Barton Geddes

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Evil-doer
Full Name	Barton Geddes
Alias	No information
Origin	Ip Man 4: The Finale
Occupation	Gunnery Sergeant of the US Marines
Powers / Skills	Karate Cunning Intelligence Intimidation Provocation Brute strength Superior kicking strength Above average punching strength
Hobby	Training soldiers
Goals	Vanquish Master Wan (succeeded). Vanquish Master Ip Man (failed).
Crimes	Assault Invasion Hate crime Discrimination Corruption Injustice Harassment Prejudice Abuse of power Attempted murder Torture
Type of Villain	Dishonorable Xenophobic Patriot

“	Let me ask you something. Did you fall out of your crib this morning and bang your dirty head? Where the hell do you think you are? Does this look like a museum for preserving your ancient Chinese heritage?!	„
	~ Gunnery Sergeant Barton Geddes berating Staff Sergeant Hartman for trying to include kung-fu into their combat training.

“	So this kung-fu bulls**t is gonna allow us to kill our enemies. Is that what you're trying to say? Outstanding, Staff Sergeant! You're a goddamn genius! Get this thing off my base now.	„
	~ Geddes brusquely dismissing Hartman's ideas of incorporating Chinese martial arts into his training.

“	Is that it? Huh?! Is that all you've got? YOU SEE THIS?! You're nothing but another little yellow ch*nk! COME ON! LET'S GO! THAT'S IT!	„
	~ Geddes' eventual last words before being defeated by Ip Man.

Barton Geddes is the main antagonist of Ip Man 4: The Finale. He is the patriotic Gunnery Sergeant of the United States Marines, who tries to prove that karate is better than Chinese martial arts in a racist manner. He is Ip Man's final opponent in the Ip Man film series.

He was portrayed by Scott Adkins.

Synopsis

When Hartman Wu, Staff Sergeant in the Marines, attempts to convince Geddes to incorporate Chinese martial arts into their hand-to-hand combat training, he proves that their current Karate training is superior by asking him to fight the Marines' Karate instructor, Colin Frater, who defeats Hartman. Hartman later manages to convince the Commanding Officer about doing so and is instructed to film the Mid Autumn Festival happening at the Association for research, which upsets Geddes.

Geddes asks Frater to challenge the grandmasters at the Festival, defeating a few of them until Ip Man interferes and defeats him badly. Meanwhile, Wan, who was supposed to be present at the festival, is arrested by the immigration officers. Upon seeing Frater defeated, Geddes barges into the Association to find out where Wan is kept and defeats everyone there. He then threatens Walters to release Wan into the Marines' custody before bringing Wan into the camp to fight him. Due to a tip-off by a student of Lee, the Association is left empty by the time the immigration officers raid the place. Lee provides refuge for the Association, earning their respect.

Wan is seriously injured from the fight with Geddes. Ip, filled with emotions, finally reveals to his son that he has cancer, which finally allows him to talk to his father over the phone after many attempts by Ip. Ip is brought into the Marines' camp by Hartman, where he battles Geddes. Geddes says that the battle wouldn't contain any rules, and Ip and him fight, The bettle goes evenly until Ip enters into a chokehold from Geddes and is about to have his arm broken. Ip takes Geddes' saying that the battle would contain "no rules" and eventually defeats Geddes by kicking his groin twice along with breaking his arm and striking his neck. Geddes realizes that he has embarrassed the entire platoon and the Marin Corps itself. Afterward, he is taken to the sick bay for treatment of his injuries.

After Ip's death and legacy, Chinese martial arts are subsequently included in the Marine's hand-to-hand combat training, starting from 2001, leaving his plan somewhat in vain.

Personality

“	I'm not racist. See I don't hate you because you're colored. I HATE YOU BECAUSE YOU'RE A COWARDLY COLORED!	„
	~ Geddes trying to "discipline" an African American recruit.

Geddes is a devout patriot who is overly proud and arrogant, but he is mostly well known for being the embodiment of the epitome of racism, as he has an extremely prejudiced background of his hatred toward the Chinese-American population in San Francisco. He can therefore be considered as the stereotypical "ugly American".

The burning of the traditional Wing Chun wooden dummy shows Geddes' openly racist personality.

