| “ | Here is the instrument of cleansing, my brethren. And nothing quite cleanses like fire. | „ |
| ~ Matthias urging his followers to burn Morgan at the stake. |
Jonathan Matthias, also known as Brother Matthias, is the main antagonist of the 1971 science fiction horror film The Omega Man, a film adaptation of Richard Matheson's novel I Am Legend. He is the leader of a cult of undead humans in a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles.
He is portrayed by Anthony Zerbe, who also portrayed Milton Krest in the James Bond film Licence to Kill, Helmut Kellerman in Mission: Impossible, and Arnie Grunwald in Tales From The Crypt.
In the film[]
In 1975, Red China and the Soviet Union engaged in war. To prevent American intervention, the USSR fired biological warheads at the United States. The warheads spread a deadly bacilla which would affect its victims in a manner similar to choking, as the affected people would act as if they were asphixiated prior to death. As a result, American society collapsed, with martial law being declared to the extent that even being outside one's house was an offense punishable by death (unless one showed military orders). A living Jonathan Matthias was seen giving a news report where he laments science and technology for bringing about America's demise. "We were warned about the end," he says in his closing remarks. "Well, here it is."
Some time later, the United States government has collapsed and is replaced by nothing save for anarchy. The metropolis of Los Angeles has become a ghost town. Matthias becomes one of the plague's victims, but is one of the rare people to be reanimated as an undead, albino mutant that is allergic to sunlight. He and a few hundred of similarly affected people form a cult, "The Family". Either Matthias's reanimation has also affected his mind or his earlier prejudice has come full force, either way now becoming filled with outright hatred for science. The Family shares his views, now dedicated to destroying the technology they blame for humanity's downfall and killing scientist Robert Neville, whom they believe to be the only immune survivor of the plague. Neville occupies a luxury apartment building that he has fortified to prevent attacks from the Family.
By day, Neville cruises the city salvaging goods. He carries a machine gun in case any Family members are bold enough to attack in broad daylight, which has happened in seldom cases, albeit in places such as wine cellars where the sun usually does not shine. While scavenging a department store, Neville sees a mannequin come to life as a healthy black woman who runs when he hails her. Neville is shocked to see another healthy survivor, but later chalks up the incident to imagination; having earlier hallucinated about a bunch of payphones ringing at once. The Family does their attacks at night, but even so many are seen wearing sunglasses and hooded robes. Their secondary mission is to engage in book burning and destruction of educational institutions out of their anger against "the Wheel", which is Matthias' coined phrase for technology. His hatred for Neville stems from the fact he lives a life akin to the preapocolyptic period, albeit haphazardly and in the Family's law that makes him a "user of the Wheel"; ergo their mortal enemy.
Matthias' style of leadership appears to be autocratic, where his word is law. However, he has a second-in-command named Zachary. Zachary appears to have been a Black Power militant prior to his reanimation as an albino mutant. The Family makes repeated attempts to extract Neville from his fortress, but none succeeded. The chief reason behind these failures is Matthias' insistence on using a chariot to hurl Greek fire and other forms of archaic warfare. One Family member says that they can take nitroglycerin from the armory and use it to blast Neville out, but Matthias disapproves. When the cult member argues that their seige warfare they are deploying is ineffective, Matthias lets it be known that no meant no and his decisions are final. Matthias says that while such a plan would likely work, they would have been hypocritical in their beliefs and likely would then become technophiles, which may fester into another world war.
The Family eventually captures Neville, and Matthias sentences him to death for "heresy" in a mock-trial. As they are about to burn Neville at the stake, however, a group of his fellow survivors save him and escape with him. Neville develops a vaccine that could cure those afflicted with the virus and another survivor, Richie, offers to let the Family use it, as well. However, Matthias refuses to believe that the vaccine actually exists, and kills Richie.
Meanwhile, Richie's sister (and Neville's lover) Lisa succumbs to the virus and becomes one of the Family, and betrays Neville to them. Matthias forces Neville to watch as the Family sets his home and equipment on fire. Neville breaks free, and once outside with Lisa, he turns and raises his gun to shoot Matthias, who is looking down from the balcony. The gun jams, giving Matthias enough time to hurl Zachary's spear at Neville, mortally wounding him.
While Neville dies, however, his compatriots use his vaccine in a last-ditch effort to save humanity. It is left ambiguous whether thwey also give the vaccine to Matthias and the Family.
Trivia[]
As The Omega Man is a loose adaptation of I Am Legend, neither Matthias nor the Family appears in Richard Matheson's original novel. The closest analog to Matthias in the novel would be Ben Cortman, Robert Neville's former neighbor and the unofficial leader of a group of undead creatures that stalk Neville and nightly attack his house.