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| “ | Hello, Nicholas. I was like you once; I believed in the immutable word of the law, that is until the night Mrs. Butterman was taken from me. You see, no one loved Sandford more than her; she was head of the Women's Institute, chair of the floral committee. When they started the Village of the Year contest she worked around the clock; I've never seen such dedication. On the evening of the adjudicator's arrival some travelers moved in to Callahan Park, and before you could say 'gypsy scum', we were knee-deep in dog muck, thieving kids, and crusty jugglers. We lost the title, and Irene lost her mind. She drove her Datsun Cherry into Sandford Gorge. From that moment on, I swore that I would do her proud and whatever the cost, we would make Sandford great again. | „ |
| ~ Frank Butterman explaining his motivations to Nicholas Angel. |
| “ | No, Nicholas. I'm afraid it is you who is going to have to come with us. | „ |
| ~ Frank before attacking Nicholas. |
| “ | You're not seriously going to believe this man, are you? Are you?! HE ISN'T EVEN FROM AROUND HERE! | „ |
| ~ Frank after Angel and Danny manage to convince the Sandford police about Frank's true intentions. |
Frank Butterman is the main antagonist of the 2007 action comedy film Hot Fuzz, the second installment of the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy.
He is the chief of the Sanford Police Service and the father of Danny Butterman who was a good man who followed the law religiously until his wife, Irene, killed herself out of grief for Sandford losing the Village of the Year contest. Following this, Frank was driven to the point of insanity and founded the Neighborhood Watch Alliance in order to eradicate all those he deemed imperfect for Sanford to win the contest every year.
He was portrayed by Jim Broadbent, who also played Boss Tweed in Gangs of New York, Wackford Squeers in Nicholas Nickleby, Lord Kelvin in Around the World in 80 Days, Madame Gasket in Robots and Lord Thomas Badgley in Dolittle.
Biography[]
Frank Butterman was the Chief Inspector in the small English village of Sandford, whose son Danny, served as a constable in the police service. Frank appears charming, likable, humorous and good-natured when Nicholas Angel first meets. Later on, when people in the village start to get murdered, he seems skeptical, and tries to convince Angel to label the death as accidents until they get all the evidence. Later one day, when Angel believes that the murders were done by multiple killers and tells the Chief inspector this, Frank just told him he was probably having trouble getting used to life outside London, where there were crimes everywhere, and suggests he sleep on it, but also gives his word that he'll begin investigating it if Angel feels the same in the morning.
Later, Angel discovered that the Neighbor Watch Alliance is behind all the murders in order to get rid of anyone that would risk Sandford winning the title of village of the year. Butterman reveals that he's in charge and will do anything to make Sandford the best village because his wife committed suicide when they lost the first village of the year after a group of gypsies ruined all of her preparations. After Nicholas escapes the NWA with the help of the Danny he returns to Sandford to arrest the NWA. Nicholas frees the police of Sandford from Frank's evil influence, and exposes Frank as the mastermind behind the killings. With Danny and the rest of the police assisting him, Nicholas defeats all the members except for Butterman and Simon Skinner, owner of the local supermarket.
Butterman and Skinner try to get away in a police car, but crash while trying to avoid a swan. Nicholas tosses the swan into the back of the car to get it out of the way and then proceeds to knock out Skinner. But Butterman gets into Nicolas' car, prompting his son Danny to attempt to shoot him (coincidentally reenacting a favourite scene of his from the movie Point Break) and when Danny can't shoot his own father, Butterman flees over the fields, but, when driving, notices the swan looming behind. In the ensuing chaos, Frank is bitten by the swan causing him to crash into a tree. He is then arrested by the police.
Personality[]
Originally, Frank was an honest Police Officer, who (like the film's protagonist Nicholas Angel) believed in the immutable word of law, but this changed when his wife was driven insane and took her own life after the efforts she put into the 'Best Village of the Year' competition were ruined by travelers.
This would bring drastic changes on Frank's psyche, transforming him from a decent man, into a ruthless, borderline psychotic extremist who would stop at nothing to achieve his goals. Frank was shown to be a highly intelligent and charismatic leader, having organised murders and clean-up operations all over Sandford, and was able to conceal his true persona with a friendly, if quirky, façade. However, when anyone who was an enemy to him or his associates was speaking with him, he would steadily drop this charade and become an exceptionally menacing individual.
