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| “ | Don't make any assumptions about our friendship, okay Lenny? | „ |
| ~ Max Peltier to Lenny Nero |
| “ | You gotta get what you can, while you can. Because some shitberg can put a .22 in the back of your head any second. | „ |
| ~ Max expressing his nihilistic worldview. |
Max Peltier is the main antagonist in the 1995 thriller film Strange Days.
He was portrayed by the late Tom Sizemore, who also played Chance Wilder in Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man, DeWitt Albright in Devil in a Blue Dress, Lewis Hodda in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Sonny Forelli in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Paulie Pintero in Enemy Of The State and Kurt Rossi in Crime Scene Investigation:Miami.
Biography[]
Max Peltier is a former LAPD officer turned private investigator and a close friend of Lenny Nero, a fellow ex-cop who now sells special "SQUID" recordings (SuperconductingQuantumInterferenceDevice) to customers. Max is hired by a corrupt music industrialist named Philo Gant to watch over his girlfriend, Faith Justin (who once had a relationship with Lenny). However, unbeknownst to Philo, Max and Faith started a relationship.
After Iris, a prostitute working under Philo, witnesses the murder of influential black rapper Jeriko One at the hands of corrupt police officers Burton Steckler and Dwayne Engelman, Philo orders Max to kill anyone aware of the murder to cover up his spying on the musicians under his label. Aware that Faith is among the targets, Max instead decides to kill Philo and frame Lenny for the murders. Deciding to cover up Iris's murder as a random thrill kill, Max rapes and murders Iris while using the SQUID to force her to experience the killing from his perspective. Max then sends the recording to Lenny.
Lenny meets with Max shortly after watching the tape, and Max promises to use his connections on the LAPD to help identify the killer. Max instead uses this to feed Lenny false information to manipulate him. As well, Max records himself breaking into Lenny's apartment while he sleeps and threatening him with a box cutter to increase his friend's paranoia. Max then hunts down Lenny's supplier Tick, who had known about Iris's recording, and rigs the SQUID to leave him brain dead via severe damage to his front lobes. Arriving shortly after Lenny and their mutual friend Lornette "Mace" Mason find Tick's body. Max dissuades Lenny from going to the police by lying about having heard of an "LAPD death squad" from his contacts.
At a New Years Eve party Philo is holding for the city's elite, Max secretly has sex with Faith in Philo's hotel suite while recording it with his SQUID. Intending to leave the tape for Lenny, Max knowingly simulates rape to torment him. When Philo discovers them, Max attacks him and uses the SQUID to leave him brain dead as well. Leaving the tape marked for Lenny, Mac ambushes him after Lenny finds Philo's body. Shooting Philo in the head, Max smugly reveals that he sent the SQUID recordings to Lenny to kill him and frame him for the killings, knowing his illegal business and harassment of Philo would mean that Lenny would be blamed for Max's crimes.
Faith arrives and after lowering Max's guard by kissing him, attacks him when he tries to shoot Lenny and knocks the gun out of his hand. Max stabs Lenny in the back with a switch blade and attempts to throw him off a balcony, only for Lenny to send him tumbling off instead. Max grabs onto Lenny's tie and threatens to drag him off as well, only for Lenny to cut the tie off with Max's knife, sending him plummeting to his death. A screaming Max crashes onto a news van on the crowded streets below, killing him instantly.
Personality[]
On the surface, Max has a rather jovial personality and comes off as simply an immature and insensitive prankster. However, Max is in truth a sadistic psychopath with no regard for anyone but himself. While able to feign horror at his own crimes and care for Lenny, Max in truth cares about only himself. He is positively gleeful about framing Lenny and takes great joy in psychologically torturing him, even laughing it off when Lenny calls him out on his betrayal. Max takes great joy in causing suffering, taking sadistic joy in killing his victims in long, drawn-out ways. Even Faith, the only person Max shows any sign of caring for, immediately becomes another target the second she turns on him. Max shows signs of subtle racism as well, referring to black protesters as "gangbangers" and clearly holding them in ill-regard.
Max is a cunning manipulator, able to effortlessly trick Philo and Lenny into believing he's their ally and opposed to the other while planning to kill them both. Max is deeply perverted as well. As Lenny notes, he only values Faith for sex and his rape of Iris is motivated by his own twisted desires. Lenny similarly points out that Max is unaware of how disturbed he is, and much of his brutality is to cover up the crimes as the work of a thrill killer, ironically unaware that is exactly what he is. Indeed, Max is entirely motivated by his baser desires. Max is highly pessimistic, speculating that the end of the milennium heralds the end of the world and often making bitter remarks on the state of the world. Max is particularly bitter that his pension from his days as a police officer was not nearly enough to cover his living expenses, and his initial involvement with Philo stems from his resultant poverty. Max is an alcoholic as well, frequently seen drinking beer and perpetually carrying a flask around with him.
Gallery[]
