Lionel Canter is the main antagonist of the 2005 comic book The Surrogates, its 2009 prequel graphic novel The Surrogates: Flesh and Bone and the 2009 film adaptation Surrogates.
In the film, he was portrayed by James Cromwell, who also played Phillip Bauer in 24, Yokai in Big Hero 6, Joseph Campbell in The General's Daughter, The Colonel in Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Miles Darman in Law & Order: Organized Crime, Warden Hazen in the 2005 remake of The Longest Yard, Dr. Arthur Arden in American Horror Story: Asylum, Euclid Baker in Tank, Captain Dudley Smith in L.A. Confidential, and William Donahue in Eraser.
Biography[]
Lionel Canter is a scientist and the head of the company Virtual Self Industry (VSI) who created surrogates, robot versions of people that are controlled through virtual reality, initially to help disabled humans to do things they can't make by themselves. Canter was paralyzed, and he himself took advantage of surrogates to do more with his life. However, he quickly realized that people had become addicted to surrogates, which they used as a way to vicariously live their lives in an idealized way. Upset at how his invention had been perverted as an addictive and twisted version of human life, he attempted to put a stop to the technology, but was fired from the company by its board, who did not want to lose all the money they were making off of surrogate addicts. Disillusioned by his own invention for taking humanity away from their true self, he created another surrogate named the Prophet to discouraging humans of using surrogates and preparing a rebellion. He sets the false Prophet in an enclave of humans in Boston.
One night, when talking to his son Jarid, the latter was attacked with an EMP by Miles Strickland, an hitman. Enraged by the murder, he concocted a plan to avenge his son's death, by desactiving all the surrogates and killing every user in the process. His surrogate (the Prophet) meets Tom Greer who's searching the weapon, but the interrogatory is inconclusive. After, the Prophet asks his henchmen to give the fatal weapon at Agent Peters, Greer's partner. The Prophet is later destroyed by the U.S Army. The same night, another surrogate of Canter breaks in Peter's house and kills her while she's asleep. He pirates the computer to take control of Peters's surrogate. The next day, he asks Greer to give him the data access, and tries to kill him after. Then he goes to the FBI headquarters, immobilizes the operator and takes control of the station, giving him access to all surrogate's users in the world. Stone, Greer and Peters's boss tries to negotiate with him, ignoring that Peters's surrogate's controled by Canters. The latter reveals himself and by the way, reveals the fact that Stone hired Strickland to assassinate him, Stone being paid by VSI itself. Realizing that Canter controlled the Prophet and incited humans beings to rise against the new technology, the company decided to make him killed, not wanting to lose money earned by the sell of surrogates. Unfortunately, the killer mistakes his son's surrogate for Canter's surrogate. Then Canter simply destroys Stone's surrogate with the mortal weapon, killing his user in the process by liquefying his brain, avenging his son.
Greer, having realized that Canter controls Peters's surrogate, goes and breaks in the scientist's home. Holding him at gunpoint, Canter, deconnected of Peters's surrogate, explains his plan to the agent. Greer invites him to find another solution much less murderous but Canter denies that there's another way to fix the problem. Then he commits suicide by swallowing a cyanide pill. Greer decides to go through with Canter's plan of permanently disabling the surrogate network, however, he decides to spare the users from death. He returns home and embraces his wife, who is not using her surrogate for the first time in years.
Personality[]
Dr. Lionel Canter was once a kindhearted and visionary scientist who truly wanted to help disabled people to get a better life with surrogates. However, after he realized that surrogates were not being used to help the handicapped, but rather an addiction for everyday people who wanted to live a false life, he quickly became disillusioned with his own creation. Even after he was laid-off from VSI, he tried with non-violent methods to help the world by starting a revolution against VSI and his technology. After his son was murdered, Canter went insane and resorted to terrorism to destroy surrogacy. He was obviously ruthless in the pursuit of his goal, killing Peters to take control of his surrogate, and vengeful, by killing those responsible for Jarid's murder. After creating a plan to destroy all the surrogates in the world, Canter decided to kill all their users as well. The grief and the depression caused by his son's assassination made him deluded and selfish, impeding him to see another solution less extreme than genocide of surrogate users. Canter justified his plan to kill all the surrogate users by claiming that they were already dead, having lost what it meant to be a human being. Despite his many flaws, Canter was a deeply tragic villain who was ultimately right about many things. Because Canter was correct about the harm surrogates have done to humanity, the hero of the story, Greer, succeeds in carrying out Canter's plan, although he does not kill all the surrogate users as Canter had planned. This means that, despite Greer refusing to kill all the surrogate users, Canter's plans ultimately succeeded, and humanity was better off as a result.