The story of Syndrome from the 2004 Disney/Pixar film The Incredibles.
Rejected by Mr. Incredible[]
Buddy as IncrediBoy.
As a child, Buddy Pine was a superhero fanatic and prodigy inventor who idolized Mr. Incredible, the strongest of all superheroes, having several amounts of Mr. Incredible's merchandise like toys, comic books, posters and newspapers clippings. He joined Mr. Incredible's fan club like many others and eventually got to meet his hero. Mr. Incredible was nice to him, posing for photos and signing every scrap of paper he gave to him. But Buddy was in reality obsessed with him; he wanted to be Mr. Incredible's sidekick even though he had no superpowers of his own and was a normal human, leading Buddy to design his own equipment.
One day, Buddy sneaked into Mr. Incredible's Incredibile, willing to be his self-appointed sidekick IncrediBoy. Mr. Incredible recognized Buddy from his fan club and said that he had done everything he asked him to do, but Buddy arrogantly informed Mr. Incredible that he didn't have to worry about training him since he knew everything about him, being his number one fan. However, rather than allowing IncrediBoy to accompany him, Mr. Incredible ejected Buddy from his car and sped off, with Buddy calling out from the road and telling him to wait, to no avail.
Later that night, right when Mr. Incredible saved pedestrian Oliver Sansweet from near-suicide convoluted into a bank robbery to stop Bomb Voyage, Buddy showed up again as IncrediBoy and told Mr. Incredible that he made new rocket boots and that he finally figured out who he is: his ward, IncrediBoy. However, when Mr. Incredible tells him that he's now officially carried it too far, Buddy unfairly assumed that it was because he doesn't have powers, despite the fact he didn't have any evidence to back him up and said that not every superhero has powers, and they can be super without them.
After Buddy asked Mr. Incredible if he could fly since he could with his rocket boots, Mr. Incredible responded (while holding up Bomb Voyage, who tried to escape during his and Buddy's conversation), "Fly home, Buddy. I work alone". Buddy told Mr. Incredible to just give him one chance and that he would show him by getting the police; but as he was leaving, Bomb Voyage took the opportunity to attach a bomb to the end of his cape (which Buddy was unaware of and would echo a later scene in the movie regarding the dangers of wearing a cape by Edna Mode), so Mr. Incredible was forced to let Bomb Voyage escape to save Buddy and dispose of the bomb because of the latter's recklessness. However, the bomb ended up falling on a railway, destroying it, forcing Mr. Incredible to stop the incoming train from falling off the railway, saving yet injuring all the passengers in the process.
Now sick and tired of what Buddy had done, Mr. Incredible handed him over to the police in the back of their police car, telling them to send him back home and tell his mother what he has been doing so she could have a talk with him. When Mr. Incredible told the officers that Bomb Voyage escaped, he also added that "Skippy" made sure of that, only for Buddy to correct him, but Mr. Incredible roughly responded that he was not affiliated with him before leaving for his wedding with Elastigirl.
Unfortunately, Buddy's actions that night indirectly ended up opening the floodgate of other lawsuits against supers (because of the two lawsuits from Oliver Sansweet and the train passengers that Mr. Incredible faced and lost), and thus, it abolished supers altogether.
Becoming a Supervillain[]
Buddy gives up on his ideal and decides to become a supervillain.
After Buddy is sent home and probably even scolded and sent to his room by his mother (which was shown in a flashback with a grown-up Buddy {as Syndrome} telling it to an older Mr. Incredible), he believes that he cannot trust anyone and realizes that his lifelong dreams have been crushed, which gradually drives him to anger and hatred for Mr. Incredible and the other supers for not giving him the opportunity to become a superhero, violently throwing aside a huge poster of his hero to symbolize his newfound hate for Mr. Incredible. Finally, Buddy decides to let it drive him to revenge, becoming a supervillain to get his revenge on Mr. Incredible for refusing him to be his sidekick, as well as possibly getting him in trouble with his mother. Therefore, he starts plotting, not acknowledging that it is his arrogance and reckless actions that caused him to be rejected in the first place.
For the next 15 years, Buddy works his way into becoming a weapons designer and becomes rich selling his weapons (possibly through the black market). His wealth becomes so accumulated, that he is able to buy a remote island called Nomanisan, where he builds up his base of operations and hires thugs to serve as security guards.
Operating through his agent Mirage, Buddy (now known by his new supervillain name Syndrome) contacts several retired superheroes, tasking them with the defeating of various prototypes of the enormous Omnidroid battle robots, with the explicit order to not completely destroy them. This s secretly a plan to test the robots against the supers. If the super dies, Syndrome recruits another and repeats the process. If the super survives and disables the robot, then the data accumulated from the battle is used to improve the Omnidroid's design, and the victorious super is then sent to disable the new model; no super ever survives the second encounter. This leads to the Omnidroids becoming more difficult to defeat every time, with Syndrome's eventual goal being to make the Omnidroid powerful enough to defeat Mr. Incredible.
