Harry Benson

Harold Franklin "Harry" Benson is a computer scientist who serves as the main antagonist of the Michael Crichton novel The Terminal Man.

Description
Harry Benson is a meek, pudgy man in his thirties at the time of the novel. In addition to his epilepsy, he is also paranoid, believing that computers will one day rise to enslave humanity. He is also obsessed with sex, frequenting strip clubs and inviting strippers and prostitutes to his home. This contributes to his downfall as he becomes addicted to the pleasurable sensation his electrode implants provide whenever they repress a seizure.

Biography
In 1969, prior to the events of the book, Benson was involved in a severe car accident which left him suffering from psychomotor epilepsy. Whenever Benson has a seizure, he blacks out and becomes extremely violent, with no recollection of his actions after regaining consciousness. On March 9, 1971, Benson is admitted to the fictional University Hospital in Los Angeles, where he is treated by psychiatrist Janet Ross, John Ellis, and Robert Morris. His admission comes a day after being arrested for assaulting a gas station attendant, his third overall for that crime. Benson agrees to undergo an experimental treatment in which electrodes would be implanted into his brain and stimulate it whenever a seizure is coming on, thereby preventing any future seizures and blackouts.

Soon after having the operation, Benson realizes that the electrode stimulation is similar to the pleasure one gets from having an orgasm. He becomes addicted to the sensation and learns how to invoke seizures on his own in order to receive more stimulation. At the same time, Benson has a stripper named Angela Black deliver a blonde wig to his hospital room, where he dons it and disguises himself as an orderly in order to escape the hospital unnoticed.

As Ross and company begin their search for the escaped patient, Benson returns to his home where he spends time with two unknown girls and gathers a number of supplies he intends to use to destroy the University Hospital's machines. He then goes to visit Angela Black, whom he has sex with before having a seizure and violently killing her. Afterwards he visit Ross's home, where he expresses anger and resentment towards her and his other doctors for supposedly trying to turn him into a mechanical slave. He attacks Ross and tries to kill her, but the former switches on her microwave oven, disrupting the plutonium power pack in Benson's shoulder and forcing him to flee.

Benson makes his way to an airport hangar where he assaults a mechanic, and later Morris. He finally returns to University Hospital where he attempts to destroy the hospital's computer mainframe. This draws the attention of Ross, Ellis, and the police, who all corner Benson in the basement. After a brief firefight, Benson is wounded and flees, trying to lose his assailants so he can finish his work. Ross finds him and, after an emotional struggle, fires at Benson in order to drive him back; instead she ends up shooting him dead.