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| “ | We've just sucked one hour of your life away. Remember, this is for posterity, so be honest. How do you feel? | „ |
| ~ Count Rugen to Westley after torturing him. |
| “ | You must be that little Spanish brat I taught a lesson to all those years ago. It's simply incredible. Have you been chasing me all these years only to fail now? I think that's the worst thing I ever heard of; how marvelous. | „ |
| ~ Count Rugen mocking Inigo before attempting to kill him. |
Count Tyrone Rugen is the secondary antagonist of the 1973 fantasy novel The Princess Bride by the late William Goldman, and its 1987 live-action film adaptation of the same name. He was known by Inigo Montoya as The Six-Fingered Man, due to having a sixth finger on his right hand. Rugen is also responsible for the murder of Inigo Montoya's father, Domingo, before the events of the film.
In the film, he was portrayed by Christopher Guest, who also portrayed Ivan the Terrible in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.
Biography[]
Rugen is the right-hand man of Prince Humperdinck, serving as the Grand Vizier of Florin. He is cruel and sadistic and has a fascination with pain; during the events of the film he claims that he is currently writing a book on the subject. He is the inventor of a massive torture device that is a cross between a rack and a water pump, simply called "the Machine", that has the ability to drain years of someone's life from them. He is assisted in the Pit of Despair by the Albino.
Twenty years prior to the events of the film, Rugen visited swordsmith Domingo Montoya requesting a special sword for his six-fingered hand. When the elder Montoya completed the sword, Rugen demanded it at one-tenth of the original price. When the elder Montoya refused (not because of the money, but because Rugen did not appreciate the hard work invested in the weapon), Rugen killed him by slashing him through the heart. Domingo's then eleven-year-old son Inigo immediately challenged Rugen to a duel. Rugen bested Inigo, but decided to leave him alive, though he left scars on both of Inigo's cheeks to teach him a lesson.
Years later, Rugen helps Prince Humperdinck attempt to carry out his plan to incite a war between Florin and the enemy nation of Guilder, helping Humperdinck track down the wayward Buttercup, eventually succeeding at the edge of the Fire Swamp. Though Humperdinck promises to take Westley back to his ship, this is a lie and he actually orders Rugen to take Westley to the Pit of Despair. Westley immediately sees through this deception. He also notices Rugen has six-fingers on his right hand and is thus the man who Inigo is looking for, prompting Rugen to knock him out.
Westley is taken to the Pit, where Rugen immediately hooks him up to the Machine and drains one year of Westley's life from him. He later asks Westley the exact sensation he felt "for posterity" (most likely for his book) in response to a whimper from Westley. Rugen finds this interesting and says he go as high as five years, but muses that he doesn't know what that would do to Westley.
Later in the film, when Inigo (who now knows that Rugen is his father's murderer), Fezzik, and a revived Westley (who was left "mostly dead" after an enraged Prince Humperdinck supposedly killed him after raising the Machine to the highest setting) storm Humperdinck's castle, Inigo corners Rugen and duels him again. Inigo repeatedly says to Rugen "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." Rugen has the upper hand for the beginning of the duel, but Inigo gradually fights back and defeats him.
In a last ditch effort to save himself, Rugen offers to give Inigo anything he wants if he lets him live. Though Inigo originally appears to consider this offer, he ultimately rejects it and kills Rugen, saying "I want my father back, you son-of-a-bitch." Thus, Inigo finally avenged his father after twenty years. Shortly later, Inigo questioned his future, now that he's gotten revenge on the man who orphaned him.
Gallery[]
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Trivia[]
- Polydactyly is a real life medical condition which involves some people having additional fingers.[1]
- Inigo's search for the man who killed his father appears to be inspired by the 1960s television The Fugitive, which involved an innocent man searching for the one-armed man who killed his wife, and The Godfather Part II, which involved young Vito Corleone returning to his Sicilian hometown to kill Don Ciccio, the Mafia Don who murdered his entire family when he was a boy. Vito also told Don Ciccio who his father was before killing him.[2] While The Princess Bride novel was written a year before The Godfather Part II was released. parts of Vito's background which had a similar Don murder his father when a boy where also shown in the 1969 Godfather novel as well. It was not made clear if he killed the Don who murdered his father and family in the 1969 novel though
- In the film, Rugen is portrayed as a Count with a sinister British accent. However, Britain does not have a history of Counts. In contrast to other nations with Counts, such titles have always been described in Britain as "Earls."[3]
References[]
- ↑ https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/325388#:~:text=An%20estimated%20one%20in%20every,it%20a%20malformation%20or%20anomaly
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb7KJqKodj0
- ↑ https://www.purewow.com/entertainment/what-is-a-countess#:~:text=Turns%20out%2C%20the%20British%20don,probably%20the%20most%20well%2Dknown.