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| “ | Now the real pain begins, Danny boy. | „ |
| ~ Terry Silver boasting against his enemy Daniel LaRusso before they settle their confrontation. |
Terrance "Terry" Silver is the secondary antagonist of The Karate Kid franchise and Daniel LaRusso's main archenemy for corrupting and deceiving him in the past, serving as the main antagonist of The Karate Kid Part III and the secondary antagonist of the YouTube Red/Netflix television series Cobra Kai, serving as a mentioned character in the first two seasons, the deuteragonist of the flashback arc in Season 3 and the main antagonist of Season 4.
He was an acquaintance of John Kreese from his military days and easily his closest friend. He is also the head of DynaTox Industries, the sponsor of the All Valley Karate Tournament, and the antithesis of Daniel LaRusso. He and Kreese train Mike Barnes in an effort to defeat Daniel after him and Mr. Miyagi defeated Kreese's dojo Cobra Kai. Years later, Silver is called by Kreese to help him after Kreese takes over control of Cobra Kai again, as Kreese wants him to help in his vendetta against LaRusso and his former student Johnny Lawrence.
He was portrayed by Thomas Ian Griffith, who also played Valek in John Carpenter's Vampires. His younger self was portrayed by Nick Marini.
Contents
Biography
Background
TBA
The Karate Kid Part III
| “ | Back in the '80s, I was so hopped up on cocaine and revenge, I spent months terrorizing a teenager over a high-school karate tournament. It sounds insane just talking about it. | „ |
| ~ Terry Silver from the Cobra Kai TV series reflects back on the past. |
When his best friend John Kreese is financially ruined, due to the Cobra Kai's defeat at the hands of Daniel (who "fraudulently" entered the tournament) and Kreese losing all of his students, Silver makes it a personal mission to help Kreese recover. He buys him twenty new dojos all over the Valley and re-enter the Cobra Kai back in the All Valley Tournament, and sends him to Tahiti to recover from the severe hand wounds, which were self-inflicted from Kreese attempting to hit Mr. Miyagi. He also vows to reclaim the glory of the Cobra Kai name by winning the next All Valley Karate Championship; to this end, he recruits "Bad Boy" Mike Barnes to compete against Daniel.
Silver disguises himself as a "humble" man, wearing different clothing and driving a convertible blue Ford pickup truck, and appears before Daniel and Miyagi. He tells them Kreese had died from a heart attack after losing all of this students. He sneaks into Mr. Miyagi's house and overhears that Daniel is not competing in the next tournament. Silver hires Mike Barnes and his friends to blackmail Daniel into signing up, and is eventually successful through using Miyagi's bonsai trees. One day, as Barnes is tormenting Daniel, Silver stages an intervention (with Barnes), and offers to train Daniel for the tournament, since Miyagi cannot. He effectively gains Daniel's interest in the Cobra Kai training method, using tactics he calls the "Quicksilver method." However, Daniel's weak body and spirit prove a poor fit for the "Quicksilver" method, and his deficient technique causes Daniel to injure himself, fulfilling Kreese's wish to make Daniel suffer, and amusing Silver, who laughs at Daniel injuring himself.
Learning the "Quicksilver" method makes Daniel more aggressive than usual. One night, when Daniel is out with his friend Jessica at a nightclub, Silver bribes a kid into picking a fight with Daniel. Responding to this, Daniel punches and breaks the boy's nose. This causes Jessica to walk out in disgust and alarm, while Daniel is horrified by what he has done. Later that night, Daniel returns to the Cobra Kai Dojo and tells Silver he will not compete in the tournament. Silver then unmasks his true motives, and reveals Barnes and then Kreese. He orders Barnes to attack, who easily overpowers a weakened Daniel. Mr. Miyagi appears to help Daniel, and after taking down Barnes, Silver and Kreese challenge him. Despite their best efforts, Miyagi defeats them both. After being slammed into a mirror and having paint fall on his head, Silver proudly announces that he is opening multiple Cobra Kai Dojo's across the city.
At the climactic All Valley Tournament, Silver, dressed in a stylish suit and a red ascot tie, gives an inspirational and hypocritical speech to the crowd in which he highlights the importance of giving back to the community through the self-confidence and inner peace instilled by karate, and the virtues of honesty, compassion and fair play. Silver also appeals to parents who are concerned for their children's future by saying karate instilled in him the values that enabled him to eventually lead DynaTox, which was a likely impetus to get families to pressure their kids into enrolling into the forthcoming chain of Cobra Kai dojos.
At the tournament, Silver orders Barnes to make Daniel suffer and lose points deliberately, and then win the match in sudden death. Barnes overpowers Daniel throughout the entire match, but after Daniel regains his confidence via Mr. Miyagi, he uses the kata he was taught to defeat Mike in the sudden death match, causing Silver to leave the scene in disgust and humiliation. Cobra Kai was shut down for good when the audience threw back their free t-shirts.
