Thomas Wake

"Should pale death, with treble dread, make the ocean caves our bed, God who hears the surges roll deign to save our suppliant soul."

- Thomas Wake

"Yer fond of me lobster aint' ye?"

- Thomas Wake questioning Winslow's liking of his cooking.

"Damn ye! Let Neptune strike ye dead Winslow! HAAAAAARK! Hark Triton, hark! Bellow, bid our father the Sea King rise from the depths full foul in his fury! Black waves teeming with salt foam to smother this young mouth with pungent slime, to choke ye, engorging your organs til' ye turn blue and bloated with bilge and brine and can scream no more - only when he, crowned in cockle shells with slitherin' tentacle tail and steaming beard take up his fell be-finned arm, his coral-tine trident screeches banshee-like in the tempest and plunges right through yer gullet, bursting ye - a bulging bladder no more, but a blasted bloody film now and nothing for the harpies and the souls of dead sailors to peck and claw and feed upon only to be lapped up and swallowed by the infinite waters of the Dread Emperor himself - forgotten to any man, to any time, forgotten to any god or devil, forgotten even to the sea, for any stuff for part of Winslow, even any scantling of your soul is Winslow no more, but is now itself the sea!"

- Thomas Wake cursing Winslow for not liking his cooking.

Thomas Wake is the main antagonist of the 2019 psychological-horror fantasy film ''The Lighthouse. ''He is the lighthouse keeper and employer of the protagonist villain Eiphram Winslow of whom he has to spend time with on the island for many weeks whilst keeping Ephraim from entering the lighthouse.

He is portrayed by Willem Dafoe who also portrayed  John Geiger, Rat, Lord Cob, Nikolai Diavolo, Eric Masters, Armando Barillo, J.G. Jopling, Ryuk and Green Goblin.

Role in the film
Thomas Wake's backstory and early life isn't really touched on in the film though it is presumed that he born in the early 19th centuryand it is also stated that he was once a sailor and even a captain of a ship before being a Lighthouse keeper though it's possibly a fabricated lie.

Ephraim Winslow is sent on a boat to serve a contract job as a wickie for four weeks on an isolated island off the coast of New England, under the supervision of an elderly Thomas Wake. On the first day of the job, Winslow notices a hole in his cot. As he digs into it, he finds a small scrimshaw of a mermaid and stuffs it in his jacket. Winslow observes Wake going up to the lighthouse's lantern at night and stripping naked. Winslow begins experiencing visions and dreams of tentacles in the lighthouse, tree stumps floating in the water, and distant images of a beautiful Mermaid.

Throughout the time spent together between Ephraim and Thomas, they start to annoy each with their own antics which causes several argumants and small fights. The day before Winslow is slated to leave, he notices the water pump is releasing bloody water and investigates. He checks the cistern to see a dying gull floating inside. The one-eyed seagull flies down and attacks Winslow, who grabs it and beats it to death against the cistern. That afternoon, the winds dramatically change direction. That night, a storm hits the island, and the two men get drunk. The next morning, the ferry does not arrive, and Winslow sees a body washed up on the shore. He approaches the naked body and realizes that it is a mermaid. He runs back into the cottage to find Wake stating that the rations were impacted by the storm. They dig up a crate said to contain extra rations, but it only contains more alcohol.

More nights progress, and the storm continues, and the two men grow closer while remaining adversarial. Winslow unsuccessfully tries to steal the key to the lantern room from a sleeping Wake. He has visions of a lobster trap containing the severed, half-blinded head of Wake's previous wickie. One night, Winslow tells Wake that his real name is Thomas Howard and that he assumed the identity of Ephraim Winslow, Howard's old foreman who died in an accident Howard failed to stop. Wake accuses Howard of "spilling his beans," and Howard tries to leave. He attempts to escape on the dory, but Wake destroys it with an ax. Wake chases Howard into the cottage, but inside, Wake claims that it was Howard who attacked him. With no alcohol left, the two begin mixing spirits out of turpentine and honey, and the storm becomes so powerful that waves crash through the windows of the cottage.

The next morning, Howard finds Wake's log, recording his infractions and recommending severance without pay. Wake chides Howard for his work performance while Howard accuses Wake of mental abuse, then begs him to see the light that Wake has been keeping from him. Wake berates Howard, and Howard attacks him. While seeing visions of the mermaid, Wake as a sea monster, and the real Winslow, Howard beats Wake into submission. Howard leashes Wake with a rope and buries him alive in the ration pit. Howard takes the keys and prepares to go up to the lantern room, but Wake appears and strikes him in the shoulder with the ax. Howard disarms Wake with a kettle pot and kills him with the same ax before ascending the lighthouse. Soon, Howard does manage to reach the light atop the Lighthouse but slips and falls down the flight of stairs. Some time later, Wake's curse to Howard seemingly worked as it is revealed that Wake ended up lying on the shore naked while missing an eye as two seagulls peck and bite on his innards whilst hundreds of seagulls swarm the area.

Quotes
"Since we're gettin' too friendly, Ephraim Winslow, ell me, what's a timberman want with being a wicky?... Not enough quiet for ye up north? Sawdust itchin' yer nethers? Foreman found ye too high tempered for carryin' an axe?"

- Wake questioning Winslow.

"How long have we been on this rock? Five weeks? Two Days? Where are we? Help me to recollect"

- Thomas Wake.

"Y'have a way with words, Tommy."

- Wake responding to Winslow's rant.

"And I'm damn-well wedded to this here light, and she's been a finer, truer, quieter wife than any alive-blooded woman."

- Thomas Wake.

"Doldrums. Doldrums. Eviler than the Devil. Boredom makes men to villains, and the water goes quick, lad, vanished. The only med'cine is drink. Keeps them sailors happy, keeps 'em agreeable, keeps 'em calm.."

- Thomas Wake.

"O what Protean forms swim up from men's minds, and melt in hot Promethean plunder, scorching eyes, with divine shames and horror... And casting them down to Davy Jones. The others, still blind, yet in it see all the divine graces and to Fiddler's Green sent,where no man is suffered to want or toil,but is... Ancient... Mutable and unchanging as the she who girdles 'round the globe. Them's truth."

- Thomas Wake.

"Should pale death with treble dread / make the ocean caves out bed, / God who hear'st the surges roll, / deign to save out suppliant soul."

- Thomas Wake.

"Ooh! Monkey pump!"

- Thomas Wake.

"And if I tells ye to yank out every single nail from every molderin' nail-hole and suck off every speck of rust till all them nails sparkle like a sperm whale's pecker, and then carpenter the whole light station back together from scrap, and then do it all over again, you'll do it! And by God and by golly, you'll do it smilin', lad, 'cause you'll like it. You'll like it 'cause I says you will! Contradict me again, and I'll dock your wages."

- Wake threatening to dock Winslow's wages.

Trivia

 * The entire film may be a metaphor of the greek tale of Prometheus stealing the light and paying the consequences for it.
 * At one point in the film, Wake transforms into a squid-like creature whilst fighting with Winslow however it is possible that it is part of a hallucination. It is ambiguous to the strange events centered in the film.
 * Thomas Wake shares similarities with Mr. Krabs from Spongebob Squarepants as they both speak in a strong Maine accent and is safekeeping a certain thing. In Wakes case, he is guarding the light within the lighthouse while in Mr. Krab's case, he is guarding the Krabby Patty secret formula.