Cliff Vandercave

Villain Overview Gallery

Evil-doer
Full Name	Clifford Vandercave
Alias	Cliff Mr. Vandercave
Origin	The Flintstones (film)
Occupation	Executive vice president at Slate & Co. (formerly)
Powers / Skills	Trickery Manipulation Cunning Sophistication Embezzling Business management
Hobby	Tricking Fred into doing what he says, framing Fred for embezzlement; therefore making Fred's life miserable.
Goals	Embezzle from Slate & Co. (formerly). Frame (or kill) Fred for it (failed).
Crimes	Fraud Incriminations Embezzlement Theft Kidnapping Extortion Treason Corruption Felony Breaking and entering Conspiracy Attempted pedicide Attempted murder Animal cruelty Child abuse Blackmail Terrorism
Type of Villain	Greedy Embezzler

“	And somewhere down there is the ignorant stooge who'll make all my schemes come true.	„
	~ Cliff explaining his plot to Miss Sharon Stone vowing to find the perfect fool to take the blame for his embezzlement scheme.

Clifford "Cliff" Vandercave is the main antagonist of the 1994 Universal Pictures adaptation of The Flintstones, a live-action film version of the animated sitcom of the same name. He is the executive vice president of industrial procurement for Slate & Co. He is assisted by a woman named Sharon Stone.

He was portrayed by Kyle MacLachlan, who also portrayed Calvin L. Johnson in Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., King Claudius in the 2000 film adaptation of Hamlet, Donald Love in Grand Theft Auto III, Isaac Izzard in The House with the Clock in its Walls, Earl Raymond Diggs in Tales From the Crypt, and Dale Cooper's doppleganger in Twin Peaks.

Personality

Cliff Vandercave is best described as arrogant, sly, greedy, and very manipulative. He is willing do anything to get what he wants—be that lying or trickery, or even murder. He constantly is one step ahead of Fred, going so far as blackmailing him into firing Barney and even tricks Fred into firing all the other workers and framing him for embezzlement, even mocking Fred for falling into his scheme. Cliff also has no genuine loyalty to anybody but himself, as he even plans on betraying his devoted secretary Sharon Stone by taking the money for himself.

When his scheme is exposed, Cliff snaps and resorts to abducting Pebbles and Bamm Bamm and tying them to a giant mining machine. He even tricks Fred and Barney into surrendering the Dictabird to pay for the kids' execution at his hands by turning on the machine and later attempts to kill Fred in cold blood. But when Cliff gets in a jam he can't weasel out of, he resorts to cowardly running, only for Fred to easily subdue him with one hit. All and all, Cliff's overconfidence in his lies and treachery eventually leads directly to his downfall.

Biography

Cliff was presumably hired by Mr. Slate some years after Fred and Barney. It is revealed that he cheated on his resume and became one of the heads of the company dishonestly. Along with Miss Stone, they decided to embezzle a fortune from the company through phony constructing machinery and fly to a beach resort called Rockopoko. All they needed was a "stooge" to put their plan into effect.

Cliff is the head of the company Fred and Barney work for. Cliff proposes that he will make one worker his vice-president, if the worker wins the exam he gives them. The workers take the exam, and Barney does exceptionally well, but feeling he ought to help his friend Fred who has failed, Barney switches the tests by putting the answer slabs in the opposite envelopes. When Sharon comes in later with the test results, Cliff is shocked that Fred could win because he perceived Fred as dense and witless. But Sharon assures him that Fred would be perfect, so in the end Fred is hired. Sharon then becomes Fred's personal secretary to help seduce Fred to do Cliff's bidding including signing forged company documents.

To make sure Fred would do exactly what he said, he gives him his first task of firing Barney, mainly because he got the lowest on the test. Fred at first is reluctant to obey as Barney was his best friend, but Cliff replied if Fred didn't fire him, he himself would fire both him and Barney, so in the end Fred has no choice. Later Cliff announces during a meeting that he will be making new modular housing units for the town using new age machinery that would also increase their profit margin fourfold. But Fred mistakes the tiny houses on Cliff's model of the machine for the real thing and says if he built houses this small, who would live in them.

