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| “ | What the hell difference does it make? At least the state of Mississippi got forty years of cheap labor out of the deal! | „ |
| ~ Warren Pike showing no remorse about framing Claude and Rayford. |
Warren Pike is the main antagonist of the 1999 film Life.
His younger counterpart was portrayed by Ned Vaughn, and his older counterpart was portrayed by the late R. Lee Ermey, who also played Charlie Hewitt Jr. in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise, Stone in On Deadly Ground', John House in House M.D.,Mr. Frank Martin in Willard, and Walter Burlock in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
Biography[]
1932[]
Pike is first seen driving the sheriff's car, approaching an old friend, Winston Hancock, by a barn. He was stunned that Hancock didn't leave town like he was supposed to. Hancock claimed the sheriff's wife begged him to stay against her husband's wishes. Pike then strikes Hancock between his legs, which causes the latter to strike Pike's face, causing a scar. Pike then says that Hancock committed suicide by getting beaten by the sheriff and his henchmen.
Shortly, when Ray Gibson and Claude Banks find Hancock's badly beaten body on the ground, the duo are confronted by armed farmers, who take them to jail. Seeing an opportunity to escape arrest, Pike meets Ray and Claude and accuses them of killing Hancock with the evidence of three dozen boxes of booze. The duo denies all this and ask if a guy named Spanky Johnson was familiar with the sheriff. But Pike says no about Spanky, so the duo asks him if he could get Spanky to appreciate them, and Pike doesn't doubt if they could buy their way out of New York. But he says that Mississippi murders are very severe and could cause horrible punishments. Ray and Claude continue to deny killing Hancock and say he was already dead when they found him. Then Pike says he'll see the duo in the morning. Claude says that he'll tell the truth by saying that he and Ray are innocent of Hancock's murder and the booze, but the judge sentences both guys to life in prison at the Camp 8 in Mississippi State Prison for blacks. Pike is very happy about the judge's sentence, because he hates blacks.
1972, Wilkins' & Pike's death[]
Forty years later, Ray and Claude are still doing time in prison when one day, they get sent to live in Superintendent Dexter Wilkins' mansion. One day, Claude is told to be the chauffeur of the new superintendent, Warren Pike, who happens to be the same man who framed both men forty years ago. When Wilkins picks Pike up, Claude recognizes the latter, because of the scar on his face. Claude is stunned by this and tells Ray about seeing Pike, while the former sheriff is on a pheasant hunt with Wilkins. When Pike checks out a pocket watch that plays music, Ray gets suspicious about him, because it was his daddy's watch. Ray later asks Pike where he got it, and Pike says his wife gave it to him on their anniversary around forty years ago. When Ray asks him if she gave him the scar on his face, Pike recognizes Ray and gets angry at him. He said he should teach him a lesson in manners by killing him while giving a racist remark. Ray then attacks him, before he aims Pike's own shotgun at him. Wilkins and Claude try to warn Ray to put the gun down or else Wilkins will have to shoot him, but Ray doesn't care, because Ray knows Pike is Winston Hancock's real killer. Both men try to get Wilkins to believe one another. Wilkins gets suspicious of Pike and asks him if Ray's right, as Pike realizes he's been exposed and downright admits to framing the duo, by saying "At least the state of Mississippi got forty years of cheap labor out of the deal!". Claude gets angry at how Pike stole his and Ray's lives and has no remorse, trying to kill Pike himself, but he and Ray argue over the shotgun, so the scared Pike begins to pull out a small pistol to kill the duo. Wilkins is forced to turn his shotgun on the former sheriff and shoot him dead, while Ray and Claude look at him in shock.
Satisfied, Ray takes his father's pocket watch back from Pike. Wilkins covers up the murder of Pike to the authorities and now knows that Ray and Claude are indeed innocent, so he decides to pardon them, meaning that the duo's sentences are over. Sadly, the narrator, Willie Long, states that Wilkins had a fatal heart attack in his bathroom due to killing Pike out of stress, thus Ray and Claude are still in prison with Willie. However, both of them eventually escaped in a staged fire in the infirmary and lived the rest of their life in freedom in Harlem.