| “ | I spent my life as a scientist trying to create a world without weakness, without outcasts. I sought to create a stronger human being, but there's no such thing. Human beings are weak, pathetic, feeble-minded creatures. Why be human at all when we can be so much more faster, stronger and smarter? This is my gift to you. | „ |
| ~ Dr. Curt Connors on a video explaining how he is changing human life. |
| “ | Peter Parker... Spiderman? I'm not the one who needs help! There will be no more loneliness, no more outcasts! Species-wide distribution could enhance humanity on an evolutionary scale. One has to adapt to survive. That, changing like the snake, I might be free. To cast off flesh wherein I dwell confined! Would you give it all up? After all you know you can do? All the power you feel? I can save them! You are not gonna get in the way of my plan, Peter Parker! | „ |
| ~ Connors talking with his second personality, the Lizard about the plan and about revealing that Peter is Spiderman. |
Dr. Curtis Connors, also known as The Lizard, is the main antagonist of the 2012 Spider-Man reboot film, The Amazing Spider-Man. He initially is good, but changes to evil when he becomes the lizard.
He was portrayed by Rhys Ifans, who also portrayed Adrian in Little Nicky and Vladis Grutas in Hannibal Rising.
In the Movie
Meeting Peter and Cross-Species Genetic Fromula
One of the leading scientific minds, Dr. Connors attempts to engineer a revolutionary regeneration serum to help re-grow limbs and human tissue. He worked with Richard Parker on the cross-species genetics theory, but when Richard disappeared, all seemed lost until Connors met Peter Parker, Richard's son.
Their first meeting occured when Peter and his friends are having tour in OsCorp tower, where Peter learned that Connors is used to be a friend of his father. Later, Peter visited him again, where Connor thought that he came for autograph. Instead, Peter introduces himself as Richard Parker's son and gives Connors his father's "decay rate algorithm", the missing piece in Connors' experiments on regenerating limbs, which is especially important to Connors since he is missing his right arm.
Afterwards, with Peter's help, he managed to complete the formula and tries it on the guinea pigs, two white mouses named Fred and Wilma.
Fired and Test the Formula to Himself
The news of his success comes to Ratha's ear, where he then comes and demand him to use the formula on human trials as the dying Norman Osborn requires it for fully healed from his sickness. Connors refuses, as he doubt it's success as so far, he only tests it on the lab rats. Infuriated, Ratha coldly fires him.
In response, Connors instead did the test on himself, and as the formula runs through his veins and affect his DNA, he passed out over the excrutiating pain during the process. When he awoke hours later, he notice that his missing arm now regenerated, covered by scaly cocoon-like layer. He then slowly tear the layer, revealing that not just his arms growing back, his fingers also did the same, albeit yet to grow nails. Though he did regrow his arm, the serum had an unfortunate side-effect which resulted in him slowly becoming turning into a man - lizard hybrid.
The Lizard's Birth
Horrified by what would happened to him, Connors immediately after Ratha in case of him to learned whether he learned about the formula yet. As he entered a taxi, his newly regenerated arm shifts into reptilian form, with the taxi driver unaware with this. Connors demanded him to drive the taxi just as his face covered by scales. Then He becomes a giant lizard monster, and breaks out of taxi after arriving at the bridge. Connors begins walks to the Williamsburg Bridge and begins throwing cars off the bridge, until Ratha's car and throws it off the bridge, but Ratha, along with the people in the other cars thrown off the bridge, is saved by Peter, calling himself Spider-Man. Connors then awakens in the sewers where he sets up a underground lab for his experiments.
Escape and Suspected as The Lizard by Peter
| “ | (In the sewers, The Lizard reads the name tag on a camera. The label reads "Property of Peter Parker". The Lizard realizes that Peter Parker is Spider-Man) Peter Parker. (The Lizard growls and crushes the camera in his fist.) | „ |
| ~ The Lizard discovers Spider-Man's secret identity. |
After his transformation, the next day at Oscorp Connors finds Peter there, and Peter asks how predator would catch a reptile, Connors tells him that they can't since most reptiles are predators at the top of there food chain. Connors then dismisses Peter telling him that he is working on a secret project, not knowing that Peter figured out that Connors is the Lizard after he finds that Fred has mutated into reptilian hybrid and has eaten Wilma. He then is pursued by Peter as Spiderman and fought with him in the sewers. After the fight, Peter escapes injured. The Lizard however, discovers that Peter is Spider-Man when he finds Peter's camera, that he intended to use to get a picture of him. Later that night Connors begins thinking about to after learning Peter is Spider-Man, he takes the serum and decides not let Peter stop with his plans.
