The Hood (Thunderbirds)

"They haven't heard the last of me..."

- The Hood's final line in the very first episode of Thunderbirds (Trapped in the Sky), after his police car getaway has crashed and his photographs of Thunderbird 1 get wrecked.

"Curse those foolish boys! Curse their stupid father!! And curse International Rescue!!!"

- The Hood in Cry Wolf, before he falls into a lake after his van crashes.

The Hood is a mastermind, and is the main baddy from the 1965 TV series and subsequent films of Gerry Anderson's most successful Supermarionation TV series, Thunderbirds. He is the archenemy of the Tracy family, and even his own half-brother, Kyrano (and his half-niece, Tin-Tin). His primary intention in life appears to be getting his hands on the secrets of International Rescue, for they will make him, in his words, "the richest man in the world".

He was voiced by the late Ray Barrett, who also voiced John Tracy, Jeff's second oldest son (behind Scott) the controller of Thunderbird 5.

TV series
Feared as the world's dangerous man, The Hood (so named because of his many disguises) is the half brother of Kyrano and wields an uncanny supernatural power over him. Unlike his brother, he is massive in stature and his main aim in life is the acquisition of wealth regardless of justice and ethics. His primary target is International Rescue, as the plans of their amazing high-tech vehicles and machines could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. Operating from his hidden temple deep in the heart of the Malaysian jungle, the Hood has successfully eluded capture by the world's security forces for many years. Ruthless and calculating beyond comprehension, he uses mystical powers steeped in voodoo and black magic allowing nothing to get in the way of his evil objectives.

The Hood's precise origins are unknown. While it is known that he is the half-brother of Kyrano, the precise details of their relationship - such as which parent they share, or which of them is the elder - remain a mystery, as do the origin of his mysterious hypnotic powers. Even his real name remains a mystery; throughout the entire TV series, he was only ever referred to as 'Agent Seven-Nine', and even that was only on one occasion when he was in contact with the even more mysterious 'General X'; in another incident, with General Brom, he was referred to as '#671'. Even his name is never used in the TV series - it was revealed in spin-off media and promotional materials.

The Hood is known to be well-known to the criminals of Earth, such as Generals X and Brom, who use him for schemes, such as sabotaging the British Red Arrows aerial acrobatics team and other things. His Aztec looking temple, which he calls home, is outfitted with hi-tech devices such as advanced CCTV, an underground helicopter/other VTOL aircraft bunker and other things. In contrast to this, he also has a massive statue of Kyrano, which he uses to psychologically torture him for information, or to use him for his own purposes (such as in "Martian Invasion", where he managed to get Kyrano to disable Thunderbird 1's Automatic Camera Detector).

To facilitate his plans to capture the Thunderbirds' craft and use them for evil, the Hood has been known to make phony rescues in order to lure the Tracy brothers away from their secret base, such as putting nuclear warheads on passenger aircraft, sabotaging film sets, and sending a self-aware camera into Thunderbird 2. However, these plans fail, usually due to his shortsightedness or due to simple bad luck.

Appearances
Although he's been considered one of the staple characters of the show, the Hood has only appeared in six episodes of this much-loved sci-fi series.

Trapped in the Sky
The Hood's first appearance is in the pilot episode of Thunderbirds, entitled "Trapped in the Sky". The very, very first scene of the show depicts him in his temple, planning to find out about International Rescue, via his unsuspecting half-brother, Kyrano. He uses his powers to probe Kyrano's mind, to find out when International Rescue will start operating, but to no 'proper' avail.

Soon after, the Hood goes to London International Airport and, disguising himself as an engineer, he attaches a nuclear explosive to the wheel-well of Air Terranean's revolutionary new nuclear-powered hypersonic airliner, the Fireflash, the first of which is about to go on its maiden flight to Tokyo. After the Fireflash takes off, the Hood phones Commander Norman (London International Airport's chief air traffic controller) and tells him about the explosive, saying it (the explosive) will automatically detonate when the Fireflash lands at Tokyo, blowing it into 1,000,000 pieces and releasing the toxic contents of the nuclear reactors over a large area of Japan.