The most defining trait of Geddes throughout Ip Man 4 is his highly one-sided xenophobic behavior toward Chinese-Americans and other races through his racist beliefs and his strong self-righteousness behavior of himself and white Americans. A man who doesn't want to be corrected upstage, Geddes will go through any and all lengths to prove that his ethnocentric views on America are the correct ones, viewing kung-fu as simply child's play. Coming to his strong belief that Japanese style karate is superior to Chinese Wing Chun, he expresses little tolerance toward change, such as openly berating Staff Sergeant Hartman for trying to introduce his martial arts, only for him to be defeated when Geddes backs up his arrogant nature with Frater. He supports the removal of Chinese-Americans from the United States, as not only he supports karate over Chinese martial arts, but contribute to the discouragement of Wing Chun by burning several wooden dummies used by the Chinese to practice. When fighting against Ip Man, the most powerful martial artist in the film series, he bears little respect for him due to his Chinese ethnicity. He is similar to Taylor Milos in Ip Man 2, as both share their openly racist behaviors toward the Chinese. Although some may view him as his character being similar to General Miura, he is significantly different from the first villain, as he is far more powerful, aggressive, cruel, and disrespectful than any villain in the Ip Man film series.

Although he appears to be racist, Geddes happens to be corrupt and biased, as he doesn't appear to be that harsh toward African Americans the way he treats the Chinese. African Americans, at that time, were the primary target to prejudice. despite that the Civil Rights Movement is still going on in the film and that he has African American soldiers whom are taking part in the military. Although Geddes still treats African Americans poorly, they aren't treated as badly as his Chinese recruits in his platoon.

It's not a surprise for Geddes to be quite awfully cocky and aggressive due to his high proficiency in karate. His overconfident attitude brings little respect for others, especially Ip Man, though this would eventually contribute to his downfall. After defeating Wan, he grew extremely confident that his karate skills are superior than Chinese martial arts. While fighting against Ip Man, his confidence led to him exchange even blows to him. However, after he lands a blow and send Ip Man to the ground, he is then blinded by his arrogance when Ip Man takes the opportunity to use the Geddes' rules to kick Geddes' groin two times, along with having his arm broken and his throat being struck. No one says anything about the "cowardly" self-defense moves made by Ip Man, as Ip merely follows the rules created by Geddes', which are "no rules".

Abilities

Aside from having brutal strength being a solider of the U.S. military, Geddes is a martial artist in karate, and is considered to be a master at it. In his fighting style, Geddes usually focuses on power over speed, which allows him to kick with brute force and throw his opponents around. He is able to easily defeat everyone in the Association. Although he bears brute strength, he is at a disadvantage against swift martial artists, particular Chinese Wing Chun masters. His attacks, both kicks and punches, may be able to pack a punch toward his opponents, but they're easy to dodge and can be countered through martial arts that involve focusing on speed, which would be the probably cause of Geddes' defeat from Ip Man.

Despite that karate mainly focuses on punches and quick strikes, Geddes adopts taekwondo practices by focusing on his kicking strength.

Quotes

“	America is the greatest and most powerful country on Earth. Is that understood?	„
	~ Gunnery Segeant Barton Geddes encouraging patriotism to his recruits.

“	Outstanding work! Very nice! You see this men?! Now this is karate! Your Chinese kung-fu's only good for folding laundry. It stays where it belongs and that is the hell OFF MY BASE! Now, because of the Staff Sergeant's stupidity, all of you Chinese will run an extra 30 laps today, and the Staff Sergeant himself will run an extra 30 after that. Are we clear? Good. Carry on.	„
	~ Geddes showing his discrimination against Chinese kung-fu.

“	No rules. You fight till you drop.	„
	~ Geddes accepting Ip Man's challenge.

Trivia

• He is considered the American counterpart to General Miura (the main antagonist of first Ip Man), due to the fact that he wants to prove that Karate is superior to Kung Fu and other Chinese Martial Arts (same goal as Miura in the first film). He is also proved to be much more powerful and aggresive than Miura. 
  • The main difference between Miura and Geddes is that Miura, despite being General of the Imperial Japanese Army and committing war crimes that are unthinkable, still has an honor and respect for Ip Man. Barton Geddes, in addition to being a corrupt military officer, proved to be more cruel than Miura (reaching the point of almost killing one of Ip Man's friends, the Tai Chi master Wan Zong-hua).
• Although Barton Geddes is an American, the actor who plays him, Scott Adkins, is British.
• He has similarities with Taylor Milos, the main antagonist of Ip Man 2, due to them being racist and openly hating the Chinese, and wanting to prove that their fighting skills are better than the Chinese. They fight and defeat a friend of Ip Man only to be defeated by Ip Man himself.
  • Coincidentally, their actors are British.

Navigation

Ip Man Villains

Movies Ip Man 1: General Miura | Colonel Sato | Kam Shan-chu Ip Man 2: Taylor Milos | Wallace | Hung Chun-nam | Cheng Wai-kei | Kam Shan-chu Ip Man 3: Cheung Tin-chi | Frank | Ma King-sang | Muay Thai Warrior Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy: Owen Davidson | Police Comissioner | Tso Sai Kit | Tso Ngan Kwan | Sadi the Warrior | Ma King-sang | Cheung Tin-chi Ip Man 4: Barton Geddes | Colin Frater | Andrew Walters | Becky Walters