fictional work does something new? Sure, there are those who hate it at first and then learn to love it; but Annie is that person who wants their favorite work to stay the same throughout. Everyone fears change and the unknown in the real world, and we usually turn to fiction because it is a safe escape. However, that fiction begins to change, we freak. We want that work to stay for our security and peace of mind. We don’t care about the creator wanting to do something new; we only care about ourselves. In a way, Annie Wilkes is us; and that makes her a whole scarier.
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jzbadblood
Unicron
Christ, man. Can't you see what's happening? Can't you read between the lines?
Posts: 3,052
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Post by jzbadblood on May 20, 2008 17:58:10 GMT -5
Hans Gruber is #1 or insta-fail
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on May 20, 2008 18:00:36 GMT -5
79. Mr. Blonde Who is he: A sadistic criminal. What is he from: “Reservoir Dogs.” What has he done: Did something horrible at the jewelry store robbery; kidnapped a policeman and cut off his ear. Intelligence: He's no mindless thug but a bit too reckless to be in charge of things. Power: He’s a hired hand. Vileness: For millions of people, listening to "Stuck in the Middle with You" will never be the same. Sway: His low-key approach definitely throws his fellow Dogs, especially Mr. White and Mr. Pink. Purity: He doesn't care what anyone else thinks and takes every opportunity to show that, both physically and verbally. Physical Prowess: A fairly big dude who knows how to handle a gun...and a straight razor, and looks good with sunglasses. Name Coolness: “Mr. Blonde” has a weird coolness to it, and his real name, “Vic Vega,” is pretty badass. Created by: Quentin Tarantino. Portrayed by: Michael Madsen, though he had some trouble playing the role. During a scene in which Mr. Blonde tortures the police officer, actor Kirk Baltz ad-libbed a line about being father of a young child. Madsen, who himself had just become a father, was so upset that he had a great deal of difficulty finishing the scene. On some copies of the DVD, as Baltz completes the line, a voice can be heard off-screen saying "Oh, no, no ..." The ad-lib compounded Madsen's original reluctance to do the scene, due to his real-life aversion to violence. Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney) and his son, "Nice Guy" Eddie (Chris Penn), are planning a jewel heist; and they hire Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen), Mr. Blue (Eddie Bunker), Mr. Brown (Quentin Tarantino), Mr. Orange (Tim Roth), Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi) and Mr. White (Harvey Keitel) to do the job. However, the job goes bad, though it’s never shown on screen. After the job, Mr. White, driving with one hand, is trying to comfort a hysterical Mr. Orange, who has been shot in the lower abdomen and is bleeding profusely. They arrive at an abandoned warehouse, later revealed to be the rendezvous point for the armed robbery they have just committed. Mr. White leaves Mr. Orange on the warehouse floor. Mr. Pink appears and angrily suggests that the jewelry heist was a setup. Mr. Brown has been killed by the police and the whereabouts of Mr. Blonde and Mr. Blue are unknown to Mr. White and Mr. Pink. Mr. White and Mr. Pink are enraged at Mr. Blonde, who shot and killed several civilians after the alarm went off. They argue about whether or not to take the unconscious Mr. Orange to a hospital. The argument turns violent when Mr. White reveals that he told Mr. Orange his first name. They point their loaded pistols at each other. Mr. Blonde, who has been watching the action from the shadows, steps forward and tells them not to leave the warehouse because Nice Guy Eddie is on his way there. Mr. Blonde takes them outside to his car and opens the trunk to reveal Marvin Nash (Kirk Baltz), a police officer he has captured. Mr. Pink and Mr. White brutalize the officer, and then Mr. Blonde tapes him to a chair. Eddie arrives at the warehouse and orders Mr. Pink and Mr. White to come with him to retrieve the stolen diamonds (that Mr. Pink stashed after fleeing the scene) and get rid of the hijacked vehicles, while ordering Mr. Blonde to stay with the dying Mr. Orange and the "cop". The officer denies knowing anything about the setup, and begs to be released. Mr. Blonde then draws a straight razor from his cowboy boot and tunes a radio to K-Billy's "Super Sounds of the '70s", which is playing "Stuck in the Middle With You" by Stealers Wheel. Dancing around to the music, Mr. Blonde slashes the officer's face and cuts off his ear. He then splashes the officer with gasoline and prepares to ignite it with his cigarette lighter when Mr. Orange suddenly shoots Mr. Blonde several times in the chest, killing him. Mr. Blonde is cruel, sadistic, and pretty much ruined “Stuck In The Middle With You” for a lot of people. That torture scene sealed him as a great movie villain for years to come. I mean, he had already beaten the cop. He cut off his ear, doing it while dancing to such a cheerful song. And, he planned to set him on fire. He didn’t just want that cop die; he wanted him to suffer. And, he would have gotten away with it, if it wasn’t for that meddling Mr. Orange. However, we don’t really see all the bad things Mr. Blonde did in the movie. The jewelry store robbery is never shown, and it was during it that he shot a whole bunch of people. We don’t who he shot, how many people he shot, and how bad they were shot. That makes Mr. Blonde’s deed a lot scarier because it has our imaginations running wild. Some people might see him shooting several people. Some might see people heads and limbs falling off and blood everywhere. Some might even see him shooting a baby. Our imaginations give Mr. Blonde a free-range on how evil he can be.
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on May 20, 2008 18:01:43 GMT -5
Tomorrow, numbers 78 and 77. Here are the hints:
He must break you, and he doesn't like absent people.
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Post by Bob Schlapowitz on May 20, 2008 18:14:50 GMT -5
Ivan Drago and ??
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on May 21, 2008 19:57:59 GMT -5
78. Principal Ed Rooney Who is he: Principal of the high school in Shermer, Illinois. What is he from: “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and the short-lived TV show Ferris Bueller. What has he done: Tried to ruin Ferris’s day off. Intelligence: Most likely a degree in education. Power: He’s in charge of a high school, but that’s about as his power stretches. Vileness: Looks like he might have a mean streak. Sway: Can intimidate teenagers with threats of detention, suspension, and expulsion. Purity: The man goes through hell to try and prove that Ferris isn’t sick. Physical Prowess: He looks a little chubby and out of shape. Name Coolness: “Rooney” ain’t cool. Created by: John Hughes. Portrayed by: Jeffrey Jones played him in the movie, and Richard Riehle played him in the TV show. Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) is an irreverent high school senior from the fictional northern Chicago suburb of Shermer, Illinois, who decides to skip school for a day on the town by pretending to be sick. We later learn that he has done this many times throughout the school year. He convinces his nervous hypochondriac friend Cameron (Alan Ruck) to take his father's carefully restored 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California out for a spin, although Cameron's father has memorized the car's mileage. Ferris promises to erase any miles they put on the car by driving the car home in reverse. Masquerading as her father, Ferris springs his younger girlfriend Sloane (Mia Sara) from school on the premise that her grandmother has died. Meanwhile, school dean of students, Edward Rooney (Jones), doesn’t believe Ferris's illness, as he has been tracking Ferris's many absences from school on his computer. Ferris remotely deletes these absences from the computer while Rooney watches helplessly. Lacking proof of the truancy, he sets out to catch him in the act, suffering injuries and humiliation in his quest. Ferris leaks a rumor to some 9th-graders that he is near-terminally ill, and he becomes the town's favorite son. A campaign by the students to "Save Ferris" is a running joke throughout the film. His twin sister, Jeanie (Jennifer Grey), is outraged at Ferris's ability to defy authority unpunished and becomes as determined as Rooney to prove that her brother is lying. Her efforts lead to her being home when Rooney visits the house, which she misinterprets as an attempt to attack her. In response to the misinterpretation, Jeanie kicks Rooney in the face several times while screaming and running around the house, and then she goes to the police. Later, Rooney believes he sees Ferris in a low-scale restaurant, but it turns out to be just a girl with short hair, who spits soda in Rooney’s face. Rooney also faces some trouble with a dog, but luckily for him, it gets knocked out by a potted plant. After a long day of fun and adventure, Ferris has to quickly get home before his parents do. He runs through neighbors' backyards and hops fences in an attempt to get home first (during this sequence, though in a hurry, Ferris briefly stops to greet a pair of female sunbathers). He arrives back home, but Rooney catches him. However, Jeanie opens the door and thanks Rooney for driving Ferris home from the hospital. Jeanie then reveals that Rooney left his wallet on the kitchen floor during his earlier visit, leaving Rooney with a vicious dog. Ferris manages to get into bed in time for his parents to check on him. The closing credits play beside scenes of Rooney receiving jeers and odd looks while riding the school bus. At a point during this scene, a girl sitting next to him offers a "gummy bear" claiming that they have been in her pocket and they're "real warm and soft". Rooney looks depressed and sickened as she says "Bet you never smelled a real school bus before". The TV show isn’t worth mentioning. Poor guy. Ed Rooney goes through a lot of crap to try and prove that Ferris was skipping school. And, just when he thinks he has succeeded, victory is taken from his grasp. He is forced to walk away and take the bus back to school. You almost feel sorry for the guy. ALMOST! I mean, I could feel sorry for him; all he was trying to do was his job: make sure the kids are going to school. But, I just can’t. For one, he’s a buzzkill. Ferris just wants to have some fun with his friends. It’s just three teenagers skipping school. The world isn’t going to end if three teenagers skip school. Second, he’s so weaselly. I mean, just look at him. He looks conniving, like he’s hatching some devious plan. I could easily see Rooney as a global terrorist (with a different name of course) as I can see him as a high school principal. But, the main reason is his ego. If he hadn’t been so goddamn smug and cocky, then I could muster some sympathy for him. However, Rooney has got quite the ego. He thinks he can easily outwit Ferris Bueller, but Ferris is two, three, even four steps ahead of Rooney. Ultimately, his pride prevents him from winning. I mean, he had Ferris dead to rights! All he had to do was grab Ferris by the collar, take him into the house, and tell his parents of all the things Ferris has done. But, no! He just had to gloat. Sure enough, Jeanie saves Ferris; and Rooney has to fend off a dog and take the bus back to school. It sucks that Rooney had to go through so much crap, but he basically brought it all on himself.
