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“
We're not gonna forget this if that’s what you’re thinking. This is big time, baby.
„
~ Ace
John "Ace" Merrill is one of the two secondary antagonists (alongside Cujo) of the Castle Rock Saga in the Stephen King Mythos.
He is a petty criminal in Castle Rock, who was once the leader of a gang of six other teenage bullies and mainly targets Gordie LaChance and his friends, and tries to find the body before they do. He later returns to Castle Rock a few years later, after prison, where the Needful Things shop owner Leland Gaunt makes him destroy the town and attempts to kill the deputy Alan Plangborn (who he has a high grudge with for arresting him).
In the story, Ace and his gang are the town bullies of Castle Rock, Maine, and mostly pick on Gordie LaChance and his friends. At one point, Gordie and the others go to look for the body of Ray Brower, a missing local boy. When they find the body, they run into Ace and his goons, who start harassing them and demanding that they take the body and the credit for finding it. When Gordie's friend Chris Chambers, the de facto leader of the boys, refuses, Ace threatens him with a knife, showing he is willing to kill them for the body. Gordie pulls out a handgun and threatens to shoot unless Ace backs off. Merrill and the others leave, and Ace vows revenge. It's said that Ace and a couple of friends beat up Gordie during September of 1960, while other members of his gang beat a few of other Gordie's friends. Gordie and Chris are interviewed, but they don't mention names. Gordie mentioned that he saw Ace again in the late 1970s, and that Ace was now a fat drunk and as a ordinary worker.
Nona[]
Ace appears in a flashback of the story, still in prison and begins an encounter with Vern Tessio, one of his bullied victims.
Needful Things[]
Ace returns in the novel as the secondary antagonist, by now a hardened criminal who has spent his life in and out of prison. He has a personal vendetta towards the local Sheriff, Alan Pangborn, for arresting him. He returns to his hometown, and meets Leland Gaunt, who gives him a job delivering guns to his shop, in return for a map that is supposed to lead to a treasure of silver dollars.
During the climax, Gaunt has Ace team up with Danford "Buster" Keaton, who is killed by Deputy Norris Ridgewick. Gaunt later tries to corrupt Pangborn, by showing him a video convincing him that Ace was the one who caused the accident that killed his son and wife, but it backfires when the video shows them wearing their seatbelts, and that's what really killed them. When Pangborn and Gaunt finally confront each other, Ace pulls a gun on Pangborn's love interest Polly, threatening to kill her, only to get killed himself when Ridgewick shoots him in the head.
Castle Rock[]
Ace returns in Castle Rock season 2, he is played by Paul Sparks. In the show he's portrayed as an aggressive and violent man. He is killed by Annie Wilkes, with an ice cream scooper, but later comes back to recreate a cult in the Castle Rock town.
Trivia[]
In the film adaptation of Needful Things, he is replaced by the character Danforth Keeton.
In the Family Guy episode "The Three Kings", which parodies Stephen King stories, he was portrayed by the late Adam West.
Despite being the main antagonist of the film, he only has around 3 minutes of screen-time.
Ace shares similarities to other Stephen King villains like Henry Bowers, Chris Hargensen and Buddy Repperton, as they are bullies and are leaders of their own gang and often target the protagonist.
Ace’s full name John Merrill was mentioned in the 1987 novel The Tommyknockers, but they are both not the same character, as the John Merrill in The Tommyknockers has a different family, unrelated to the family Ace has.