In addition to his duplicity and lack of feelings towards the NWA's victims, Frank was also possibly a bit of a xenophobe, referring to the travellers who drove his wife to her early grave as 'gypsy scum', though this may have been a simple spiteful remark towarks that specific group of people he blamed, and not travellers as a whole.
Towards the end of the film, Frank's emotional instability begins to devour massive portions of his self-control, as he screams furiously at his fellow police officers while pointing his two revolvers at them for siding with Nicholas and his son, Danny. When Danny points out Irene would be ashamed and downright frightened at what he had become, Frank still refuses to accept this harsh truth, showing he wasn’t only insane, but highly delusional too. These delusions were further expanded upon when he held his own son at gunpoint, only for Nicholas to point out that he'd spiralled out of control after losing a loved one in the first place and he shouldn't expect Nicholas to believe he'd murder another family member in cold blood.
Overall, while Frank did earnestly care for his wife and son deep down, the measures he took to prioritise Sandford's victory of a mere competition over the value of several innocent lives (taken for the most trivial reasons) and threatening to shoot his own son in the head show just how delusional and unstable he had really become, while showing virtually no redeeming qualities towards the end of the film.
Appearance[]
Frank is a middle-aged man with fairly pale skin, grey hair and balding, light turquoise blue eyes and black glasses. When he is off duty, he is usually seen wearing a navy suit, dark tie along with a navy sweater, white dress shirt, black pants and black shoes. During the fete scene in the film, he was seen cosplaying as a cowboy. When confronting Nicholas who'd discovered the NWA's true colours, he wore a typical British Police helmet with a long black coat adorned with silver buttons.
Powers and skills[]
- Leadership: Frank showed consummate skills in organising the NWA, most notably when Nicholas Angel was chasing the hooded figure (who'd murdered Lesley Tiller), in which different people took the other's place every few seconds to make it look as though the figure was almost superhuman in terms of speed.
- Police Training: Frank was at the rank of Inspector and therefore superior in terms of authority to all the other members of the Sandford police force.
- Acting: Frank was able to consistently uphold the façade of a harmless gentleman throughout the film, with even master detective Nicholas Angel not being able to see through his ruse.
- Firearms: Being a police officer, he has been trained in the use of firearms, seen when he dual-wielded two revolvers and shot at a chandelier while barely aiming at it, causing it to drop and temporarily stall the film's heroes.
Trivia[]
- Frank's actor Jim Broadbent was a big fan of director Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg's previous film, Shaun of the Dead, and approached them at the 2004 BAFTAs asking to be in their next project.
- In the initial script, Frank's late wife was named Iris. Broadbent asked for the name to be changed to Irene to avoid an unintended association with his acclaimed role in the film Iris, for which he had won an Oscar.
- When Frank confronts Nicholas Angel at the town council meeting, his police helmet is a genuine Victorian model featuring the letters "VR" for Victoria Regina. This detail was intentionally used to subtly reinforce the theme of Sandford as a town "frozen in time" and resistant to change.
- One fan theory suggests that Frank might have been lacing the abundant ice cream and cake given to the police force with a substance to keep them agreeable and less inquisitive, making it easier to convince them the NWA's murders were merely "accidents". This would also explain why he turned a blind eye to Danny's frequent drinking, as it kept him "stupid and easy to manage".
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The  Trilogy Villains
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Movies Hot Fuzz:
Neighbourhood Watch Alliance
(Frank Butterman,
Simon Skinner,
Tom Weaver,
Michael Armstrong,
Reverend Philip Shooter,
Robin Hatcher,
Joyce Cooper,
Amanda Paver,
Annette Roper,
James Reaper,
Roy and Mary Porter,
Leslie Tiller,
Mr. Treacher,
Greg and Sheree Fowler &
Somerfield Employees) The World's End: The Network | Blanks (Oliver Chamberlain, Guy Shepherd, Shane Hawkins, Marmalade Sandwich & Twins) | ||
 Villains
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Bad Guys | ||