Formulating a Plot for Glory[]
Deciding that his Omnidroid is now good enough to fight Mr. Incredible, Syndrome has Mirage recruit his former idol, who is able to defeat the Omnidroid.
Syndrome revealing himself to Mr. Incredible.
After repairing and improving the machine, Syndrome sends it to fight Mr. Incredible. When the hero is outmatched rather quickly, Syndrome reveals himself (also saying that all he wanted was to help Mr. Incredible, but what made him snap was when he told him to fly home and that he works alone) and he declares that he will be Mr. Incredible's new nemesis. Syndrome cruelly scolds Mr. Incredible for not letting him be his sidekick and ruin everything for him. Mr. Incredible sadly admits that he was wrong to treat Syndrome that way and apologizes for it but Syndrome assumes that, since he now has power over him, he is bluffing, and he goes on a monologue with Mr. Incredible. After Mr. Incredible takes advantage of the moment to throw a log at Syndrome (who dodges it), Syndrome immobilizes Mr. Incredible with his zero-point energy ray, which is shot from the pointer finger of Syndrome's glove. Syndrome was amused that Mr. Incredible got him monologuing.
Syndrome's zero-point energy ray causes a person (or superhero, in this case) hit by the ray to immediately become immobilized, lose all velocity, and levitate off of the ground, making them unable to speak or move. If their skin is exposed, then their facial movements are reduced to only being able to move their eyeballs, giving Syndrome complete control of their motion in all three dimensions. After using the ray to throw Mr. Incredible around several times to show his power over the superhero, Syndrome accidentally uses his zero-point energy ray to throw Mr. Incredible over a waterfall, much to Syndrome's irritation. Not wanting to take any chances, he then tries to finish him off with an explosive device to ensure his demise.
Syndrome believes he's succeeded in killing Mr. Incredible.
Mr. Incredible is now scared and sees the explosion in the water, but Syndrome sends his life-detector to see if Mr. Incredible survived the explosion. Mr. Incredible uses Gazerbeam's skeletal remains (who had been presumably killed by Syndrome for knowing too much about his schemes) to make Syndrome think that he was killed by the bomb, which works.
Unfortunately, Syndrome is able to capture Mr. Incredible when he tried to infiltrate his base later on (during which Mr. Incredible discovers Syndrome's computer and discovers that Syndrome had killed former superheroes before him with his Omnidroids, and had tracked down other retired superheroes as well), also realizing that he used Gazerbeam's remains to trick the probe into thinking that he was dead to being with. He admits that he was right to idolize Mr. Incredible, despite his grudge against him, though he is disappointed that he decided to call for help and that it was lame.
Due to the fact that Elastigirl had activated the tracking device on his supersuit in an attempt to find where Mr. Incredible was (thus causing Mr. Incredible's beeping badge, that led to his capture, to trigger the alarm), Syndrome and Mirage believe that he had made contact for reinforcements and begin to interrogate him. Despite Mr. Incredible's intents that he never knew about the homing device and that he wasn't contacting anyone, he inadvertently recognizes Elastigirl's voice on the transmission line as she's flying a government plane (borrowed by her old friend Snug Porter) to the island, making Syndrome believe that he had in fact been lying to him. With this knowledge, Syndrome decides to send a little "greeting" by having missiles to take down Elastigirl's plane.
Mr. Incredible is horrified to hear Elastigirl reveal their children were onboard and begs Syndrome by telling him to call off the missiles and that he'll do anything. Syndrome coldly refuses, saying in revenge that it's "15 years too late". This earns shock from Mirage, as she starts to question Syndrome's ways after seeing his lack of remorse. As the last missile finally destroys the plane, Syndrome takes great pleasure in killing the occupants (not knowing that they actually evaded the crash alive and are now using the powers to swim to the island), recalling how Mr. Incredible had told him that he worked alone after he offered to be his sidekick. Mr. Incredible then retaliates by threatening to kill Mirage by crushing her; but Syndrome reacting indifferently at this, refuses to release him and goads him to crush Mirage.
Mr. Incredible decides to let her go, realizing that that wouldn't make things better and Syndrome teases that he knew Mr. Incredible wouldn't do it, even when he's got nothing to lose because he says that Mr. Incredible's weak and that he's outgrown him. Mirage (feeling sorry for Mr. Incredible, who is crying over the supposed loss of his family) gets mad at Syndrome for being cruel to Mr. Incredible and murdering heroes, especially when her life was threatened by Mr. Incredible, instead of valuing Syndrome attempts to appease Mirage that he just called Mr. Incredible's bluff and that he knew that he wasn't planning to hurt her, but a disgusted Mirage tells her now-former boss, "Next time you gamble... bet your own life!" and quits, leaving Syndrome confused.
