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Michael Sullivan is the main protagonist of the 2002 crime gangster drama film Road to Perdition.
He was portrayed by Tom Hanks, who also played Tom Parker in Elvis, Eamon Bailey in The Circle, Dr. Henry Goose in Cloud Atlas, Professor G. H. Dorr in The Ladykillers, and the Ebenezer Scrooge Puppet in The Polar Express.
Biography[]
The film begins in the small town of Rock Island in Illinois and describes six weeks in the winter of 1931. Michael Sullivan works for John Rooney, the aging boss of an Irish gangster gang, whose interests he has to enforce – even by murder if necessary. For Mike, who grew up fatherless, John Rooney is a kind of surrogate father, and Rooney also appreciates Mike very much and trusts him more than his own son Connor. For the funeral of a gang member, Mike Sullivan visits the estate of the boss with his wife Annie and sons Peter (9) and Michael junior (12), whom the children perceive as a kind of grandfather. They also meet Connor Rooney in the house, who is not interested in Mike's children and cannot tell them apart. Peter and Michael don't know what their father does for a living. He doesn't talk about his work, only the family's obligations to Rooney are obvious. The day after the funeral, Michael junior hides in the trunk of the Buick with which his father drives "to work". He knows that his father is armed and wants to find out what he is doing. Together with Connor Rooney, Mike Sullivan visits the brother of the buried gangster in an illegal liquor warehouse on this day, who behaved unwisely at the party in order to confront him. In the conversation, the man hints that Connor is diverting money from the syndicate without his father's knowledge. The Rooney gang pays tribute to the Cosa Nostra in Chicago. Connor Rooney shoots the man against his father's instructions; Mike Sullivan kills the armed companions. Michael junior has secretly observed the events through a crack in the door and is traumatized. When Mike and Connor notice his presence, Sullivan assures him that his son will keep the incident to himself; Connor accepts this at first. The next day, the Sullivan family receives an unexpected visit from John Rooney, who admonishes Michael Jr. to keep quiet about secrets. Connor Rooney is reprimanded and exposed for his high-handedness in front of his father's assembled leadership. Sullivan is then supposed to set off alone for a usual round of collecting money. Connor slips him a sealed letter for another debtor, a brothel owner. However, this is a letter of Uriah in which the recipient is asked to kill the bearer. The brothel boss, to whom Connor has promised debt relief, tries to shoot Sullivan. However, Sullivan is faster and kills the man and his bodyguard. In the meantime, Connor has broken into the Sullivans' house and murders Mike's wife and younger son. Michael junior escapes the attack because he only comes home during the crime and Connor does not notice him. A little later, Mike Sullivan arrives, discovers the bodies and leaves the house with his surviving son forever. John Rooney is horrified when he learns of his son's act. He justifies himself by saying that Michael junior would certainly have betrayed the murder he witnessed at some point. At this point, the Rooneys don't know that Connor killed little Peter instead of the older brother he was looking for. The father is forced to show solidarity with his son. He has him go into hiding and protected by the Chicago outfit. Sullivan infiltrates the Rooneys' house, but only finds the Consigliere, who offers him money and the escape to Ireland on behalf of the gang leader. Sullivan refuses, he wants to avenge the deaths of his relatives. He kills the Consigliere to send an unmistakable signal. That same night, he travels to Chicago with Michael Jr., where he visits Al Capone's deputy Frank Nitti and asks for support: He wants to work for Nitti and get a free hand in his campaign of revenge. Nitti declines because the Rooneys are important business partners of the outfit. Father and son Rooney overhear the conversation in the next room and give Nitti the order to have Sullivan killed. Contrary to Connor's insistence, John Rooney insists that nothing should happen to the child. Nitti hires the perverted photographer and hitman Harlen Maguire to murder Sullivan. Maguire attends Annie and Peter's funeral in Rock Island and learns from an overheard telephone conversation of Sullivan's plan to take his son to a sister-in-law in Perdition, where the aunt has a remote house on one