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on May 21, 2008 20:28:11 GMT -5
77. Ivan Drago Who is he: A boxer. What is he from: “Rocky IV” What has he done: Killed Apollo Creed in an exhibition match. Intelligence: He’s a boxer, so I doubt he’s got much. Power: Usually, other people are telling him what to do. Vileness: He is as cold as the Russian winter. Sway: I doubt many people would say no to him. Purity: Will do anything to win, even take steroids. Physical Prowess: The man is huge, ripped with muscles, and has a powerful punch. Name Coolness: “Ivan Drago” has a very cool combination: foreign, rolls off the tongue nicely, and sounds scary. That makes it very cool. Created by: Sylvester Stallone. Portrayed by: Dolph Lundgren. Stallone has stated that the punching between him and Dolph Lundgren in the first portion of the fight is completely authentic. One particularly forceful punch to Stallone's chest slammed his heart against his breastbone, causing the heart to swell and his breathing to become labored. Stallone, suffering from labored breathing and a blood pressure over 200, was flown from the set in Canada to St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica and was kept in intensive care for eight days. Additionally, Stallone claims that Lundgren nearly forced Carl Weathers to quit in the middle of filming the Apollo versus Drago exhibition fight. Lundgren tossed Weathers into the corner of the boxing ring, prompting Weathers to leave the ring and announce that he was quitting and calling his agent. The story opens to Eye of the Tiger during the climax of Rocky Balboa's rematch against Clubber Lang (Mr. T), where Rocky (Sylvester Stallone) defeated Lang with a KO to regain his title. The picture then fades and we see Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) presenting his favor to Rocky shortly after the Lang fight for helping him train, a friendly sparring match with him for fun, just as their punches connect the camera then fades once again. Rocky returns to his home to celebrate Paulie's (Burt Young) birthday and shows evidence of a punch from Creed. Apollo also has given him a hat. It's also Rocky and Adrian Balboa's (Talia Shire) (almost) 9 year wedding anniversary. Meanwhile, Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren), a highly intimidating 261 pound Soviet boxer, arrives in America with his wife Ludmilla (Bridgitte Nielsen), a gold medalist swimmer, his manager, Nicolai Koloff (Michael Pataki), and a team of trainers headed by Igor Rimsky (George Roman) to challenge the best American fighters. Koloff takes great pride in showing off the giant's gym to the American press. The training room is spotless and antiseptic, looking more like a laboratory than a place for athletes to get in shape. Koloff goes on at great length at how all of this aids in improving their man's performance, while Drago, hooked to electrodes and computers, waits for an order to be given. When asked what the result of all this is, Koloff replies, "Whatever he hits, he destroys." Seeing Drago on TV, Apollo Creed, motivated by patriotism and a desire to prove himself after five years of retirement, quickly jumps at the chance to step back into the ring in an exhibition bout against Drago. Despite apprehension from Rocky, who eventually agrees to help train him, Apollo sets the match between himself and Drago in Las Vegas. With Rocky in his corner, Apollo flamboyantly makes his way to the ring with an even bigger show than when he first fought Rocky, which includes fireworks, James Brown performing "Living in America," and a patriotic theme, including a crowd implacably hostile to the visiting Soviet boxer. Apollo starts the fight in his trademark manner, dancing around the ring and flicking jabs at Drago. Apollo's punches, however, have no effect on the giant Russian, and Drago throws a crippling right hand that sends Apollo reeling. Drago remorselessly batters Apollo with a series of devastating punches, leaving him bloodied and battered at the end of the round. Rocky pleads with him to quit the fight, but Apollo refuses to give up, despite the punishment he's taken. The match ends in tragedy in the second round as Drago brutally smashes the very life out of Creed. Duke (Tony Burton) begs Rocky to throw in the towel, but Creed refuses to let him, diving rashly back into combat. Drago starts launching blow after blow, and following one final hard punch, Creed drops lifelessly to the canvas. After Apollo's funeral, feeling wracked with grief over not stopping the fight, and incensed by Drago's cold indifference to Apollo, ("If he dies, he dies.") Rocky decides he must avenge Apollo's death and sets a match with the Russian, for Christmas Day, in Moscow, but neither Rocky's world heavyweight title is on the line nor is there any purse, for the boxing commission refused to sanction the fight. Finally, Balboa decides to get away from everything by training in Russia. Adrian tries to talk Rocky out of it, fearing for his life, but Rocky is undeterred, realizing that Apollo was right, that fighters are a breed apart and there are certain things they have to do. After saying goodbye to his son, Robert, Rocky flies with Duke and Paulie to a remote and rustic part of the Soviet Union to train. Serious training begins in earnest for the two warriors, although their methods differ wildly. Drago, ever attached to electrodes and constantly monitored by computers, works out with ultra hi-tech equipment. Like a machine responding to the flick of a switch, he snaps out punches at blinding speed whenever ordered, coupled with regular injections of what are implied to be anabolic steroids. Rocky, on the other hand, uses only whatever material is available. He climbs rope, does pull-ups on wooden beams, jogs past Russian peasants, chops wood, runs up snowy embankments, lifts huge rocks, and struggles mightily with a rock-filled sled, dragging it up the side of a mountain. KGB agents also follow Rocky's movements wherever he goes. He is almost ready, but he's missing one thing. When Adrian shows up unexpectedly, to support him emotionally, providing more reason to succeed, Rocky begins to train harder than ever before. His heart is restored, and he is once again at his physical and emotional best. After intense preparation for both fighters, the two men finally meet in the ring. Rocky once more dons Apollo's stars and stripes shorts as he did against Clubber Lang. The match is set in Moscow, before the Politburo, and is broadcast across the globe. Much like Apollo did in the previous fight, the Soviets introduce Drago with an elaborate, patriotic ceremony that puts the attending audience squarely on the side of Drago, leaving Rocky to be fiercely booed, much like the American crowd cheered Creed and booed Drago in Las Vegas. After the ring introductions, an impassive Drago tells Rocky, "I must break you." After a pulverizing first round, with the Russian easily winning, Rocky comes back toward the end of the second and lands a shot that cuts Drago just below his eye. With Drago's confidence shaken by the injury and Rocky's apparently limitless endurance and resilience, this is a turning point as Rocky and Duke see that Drago is not superhuman as he appears, conversely while Drago describes Rocky as non-human and a "piece of iron." The fight degenerates into a brutal battle of stamina and will across all fifteen rounds. Towards the end, the Soviet crowd has been won over by Rocky's determination and endurance, and they begin chanting his name. Koloff, angered by the crowd's change in mood and fearful of retribution from the Soviet premier, gets up from the premier's box and goes to Drago's corner to berate his performance. Drago clutches Koloff by the throat, lifts him off the ground, and tosses him aside, saying "I fight to win ... for me ... FOR ME ....!!" (the last part directed at the premier) The bell rings for the last time and Rocky, all but dead on his feet, takes one crushing blow after another from Drago. The crowd starts chanting, "Rocky, Rocky..." and suddenly, Balboa comes alive and smashes away at the Soviet, eventually knocking him down and out of the ring as Drago's endurance finally runs out. Following his victory, Rocky gives an impassioned speech to the crowd, acknowledging their initial and mutual disdain for each other, and how they've come to respect and admire each other during the fight. Saying that the brutal battle between him and Drago in the ring was better than war between their two countries, he brings the crowd, including the Politburo, to its feet in applause, by claiming that "if I can change... and you can change... everybody can change!" Ivan Drago may just be the coldest fictional character of all time. Okay, I won’t go that far; but he is pretty cold. I mean, he beats Apollo Creed to death. And, as Rocky holds the dying Creed in his arms, Drago emotionlessly says, “If he dies, he dies.” He has no compassion or remorse for Creed. To him, boxing is a war. There must be a winner and a loser. In order to win, you must be willing to anything. And, if the loser dies, then well, he dies. That’s what happens in war: people die. He also shows no emotions most of the times. Hell, there times you might suspect that he is a robot. However, when he does show some emotion, it is usually anger. Plus, he just looks evil. His body is chiseled out of marble. He looks like the Aryan poster boy. And, his voice is a monotone drone that gives out no life what so ever. Everything about him gives off the villain vibe that Ivan Drago had to be put on this list. That, and I’m a little afraid I’ll start having nightmares where Drago beats me to death in the ring. And, I fear that Drago’s punches are so powerful that can kill people through the dreamworld. HEY! DON’T LAUGH! IT’S A PERFECTLY LEGITIMATE FEAR! IT IS! OH SCREW YOU PEOPLE!