After two unsuccessful attempts to dislodge the explosive, Commander Norman is horrified to hear that if the Fireflash doesn't land with the space of the next 2 hours, then the radiation shielding will fail and all onboard will be exposed to potentially toxic radiation. His conversation is picked up by John in Thunderbird 5, who then informs his father, Jeff, of what's happened. Jeff then realizes the Fireflash is carrying Kyrano's daughter, Tin-Tin. He then sends Scott in Thunderbird 1 and Virgil in Thunderbird 2 to London.

Whilst Scott tries to hold the fort with Norman until Virgil arrives, the Hood (who by now has disguised himself as an airport policeman) sneaks into the now-unguarded Thunderbird 1 and uses a camera concealed inside his policeman's cap to photograph the inside of Thunderbird 1. However, the Automatic Camera Detector in Thunderbird 1 goes off; the Hood, together with the photographs of Thunderbird 1's insides, makes an escape in a police car, in the direction of Birmingham via the M1.

Scott then radios Lady Penelope and tells her that the Hood has photographic records of Thunderbird 1, is heading towards her area and also tells her the Hood's car's license plate number. She summons her butler, Parker, and tells him to ready FAB1, as "they're going for a drive". They pursue the Hood up the M1, and Parker fires FAB1's cannon, which causes the Hood's getaway car to flip over and crash. Despite the Hood surviving the crash, the photographs of Thunderbird 1 get wrecked, and he swears revenge upon International Rescue.

Meanwhile, Virgil gets three Elevator Cars out of Thunderbird 2 to get the Fireflash to land. The first attempt fails, as Elevator Car 3 develops a fault and crashes into some empty planes. Virgil readies Elevate Car 4, and the Fireflash lands on top of all three cars. However, the Master Elevator Car 1 (which Virgil is driving) crashes, but Virgil isn't hurt. Although the Hood's explosive falls, it doesn't go off, and everybody is saved.

Thunderbirds Are Go
The Hood is still the Thunderbird's archenemy in the 1966 film Thunderbirds Are Go, where he plans to sabotage the revolutionary new spaceship, Zero-X, which is about to blast off on a mission to investigate the surface of Mars. The Hood smuggles himself into one of the lifting bodies of Zero-X. He gets his foot trapped in the mechanism, causing Zero-X to crash (all five crewmembers, and the Hood, survived). This postpones the mission for two years, due to an investigation into the disaster.

At the end of the trial (which lasted for 2 years, ending in 2067), the Hood tries to get inside Zero-X by disguising himself as Captain Paul Travers (who commands the Zero-X mission), but is found out by Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward and Parker (Lady Penelope had given all 5 members of Zero-X's crew a special St. Christopher badge each at a press conference the previous night, which are disguised radio transmitters). The Hood tries to flee, but during his many-layered escape (involving transferring from his car to a speedboat and then into a helicopter, which is piloted by an accomplice), he appears to finally die when Parker fires FAB1's cannon at the helicopter, causing it to crash into the sea and explode.

Thunderbird 6
Following his apparent death in Thunderbirds Are Go!, the Hood doesn't appear in Thunderbird 6 at all. However, the Hood's puppet was recycled into the film's baddie, Black Shadow, who was voiced by Gary Files. Furthermore, Sylvia Anderson (the ex-wife of the show's creator, Gerry Anderson), who created the characters of the show, said Black Shadow could be the Hood's son, or the Hood could've survived his demise in the helicopter crash.

Thunderbirds (2004)
In the dreadful live-action remake of the series directed by Jonathan Frakes (Star Trek: The Next Generation et al), the Hood is played by veteran actor Sir Ben Kingsley (Gandhi). He is described as running his own illegal diamond mines somewhere in Malaysia (which are never seen, and it could be near his temple). However, one day, there was a cave-in, and International Rescue, led by Jeff (Bill Paxton) were called out to rescue them. However, the Hood wasn't rescued in the Mole tunneling machine, and this was when his vendetta against the Tracy family started.