Mirage later learns that Mr. Incredible's family survived the crash and are on the island. She then frees Mr. Incredible from captivity, informs him of his family's survival, and helps him escape and reunite with his family. However, Syndrome (being unaware of Mirage's recent actions) is able to recapture Mr. Incredible along with his family by immobilizing them with his zero-point energy rays, and finally deduces that Mr. Incredible had married Elastigirl (whose previous location and status was unknown in his database) and had two children with her.
Believing that he has hit the jackpot by capturing an entire family of superheroes, Syndrome imprisons the Incredibles in one of his multi-prisoner containment units and shows the recent broadcast of his Ominidroid landing in the city. He takes the opportunity to brag about how he had beaten them, even without having any superpowers for himself. As such, Syndrome reveals his true plan to the Incredibles: he intends to set the Omnidroid on Metroville to go on a rampage, and then stop it himself, therefore taking the credit and setting himself up as the city's new hero for years until he retires. Syndrome also announces that after his retirement, he will sell his inventions to the world so that others can be super, thus destroying the concept of supers and making the term meaningless. In his own words, "Everyone can be super! And when everyone's super... no one will be."
Believing that he finally beat the best superheroes as well as the Incredibles, Syndrome heads off to Metroville to finalize his plan, putting up a show 'fighting' against the Omnidroid-stopping it from nearly killing a woman and her baby. However, Syndrome realizes too late that the Omnidroid's ability to learn allowed it to identify Syndrome as a threat, blasting his remote control wristband from his wrist. Panicking, Syndrome attempts to flee, accidentally knocking several bystanders down, before the Omnidroid destroys one of his rocket boots, sending him flying out of control into a building, knocking him out cold.
Syndrome remains unconscious during the Incredibles' escape and return back to Metroville, where they team up with fellow superhero Frozone to destroy the Omnidroid by taking out its brainpan, causing it to shut down and explode. As soon as Syndrome regains consciousness, he is angry to see that the Incredibles along with Frozone have destroyed his giant robot.
Death[]
Syndrome kidnapping Jack-Jack.
With Syndrome's plot now exposed to the public, his assets are frozen by the government, and a warrant is put out for his arrest (as stated by Rick Dicker), Angry to see what is happening to him, Syndrome makes one final attempt at revenge by breaking into the Incredibles' house and abducting Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl's infant son Jack-Jack. He persuades his current babysitter that he is a replacement, telling her that the S on his shirt stands for Sitter and that he cannot run around with a "BS" on his shirt in public. Kari believes him without question, wanting to get away from Jack-Jack as she was having a lot of trouble with the superpowered baby. When the Incredibles arrive to rescue Jack-Jack, Syndrome zaps them with his zero-point energy ray with his finger and reassures them that he'll be a good mentor to Jack-Jack, and probably even raise him as his sidekick in time. He then throws the Incredibles out of their home and crashes through the ceiling and up to his jet plane while holding a crying Jack-Jack.
Unfortunately for Syndrome, this plan fails when Jack-Jack's transforming superpower manifests and allows him to beat Syndrome up. Elastigirl is then thrown into the air by Mr. Incredible to rescue her baby (who fell out of Syndrome's arms when he hit the wing of his plane due to Jack-Jack having disabled one of his rocket boots that made him fly uncontrollably) and then she uses her body as a parachute to glide back down to safety. Finally realizing that he lost, Syndrome leans from the side door of his jet plane, vowing revenge on the Incredible family, and yells at them that their battle is "not" over and he will get Jack-Jack one day before proceeding to cackle evilly.
Syndrome right before his well-deserved death.
Not wanting to let Syndrome get away and finally pushed to his limit to make up not handling what he did 15 years ago better, Mr. Incredible starts looking around for something to throw at Syndrome, spotting the car that he had bought with the money he had been paid for defeating the Omnidroid. Mr. Incredible throws the car at the plane, knocking Syndrome off-balance inches away from the plane's air turbine. Syndrome attempts to escape but is killed for good when his cape snags him in the turbine, pulling him in and shredding him to pieces before the aircraft explodes, putting an end to Syndrome's menace on the Incredibles/Parr Family, as well Frozone & avenging all the supers he killed.
Legacy[]
Despite his death, Syndrome's actions left a major impact on the Incredibles. He is briefly alluded by Bob when he references his death by bringing up the jet that blew up and took his suits and their old house with it, which ultimately caused them to relocate to a new home. Later on, it is show that, despite all the supers killed by the Omnidroids, Syndrome was unable to trick new supers, like those gathered by Winston Deavor, into going to the Nomanisan Island, as they were forced to hide their powers due to their unavailability to be heroes legally.
Once the Screenslaver is defeated and the supers are made legal again (thus undoing Oliver Sansweet's and his lawyer's actions), these new supers, along with the Incredibles and Frozone, are able to fill up the places of all those fallen supers, so the world can be safe once again in good hands.