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on May 21, 2008 20:30:17 GMT -5
Tomorrow, we finish 1/4th of the countdown with 76 and 75. Here are the hints:
He pretty muchs contols the "they" conspiracy nuts talk about, and he likes chainsaws.
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on May 22, 2008 20:02:53 GMT -5
Countdown time, once again. Here's 76: 76. Cigarette Smoking Man Who is he: A high ranking member of the Syndicate and leader of the Men In Black. What is he from: The X-Files. What has he done: Behind pretty much all of the conspiracies shown on the show, including Scully’s abduction, assassinating political figures like JFK and Martin Luther King, Jr., and the development of a fatal alien virus. Intelligence: Well, you have to be really smart in order to orchestrate numerous conspiracies. Power: Pretty much has the power to do what he wants. Vileness: Will do anything sinister without a second thought. Sway: His position in the Syndicate and control of the Men In Black gives him a lot of power to have things done. Purity: Will do anything in order for the Syndicate’s goals to be met. Physical Prowess: He’s an old man with bad lungs. Name Coolness: “Cigarette Smoking Man” sounds pretty cool. He’s also known by the other cool names “Cancer Man”; “C.G.B. Spender,” which falls under the Initial Default Syndrome; “Cigarette Man”; “Smokey Man”, “Black-lunged Son of a Bitch”, “Old Smokey” (all names Mulder later uses), “Mr. Hunt” (the name he gave to Lee Harvey Oswald (possibly a reference to E. Howard Hunt)), and “Raul Bloodworth.” Created by: Chris Carter. Portrayed by: William B. Davis, who has defended CSM as a heroic figure in many of his interviews, and has said that he based his performance off of Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein, among others. Actor Chris Owens for a time portrayed CSM as a young man. He later plays CSM's son, Jeffrey Spender. Young CSM was first played by Craig Warkentin, with Davis's voice dubbed over ("Apocrypha"). During the first season, CSM was mostly seen in the offices of FBI Section Chief Blevins or Assistant Director Skinner; if not there, he was shown in an underground vault in the Pentagon, secreting evidence in a vast storehouse of classified materials. He had few lines during the season. Coupled with his tendency to lurk in the shadows, he was seen as embodying the "dark hand" of the conspiracy. In season two, he has his Man in Black underling, Alex Krycek, spy on Mulder, and authorizes Scully's abduction. With help from Skinner, who had recently stood up to CSM for the first time, Mulder tracks him down to his apartment (presumably in the DC area). There, Mulder confronts CSM, whose first real dialogue has become one of the most famous moments in X-Files history. This scene does much to establish the nature of their relationship. In the Season Two finale "Anasazi", CSM pays his old colleague William Mulder a visit, revealing their relationship for the first time. Not long after, CSM orders Krycek to execute William, presumably because he felt the disillusioned William had grown to be too great a liability to the security of "The Project." Season Three put the Syndicate onscreen for the first time. Almost immediately, it becomes apparent that the individual members do not exactly trust one another. It is shown that CSM is not the all-powerful leader of the Syndicate; in fact, many other members look down on him. In the finale, "Talitha Cumi", a rebel alien named Jeremiah Smith, is taken prisoner by CSM. Pending execution, the two have a dialogue that echoes The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor. During their conversations, Smith repeatedly unnerves CSM by morphing into people whose deaths CSM had ordered in the past. CSM learns that he is dying of lung cancer and quickly gives Smith his freedom in exchange for a cure (some aliens have remarkable healing abilities). Also during this episode, the question of whether CSM is actually Fox's and/or Samantha's biological father is first presented when he is shown to have had a past relationship with Mulder's mother. In Season Four, the episode, "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man", presents a possible history to CSM. The Lone Gunmen, during some of their own investigations, discover some information concerning CSM, which they recount to Mulder and Scully. According to the episode, CSM was born on or around August 20, 1940, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He grew up an orphan (his father was executed for treason). In 1962 he was stationed, along with Bill Mulder, at the US Army Special Warfare Center at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. In the episode, he is portrayed as a deadly assassin with a long history in black operations and American intelligence. He was involved in training Cuban nationals in the Bay of Pigs, aided Dominican locals in the assassination of Rafael Trujillo. The young Special Forces officer is called into a room and older men in suits ask him about these accomplishments. He calmly denies everything. He is offered a further role in black ops, one that will involve his leaving the Army and every formal written record of his life being destroyed. He is soon involved in the plot that assassinated both John F. Kennedy (firing 2 shots from a Dallas storm drain) and Martin Luther King, (in what the production staff admitted was a joke) fixed the Super Bowl to ensure that the Buffalo Bills would never win a championship, drugged the Soviet Union's goalie in the Miracle on Ice, and thinks nothing of insulting J. Edgar Hoover to his face or putting Saddam Hussein on hold. He is also shown as a failed writer whose sci-fi stories based on the Syndicate's truth are rejected for being too unrealistic. After making a sale, he plans to retire from the conspiracy, but he soon discovers that his work has been published as text filler in a pornographic magazine, and the ending has been altered. In a scene parodying that year's Oscar winner Forest Gump, after a tramp sits down next to him eating a box of chocolates from out of a bin CSM says “Life is like a box of chocolate. Cheap, thoughtless, perfunctory gift that nobody ever asks for. Unreturnable because all you get back is another box of chocolate. So you’re stuck with this undefinable whipped mint crap that you mindlessly wolf down till there’s nothing left to eat. Sure once in a while there’s a peanut butter cup, or an English toffee, but they’re gone too fast and taste is fleeting. So you end up with nothing but broken bits filled with hardened jelly and teeth shattering nuts. And if you’re desperate enough to eat those all you’re left with is an empty box filled with useless brown paper wrappers.” He then forestalls his retirement leaving the magazine at the bus stop, which the tramp then picks up and begins to read. During this episode, the Smoking Man meets with Lee Harvey Oswald to discuss his part in the assassination of J.F.K.. During this conversation, Lee refers to the Smoking Man as Mr. Hunt. This may be linking the character of Smoking Man to a real life Smoking Man, E. Howard Hunt, who was heavily involved in the Watergate scandal among other operations. During the first mytharc fifth season episodes, the Elder has decided that CSM is no longer useful, and orders MIB operative Quiet Willy to eliminate him. While in his apartment, CSM was ruminating over a photograph of Mulder and Samantha when an assassin firing through the window shot him in the chest. During this episode he also helps Mulder find a cure for Scully's cancer (which she learned about in season 4), and presents him with a Samantha clone, whom he purports is Mulder's sister. Despite this, Mulder refuses to work for him. CSM later appears hiding in a remote area of Quebec. Missing his talents, the Syndicate welcomes him back at the end of the season. In the sixth season's full disclosure two-parter ("Two Fathers"/"One Son"), his name is revealed to be C. G. B. Spender. It is revealed that he was formerly married to Cassandra Spender, with whom he had a son, Jeffrey. Diana Fowley is revealed to be a subordinate of his; together, they escape the annihilation of the Syndicate. In the episode, his confidence in Jeffrey, whom CSM hoped would become greater than Mulder, wanes, and he confronts his son and apparently kills him. The episodes also presented further evidence suggesting CSM is Mulder's father. Eventually, Fowley also splits from CSM, siding with Mulder and Scully. With the Syndicate dismantled, CSM still managed to keep the conspiracy going, and was presumably now free to operate as he wished. His cancer resurfaced about a year later and he became wheelchair-bound. He also acquired a trachea hole, though this in no way lessened his chain-smoking. At the end of the 7th season, after carrying out an operation at the behest of CSM, Krycek turns on him and throws him down a flight of stairs. For about two years, CSM was presumed dead. During this time, Mulder was abducted, found and then disappeared on his own, Scully eventually left the X-Files division and had a child, William, and a new conspiracy, the New Syndicate, surfaced. In the episode "William", it is learned that CSM's attempted murder of Jeffrey Spender