Mayor Wade

"OI! I'm talking to you!"

- One of Wade's many provocative threats to Chris

Mayor Wade is the main human antagonist of the horror-comedy film Eight Legged Freaks. He was played by Leon Rippy.

Biography
These days, despite his grand schemes and even grander ambitions, Mayor Wade is simply mayor of a crumbling town. Wade is stepfather of Brett, a rebellious teenage jock, and Wade is quick to disown his stepson for fear his rebellious nature will cause his downfall.

Mayor Wade is a cold-blooded, ruthless businessman, and he only cares about money, his mall, and the ostrich farm he owns. The ostrich farm is probably the only good contribution he gave to society. The rest of his projects were just about snatching property and business from people.

In the film
"What the Hell's that?"

- Mayor Wade about the Tarantula

"Spider, man"

- Deputy Pete in reply

Mayor Wade is sarcastic and critical of his own town, he says "This is a town meeting, not the WWF!" Mayor Wade is a long-standing rival of Chris McCormack. He says to Chris "This meeting is for land-owners only" to which Chris says "Well I am a land-owner, Wade." Mayor Wade had a fallout with Chris over possible gold in the mines, which Wade says that Chris' late father was "delusional" and imagined the gold. Wade likes insulting Chris' dead father in the hopes Chris will just give up and let Wade sell the mines. All he gets is a punch on the nose.

After the scuffle, Mayor Wade is shown to care more about business than his family - he tells Brett to shut up and get lost, and get back in the morning when he openly says in front of Brett he has been transporting illegal toxic waste on the phone. Mayor Wade has unknowingly caused all the trouble in the town because the Spiders belonging to the late farmer Joshua have escaped, and grown gigantic, from the said toxic waste belonging to Wade. Brett knows about the secret but says nothing. However, Wade notices trapdoor spiders devouring his ostriches, but doesn't see the spiders, so he leaves the matter be, but is still puzzled.

During the spider invasion, Mayor Wade is seen talking to the Department of Fish and Game about the animal deaths over town, (caused by the hungry spiders) but they laugh at him because they think he's got the wrong department. Mayor Wade is confused by the power outage caused by Brett and the spiders.

Later, when he's eating burgers at the mall, he leaves to go but is suddenly confused by a car driving very slowly past his window. He then notices that the whole town is converging on the mall, having been given directions by Sam Parker the sheriff to flee there. The townspeople get inside the mall, and Mayor Wade is utterly perplexed, and says "If you build it, they will come!" Pleased at the mall's popularity, Mayor Wade asks Sam what the Hell's going on, and she points out the spiders to him.

Mayor Wade is terrified and runs inside the mall again and his deputy locks the mall in time for the last townspeople to arrive. Inside, a massive argument ensues.

Cowardly, Mayor Wade refuses to take the blame for the situation, because it was his toxic waste chemicals that polluted the lake and made the crickets mutate, which in turn mutated the spiders. Mayor Wade just makes unhelpful suggestions, such as calling the military. Sam says the phones are dead, but Harlarn gives Mayor Wade his own cell phone, to which Mayor Wade cold-bloodedly tells Harlarn to "be a hero" and throws Harlarn out there.

Later, Ashley sees Mayor Wade run off through a side door into the mines. Ashley tells her mother of this cowardice. Mayor Wade meets his stepson Bret in the mines, and regardless of Bret fleeing for his life, Mayor Wade just repeatedly asks him where the giant spiders got to. When Bret says "I think I lost them," Mayor Wade says "Oh no you didn't!" and kicks Bret off the bike, to try and flee himself, but then Mayor Wade is abducted by the arachnids, who drag him, screaming, to their lair.

Mayor Wade is believed dead, but he surprisingly returns when Chris, Sam and the townspeople find wrapped corpses hanging from the ceiling of an orb-weaver lair, and Mayor Wade is the only living person there. He is rescued from the cocoon and says "I don't feel so hot." Despite being poisoned, Mayor Wade lives, and makes it out of the mines with everyone, but is horrified when his mall and most of the town blows up. He is last seen stricken with disbelief and says "My God I hope insurance pays for this."