Ivan Lucre

Ivan Lucre is the main antagonist of the 2000 family comedy film, The Brainiacs.com. He is the greedy president of the bank of Sunnyvale who wants to take over David Tyler's company, Tyler Toys. He is also the father of Chester "Chet" and Russell the twins who constantly bully David's son, Matt and his best friend, Danny at school and the maternal uncle of Miles secretly working for him as a spy at Tyler Toys.

He was portrayed by the late Dom DeLuise who also portrayed Emperor Nero in History of the World, Part 1, Pizza the Hutt in Spaceballs, and Don Giovanni in Robin Hood: Men in Tights.

Personality[]

According to David Tyler's mother, Miriam, Ivan Lucre has been a bully since the second grade; a trait obviously passed down to his twin sons: Chester "Chet" and Russell who constantly bully Tyler's son, Matt and his best friend, Danny at school. He is shown to be a mean, strict, cruel, selfish, and greedy man with no care or remorse for others and their feelings; especially his customers who find themselves unable to pay the loans they borrowed from his bank on time like David Tyler whose company, Tyler Toys and its assets he intends to buy. He can be very temperamental when he doesn't get exactly what he wants and when certain members of his family like his sons and his nephew, Miles unintentionally foul up, going so far as to threaten mainly Miles despite their family relationship if he fails to provide him with the information he needs.

Biography[]

At his bank in Sunnyvale, Ivan Lucre appears rather concerned when he sees one of his new employees, Kara Banks arguing with a customer named David Tyler, the widowed owner of Tyler Toys over procedural issues such that his loan to jump-start his company's expansion program he intends to apply doesn't go through. After supposedly sympathizing with Mr. Tyler, Lucre demands to see Kara in his office immediately where he reveals his plan, instructing her to loan Mr. Tyler as much money as possible, such that Tyler Toys will either succeed and give him profits, or fail and allow the bank to cheaply buy Tyler Toys and its assets while building a tower of C-Notes on his desk. After Kara leaves and closes the door, Lucre appears annoyed when his tower suddenly collapses.

Later on, Lucre and his assistant, Miss Arbitrage learn that Tyler's loan quickly maxes out to $500,000, which the latter's financially struggling company cannot produce, therefore, allowing Lucre to order his assistant to cancel the next set of orders of Hairballs toys Tyler has been recently working on and which she has been working with Tyler for its orders overseas before he and his assistant get splattered with coins from a machine where he's been placing his coins in during their conversation.

A few days later, Lucre talks to his nephew, Miles (his sister's child) secretly working for him as a spy at Tyler Toys and finally threatens him unless the latter finds out the secret identity of the mysterious buyer known as "Mr. Chips" who recently bought Tyler Toys before their plan is complete until he is further angered when one of his C-Notes accidentally burns from the cigar in his ashtray he was recently smoking after hanging up.

When the day comes that his nephew has finally discovered the identity of the buyer to be none other than Tyler's own son, Matt whom his twin sons, Chester "Chet" and Russell constantly bully at school next to his best friend, Danny and who only did it in order to spend more quality time with his workaholic father since 4 years after his wife, Helen's death, Lucre appears with both Miles and Miss Arbitrage at Tyler's office where he carelessly reveals to Tyler that he intends to auction the latter's company off at an official hearing carried out by a certain Judge Mendel he called in at noon the next Monday unless the $500,000 Tyler borrowed from his bank is repaid by then. Later, when Lucre and the others toast their victory with champagne in his office, they are confronted by a disgusted Kara who actually sympathizes with the Tylers and finally quits her job after justly splashing Lucre's face with champagne in disgust despite his best but vain efforts to get her on his side earlier.

On Monday morning, during the hearing and auction at Tyler's office, just when it seems that Lucre has finally won, he is surprised, shocked, and dismayed when Matt suddenly walks in with his widowed paternal grandmother, Miriam (who has actually known the former for being a bully since the second grade) who begins a bidding war with him up to $2 million; much to everyone else's surprise. When Lucre demands that Miriam corroborate her bidding, she hands stock certificates formerly bought by her late husband back in the 50's and recently discovered in an abandoned steel box by her grandson to the judge, who promptly appraises it at $10 million. Though apparently defeated, Lucre still demands his loan, which Miriam nonchalantly repays with a check before sticking it on his face in humiliation, which he later does to his nephew in anger once Miriam buys Tyler Toys, thus, closing the case and the celebration ends with David and Kara sharing a kiss.

Outside the company, Lucre begins arguing with his nephew about his partially failed plan until he finds his sons confronted by Mr. Toler the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) executive who has been investigating Matt's fictional company called Global Consolidated Resources and its "super-chip" (a groundbreaking artificial intelligence computer chip actually created by Matt's older sister, Kelly but not yet perfected and finished during the whole plot) since the beginning for potential fraud recently bought by the twins after ambushing and blackmailing Matt into signing over control of the "company" to them. When his sons confess that they don't have the chip, Lucre intervenes and confronts Mr. Toler, only to find himself given a fraud penalty of precisely $500,000 and his check taken by the latter as immediate payment since it is illegal to sell a fraudulent product even after a fight over the check. Shocked and angered more than ever now, Lucre finally snaps, scolds, and reprimands his sons as he drags them by their shirts to his car for their recent unintentional blunder, never to be seen or heard from again.

With Lucre's loan repaid then lost on the same day, Tyler's proper ownership of Tyler Toys is restored to him (having finally learned his lesson) by his mother after being set some ground rules and the company survives long enough for the microchip to be finally completed after so many months, which sees its first use metamorphosizing the Hairball into the intelligent, interactive Smartball; becoming a global sensation that sells over a billion units and the signature item of Tyler Toys despite the loss of stock; especially after Lucre was last heard telling his sons that they are both "dumber than a hairball" while dragging them away to his car in anger. Finally, testing is underway for Tyler Toys' latest invention, the Smartboard, a skateboard with a smart-chip implant carried out by Matt and his father (having also presumably married Kara during such time).

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

Ivan Lucre's wife is never mentioned or seen in the movie, which implies that Ivan's either a widower or a divorcee.