failed. Jeffrey was then subjected to experiments at the orders of CSM, which left Jeffrey horribly scarred. Also, it is revealed in this episode that he is Fox's biological father. In the two part Series Finale, Mulder and Scully travel through remote New Mexico, and reach a pueblo where a "wise man" reputedly lives. It is in fact CSM. He is shown to be in the same condition as when he disappeared, but has degenerated further and is now quite unkempt. He has a shock of long white hair, and is living a primitive life in hiding from the New Syndicate. He reveals to Mulder and Scully all he has left to tell (including the fact that the aliens are scheduled to invade in 2012) and shortly after is finally killed, shot by a black helicopter rocket. Sometimes you don’t need brawn or superpowers to get evil things done. Sometimes you just need to be in a very powerful position. And, that is how the Cigarette Smoking Man does things. Sure, he did start out as the guy the Syndicate would go to if they needed something done or someone assassinated. Eventually, he became the one who made the orders; and those people are usually the most evil ones. They make the decisions to have people killed or lives ruined or whatever, and they send other people to do it. You don’t have to actually do an evil deed to be evil. You can have other people do the evil deeds for you. And, the Cigarette Smoking Man has been behind a lot of evil deeds. Some are significant: assassinating John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. Some are personal: he shot his own son, leaving him for dead. Some are trivial: he kept the Buffalo Bills from winning the Super Bowl and allowed Marisa Tomei to win an Oscar. He is also tough and conniving. He was able to last both inside the Syndicate and outside it for as long as he did primarily due to the fact that he always ensured that he had too much valuable information to be expendable, his experience as an assassin, and his connections with elements of the extraterrestrial presence and others. Eventually, however, this internal struggle comes to a head later on in the show, when power struggles and what were perceived as frequent failures resulted in the Elder ordering that the Cigarette Smoking Man was to be assassinated (an attempt which failed). In the end, it was the Syndicate that disappeared, and the Cigarette Smoking Man ended up running the Conspiracy himself. Plus, he just looks so evil, with his old face and the cigarette smoking.
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on May 22, 2008 20:43:20 GMT -5
75. Leatherface Who is he: A chainsaw wielding madman. What is he from: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise. What has he done: Killed a bunch of people and ate them. Intelligence: Inbreeding has made him mentally retarded, but some (his family) say he’s just misunderstood. VERY misunderstood. Power: He’s not the head of the family, but he sure is the most dangerous. Vileness: All that blood and gore says he’s pretty vile. Sway: The chainsaw does all the talking. Purity: While he is completely insane, deep down he is a human being and feels pain. Physical Prowess: Appears to be stronger than the average man and looks scary as hell with those masks made out of human faces. Name Coolness: “Leatherface” is pretty cool. Created by: Kim Henkel and Tobe Hooper. Portrayed by: Gunnar Hansen played “Leatherface” in the first “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.” Bill Johnson played him in “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.” R.A. Mihailoff played him in “Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III.” Robert Jacks played him in “Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation.” And, Andrew Bryniarski played him in “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” remake and “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning.” “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”: “Leatherface” is a member of the Sawyer family, who kidnap people, kill them, and turn them into food. His real name is unknown, although older brother Chop Top calls him "Bubba" in the second movie. His surname would most logically be Sawyer, sharing the last name of his older brothers, making his full name Bubba Sawyer. In the original film, Leatherface is never seen without one of his human-flesh masks on. The reason for this is unknown. The people Leatherface kills are later made into barbecue and chili, which are sold by his oldest brother, Drayton Sawyer. Aside from Leatherface and Drayton, the Sawyer clan includes his two more brothers, Nubbins and Chop Top, as well as Grandpa, Grandma and Great-Grandma (real names unknown). In the first film, Bickering siblings Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns) and wheelchair-bound Franklin (Paul A. Partain) visit their grandfather's grave in a cemetery in rural Texas with their companions, Sally's boyfriend Jerry (Allen Danziger), his friend Kirk (William Vail), and Kirk's girlfriend Pam (Teri McMinn) after hearing that the graveyard has been vandalized and graves have been robbed. While driving to the Hardestys' now-deserted former house they pick up an odd-looking hitchhiker who talks and acts strangely, cuts his own hand, and finally cuts Franklin on the arm. They kick him out of the van, and as they drive away he smears blood on the side. Running low on gas, the group pulls into a gas station/barbecue, but the owner says that they won't have any fuel until later that afternoon. Upon learning where the teens are going, the owner advises them against going there. The group finally arrives at the Hardesty farm. Following Franklin's directions to a childhood swimming hole, Kirk and Pam set off to find it while the others stay at the old house. Finding the swimming hole dried up, Kirk and Pam hear the sound of a gas-powered generator which attracts them to another farmhouse nearby. They find a camouflaged junkyard of vehicles next to the house. Hoping to buy some gas, Kirk knocks on the door and eventually goes inside. Suddenly he is attacked by a huge man, Leatherface (played by Gunnar Hansen), who hits him with a sledgehammer. Pam then enters searching for Kirk, but also falls prey to Leatherface, who hangs her on a meat hook while he disposes of Kirk. As night approaches, Sally, Franklin and Jerry become concerned, so Jerry goes to search for Pam and Kirk. He finds Pam, who is barely alive, but is attacked and killed himself by Leatherface. As night falls, Sally and Franklin decide to search as well. Their cries attract Leatherface, who bursts upon them and attacks Franklin with a chainsaw, repeatedly driving it through his body. Sally flees through a forest, cutting herself on branches before finding the house. She enters it, but after discovering that the house belongs to Leatherface and finds him blocking the exit, escapes by leaping out a window. With the maniac relentlessly pursuing her, Sally runs all the way back to the gas station. On arrival, Leatherface apparently disappears while she appeals to the gas station owner for help. He tells her he will help but then returns with rope and a burlap sack, subdues her and bundles her into his truck. This character, known only as the "Old Man", is now revealed to be Leatherface's brother. He takes her straight back to the farmhouse, reaching the driveway at the same time as the hitchhiker, who is Leatherface's other brother. Sally is taken into the house and tied to a chair. When they remove the sack, she and the hitchhiker recognize each other, and he immediately taunts her. He and Leatherface then bring down the withered figure of "Grandpa" (John Dugan) from the upstairs bedroom, slicing open Sally's finger so he can suck the blood from it — she then passes out. She awakens to find herself in a horrific dinner scene where the true extent of their insanity is revealed. The hitchhiker repeatedly exclaims that the Old Man is just the "cook," and complains that he and Leatherface handle all the killing. The scene ends with the brothers trying to assist Grandpa in killing the girl, who they have untied to bring her to the other end of the table. Grandpa repeatedly drops the hammer yet still manages to give Sally a head wound with assistance from Leatherface. A family argument then erupts that gives Sally the opportunity to escape by jumping out the window. Outside, dawn has arrived. Sally flees the house and attempts to escape onto the highway. The knife-wielding hitchhiker and the chainsaw-wielding Leatherface give chase. Just as the hitchhiker reaches her and begins slashing at Sally, an eighteen wheeler truck suddenly appears. The hitchhiker is struck and killed. The truck driver stops and gets out, only to find Sally being chased at close quarters by Leatherface. As she and the driver climb into the truck, Leatherface attacks the vehicle with the chainsaw. Escaping through the other side of the cab, the driver throws a large wrench at Leatherface which hits him in the head, knocking him down and causing him to cut his right leg. The truck driver flees down the road. As Leatherface rises to his feet and limps after Sally, a pickup truck arrives on the scene. Sally manages to hop in the back of the truck and it drives away. Frustrated, Leatherface spins around