After learning from Sharon about Fred's suspicions about the new service Cliff was planning for the company, he decides to distract him with a huge bonus and tells him that if he wanted to be a top executive that he had to start living like one, which Fred does.

Eventually, Cliff tricks Fred into firing all the workers in the quarry which causes a falling out with Barney, his other friends and his wife Wilma.

The next morning, Fred is met with an angry crowd of employees and heads straight to the file room where he finds the real documents and discovers Cliff's true intentions and confronts him on it. Cliff tells Fred that he's given him all the credit since it was his name on the forms including spending so much money on luxuries and marks Fred as an embezzler.

Fred is now a fugitive on the run who hides out at a hotel. A news broadcast is shown of Fred (or rather, an actor doing a terrible impression of him) embezzling, Wilma who is viewing this remembers the Dictabird in Fred's office and with Betty sets off to Slate & Co to clear her husband's name. Fred, who is now in a disguise, finds refuge in a cave and chats with one of the employees who was fired, but he accidentally gives himself away and a huge mob chases him down the road.

Meanwhile, Wilma and Betty sneak into the office building and steal the Dictabird. However, Cliff sees Wilma and Betty leave with the Dictabird from his office window, and realizes that now that they have the bird, it would spoil everything and decided to go into another devious scheme.

The angry mob soon corners Fred and attempts to hang him and Barney after he admits that it was because of him that Fred was promoted to the job, but before the two can be hanged, Wilma, Betty and the Dictabird arrive and Dictabird forces Fred to say sorry. Then the mob realizes that Cliff was the one who actually dismissed them and they let Fred and Barney go.

With his embezzlement scheme exposed, an enraged Cliff then makes an attempt at revenge by sneaking into Fred's house and taking both Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm hostage, intending to extort the Dictabird from Fred and Barney. When the two confront Cliff at the quarry, where he has tied Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm to a huge housing construction machine. They surrender the Dictabird, only for Cliff to reveal his deal was all a trick by activating the machine to grind the kids alive anyway. Barney heads to rescue the children while Fred destroys the machine.

Cliff confronts Fred and attempts to shoot at him but is knocked out by Sharon, after finding out that Cliff had betrayed her by getting only one ticket to Rockapoko. Cliff tries to run away from Fred, but he picks up a large round boulder and rolls it at Cliff, knocking him to the ground like a bowling pin. But as he tries to escape the cops, a huge amount of molten cement comes down over the ledge and buries him alive, turning him into a solid statue. When Mr. Slate sees the cement-covered Cliff, he exclaims that he loves it, deciding to name it "concrete" after his daughter, Concretia, and declares the Stone Age over with its creation. Slate offers Fred the presidency of a new division in the company, but Fred turns it down in exchange for his old job back, Slate rehiring all the workers, and adding a few other improvements to the workplace he had originally desired as an executive. It is unknown if Cliff is still alive while being encased in concrete or if he suffocated since it covered his entire body with no visible holes.  

Quotes

“	Mr. Flintstone, you are about to embezzle a great deal of money. Unfortunately for you, we get to keep it.	„
	~ Cliff plotting to frame Fred for embezzlement.

“	Okay, Fred, are you ready for your first executive action? (Fred Flintstone: Ready and willing! Whatever you need, consider it done!) Good. I want you to fire Bernard Rubble. (Fred Flintstone: Done! What? Fire Barney? Why?) Well, for starters, he scored the lowest on the management aptitude test. He's an imbecile! The company can't afford to have dead weight like him on the payroll! (Fred Flintstone: But, Mr. Vandercave, he's got a new kid, a mortgage. I'm his best friend. I can't.) Look, Fred, if you don't fire him, I will... and then I'll fire you.'	„
	~ Cliff threatening Fred to fire Barney, stating that if he doesn't, Cliff will fire both of them.