As later revealed in the Cobra Kai TV series, as a result Silver and Kreese's deal was off, and Silver, now done with the Cobra Kai, went back to running his company.
Cobra Kai
Season 1
While Silver does not appear, he is mentioned by name several times when it is revealed that the Cobra Kai was banned from the All-Valley tournament due to his, Kreese's and Mike Barnes' actions in 1985.
Season 2
In this season, Kreese reveals that, after Cobra Kai went under, an "old war buddy" (presumably Silver) offered him a job but Kreese refused it, seeing it as a "handout".
He is shown in a flashback when Daniel is telling his students about the time Silver tricked him to join Cobra Kai.
Season 3
Terry appeared in the flashback in 1968 how he and Kreese become friends. It is revealed that Kreese and Silver were part of a unit that had been captured by the Viet Cong who were forced to fight each other to the death over a pit of snakes. When Silver was summoned to fight the commander of the unit, Kreese fought in his place. This is when Silver vowed to always help Kreese for the rest of his life. At the end of the season, he is called up by Kreese, who asks for his help with Cobra Kai.
Season 4
Terry Silver returns early on in the series and teams up with Kreese to take back the dojo. He's shown to have maintained his wealth and had moved on with his life and even got into a loving relationship with a woman named Cheyenne. He had decided to abandon his shared vendetta with Kreese, which was partially the result of acute cocaine usage in the 1980s. Now, having a calmer and more enlightened personality, he enjoys his life of luxury and leisure. However, upon Kreese getting in touch with him, as hard as Silver tried to resist, he ends up taking Kresse's offer to co-teach students after feeling the joy and rush of practicing martial arts for the first time in years. Despite taking up his Cobra Kai roots again, he still maintains his calmer and more enlightened personality.
However as the season progresses Kreese and Silver become conflicted with their now-opposing views, with Terry not wanting to repeat the same mistakes they made last time. Kreese also emotionally blackmails him by reminding him of how he was crippled by fear before during the forced death matches and that only because of Kreese, he survived. This abuse causes Silver to regress more into his original personality if not worse. He attacks Johnny Lawrence without Kreese's knowledge and when Kreese discovers Silver standing over a beaten Johnny, Silver offers him a chance to finish him off. He tells Silver that he's gone too far and talks him into leaving Johnny alone. With this Kreese finally begins to see the error of his ways and regrets bringing out the darkness in Silver. He finally accepts Silver's previous statement of preventing history from repeating itself to end the malicious cycle. Kreese even encourages Tory to fight honorably against Sam LaRusso in the new girls' division of the All Valley Tournament.
Silver, however, bribes the referee to rule in Tory and Cobra Kai's favor. After this, Silver betrays and turns on Kreese, partially over revenge for Kreese's abuse and emotional manipulation of him, and also so he can take sole control of Cobra Kai. Earlier, he had beaten up Stingray who had wanted to rejoin Cobra Kai, and promised him he could rejoin if he blamed Kreese for being beat up. As the police approach to arrest Kreese, Silver reveals that he framed him for aggravated assault and attempted murder. Although Kreese is arrested and charged with aggravated assault and attempted murder over what happened with Stingray, Silver does not know that the charges against Kreese are accurate and logical, as Kreese has assaulted Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang students especially Daniel and Johnny, and also attempting to kill Daniel and Johnny in the Season 3 finale episode. Kreese then swears that it's not over yet as the police arrest and take him away. As Kreese is taken away, Silver reveals that he will get an old friend to help him managing Cobra Kai, which assumed to be Mike Barnes.
Season 5
He is set to appear in Season 5.
Trivia
- Terry Silver was Thomas Ian Griffith's film debut.
- In real life, Thomas Ian Griffith was only thirteen years old when the Vietnam War ended. At the time this movie was made, Griffith was also four months younger than Ralph Macchio, who plays Daniel.
- The character of Terry Silver was only created for The Karate Kid Part III because Martin Kove's schedule didn't allow him to film more scenes as John Kreese, who was initially planned to have a bigger role.
- The house where Silver lives is actually the Ennis House, a home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1924.
- Terry Silver usually calls Daniel "Danny Boy", which is coincidentally the name of a popular Irish song. Griffith played another character named Terry and sang "Danny Boy" in Excessive Force.
- It was initially unlikely that Silver would appear in Cobra Kai since actor Thomas Ian Griffith, quit acting in 2007. Nevertheless, fans hoped for Griffith to agree to reprise the role if convinced by the producers or they could have Silver appear through flashbacks, as season 3 explored John Kreese's experiences during the Vietnam War. The end of the season also implies Thomas Ian Griffith may make a return as Silver in Season 4.
- Terry Silver's appearance was an inspiration behind Duke of Super Double Dragon.
- In Season 4, he was the main antagonist and will presumably be the main antagonist of Season 5.
 Villains
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The Karate Kid (1984) The Karate Kid Part II The Karate Kid Part III DynaTox Industries The Next Karate Kid The Karate Kid (2010) Cobra Kai | ||