and around in the middle of the road, waving the chainsaw. The film ends with Sally laughing in hysterics at Leatherface as the truck drives away. “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2”: The story opens as two rowdy high school seniors race along an abandoned stretch of Texas highway en route to a weekend of fun in Dallas. They are heavily intoxicated and use their car phone to call and harass on-air DJ Vanita "Stretch" Brock (Caroline Williams). Unable to convince the boys to hang up, Stretch is forced to keep the line open as what began as a simple game of chicken quickly turns into a nightmare. The two teens encounter a large pickup truck that runs parallel to them on a remote bridge. Leatherface, wielding a chainsaw, emerges from the back of the truck and attacks the boys. Stretch records their gruesome deaths on tape at the radio station. The following morning, at the scene of the crime, Lieutenant "Lefty" Enright (Dennis Hopper), former Texas Ranger and uncle of Sally Hardesty and her invalid brother Franklin, arrives to help solve the crime. Lefty has spent the last fourteen years investigating their disappearance while investigating reports of mysterious chainsaw killings across Texas. Though looked upon with disdain by his peers, he is able to get the local paper to carry a tiny article about his quest. This sparks the interest of Stretch, who brings him a copy of the taped death of the two teen boys. At first mortified, Lefty asks Stretch to play the tape on her nightly show. As the sounds of this horrible incident echoes across the airwaves of Texas, Leatherface's family shows up to the radio station. While preparing to leave for the night, Stretch finds Chop Top (Bill Moseley),(who was stationed in Vietnam during the first film and is a twin to the "Hitchhiker" from the first film) waiting in the lobby. When she tries to get rid of him, Leatherface emerges from the darkness. Stretch manages to escape. Leatherface joins Chop-Top as they haul Stretch's near-dead coworker off to their home. Stretch follows them and winds up trapped inside the Sawyer home, which is actually an abandoned carnival ground decorated with human bones, multi-colored lights, and carnival remnants. Lefty turns up with a chainsaw of his own and begins to carve up the home in a rage, shortly before he finds the remains of his nephew, Franklin. The Cook (Jim Siedow) finds Stretch roaming the grounds, and the family takes her captive. Lefty eventually finds her being tortured at the dinner table and saves her. A battle between Lefty and the Sawyer family ensues, ending with a chainsaw duel between Leatherface and Lefty. In the end, Lefty and most of the sawyer family (Leatherface, Grandpa and the Cook) are apparently killed (offscreen) when one of the Cook's grenades goes off prematurely. Only Chop-Top and Stretch escape, where they do final battle in a carved-out rock tower that overlooks the property. Despite being slashed several times with a straight razor, Stretch grabs a chainsaw held by the mummified remains of the family's grandmother in a ritual shrine on the rock tower. Stretch then gets the upper hand on Chop-Top as she cuts him with the chainsaw, where he falls off the tower to a presumed death. The final shot shows Stretch standing on top of the tower and emulating Leatherface's famous chainsaw dance from the ending of the first film. “Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III”: Michelle (Kate Hodge) and Ryan (William Butler) are on a cross country trip from California to Florida, returning a car to her father. However the trip takes a terrifying turn as the pair witness a series of bizarre events. Firstly, in the darkness of night, the pair get held up by traffic, due to the grisly discovery of corpses nearby. Then, stopping off for gas, they experience a crazed man shoot a cowboy, who advises them on what road to take. A dog falls on their windshield. Soon after a road collision they are stranded in the middle of nowhere, though not alone; they cross paths with a weekend warrior, but the chainsaw wielding maniac Leatherface is soon in full swing, as the pair run for their lives, aided by the survivalist. Michelle soon stumbles into the killer’s home, where she is held captive and experiences the gruesome, dysfunctional insanity of a cannibal family. “Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation”: This movie, which is a semi-remake of the original The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, is about a group of four teenagers on prom night who decide to leave early and end up getting into a car accident. They end up at an insurance office in the middle of nowhere, and meet up with a seemingly normal woman, named Darla, who offers to have her husband tow their car. Unfortunately for the teens, this woman is married to a psychopath, named Vilmer, whose brother is the serial killer Leatherface. Also part of the family is Leatherface's brother, named W.E., who also participates in the killings. The teens are taken to a secluded, old farmhouse where the previously cannibalistic family of the earlier films live. In this version, Leatherface is inexplicably not a cannibal but a pizza-eating transvestite involved in an Illuminati conspiracy to provide society a source of horror. “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (2003): The movie starts out with police footage of the crime, with police doing a walkthrough of the basement. On August 18, 1973, five college kids, Erin, Kemper, Pepper, Andy, and Morgan, are on their way to a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert in Dallas. The kids are returning from a trip to Mexico, where Kemper, unbeknownst to his girlfriend Erin, bought marijuana. As they are driving through Travis County, Texas, they see a girl about their age walking in the road. After nearly hitting her, Erin insists that they pick her up, and they do so. She is in a hysterical state and goes on about a "really bad man". They try pulling over to get help but the girl becomes more hysterical. She then pulls a gun out from her dress, sticks it in her mouth and shoots herself. The five are shaken and go to find help. They are told to go to the Old Crawford Mill to find the sheriff. They arrive, and no sheriff is found. Erin and Kemper take off through the woods to find the sheriff's house, leaving the other three at the mill. Erin and Kemper come to a large house in a field. Erin is allowed inside by the owner, an old man in a wheelchair with no legs, but Kemper is told to wait outside. Kemper is fed-up with waiting and goes into the home where he is killed by Leatherface and dragged into the basement. The sheriff arrives at the mill and takes the body of the girl, and as Erin arrives she finds that Kemper is missing. Andy and Erin go back into the house looking for Kemper and the old man soon summons Leatherface, who taunts and chases them with his chainsaw. Erin escapes, but Andy's leg is severed and he is taken inside where he is hung on a meat hook in the basement. Erin arrives back at the mill in a panic. Erin tries starting the van, but it doesn't work. The sheriff soon shows up again, and he orders the three out of the van and forces them to the ground. He makes Morgan re-enact the suicide, and then kidnaps him, leaving the girls alone at the mill with the van. Leatherface shows up (wearing Kemper's face) and cuts Pepper in half with the chainsaw. After a game of cat and mouse chase, Erin is finally caught by Leatherface and taken to the basement. After searching around the sick and twisted place, Erin finds Andy. And In an act of sympathy, she kills him with a large knife. Soon after, she finds Morgan with the help of Jedidiah, who distracts Leatherface long enough for them to escape. They find an abandoned house and hide in the upper level of the house. Erin is caught by Leatherface, but then saved as Morgan sacrifices himself for Erin to escape. Morgan is hung on a chandelier before Leatherface splits him in two up the crotch, killing him. Leatherface continues the chase after Erin. Erin hides in a meat factory where she later chops off Leatherface's arm with a meat cleaver. Erin again escapes and after a mishap with a trucker, steals the sheriff's car and runs him over repeatedly, killing him. She also sees a family at the eatery that they were at in the beginning and a little child sitting in a chair. She watches as the mom goes away and then goes in to rescue the baby before it faces the same fate as her friends. As she drives on, Leatherface appears in the road, brandishing his chainsaw in his other arm. He slices the drivers' side door of the car but Erin is unharmed. Leatherface, who is irate, just breathes heavily from the blood loss and stares as the car drives away. The other half of the police footage is shown, and Leatherface kills the policemen and cameraman. The narrator comes on and says that Thomas Hewitt was never caught, and we are shown the only known image of Thomas Hewitt, the man they call "leatherface". The case remains open. “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning”: August 7, 1939, Thomas Hewitt is born in a meat-packing plant in Travis County, Texas. His mother dies right after birth and the plant boss abandons the newborn in a