Rex Hanson

"What a great twist, right? I mean, at first I was just gonna take all the money and throw you guys under the bus. I mean, come on. Duh. But then when Dad called the cops and proved he doesn't give a f*** about me (shoots his dad again) I realized, why just take a few of his millions when I can inherit all of them and you guys can take the fall for it? Right? Because, in minutes, the police will be down here and discover that you three killed my poor father with a gun that you stole from my room when you abducted me."

- Rex revealing his true nature

Rex Hanson is the hidden main antagonist of the 2014 sequel, Horrible Bosses 2.

He is portrayed by Chris Pine.

Biography
Rex first appears offering to buy Nick, Kurt and Dale's company, outsourcing labor to China, but they refuse. He then reveals he was going to pay them 3 million dollars, which the boys try to accept, but he has decided against it. Before he can send the boys out, his father tells them to build 100,000 Shower Buddies all just for him. However, once the order is made Burt cancels the order and reveals his plan to purchase the boys' company for very cheap as well as rebrand the Shower Buddy as his own business and have it manufactured by the Chinese industry, which Rex takes amusement in. The trio then plot to kidnap Rex for the 500,000 dollars needed to save their company. However, due to a misunderstanding, they end up knocking themselves out with the nitrous oxide they stole.

When Rex finds them in the morning, he almost calls the cops, but decides against it, opting to play along with the kidnapping, changing the ransom demand to 5 million dollars before sending it to his father. He then climbs into the trunk of the guys' car, pretending to be bound and gagged.

When the three find Rex, they try to back out of the ruse, but Rex forces them to do it, stating he would call the cops if they didn't go along with it (even going so far as to literally beat himself up, or as Kurt put it "fight-club himself"). After the ransom call is made, Rex finds out his father called the police (despite being ordered not to) and begins to believe his father cares more about the money than him.

While comforting Rex, they agree to make a plan; if it isn't good, Rex would "escape" and they would forget about the whole thing. Working together, the four make a seemingly flawless plan to get the money while escaping the law. During this, the trio and Rex form a close friendship.

Despite a few kinks, the plan proceeds okay, until Rex reveals his true plan by shooting and killing his father. He originally planned to betray the guys and take the 5 million dollars for himself, but after realizing his dad didn't care about him, he decided to kill him, frame the guys, and inherit his father's company and fortune. Because Dale has a slip of tongue his pants have his dad's blood on them, he forces Kurt to trade pants with him.

With help from their friend "Motherfucker" Jones, the boys lead the police to the warehouse where Rex is supposed to be tied up before he gets there, so they can prove their innocence. But Rex slips in unseen at the last minute, and the guys are about to be arrested.

Luckily for the guys, Kurt's phone (which he accidentally left for Burt to find) in Rex's pants rings, causing the police to realize Rex lied to them. Rex then tries to take Detective Hatcher hostage, yet Dale rushes at him, getting shot and allowing Hatcher to escape. Hatcher then tells the police to beat Rex up before arresting him, while Dale is taken to a hospital.

Personality
Rex is a very malicious and immature man who acts like a child instead of his current age. He thinks he is entitled to some of his dad's net worth, always verbally and emotionally protesting that his dad Bert can afford to stay rich even while giving large amounts of money to his son. In Rex's defense, Bert has a habit of forcing Rex to stay out of his conversations, out of his office and overall refused to take the responsibility of being a father. Bert's incredible psychological damage towards Rex was enough to make Rex determined at patricide (the act of killing one's father). While always deriding his dad's moral principles, Rex himself is rude and a bully such as towards his Japanese maid Kim Miyagi by tricking her into crying over getting fired, making racist accents to imitate her voice like an East Asian person, and ordering her to keep to ridiculous details such as not leaving even water droplets in the sink.

He is also very intelligent, capable of coming up with elaborate schemes on the fly and even being able to fake incidents that happened to him. In addition, he is resilient, being able to bounce back from setbacks instantly. In the climax, he proves to be a backstabber, killing his father Bert as payback for neglectful parenting and betraying Nick, Kurt and Dale in one fell swoop. All in all, Rex is a psychopath (even before the climax, there was already evidence of this).

Trivia

 * Prior to the film's release, Rex was promoted as the secondary antagonist, with Bert being the main antagonist. However, Rex turns out to be the real villain because he had bigger plans than anyone else.
 * Ironically, Rex is similar to David Harken (who served as the main villain in the first film), as they killed off the secondary antagonist that they disliked and planned to frame the protagonists for it.
 * He is also similar to Bobby Pellett, as their fathers are owners of the companies that they work at (essentially, they work for their fathers) and they are very childish, mentally ill and despise their fathers. After their fathers die, they inherit the family fortune, but unlike Rex, Bobby is killed off.
 * Even after he betrayed the trio and killed his father, Rex still considered them his friends because of all the time he'd spent with them (and possibly because of their common goal to get revenge on Bert for screwing them over), so he could be considered a Big Bad Friend to Nick, Kurt and Dale.
 * It is actually never known who was calling Kurt's phone when it was in Rex's pants. It may have been a woman that Kurt was hitting on, so Rhonda (Harken's wife) is a possibility.
 * Rex apparently did inherit his billionaire dad's net worth, although now that he is in jail he can't use it to buy luxuries.
 * Rex collects all sorts of things, such as a guitar, a T-Rex head and even a Predator fang. He also enjoys the movie Predator (which Dale also enjoys), and the song "Roar" by Katy Perry (which Kurt also enjoys), showing that he has a few things in common with them.
 * Rex is similar to Joshua Washington from Until Dawn, since both of them were mentally ill, initially posed as good guys and still considered the protagonists to be their friends after their betrayal.
 * The protagonists also sympathize with them until their true intentions are revealed.