of the Great Lakes. Maguire catches up with her at a dinner and engages Sullivan in a conversation. However, Sullivan recognizes the danger and is able to flee with his son. He has to change his plan and is dependent on the help of his son. He teaches him how to drive a car, because he needs him as a getaway driver. Sullivan wants to rob Al Capone's black money, which is distributed among banks throughout the country, so that Capone will drop the Rooney clan and thus remove Connor's protection. The plan initially succeeds, the corrupt bankers hand over the black money to him without a fuss. However, his approach is striking: At a bank, Alexander Rance, an accountant of the outfit, beats him to it and has already liquidated the black money deposit. Mike Sullivan tracks down Rance in the best hotel in the small town to get documents about Rooney's business dealings. Rance, however, is a bait, because Maguire is already waiting for Sullivan's arrival in the hotel opposite. Michael Jr., who is waiting in the car, tries to warn his father when the killer crosses the street. In the ensuing shootout, Maguire is injured in the face by splinters of glass; Sullivan is able to get hold of the dead accountant's papers, but is shot while fleeing. On a run-down farm along the way, Michael finds shelter for himself and his unconscious father. Mike recovers from the injury there and deals with the accountant's papers, in which he finds evidence that Connor has been cheating on his father for quite some time. The relationship between Mike Sullivan and Michael Jr. deepens in conversations about what happened. When the two leave the farm, Sullivan gives the elderly farmer couple the majority of the captured mafia black money, which the farmers use to renovate their house, as a thank you for their care. Incognito, Mike Sullivan returns to Rock Island and speaks to John Rooney at church mass. Although Sullivan confronts him with the evidence and Rooney loves Sullivan more than his own son, he does not drop him. This leaves Sullivan with the only option left to get John Rooney out of the way himself, so that Connor becomes uninteresting for the outfit. That same night, Mike ambushes the Rooney gang and kills John Rooney. Frank Nitti then reveals to Sullivan the number of the hotel room where Connor is hidden. The guard lets him pass unhindered. Sullivan kills Connor in the bathtub and drives with his son to the house in Perdition. There, however, he is already expected by Harlen Maguire and fatally injured in the back. Maguire sets up a camera to photograph Sullivan for his collection of photos of dying murder victims. Sullivan's son Michael arrives and aims a pistol at Maguire, but can't bring himself to pull the trigger. Maguire is distracted by this and is shot by his dying father Sullivan. Michael Jr. returns to the small farm along the way, where he grows up with the childless farmers. He never picked up a weapon again in his entire life. When people ask him whether Michael Sullivan was a "decent man or whether there was nothing good in him," he always gives the same answer: "He was my father."
Trivia[]
- Tom Hanks wore a bit of makeup for this film -- most notably a prosthetic nose -- to make his character appear more gangster-like.
- According to Tom Hanks himself, he said and considered Michael Sullivan from Road to Perdition to be his favourite villain role he ever took in his career despite being considered an anti-hero.
- in 2023 while promoting his movie A Man Called Otto during his interview with Jake Hamilton, Tom Hanks considered the film he was most proud of despite no one saw the movie and one of his favourite films and performances he ever done in his career.
- Tom Hanks's troubled son Chet Hanks has said this is his favorite performance and film of his dad. "In every one of my dad's films, I can see him; he's being himself. But that role is the farthest from his normal self out of any of the movies he's done," he said.
- Out of the villain roles that Hanks took in his career such as Cloud Atlas, Elvis and The Polar Express, Many critics and audiences consider this was his best villainous performance despite being considered a anti-villain.
- According to reports and IMDb, Tom Hanks and cinematographer Conrad L. Hallasked Sir Sam Mendes to tone down the violent excesses of the screenplay.
- The bead of sweat that rolls down Tom Hanks' face during his first encounter with Jude Law, though scripted, was Hanks' own natural sweat.
- The piano piece that Paul Newman and Tom Hanks play at the opening funeral was performed by them.