dumpster, at which point he is discovered by Luda Mae Hewitt while she searches for food. She takes Thomas to the Hewitt residence where the seeds of one of the most deranged and infamous murderers in American cinematic history are planted. July 1969, brothers Eric (Matthew Bomer) and Dean (Taylor Handley) are driving across the country with their girlfriends Chrissie (Jordana Brewster) and Bailey (Diora Baird) before they're to be shipped out to Vietnam. This will be Eric's second tour of duty as he is returning to watch over his recently drafted little brother. Unknown to Eric, Dean has plans to dodge the draft and head to Mexico with Bailey. While driving, they stop by a local eatery where they find a group of bikers who taunt the girls. As the group pulls away from the eatery, they are followed by Alex, a female biker. A chase ensues, and the group crashes into a cow and flipping their car. In the process, Chrissie is thrown from the car and lands in the weeds, out of sight of the others. Sheriff "Hoyt" (R. Lee Ermey) arrives on the scene. He immediately shoots Alex and forces the teens out of the wreckage. After finding Dean's burned draft card he pulls Eric and Dean in front of him and demands to know which man is Dean. Eric covers for his brother and says he is Dean. Hoyt places the body of the biker in the car and forces Eric, Dean and Bailey into the car with him. The Sheriff calls for a tow truck to tow the wreckage. The tow truck comes and Chrissie, hiding in the wreckage of the car, is taken along. The Sheriff takes the group to the Hewitt House and calls for his nephew Tommie (aka 'Leatherface') to butcher the body of the biker, Alex. Eric and Dean are brought to a barn and hung by their arms from the rafters and Bailey tied to the kitchen table. Chrissie ends up at the Hewitt household and sees her friends tied up by Sheriff Hewitt. She runs back to the highway and flags down one of the bikers, Holden, from the diner for help, telling him about the kidnapping of Alex, who is Holden's girlfriend. He follows Chrissie back to the Hewitt residence and they wait for nightfall. Meanwhile, Eric and Dean are sprayed down with water by Hewitt. He reveals to them he developed a taste for human flesh while as a prisoner of war in the Korean War. To punish Dean (actually Eric) for trying to avoid the draft, he wraps Eric’s face in plastic wrap in an attempt to suffocate him. Dean admits that it is his card and Hewitt tells Dean to do twenty push-ups and he will let him go. Hewitt then beats Dean with a billy club while he does his push-ups, eventually knocking him unconscious. Eric gets free as well and the duo approaches the house to rescue Bailey. During the rescue Eric is beaten with Hoyt's shotgun and Dean is caught in a bear trap. Bailey finds the tow truck and begins to drive away, however Leatherface hooks her in the chest with a meat hook and drags her from the truck. Eric is taken to the basement and strapped to a wooden table. Leatherface skins one of his arms, exposing the muscle and tissue and his screams are heard from the house. Holden enters the house searching for Alex and surprises Sheriff Hewitt. Hewitt leads him to 'the girl', but it is actually Bailey. Leatherface then attacks and kills Holden. Chrissie finds Eric and tries to release him from the table, but is unable to release the metal straps bolted to the table. Leatherface comes downstairs and Chrissie hides under the table while he runs a chainsaw through Eric. Leatherface then skins Eric's face and puts it on as his own. Chrissie escapes from the basement to find the front door open leading to freedom, but reconsiders after hearing Baily's desperate screams and decides to save Bailey who has been tied-up on the second floor. As Chrissie attempts to untie Bailey she is caught by Hewitt and Leatherface and brought downstairs for dinner. Hoyt has possibly knocked out Baileys teeth before having supper, and Leatherface proceeds to slit Bailey's throat with a pair of scissors and then grabs Chrissie to bring her downstairs. On the way to the basement, Chrissie manages to free herself by stabbing Leatherface in the back with a screwdriver and escapes by jumping out a window with Leatherface in pursuit, chainsaw in hand. As this occurs, Dean regains consciousness at the dinner table, assaults Hewitt by smashing his head repeatedly into the solid concrete porch and Dean heads off to help save Chrissie. The trio's chase takes them to a nearby farm where Chrissie hides in a slaughterhouse. She slits Leatherface's face with a knife, but is dragged to the floor. Dean interrupts and Leatherface impales Dean on his chainsaw as Chrissie looks on in horror. She then makes her way to an automobile and drives off into the night. Chrissie is desperately looking for help and sees a sheriff's deputy that has pulled over a citizen. As Chrissie heads to apparent freedom, Leatherface suddenly appears in the back seat and gores Chrissie with his chainsaw. The car loses control and crashes into the deputy and citizen. The movie closes with the narrator explaining the number and gruesomeness of the murders that are to follow, as Leatherface walks slowly back along the dark road. The comics: Leatherface was a prominent character in Wildstorm Comics's continuation of the movies. With the family exposed after the events of the first film, the comics find the Hewitt family living in a series of tunnels in the sewers of Travis County. As he was at the end of the first film, Leatherface is missing an arm in the comics. Halfway through the first arc, Leatherface's uncle Monty helps Leatherface build a 'prosthetic arm' (consisting of a hook attached to a bone and tied to Leatherface's arm with a belt) to assist with his nephew's handicap. Leatherface later uses this hook in addition to his chainsaw on victims, at one point spearing a man's leg to prevent him from escaping. The comics also imply that the rest of the town, while perhaps not involved with the Hewitts' cannibalism, are at least aware of it and have agreed to help them deal with outsiders: in one scene, when a potential victim runs into a bar looking for help, she is stopped from calling the police and told by the patrons that they "don't want no Hewitt trouble" and later reprimand Leatherface for not looking after his "livestock". Later one-shots published by Wildstorm also dealt with Leatherface. One of them, "About a Boy", focused on the parts concerning Leatherface's childhood that The Beginning neglected to show. It revealed that Thomas Hewitt was severely picked on as a child and thus spent most of his time alone drawing in his notebook, and hunting and skinning animals, later making clothing out of them. His future as Leatherface is further foreshadowed when, after being bullied severely by another of his peers, Thomas attacks him and skins off his face while he is still alive. About a Boy also detailed how his family was for the most part apathetic towards Thomas's actions. His uncle Charlie (the future Hoyt) helps him get rid of the bully's body (his only criticism being that Thomas needs to "learn how to fix 'em proper", after putting the faceless victim out of his misery with a shotgun). Later, after Thomas's teacher questions her about her son's behavior and tells her that he's going to file a report with the city to get him some help, Luda May bashes his head in with a shovel, stating "There is nothing wrong with my boy." Leatherface is one of the most iconic horror characters of all time, up there with Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, and Mike Myers. However, he differs from them in that he is not so much sadistic or evil; he is in fact mentally retarded and most of the time he only does what his family tells him to do. Gunnar Hansen has stated that Leatherface is "completely under the control of his family. He'll do whatever they tell him to do. He's a little bit afraid of them." Tobe Hooper has argued on the documentary The Shocking Truth” that Leatherface is a 'big baby' and kills in self-defense because he feels threatened, pointing out that in the first film Leatherface was actually frightened at all the new people entering his house. This does give Leatherface some sympathy, but it doesn’t excuse his actions. He still kills people. In fact, he’s the most dangerous member of the family. He has been abused and tortured by them. That builds up a lot of anger. And, who receives the brunt of that anger? Anyone other than his family. He is afraid of them, so scared that he can’t even attack them. So, he takes out all that anger on the unlucky victims in the movies. And, that has left a trail of dead bodies that are later served as barbeque. So, you can sympathize with Leatherface all you want. Just do it from afar. Or else, you’ll get a chainsaw to the face.
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on May 22, 2008 20:51:02 GMT -5
Tomorrow, numbers 74 and 73. Here are the hints:
What cherubs see with, and he was the answer to one of TV's biggest mysteries.
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Sajoa Moe
Patti Mayonnaise
Did you get that thing I sent ya?
A man without gimmick.
Posts: 39,683
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Post by Sajoa Moe on May 22, 2008 20:56:38 GMT -5
JR Ewing.
