Syndrome

"It's finally ready! You know, I went through quite a few supers to make it worthy to fight you, but man, it wasn't good enough! After you trashed the last one, I had to make some major modifications! Sure it was difficult, but you, are worth it! (Laughs) I mean, after all... I am your biggest fan."

- Syndrome to Mr. Incredible after having his Omnidroid defeat him.

Buddy Pine, better known by his supervillain name Syndrome, was the main antagonist of The Incredibles. He was a supervillain and mad scientist who used to be Mr. Incredible's biggest fan until he had refused to let him be his sidekick when he was young.

Early years


Syndrome's real name is Buddy Pine (even though his last name was never mentioned). As a 10-year-old, he went into a young Mr. Incredible's car and when asked by the super who he was supposed to be, Buddy told him that he was his self-appointed sidekick IncrediBoy and that he doesn't have to worry about training him since he knows everything about him since he's his #1 fan. But then Mr. Incredible ejected Buddy from his car and sped off, with Buddy calling out from the road.

Later on that night, right when Mr. Incredible was sent to a bank hostage to stop Bomb Voyage, Buddy showed up again as IncrediBoy and told Mr. Incredible that he made new rocket boots and that he finally figured out who he is: His ward IncrediBoy. But when Mr. Incredible tells him that he's now officially carried it too far, Buddy thinks that it's because he doesn't have powers and says that not every superhero has powers and they can be super without them. After asking Mr. Incredible if he can fly since he can with his rocket boots, he responded (while holding up Bomb Voyage, who tried to escape during his and Buddy's conversation), "Fly home, Buddy. I work alone." Buddy tells Mr. Incredible to just give him one chance and that he'll show him by getting the police; but as he was leaving, Bomb Voyage put a bomb on the end of his cape (which Buddy was unaware), so Mr. Incredible was forced to let Bomb Voyage escape and save Buddy and get rid of the bomb. Unfortunately, the rescue ended up opening a floodgate of other lawsuits against supers (because of the two lawsuits that Mr. Incredible faced and lost) and thus, it abolished supers altogether. Then the train track was down and a train was coming, but Mr. Incredible saved the day when he used his strength to stop the train from going off the track.

Now sick and tired of Buddy, Mr. Incredible handed him over to the police in the back of their police car, telling them to send him back home and tell his mom what he's been doing so she can have a talk with him. When Mr. Incredible told the officers that Bomb Voyage escaped, he also added that "Skippy" made sure of that, only for Buddy to correct him, but Mr. Incredible responded that he's not affiliated with him.

After Buddy was sent home and probably even scolded and sent to his room by his mom (which was shown in a flashback with a grown-up Buddy {as Syndrome} telling it to an older Mr. Incredible), he realized that his life-long dreams have been crushed, which drove him to a really bad hatred for Mr. Incredible for not letting him help and join him, and then it finally drove him to revenge.

15 years later, Buddy would soon become Syndrome.

Later years


Now a 25-year-old adult and operating through his agent Mirage, Buddy, now known by his new supervillain name Syndrome, contacted many retired superheroes, tasking them with the destruction of various prototypes of the enormous Omnidroid battle robots, leading to the demise of many of the old supers. He also got extremely rich from building loads of weapons. But no matter how rich he became, he never forgot about Mr. Incredible and finally started to get his revenge. Deciding that his Omnidroid was now good enough to fight Mr. Incredible, Syndrome had his new helper Mirage recruit his old idol, who was able to defeat the Omnidroid.

After repairing and improving the machine, Syndrome sent it to fight Mr. Incredible. When the hero was outmatched, Syndrome revealed himself (also saying that all he wanted was to help Mr. Incredible, but what made him snap was when he told him to fly home and that he works alone) and he declared that he would be Mr. Incredible's new nemesis. Using his zero-point energy ray to throw Mr. Incredible over a waterfall using his index finger, he tried to finish him off with an explosive device. A scared Mr. Incredible sees the explosion in the water, but Syndrome sends his life-detector to see if Mr. Incredible survived anyway. But Mr. Incredible used Gazerbeam's skeletal remains to make Syndrome think that he was killed by the bomb, which works. Unfortunately, Syndrome was able to capture Mr. Incredible when he tried to infiltrate his base later on, also realizing that he wasn't killed by the bomb after all.

When the rest of the Incredible family followed, Syndrome assumed that Mr. Incredible had sent for reinforcements and he ordered the plane to be shot down with missiles, taking cruel pleasure in the knowledge that he'd killed his enemy's family, teasing, "You'll get over it! I seem to recall you prefer to work alone?". Mr. Incredible then retaliated by threatening to kill Mirage by crushing her; but Syndrome wasn't bothered by that and he refused to save her life, knowing that even with nothing to lose, Mr. Incredible would never, ever kill an enemy. Mr. Incredible decided to let her go, realizing that that wouldn't make things better and Syndrome teased that he knew Mr. Incredible couldn't do it, even when he's got nothing to lose because he says that Mr. Incredible's weak and that he's outgrown him. This eventually makes Mirage mad at Syndrome and worried, telling her former boss afterwards, "Next time you gamble... bet your own life!" and leaves, meaning that she's turned on him. She then frees Mr. Incredible from captivity, informs him of his family's survival, and helps him escape and reunite with his family.