Confronting Peter in School
The next day, The Lizard enters Peter's high school, Midtown Science High School, through into the bathrooms. Then he enters the halls of the school, where almost everyone runs out of the building terrified. He then confronts Peter and tries attack him, then explains how make sure are no more outcast in the world, and there no need to stop him. Peter gets into his Spider-Man costume and tries to convince The Lizard to stop what he is doing, telling The Lizard it isn't him, but he does listen. The two begin to fight in school, before the Lizard manages to subdue Spider-Man. However, Gwen Stacy, Peter's girlfriend and Dr. Connors' intern at Oscorp, helps Spider-Man by hitting the Lizard with a trophy. When The Lizard tries to attack her too, Spider-Man traps him in his webs. After Spider-Man gets Gwen to safety, The Lizard breaks free from the webs and then hears police sirens coming toward the school. After the two continue to fight in the school library, The Lizard overpowers Spider-Man and then escapes back into the sewers. After Peter follows him into the sewers and finds the underground lab, he learns from a video that Connors believes there is no perfect human being and that he plans to infect the city with the serum with the Ganali disbursement device from top of Oscorp tower, and turn everyone into reptilian hybrids like him.
The Lizard's Attack and Stealing Ganali Device
After The Lizard begins to walk towards Oscorp with the serum, he is confronted by members of the NYPD SWAT team who begin shooting at him rapidly. But The Lizard quickly heals and defeats the SWAT team members and infects them with the serum. He then begins continues toward to Oscorp, and infecting more people with the serum. Upon arriving at Oscorp, The Lizard begins climbing up the tower, then goes into his lab for the Ganali device, but he finds it missing. The Lizard then finds Gwen, who was making antidote for the serum, hiding with Ganali device. He then takes the device and Gwen uses a blowtorch to burn him but it does not affect him and The Lizard for the top of Oscorp Tower.
Battle on the Oscorp Tower and Defeat
On top of Oscorp Tower, the Lizard and Spider-Man get into a fight. Lizard then chokes Spider-Man until Captain George Stacy arrives and shoots the Lizard multiple times, buying Spider-Man time to get free and retrieve the cure to Connors' mutagen from Stacy. The Lizard recovers and fatally wounds Stacy. He then attempts to stop Spider-Man stopping the Ganali device from unleashing his lizard formula but fails as Peter loads the antidote into the machine. Once exposed to the antidote, the Lizard transforms back into Connors, who saves Peter from falling off the building, and everyone who infected with serum reverts back to normal. Connors is then arrested.
During the credits of the film, Connors is in prison. He then meets a character credited as "The Man in the Shadows," asking him if Connors told Peter the truth about his father, Dr. Richard Parker. Connors replies "no" while the darkened figure says "Well, that's very good." Before returning to the credits of the film, Connors gives out his last words by stating "You shall leave him alone!"
In the video game
In the 2012 video game, Connors initially appeared to be the main antagonist and later, he turned into an anti-hero.
Gallery
Trivia
- The Lizard in The Amazing Spider-Man is missing several key features that he usually has in the comics, such as a snout and torn clothes (usually a white lab coat and purple pants). Marc Webb has stated that Lizard lacks a snout because Rhys Ifans is using motion-capture to play the character, and he believes that Ifan's emotions would have been lost if a snout was present. The clothes were also removed to give the character a more realistic look. Though he is seen wearing a lab coat a few of times, it's removed soon afterwords.
- The Daily Bugle viral site confirms that Connors was found guilty.
- Actor Rhys Ifans described his character as a flawed character comparable to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Ifans described Connors as a force for good throughout his life: "He's a geneticist who wants to help people, like him, who are limbless. In his eagerness to advance that science, he makes a mistake and that's an occurrence we've seen throughout time, sometimes to our benefit, sometimes to our detriment." "...He is a broken man who wants to fix himself." These statement shows that much like his comic books counterpart, he developed a second, sinister personality that called The Lizard himself. This secondary personality was the one that whispered on Connors in the sewers when he already reverted into human form after discovering Peter's true identity as Spider-Man.
- Even if the Lizard in this version showed naked so he has a realistic look by filmmakers, this made him bear resemble some of his incarnation in other continuity regarding appearance without any clothes, notably his counterpart in Spider-Man: The New Animated Series.
Template:Spider-Man Movie Villains