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| “ | I'm living proof that a mind is a terrible thing. | „ |
| ~ Soneji's most famous line |
Gary "The Spider" Soneji is the secondary antagonist of James Patterson"s novel Along Came a Spider and its 2001 film adaptation. He is a psychopath who kidnaps the daughter of a U.S. Senator in hopes of becoming famous.
He is portrayed by Michael Wincott, who also portrayed Armand Dorleac in The Count of Monte Cristo, Top Dollar in The Crow, Michael Korda in Metro, Prophet of Truth in Halo 2, Guy of Gisbourne in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Philo Gant in Strange Days, and Scroop in Treasure Planet.
Biography[]
Gary Soneji is obsessed with the Lindbergh Kidnapping, and is determined to achieve the same level of infamy as the kidnapper, Bruno Hauptmann. To that end, he concocts a plan to kidnap and murder Senator Hank Rose's twelve-year-old daughter Megan, assumes a disguise, and becomes a teacher at her elite prep school in order to get close to her. One day, he asks her to stay after school, knocks her out with chloroform, and kidnaps her, killing another teacher on his way out. He holds Megan hostage on his boat, but when Megan attempts to escape, he murders a fisherman who tries to rescue her and once again takes her hostage.
Soneji calls famed profiler Detective Alex Cross to taunt him; he views Cross as his "worthy opponent", and wants Cross to write about him in his next book. Cross and Secret Service agent Jezzie Flannigan investigate, and discover that Soneji also intend to kidnap the son of the President of the Russian Federation, who goes to school with Megan. They foil Soneji's second kidnapping, but Cross gets a call from someone he thinks is Soneji demanding a $10 million ransom for Megan. Following the kidnapper's demands, Cross and Flannigan throw the money out of a moving Metro train to a figure standing by the tracks, who runs off.
Soon afterward, Soneji breaks into Cross' house and knocks Flannigan out with a taser. When Cross confronts him about the money, however, Soneji does not know what he's talking about, claiming that the kidnapping was never about money. He then attacks Cross, who shoots him dead in self-defense. At the end of the film, it is revealed that Flannigan is the true mastermind of both the kidnapping of Megan Rose and the attempted kidnapping of the son of the Russian President, and that the figure who took the diamonds was in fact her fellow agent, accomplice and lover Ben Devine; they both found out about Soneji's kidnapping plot, and used him as a pawn in their plot to collect the ransom. Cross ultimately executes Flannigan and saves Megan.
Novel[]
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While Soneji dies in the film, in Patterson's original novel he is institutionalized after being found to have a split personality as a result of severe childhood abuse; in his daily life, Gary Murphy is a law-abiding, loving husband and father, while his alter ego Gary Soneji is a violent psychopath who commits several murders. He briefly escapes and attempts to kill Cross and his family, but Cross wounds him and sends him back to the asylum. In later novels, Murphy/Soneji becomes Cross' archnemesis.