But Syndrome was able to re-capture the Incredible family and re-imprison them, taking the opportunity to elaborate on his plan. He intends to set the Omnidroid on Metroville and then stop it himself, taking the credit and setting himself up as the city's new hero. But this plan failed, as the Omnidroid's ability to learn allowed it to identify Syndrome as a threat, disabling his remote control wristband and sending him flying into a building out of control (which scared him real bad), knocking him out cold. He then tried to get back up, only to fall back down. He remained unconscious during the Incredibles' and Frozone's fight with the Omnidroid and they're able to disable it. Thus, Syndrome was robbed of his victory.



Death
With his assets now frozen by the secret service, an angry Syndrome (who couldn't believe what was happening) made one final attempt at revenge by breaking into the Incredibles' house and abducting Jack-Jack. When the Incredibles came into their home, Syndrome zapped them with his zero-point energy ray with his finger and reassured them that he'll be a good mentor to Jack-Jack, and probably even turn him into a sidekick in time; then he threw the Incredibles out of the home and crashed through the ceiling and up to his jet plane while holding a crying Jack-Jack. But unfortunately for Syndrome, this plan also failed when Jack-Jack's transforming superpower manifested and allowed him to beat Syndrome up. Then Mrs. Incredible was then thrown into the air by Mr. Incredible and she grabbed her baby (who fell out of Syndrome's arms when he hit the wing of his plane) and then she used her body as a parachute to glide back down. Finally realizing that he lost, Syndrome leaned from the side door of his jet plane, yelling out to the Incredible family that this isn't the end of it, that he'll come back and get Jack-Jack again; he then proceeded to laugh evilly. Mr. Incredible then started looking around for something to throw at Syndrome and he spotted his car and threw it at Syndrome's plane, knocking him off-balance. But then Syndrome's cape gets caught in the jet engine (echoing an earlier scene in the movie regarding the dangers of wearing a cape by Edna, which Syndrome learned the hard way), resulting in his demise when the blades sucked him in and the plane exploded (which was similar to what happened to Stratogale).



Appearance
Syndrome stood 5 feet and 7 inches tall, excluding the height of his hair. He was barrel-chested and weighed 185 lb. His red hair extended straight up in a manner reminiscent of flames. Syndrome was supposedly "not a super", but he demonstrated exceptional ingenuity, technical knowledge, and planning skill far beyond the science of his time.

Weapons and Inventions
Syndrome's list of super weapons that he made was extensive, but several notable ones included:


 * Rocket boots
 * Zero-point energy ray (trapped and paralyzed the victim{s} in an energy beam)
 * Omnidroid models
 * Tracking / Scanning devices
 * Miniature explosives
 * Velocipods

Quotes
"You took away my future. I'm simply returning the favor."

- Syndrome, after zapping the Incredibles with his zero-point energy ray

"Cool! Ready for takeoff!"

- Young Buddy after he gets into a young Mr. Incredible's car

"YOU sir, truly ARE Mr. Incredible. You know, I was right to idolize you, and I always knew you were tough, but tricking the probe by hiding under the bones of another super, aw man! I'm still geeking out about it! And then you just had to go and.. ruin the ride. I mean Mr. Incredible calling for help? "Help me, Help me!!" - lame lame lame lame LAME! Alright, who did you contact?!?"

- Syndrome after he kidnaps Mr. Incredible.

Trivia

 * Syndrome's hair was styled like Jimmy Neutron's hairdo.
 * Syndrome is similar to Scrappy-Doo: Both become leaders of their own organizations to get revenge on the main protagonists for what they did to them years ago.
 * He also bears some resemblance to Doctor Doom, both being evil genius type supervillains who rely on their intellect and weaponry to further their agendas. Both also seek vengeance and are the chief enemies of a quartet of superheroes that double as a family.
 * In The Incredibles: The Video Game, the young Buddy was seen as IncrediBoy when a youthful Mr. Incredible was holding onto his cape, trying to remove the bomb from Buddy's cape. But for the rest of the game, Buddy was never seen again as a 23-year-old under the supervillain name Syndrome. It is unknown why he never came back after the incident of the bomb being on his cape when he was little.
 * Syndrome made a cameo appearance in Jack-Jack Attack, in which he was seen without his mask and posed as a replacement for Kari. When she questioned him about the S on his suit, Syndrome lied by saying it stood for "Sitter;" he claims he wanted initials for "Babysitter" at first, but then it would've looked like a big "BS" and laughs while saying that Kari understands why he couldn't go for that.
 * He is the second Pixar villain to die, the first being Hopper from A Bug's Life.
 * He is widely regarded as being one of the most evil Pixar villains of all, largely due to both his killing numerous superheroes just so he could pretend to be one and also his infamous Moral Event Horizon crossing where he orders missiles fired at Mr. Incredible's family even after learning that their are children on board the plane.