In the film, the Hood is shown operating from his own futuristic-looking submarine, with his aides, Transom and Mullion. The Hood plans to lure the Tracy brothers away from their island and steal their machinery. To facilitate the plan, he fires a missile at Thunderbird 5, from his futuristic-looking submarine. The missile tears through Thunderbird 5's outside ring and seriously injures John (Lex Shrapnel). True to the Hood's prediction's, Jeff, Scott (Philip Winchester), Virgil (Dominic Colenso) and Gordon (Ben Torgerson) immediately blast off in Thunderbird 3, leaving Brains (Anthony Edwards) and his family, Kyrano and his family, and Alan (Brady Corbet), the youngest son, behind. The Hood soon invades Tracy Island, and uses Brains to give him access to Thunderbird 2 and the Mole, which he'll use to rob the 10 largest banks in the world, starting with England. When Alan tries to attack the Hood when Lady Penelope (Sophia Myles) arrives, they all get thrown inside the villa's deepfreeze, while the Hood launches his attack on the Bank of England. He flies Thunderbird 2 to London and deploys the Mole to tunnel into the vault, causing a cable car to fall into the Thames in the process.

Alan escapes from the deepfreeze (after Parker (Ron Cook) unseals the door using the wire from Lady Penelope's bra) and, following a conversation with Jeff, during which life support is returned to Thunderbird 5 (the Hood tried to shut it off) and getting authorization to be a Thunderbird, gives chase in Thunderbird 1, along with Lady Penelope, Tin-Tin (Vanessa Hudgens) and Fermat (Brains' son, played by Soren Fulton). He launches the abandoned Thunderbird 2 and drops himself into Thunderbird 4 and rescues the cable car (with a hand from Tin-Tin). Thunderbird 3 lands, and everybody piles into the bank vault, where a fight ensues.

The Hood is then shown being carried out of the vault by a policeman, and mutters "See you soon, Jeff" as Thunderbirds 1, 2 and 3 leave. What his fate is after this is never revealed.

In a departure from the original TV series, the Hood can no longer hypnotise people, and doesn't appear to be mentally linked to Kyrano. In place of this, he is telekinetic (this ability appears to be hereditary, as his niece, Tin-Tin (Vanessa Hudgens) can also use this power; her eyes turn green reptilian, or more probably like a wildcat). However, quite how they both have the same power is never explained. When he uses his telekinetic power, his eyes turn red and reptilian-looking, and the power is quite effective (such as guiding Brains to the "Command and Control" Switch, picking up a satellite chip being thrown away from him, and strangling Alan in a Star Wars-esque moment). However, if he overuses these powers, he is drained temporarily.

It was revealed during the film that these powers apparently activated after the Hood was left for dead during one of International Rescue's first missions; the Hood accuses Jeff of leaving him to die in the cave-in at the diamond mine, but Jeff later tells Alan that, at the time, he left the Hood because he could see no way to save him that wouldn't kill them both. Despite what the Hood had done to him and his family, however, when faced with the chance to let the Hood fall into the Mole's drilling mechanisms, Alan instead saved him when the Hood was weakened by over-use of his powers, subsequently allowing him to be captured.

Thunderbirds Are Go! (2015 series)
In the series, The Hood (now voiced by Andres Williams, following the death of Ray Barrett in 2009) is once again the uncle of Tin-Tin (now named Kayo), and had something to do with the disappearance and death of Jeff Tracy.

Contrary to his previous selves, this Hood no longer has any powers of any sort (which has aroused disappointment in fans of the original series); however, he still maintains his mastery of disguise, albeit through menacing holographic projections. Instead of his incredibly jeweled gold tunic, he always wears a black suit. His base of operations is now a flying-fortress (with three thugs), as opposed to the temple in Malaysia.

Before the series began, Lady Penelope (now voiced by Rosamund Pike) had helped Jeff unmask 7 of the Hood's alter egos, before he killed Jeff in a boat accident.