Daniel Harper

Daniel Harper is the secondary antagonist in the 1996 action thriller film Eraser. He served as the U.S. Undersecretary of Defense until his death. He serves as the boss of Marshal Robert Deguerin.

He was played by Andy Romano.

Role
During the beginning of the film, John Kruger (a U.S. Marshal and the protagonist of the film) and the FBI have caught wind of an arms sale formulated by a weapons company called Cyrez Corporation to sell electronic pulse rifle to Russian mobsters lead by the infamous terrorist Sergei Ivanovich Petrofsky, which may lead into a new era of world terrorism. It turns out that Harper himself is the real mastermind behind the arms sale. After Cyrez Corporation executive Lee Cullen procure two discs containing the evidence following the suicide of Cyrez CEO William Donahue (who was a major player in the conspiracy), she gives one of the discs to the FBI before Kruger is assigned to protect her by having her to hide in New York City.

However, the FBI's disc is secretly stolen by a clerk, who is revealed to be working for Harper, who retrieves it. Despite being able to get the disc, Harper is angry to learn from his conspirators at Cyrez that Cullen has the other disc containing the evidence and that she talked to a close friend before she escaped, a reporter named Claire Issacs working for the Washington Post. Harper orders both Cullen and Issacs to be killed at once before destroying his disc.

Though the hit on Issacs was a success, Harper is angry to learn from Deguerin (who is working as the mole in WITSEC) that Cullen is escaping away thanks to Kruger's efforts. Harper then orders Deguerin to finish the job of killing Kruger and Cullen so that they can proceed on with the arm sale at the Baltimore docks.

Though Deguerin manage to kidnap Cullen and bring her to the docks to oversee the shipment in Petrofsky's freighter ship, Kruger (with the help of a mob witness named Johnny Castleone and his cousin Tony, who owns the docks) stops the shipments by killing down Degeurin's men, including Petrofsky and his men. Degeurin, despite being injured, is then handed over to the authorities. As a result of this event, Harper's role behind the arms sale is exposed and is presumably taken into custody.

The next day, a hearing takes place, but Deguerin, Harper, and their remaining conspirator Morehart manage to escape charges of treason, since a conviction and sentence for them will not be possible under civil law jurisdiction. As they leave in their limousine, Kruger fakes his and Lee's deaths by blowing up a vehicle in front of a large crowd of witnesses, including Harper himself. Deguerin believes the explosion had been set up by Harper, but Harper assumed vice versa. They both soon realize that no one within their inner circle had actually arranged it. The limousine then suddenly comes to an abrupt halt on a train crossing, and the doors lock themselves shut. The driver, who turns out to be Johnny himself in disguise, exits from the limo and runs off from the area. Deguerin anxiously looks around before receiving a phone call from Kruger, stating that he is about to be "erased". Looking out of the window, Harper, Deguerin and Morehart see a freight train steadily approaching them, and Kruger and Johnny stand by to watch it smash into the limousine, finally killing Harper and his conspirators for good.