John Tombs

"Safety's on little girl."

- Tombs taunting Tree over her failed attempt to shoot him. "That's right, cry little girl cry."

- Tombs to Tree as he tries to kill her.

John Tombs is the secondary antagonist of the 2017 horror comedy film Happy Death Day.

He was portrayed by Rob Mello.

Biography
John Tombs was a serial killer who specifically targeted women. What's known is that he's responsible for the deaths of 6 women prior to the events of the film-though according to him, he's killed a dozen more in the past and buried them all in the Arizona desert. At some point he was caught and arrested but he fought with the police officers and got one of them killed and himself shot in the shoulder.

This earned him a trip to the campus hospital at Bayfield University. One of the nurses, Lori Spengler, had been trying to poison the film’s protagonist, Tree Gelbman, with her cupcake on her birthday due to Tree having an affair with her Professor, Dr. Gregory Butler (who Lori had also sought an affair with). But Tree never ate the cupcake, so Lori decided she would frame Tombs as a backup. She put a baby mask on Tombs when he was unconscious (the same mask she would wear when she killed Tree) and loosened the straps on his bed so he would escape and make it look like he killed Tree. After Lori kills Tree the first time, Tree undergoes a time loop that repeats her birthday every time she dies.

During each loop, Tombs would escape and kill a security guard at the hospital cause Tree never ate the cupcake.

When Tree finally suspects Tombs as her killer after hearing about him on the news in another loop, she decides to go after him at the hospital but while there, Tombs kills the security guard, takes his gun and escapes from his room. Tree attempts to defend herself by using a fire axe but Tombs shoots it out of her hand and then shoots the secretary dead. Her friend, Carter Davis, tackles Tombs and disarms him but is killed while protecting her. Tree manages to incapacitate Tombs but realizes that if she stops the loops, Carter will stay dead. This in turn drives her into going up to the bell tower and hanging herself-much to Tombs’ amusement.

Tree in the next loop after resolving to be a better person prepares to go after Tombs. She sets her watch 30 for thirty minutes so that it would go off during a blackout, carefully steals the security guard's gun and tells him to call for backup. She enters Tombs' hospital room and tries to shoot him while he's still asleep but the safety is on. Tombs gets up and fights Tree by slamming her into the wall. When the blackout occurs, she uses it to escape his line of sight and shoots him to death. Tree then finally eats the cupcake that Lori gave to her after her date with Carter and falls asleep not knowing that the cupcake was poisoned. After Tree finally discovers Lori as the killer the two engage in a fight which results in Lori being killed out of self-defense. Due to this it can be safely assumed that Tombs remained in the hospital and was eventually taken to jail.

Trivia

 * The line Tombs delivers to Tree when she fails to shoot him, "Safety's on little girl", is a clear tribute to what Billy Loomis said to Gale Wheathers when she tried to shoot him but left the safety on.