John Kirby



John Kirby is the main antagonist in the 1982 science fiction horror film Silent Rage. He is portrayed by Brian Libby.

John Kirby is a man who lives in a small town in Texas and was living with his wife and kids. John suffered from mental illness and was unstable. He was being helped by a psychiatrist named Tom Halman who worked at an institute. One day John started to feel something happening to him and he gets a call from Dr. Halman and tells him he is losing it and needs help. John's wife, dealing with some loud kids sends them to the park. John goes out to the chicken coop and  gets an ax to chop some wood, but loses it and then goes after his wife. He chops the door and a man tries to stop him but is killed. John chops the door open and then kills his wife. The police arrive, Sheriff Daniel "Dan" Stevens and his deputy Charlie, respond and eventually arrest John. Dr. Halman arrives and asks about John. John he breaks out of the handcuffs, overpowers the other officers and grabs one of their revolvers, forcing the officers to open fire and shoot John.

Severely injured and near death, John is transported to the institute where his psychiatrist, Thomas "Tom" Halman, works along with Dr. Philip Spires and Dr. Paul Vaughn, two doctors and geneticists. To save John, Phil proposes treating him with a formula created by himself and Paul to enhance cellular strength and regeneration. Tom objects to its use due to John's psychosis, and Phil pretends to agree but later administers the formula anyway once Tom leaves. Revived and rendered nearly mute but virtually invulnerable, John escapes from the institute and tracks Tom to his home, having overhead Tom telling Phil to allow John to die earlier. Meanwhile, Dan invites Tom's sister Alison, whom is he romancing, on a trip. John breaks into Tom's home and the two fight. Despite shooting John several times and pushing him down a flight of stairs, Tom is killed. Tom's wife Nancy finds her husband's body and is killed by John as well. Alison arrives to pick up her gear for the trip and discovers her brother and sister-in-law's corpses, but John flees as Dan and Charlie arrive with the police.

Dan and Charlie take Alison to the institute, unaware that John has also returned there to get Phil and Paul to treat his wounds. Realizing that the situation is out of control, Phillip leaves to examine samples while Paul attempts to kill John by injecting him with acid. John survives and kills Paul after a brief struggle by stabbing him with the syringe. After finding Paul's body, Phil returns to his office, where he briefly speaks to John about the success of their experiment. John initially seems to understand Phil but ultimately snaps his neck. With Dan at the county coroner's office, Charlie and Alison discover John killing another of the institute workers; Charlie attempts to arrest him but is mortally wounded when John breaks his back. Dan returns just in time to discover Charlie dying and protects Alison from John.

Dan shoots John and knocks him out of a window, but John revives and nearly kills Dan. John hangs on to Dan's car as Dan and Allison try to escape and climbs into its back window, forcing them to jump out. The car crashes and explodes, lighting John on fire. This injures him, but he jumps into a nearby lake and quickly recovers. With Alison watching, Dan and John engage in hand-to-hand combat. Both men score blows, but Dan overwhelms John by roundhouse kicking him several times before throwing him into a nearby well, seemingly killing him. With John's carnage at an end, Dan and Alison leave. However, deep in the well, John suddenly bursts from the water, having survived.