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| “ | The Stormbreakers are armed and ready. And yes, you're right, Alex. Each one contains what you might call a computer virus. But that, if you like, is my little April Fools' joke. Because the virus I'm talking about is a form of smallpox. Of course, Alex, it's been genetically modified to make it faster and stronger... more lethal. A spoonful of the stuff would destroy a city. And my Stormbreakers hold much, much more than that. At the moment it's isolated, quite safe. But this afternoon there's going to be a bit of a party at the Science Museum. Every school in England will be joining in, with the schoolchildren gathered around their nice, new shiny computers. And at midday, on the stroke of twelve, my old friend, the Prime Minister, will make one of his smug, self-serving speeches and then he'll press a button. He thinks he'll be activating the computers, and in a way, he's right. Pressing the button will release the virus, and by midnight tonight, there will be no schoolchildren in England and the Prime Minister will weep as he remembers the day he first bullied Herod Sayle! | „ |
| ~ Herod Sayle describing his master plan to Alex Rider. |
| “ | You ruined everything! How did you do it? How did you trick me? I'd have beaten you if you'd been a man! But they had to send a boy! A bliddy schoolboy! Well, it isn't over yet! I'm leaving England, do you see? That's my ticket out of here! They'll never find me! And one day I'll be back. Next time, nothing will go wrong! And you won't be here to stop me! This is where you die! | „ |
| ~ Sayle to Alex Rider; his last words. |
Herod Sayle is the main antagonist of Stormbreaker, the first book in the Anthony Horowitz series Alex Rider, and the 2006 film adaptation.
In the film adaptation, he was portrayed by Mickey Rourke, who also played Whiplash in Iron Man 2, Gorman Lennox in White Sands, Stavros in Double Team and Hyperion in Immortals.
Biography[]
Background[]
Sayle was born in Beirut, Lebanon, the youngest of thirteen children. His mother and fatherwere a washerwoman and a failed hairdresser respectively, and he grew up in poverty. However, one day, he saved a rich American couple by pushing them out of the way of a falling grand piano; the instrument was being lifted by crane into a hotel on Olive Street, and slipped out of its bonds. When they found out about his life inpoverty, the couple, out of gratitude for saving their lives, adopted him and sent him to school in London. From the day he arrived, Herod was severely bullied by the other students due to his short stature and poor grasp on English. They would call him names like 'Goat-boy' and 'Herod Smell', and would torment him by shoving his head down the toilet and hanging his trousers from the flagpole. The lead bully grew up to be the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (at the time of Sayle's revenge plan). Sayle subsequently grew to hate Great Britain, and British schoolchildren in particular, because of his experiences.
After leaving school, he attended Cambridge University and graduated a degree in economics. He went on to build up a billion-pound business empire, with his own record label, radio station, computer software and racehorse team (the latter was extremely unsuccessful, always coming last). He also owns a pet Man-O'-War jellyfish that he came across diving in the South China Sea, seeing it as an outsider like himself. His latest development is the Stormbreaker - a revolutionary new type of computer which is 90% cheaper to manufacture due to new technology allowing it to be built outside of sterile environment. Just before the events of the book, Sayle announces his intention to gift one Stormbreaker to every secondary school in Britain in return for British citizenship. However, MI6 are suspicious of Sayle because he has contacts in hostile nations such as Russia and China and has his own private army at the Stormbreaker manufacturing plant in Port Tallon. Agent Ian Rider investigates, but soon after telling MI6 he found something important and that the Stormbreakers must not be allowed to leave the Port Tallon plant, he is murdered by Yassen Gregorovich.
Stormbreaker[]
MI6 chief Alan Blunt blackmails Ian's nephew Alex Rider into investigating Sayle, sending him to stay with Sayle at Port Tallon under the identity of Felix Lester, a teen who won a contest to stay with Sayle. Upon arriving at Port Tallon, Alex meets Sayle and his henchmen, Nadia Vole and Mr. Grin, and is allowed to test the Stormbreaker. He also plays a round of snooker with Sayle and beats him after goading him into betting a hundred pounds a point. Sayle at one point shows off his pet Man-O'-War and launches into an unsettling monologue about his love of killing fish and the "exquisite death" granted by the Man-O'-War.
In the course of his investigations, Alex observes Yassen Gregorovich supervising the unloading of mysterious metal crates from a submarine at the harbour. He later comes across a biocontainment lab before being captured by Mr. Grin. He is tied to a chair by Sayle, who explains how he intends to take revenge on the Prime Minister for bullying him at school. He has obtained R-5, a variant of smallpox which has been genetically modified to be nigh-unstoppable, from Yassen's employers at Scorpia. A strain of R-5 is contained in every Stormbreaker and is currently harmless; however, later that day a ceremony will be held at the Science Museum in London at which the Prime Minister will push the button to activate the Stormbreakers all over the country, releasing the R-5 and infecting every schoolchild in Britain. The Prime Minister's career will be ruined due to his having killed all the children and Sayle will flee the country before anyone realizes what he did. He then leaves for London, leaving Alex to be killed by Nadia Vole.
Alex kills Nadia Vole and escapes, forcing Mr. Grin to fly him to London. Just as the Prime Minister is about to press the button, Alex parachutes from Sayle's plane and into the Science Museum, where he opens fire, wounding the Prime Minister in the wrist and shooting out the activator button and an electrical connection. Sayle himself is wounded, but manages to escape.
After his debriefing at MI6 headquarters, Alex attempts to get a taxi back home, only to find the driver is Sayle. He forces Alex into a nearby building at gunpoint and brings him up to the roof, where he intends to shoot him and escape in an approaching helicopter before returning in a few years to try his scheme again. As Sayle prepares to kill Alex, Yassen gets out of the helicopter and shoots him dead. He explains to Alex that his employers ordered him to kill Sayle for embarrassing them (although a later book, Russian Roulette, reveals that he was actually ordered to kill Alex but decided to spare him because he knew his father).
Film Biography[]
Sayle's role in the 2006 film adaptation is somewhat changed from his role in the book. His name is changed to Darrius Sayle, and his nationality is changed from Lebanese to American. Darrius grew up in a trailer park in California, and was sent to be educated in Britain after his mother won a million dollars in the state lottery. The most significant change, however, is his ultimate defeat. In the film, it is revealed that Sayle has a backup plan after the Stormbreaker launch is foiled: he has a second transmitter on top of one of his skyscrapers in London, from which he can activate the computers and release the virus himself. After racing there on horseback, Alex unplugs the transmitter before it can be activated, and is thrown from a balcony by Sayle, who is about to finish him off when Yassen shoots him for embarrassing Scorpia, sending him falling to his death. His body splatters in the street (off-screen), much to the disgust of all watching.
