| “ | Sorry, old buddy... there's not enough gold to go around. | „ |
| ~ George Struggs betraying Wade for the gold. |
George Struggs is the main antagonist and final boss of the 2009 action Wii game Deadly Creatures. He is a greedy, deranged gas station owner who is searching for Spanish Gold from the American Civil War alongside his partner Wade, but betrays Wade to take all the gold for himself.
He was voiced by the late Dennis Hopper, who also portrayed President Koopa in Super Mario Bros., Peter Vollmer in The Twilight Zone, Frank Booth in Blue Velvet, Tom Ripley in The American Friend, the Deacon in Waterworld, Howard Payne in Speed, and Victor Drazen in 24.
Biography[]
While the player follows the story of a tarantula and scorpion in the Sonoran desert, the secondary plot follows Struggs and his friend Wade searching for gold allegedly buried during the Civil War. Following a map to where a chest was supposedly stored, the two dig a hole indirectly killing a Gila monster chasing the scorpion. Once they strike the chest, they pull it out and confirm it to be the gold. When Wade asks Struggs how much gold was possibly in it, Struggs replies it was enough for one before smacking his shovel onto Wade's head, knocking him out, revealing his intentions to keep the gold for himself. While leaving Wade behind to die in the desert, Struggs comes across the tarantula and takes her to his gas station.
Inside Struggs' gas station, the tarantula is placed inside a terrarium to be sold as an exotic pet, which also includes a rattlesnake and Gila monster. The tarantula finds a way to escape her enclosure, causing the rattlesnake to push over its container to eat her, trashing the gas station. Hearing the commotion, Struggs equips himself with his rifle and searches for the rattlesnake. Meanwhile, the scorpion, having snuck into the gas station, sees Struggs searching. While he's distracted, the scorpion sneaks up on Struggs, climbs up his leg, and goes into his pants to sting his groin. The pain causes him to accidentally fire his rifle, making a spilled puddle of oil catch on fire outside. The recoil also knocks Struggs back into a shelf, causing the Gila monster to fall from its cage and bite him on the hand; Struggs smashes the lizard against the ground until it dies and releases its grip on him. After throwing the Gila monster aside, Struggs turns his anger on the scorpion and attempts to both shoot and step on him. Once the scorpion stings Struggs in the groin two more times, Struggs shoots the exit door, blasting a hole through it.
As the scorpion makes his escape through the hole, Struggs bursts through the door and sees the rattlesnake in front of a gas pump, having lost its chance to kill the tarantula. When it hisses at Struggs, he shoots at it, only to accidentally hit the pump instead, causing it to explode. Wade's narration at the beginning of the game reveals that Struggs survived the ordeal, falling into a coma from the explosion and the Gila monster's venom.
Trivia[]
- Despite being the main antagonist, he only had a short amount of screentime.
- Although the game wasn't his last performance, it was Dennis Hopper's final released performance before his death the following year.