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Post by teamjd on May 22, 2008 20:58:04 GMT -5
I'm just hoping the Boogeyman from Real Ghostbusters makes this, as he's always criminally under-appreciated.
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on May 23, 2008 19:15:30 GMT -5
Time for more villains as the countdown rolls on. Here's number 74: 74. Angel Eyes Who is he: The Bad, a ruthless, unfeeling and sociopathic mercenary, a sergeant in the Union Army. What is he from: “The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly.” What has he done: Interrogates (i.e. tortures and kills) people in order to find some Confederate gold hidden in a tomb. Intelligence: Street smarts. Power: He holds the rank of Sergeant and has a powerful position at the prison he is stationed at. Vileness: Will kill and torture people with no remorse. Sway: His torture techniques get some results. Purity: Cares only about that Confederate gold. Physical Prowess: A pretty big man in the Wild West who is very deadly with a gun. Name Coolness: “Angel Eyes” is pretty damn cool. Created by: Sergio Leone, Luciano Vincenzoni, and Age & Scarpelli (Agenore Incrocci and Furio Scarpelli). Portrayed by: Lee Van Cleef. Originally, Sergio Leone wanted Charles Bronson to play Angel Eyes but he had already committed to “The Dirty Dozen.” Leone thought about working with Lee Van Cleef again: "I said to myself that Van Cleef had first played a romantic character in ‘For a Few Dollars More.’ The idea of getting him to play a character who was the opposite of that began to appeal to me." In a desolate ghost town, bandit Tuco (Eli Wallach) narrowly escapes three bounty hunters, shooting his way to freedom. Miles away, Angel Eyes (Van Cleef) interrogates a former soldier about a missing man and a cache of Confederate gold, shooting the soldier after he identifies the missing man as Bill Carson (Antonio Casale). Angel Eyes takes this information to an infirm man who seemingly hired him to interrogate the soldier, then gleefully holds a pillow over the man's face while shooting him point blank. Meanwhile, Tuco's journey across the desert leads him into a group of bounty hunters, who prepare to capture him when they are approached by Blondie (Clint Eastwood), a mysterious lone gunman who challenges the hunters to a draw, which he wins with lightning speed. Initially elated, Tuco is enraged when Blondie delivers him to the local authorities for the reward money. Hours later, as Tuco awaits his execution, Blondie surprises the authorities and frees Tuco. The two later meet and split the reward money, revealing their lucrative money-making scheme. The two repeat the process at another town before Blondie, weary of Tuco's consistent complaints and ominous warnings, abandons him in the desert. A livid Tuco rearms himself in a nearby town and tracks Blondie to another town, surprising him in his hotel room by coming in through the window while three men attack from the door. As Tuco prepares to kill Blondie by hanging him, a cannonball demolishes the room, allowing Blondie to escape, the empty noose swinging. Following a relentless search, Tuco ambushes Blondie and marches him through the harsh desert. As Blondie collapses from dehydration, Tuco prepares to kill him when a runaway carriage approaches on the horizon. Inside, Tuco discovers a dying Bill Carson, who reveals that Confederate gold is buried in a grave in Sad Hill cemetery but falls unconscious before giving the name on the grave. When Tuco returns with water, he discovers Carson dead and Blondie slumped against the carriage. Before he passes out, Blondie reveals that he knows the name on the grave. Tuco takes Blondie, both disguised as Confederate soldiers, to a Catholic mission run by Tuco’s brother, Father Pablo Ramirez (Luigi Pistilli), a Franciscan friar. In deleted scenes this is revealed to be a famous mission in San Antonio, Texas (a.k.a. the Alamo). After Blondie’s recovery, the two leave, still disguised as Confederate soldiers when they inadvertently encounter a force of Union soldiers, who capture and march them to a Union prison camp. At the camp, Corporal Wallace (Mario Brega) begins a roll call, and Tuco answers for Bill Carson, catching the attention of Angel Eyes, a Union Sergeant stationed at the camp. Angel Eyes has Wallace torture Tuco into revealing Sad Hill Cemetery, but confesses that only Blondie knows the name on the grave. Angel Eyes offers Blondie an equal partnership in recovering the gold. Blondie agrees and rides out with Angel Eyes and his posse while Tuco, being escorted by train to his execution, escapes. Blondie, Angel Eyes and his posse stop at a war-ravaged town to rest. Across town, Tuco aimlessly wanders through the wreckage, oblivious to the bounty hunter (Al Mulock) who tracks and ambushes Tuco in the middle of a bath. Despite the surprise, Tuco kills the bounty hunter. Blondie leaves to investigate the gunshot, tracking down Tuco and informing him of Angel Eyes's involvement. The two resume their old partnership, skulking through the wrecked town and killing Angel Eyes' henchmen before discovering that Angel Eyes has escaped. Tuco and Blondie track down Sad Hill Cemetery when they discover a great battle brewing between massive Union and Confederate forces, separated only by a narrow bridge. Eager to disperse the standing armies, Blondie and Tuco disguise themselves as medics and wire the bridge with dynamite to explode. During the process, the two trade information, with Tuco revealing Sad Hill Cemetery, while Blondie saying the name on the grave is Arch Stanton. The two detonate the bridge and take cover as the two armies angrily resume their battle. The next morning, the Confederate and Union soldiers have disappeared. Tuco abandons Blondie to retrieve the gold for himself and stumbles upon the sprawling Sad Hill Cemetery. Frantically searching the sea of makeshift tombstones, Tuco finally locates Arch Stanton's grave. As he begins digging, Blondie appears to offer him a shovel. Moments later, the two are ambushed by Angel Eyes, who holds them at gunpoint. Blondie kicks open Stanton's grave to reveal only a skeleton. Declaring that only he knows the real name of the grave, Blondie writes it on a rock in the middle of the graveyard and challenges Angel Eyes and Tuco to a Mexican standoff, the winner of which will have the name and the gold. The three stare each other down, calculating alliances and dangers before suddenly drawing. Blondie shoots Angel Eyes, rolling him into an open grave, while Tuco discovers that Blondie unloaded his gun the night before. Blondie directs Tuco to the grave marked Unknown next to Arch Stanton's. Tuco digs and is overjoyed to find bags of gold inside, but is shocked when he turns to Blondie and finds himself staring at a noose. Blondie forces Tuco atop a grave marker and wraps the noose around his neck, binding Tuco's hands before disappearing with half his share of the gold. As Tuco screams for mercy, Blondie's silhouette returns on the horizon, aiming a rifle at Tuco. As Tuco screams in rage, Blondie fires and severs the noose rope, dropping Tuco face-first onto his share of the gold. Blondie smiles as the livid Tuco screams threats, before turning and riding into the frontier. Angel Eyes has got all the makings of a classic villain. For one, there’s the greed. It is the root of all evil, and the root of Angel Eyes’s evil. All his dastardly deeds are done in order to find the gravesite where the Confederate gold is hidden. Second would be those dastardly deeds. The man is a ruthless psychopath with no human feeling who kills anyone in his path including a young boy, the son of Stevens (Antonio Casas) in the film. He afterwards brutally beats up a young prostitute. He shoots the man who told him about the gold and then shoots the sick man who hired him to interrogate the other man about the gold. We also get the impression that he is cruel to the Confederate soldiers at the Union concentration camp he is stationed at from the scene where he is talking with the dying Captain Harper (Antonio Molino Rojo), whose leg is slowly deteriorating by gangrene. The good captain warns Angel Eyes not to be dishonest on his watch, but Angel Eyes holds him in contempt and deliberately ignores his orders. He will also torture anyone in order to find the location of the gold. He has no morals, and the only thing he cares about is that gold. Finally, there’s his look. He just looks evil, with that devilish grin and the aura of glee and happiness he has as he commits his evil deeds. It seems like he enjoys being such an evil asshole. He is definitely the perfect representation of “Bad” in the film.
