Donald P. Sinclair

Donald P. Sinclair is the main antagonist of the 2001 film Rat Race. He was portrayed by John Cleese.

Role
Donald Sinclair (John Cleese), the eccentric owner of The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino in Las Vegas, devises a new game to entertain the high rollers who visit his hotel. Six special tokens are placed in the casino's slot machines, and the winners are gathered together and told that $2 million in cash is hidden in a duffel bag in a train station locker in Silver City, New Mexico, 563 miles southeast of Las Vegas. Each team is given a key to the locker and told to race across the desert to the train station and claim the money. Unbeknownst to the competitors, Sinclair's wealthy patrons are placing bets on who will win.

All the racers reunite in Silver City, most running side-by-side on foot toward the station. Enrico arrives first by train, only to fall asleep with his key in the locker. The others show up and tackle each other to open the locker, only to find it is empty. They all run outside and find Sinclair's assistant Grisham (Dave Thomas) and a call girl he hired making off with the money bag. They lose it when the locksmith ties it to the balloon, only for the three to crash their car.

The racers follow a hot air balloon until it lands at an outdoor charity concert hosted by Smash Mouth. All are persuaded to give the money to charity. Nick then surprises a horrified Sinclair and his patrons by declaring that they will match the amount raised (which is shown increasing at an alarming rate on the display board). The film ends with the racers dancing to "All Star" and crowd surfing in the exuberant audience as Sinclair weeps openly.

Trivia

 * John Cleese is known for his role as Basil Fawlty in the BBC television series Fawlty Towers. Basil was based upon a real life hotel owner named Donald Sinclair.