| “ | Oh, God! Where are all the men anymore? My father, Tyler Prentiss, never asked "Is this okay? Is this okay?" You know what I'm saying, Mark? He just did what needed to be done! | „ |
| ~ Eleanor Shaw. |
Eleanor Prentiss Shaw is the main antagonist of the 2004 movie The Manchurian Candidate. She is a ruthless, power-hungry U.S. Senator who uses her son as an assassin as part of a plot to make him a puppet dictator controlled by her and the mega corporation Manchurian Global, her chief political patron.
She is portrayed by Meryl Streep, who also portrayed The Witch in Into the Woods, Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada, Jessica Lovejoy in The Simpsons episode "Bart's Girlfriend", Susan Orlean in Adaptation, Janie Orlean in Don't Look Up, and the Chief Elder in The Giver.
History[]
Eleanor is a senator from Virginia descended from the Prentiss family, one of the most powerful political dynasties in the country. She is married to Senator John Shaw, but the marriage is merely a public show for the sake of her career; she all but openly ignores her timid, weak-willed husband in favor of her son Raymond, a rising political star and Gulf War veteran whom she sees as the true heir to the Prentiss name. Eleanor manipulates and controls nearly every aspect of Raymond's life, forbidding him to have a life independent of her and even forcing him to break up with his girlfriend Jocelyn Jordan because her father, Senator Tom Jordan, is Eleanor's political rival. Worst of all, it is suggested that Eleanor's relationship with Raymond is incestuous.
She and the chief executives of Manchurian Global concoct a plan to hypnotize Raymond into becoming their own personal assassin, controlling his mind by uttering his full name and military rank. Under Eleanor's control, Raymond would eliminate his political rivals and seize the nomination for Vice President of the United States; they would then manipulate the election to ensure Raymond's victory, and then use another hypnotized soldier to assassinate the President-Elect, clearing the way for Raymond to become President and serve as Eleanor's puppet, governing according to their corporate agenda.
Eleanor convinces the party leaders to nominate Raymond for Vice President, pushing Tom Jordan, the main contender for the nomination, out of the way. Jordan later confronts them, in realization that Raymond was brainwashed, and tells him he should bow out gracefully from the campaign and submit himself for testing and treatment. Eleanor "activates" Raymond and uses him to kill Jordan. Raymond also kills Jocelyne, with whom he is still in love. Witnessing her son's grief upon learning of Jocelyne's death, Eleanor feels a pang of uncharacteristic remorse, but hypocritically blames Manchurian Global for not ensuring Raymond's conditioning to be without issues when they call her out for using her own son as a political assassin, and she secretly plans to destroy them once in power.
Bennett Marco, Raymond's former commanding officer in the Marines during the Gulf War, grows suspicious of Raymond after suffering recurring nightmares about Raymond murdering his fellow Marines as their unit was being experimented on by Manchurian scientists. He investigates, and discovers to his horror that Raymond had in fact committed this crime while in a state of hypnosis instigated by Manchurian Global, who wanted to test Raymond's effectiveness as an assassin. He goes to the FBI, who had in fact been investigating Raymond themselves, and they arrange a meeting between Marco and Raymond in an attempt to get the latter to incriminate himself and Manchurian Global.
During the meeting, however, Raymond receives a phone call from Eleanor and hands the phone to Marco. Eleanor uses trigger words to control Marco's mind, giving him commands to assassinate the President-Elect so that Raymond can become president. As the plan is in motion, however, with the trauma of Jocelyne's death and inspired by Marco's attempts to reach him despite his despair over feeling trapped by his conditioning and his mother, Shaw displays resistance to his own mind control. During this phase, Raymond realizes that his mother has to be stopped. At the election party, Raymond directs the President-Elect away from the standing place where Marco, wielding a sniper rifle, is supposed to shoot him. Shaw looks up at the vent, and gives Marco a nod of clearance to kill him. Raymond dances with Eleanor and shift to that area purposely. Marco opens fire, killing both of them with one shot.
Trivia[]
- Shaw is a reimagined version of Mrs. Iselin, the main antagonist of the original 1962 version of The Manchurian Candidate.