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on May 23, 2008 19:53:41 GMT -5
73. Bob Who is he: A demonic entity who feeds on human pain and suffering and has taken possession of a human man. What is he from: Twin Peaks. What has he done: Killed Laura Palmer. Intelligence: Unknown. Power: As a demon, pretty powerful; as a man, not so much. Vileness: He feeds on pain and suffering; that’s pretty vile. Sway: Can get his way through fear and intimidation. Purity: No remorse whatsoever. Physical Prowess: Can possess anyone and thus take on their physical strength. Name Coolness: “Bob” isn’t really that cool, but he’s also known as “Killer Bob,” which is pretty cool. Created by: David Lynch and Mark Frost. Portrayed by: Frank Silva, who got the part by accident. The impetus for the series Twin Peaks was the mystery of who killed Laura Palmer. When production began on the pilot, series creators David Lynch and Mark Frost had decided that the murderer would be revealed as Leland Palmer, Laura's father. During the filming of a scene in the pilot taking place in Laura's room, Frank Silva, a set dresser, accidentally trapped himself in the room prior to filming by inadvertently moving a dresser in front of the door. Lynch had an image of Silva stuck in the room and thought that it could fit into the series somewhere, and told Silva that he would like for him to be in the series. Lynch had Silva crouch at the foot of Laura's bed and look through the bars of the footboard, as if he were "trapped" behind them, and filmed it, then had Silva leave the room and filmed the empty room; after reviewing the footage, Lynch liked the presence that Silva brought to the scene and decided that he would put him somewhere in the series. Later that day, a scene was being filmed in which Laura Palmer's mother experiences a vision which frightens her; at the time, the script did not indicate what Mrs Palmer had seen to frighten her. Lynch was pleased with how the scene turned out, but a crew member informed him that it would have to be re-shot, because a mirror in the scene had inadvertently picked up someone's reflection. When Lynch asked who it was, the crew member replied that it had been Silva. Lynch considered this a "happy accident," and decided at that point that the unnamed character, who would later be called Bob, to be played by Silva would be revealed as Laura Palmer's true killer. TV show: Bob (Silva) is a demonic entity from the Black Lodge, a realm of pure evil which exists on an alternate plane of reality. He spends most of his time on earth possessing human beings, although he also travels in the form of an owl. While possessing humans, he commits horrible acts to elicit pain, fear, and suffering from those around him; these feelings, which Black Lodge residents refer to collectively as "Garmonbozia," act as a form of nourishment. Bob first appears on the series at the end of the second episode, in which FBI agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) has a dream in which he learns that identifying Bob will help him solve the murder of Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee). In the dream, Cooper learns that Bob was once a serial killer who committed his crimes with an accomplice named Mike (Al Strobel), who later repented and killed his old partner. In the dream, Cooper also learns that Sarah Palmer (Grace Zabriskie) had a vision of Bob on the morning after Laura's death; this turns out to be true, and Cooper sends Andy Brennan (Harry Goaz) to make a sketch of Bob; Sarah and Cooper both identify the man in the resulting sketch as the person they saw in their respective dreams/visions. At the beginning of the second season, one of Bob's intended victims, Ronnette Pulaski (Phoebe Augustine), awakens from a coma induced by her torture at Bob's hands, at which time she identifies Bob as Laura Palmer's killer. Cooper and the Twin Peaks Sheriff department canvass the town with wanted posters of Bob, using Andy's sketch; Leland Palmer (Ray Wise), Laura's father, identifies the man in the poster as "Robertson," and says that he lived near his grandfather and used to taunt Leland when he was a child. It is later revealed that Bob is in fact possessing Leland, and has been possessing him ever since Leland first met him as a child at his grandfather's house. Under Bob's influence, Leland molested, raped, and finally murdered his own daughter; he additionally raped and murdered a prostitute named Teresa Banks (Pamela Gidley), whom Bob/Leland thought looked like Laura, and tortured and murdered Madeline Ferguson, Leland's niece (Sheryl Lee), who bore a striking resemblance to Laura. Following each of these murders, Bob/Leland placed a type-written letter beneath the left ring finger of each of the victims, to spell out "ROBERT." Following Madeline's murder, Cooper correctly determines that Bob is possessing Leland, and tricks him into walking near an open holding cell at the Twin Peaks' sheriff's department. Cooper and the sheriff's deputies throw Leland into the cell and lock him in, at which time Bob makes his presence known, taunting Cooper before forcing Leland to commit suicide. In his dying breaths, Leland makes obscure references to the man at the lake molesting him as a child ("He came inside me") before stating that he never knew when Bob was in control of his body (a statement apparently added in due to the series' being on primetime network television). After Leland dies, Cooper engages in a philosophical debate with Sheriff Truman (Michael Ontkean) and Albert Rosenfield (Miguel Ferrer) over how real Bob was, and whether or not Bob was in fact a physical incarnation of Leland's repressed personal demons. Although the men cannot agree on a unifying idea, they do come to the conclusion that Bob is a manifestation of "the evil that men do." Following Leland's death, Bob takes the form of an owl in the woods outside Twin Peaks, and isn't seen again for several episodes. He briefly resurfaces when Sheriff Truman and Cooper attempt to arrest Josie Packard (Joan Chen); Bob apparently kills Josie by feeding on her overwhelming sense of terror, before mocking Cooper and casting Josie's soul into the wood of the Great Northern Hotel. He briefly appears again in a cameo near the end of the series, as a cosmic event causes an opening in the fabric of space and time that separates Earth from the Black Lodge. In the final episode, Cooper ventures into the Black Lodge to apprehend his former partner, rogue FBI Agent Windom Earle (Kenneth Welsh), who is attempting to harness the power of the Lodge for himself. When Earle tries to strike a bargain with Cooper in which Cooper will sell his soul to Earle in exchange for Earle not murdering Cooper's lover, Annie (Heather Graham), Bob appears, causing time in the Lodge to reverse to the moment before Cooper agreed to sell his soul. Bob informs Cooper that the Black Lodge is his domain, and thus Earle has trespassed by coming into it and demanding Cooper's soul for himself. As a punishment, Bob kills Earle, taking Earle's soul for himself. Cooper attempts to flee, but Bob traps Cooper in the Lodge, exiting in the form of a doppelganger of Cooper. The series ends with Bob examining his new body in a mirror. “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me”: The movie Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me retconned several elements of Bob/Leland's backstory, which themselves seemed to have been crafted to make the series more suitable for its timeslot. In the film, it is revealed that Leland had some degree of culpability in the sexual assault of his own daughter; he is aware that it is happening, and shifts between the personalities of a distraught father and eager sexual predator, indicating that Leland normally represses his incestuous feelings for Laura, but gives in to them under the influence of Bob. The film also reveals that, while possessing Leland, Bob only kills girls who look like Laura Palmer, a further fusing of Bob's desire to cause misery and Leland Palmer's repressed sexual desire for his daughter. The film also fleshes out the backstory between Bob and Mike/Man from Another Place. Bob worked for/with Mike/Man from Another Place, collecting garmonbozia for the inhabitants of the Black Lodge. However, Bob went rogue and began keeping the garmonbozia for himself. He is ordered to turn over garmonbozia to the Man from Another Place, a duty which Bob fulfills by turning over the pain and suffering Laura Palmer experienced at the moment of her death, embodied by her blood. This dispute is still ongoing at the time the series begins, giving reason for Mike/The Man from Another Place's willingness to help Cooper identify Bob's host and imprison him, as a punishment to Bob for his disobedience. If there is anyone who can create a truly twisted and sick villain, it is David Lynch. We’ve already seen the über-creepy Frank Booth. However, Bob is a little more twisted. This evil being take pleasure in seeing people suffer physically and emotionally. It is basically his crack, and he is deeply addicted, at the “will give strangers blowjobs” point. The worse thing about Bob is his ability to possess other beings. You see, Bob can take over anyone he wants. He could be people you trust and love, like a family member. And, Bob truly loves to do it, because killing someone as a trusted love one can create a lot of psychological suffering. That is why he possessed Laura Palmer’s father. Imagine how she felt as she was dying, thinking her own father was responsible. It is just so sick and twisted that it would obviously be the kind of suffering that Bob loves. And, the worst thing of it all is that Bob ends up winning in the end. In the last episode, he traps the hero of the series, FBI Agent Dale Cooper, in the Black Lodge Hotel. Then, he leaves in a doppelganger body of Cooper. Now, that’s the mark of a good villain: winning in the end.
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on May 23, 2008 19:56:29 GMT -5
Tomorrow, numbers 72-69. Here are the hints:
The World is his, he's killed thousands of people in the universe for the love of an abstract, he loves oil and milkshakes, and you will kneel before him.
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