| “ | Now the real pain begins, Danny boy. | „ |
| ~ Terry Silver boasting against his enemy Daniel LaRusso before they settle their confronation. |
Terence "Terry" Silver is the secondary antagonist of the Karate Kid franchise, serving as the main antagonist of The Karate Kid Part III, and a mentioned character in the first three seasons of the YouTube Red/Netflix television series Cobra Kai, appearing in the third season as the deuteragonist of Kreese's flashback arc. He is confirmed to appear in Season 4 as one of the main antagonists.
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 was portrayed by Thomas Ian Griffith, who later played the first Master Vampire Valek in John Carpenter's Vampires.
Contents
Biography
Background
Terry Silver was born in Las Vegas, Nevada on June 12, 1951. His parents, Morton and Myra Silver, owned a small jewelry store. His father was a notorious gambler and spent much of his time in Las Vegas casinos, earning thousands of dollars one day and losing them the next. It was during his childhood that the young Terry Silver vowed always to invest his money wisely, after seeing the poor example set by his father. As a high school student, Silver lettered in baseball and track, though he had not yet discovered karate. Even as a young man, he was legendary for his athletic and academic accomplishments, his confidence, and his sense of compassion, honesty and fair play. However, as seen in the movie, he had lost all of his morals and become corrupt, as well as racist towards Asians; this was shown when he called Mr. Miyagi a slope (a highly offensive term for a person of Asian descent).
At the age of seventeen, Silver's parents were killed in a car accident. His father had gambled away most of his money and so Terry was left with very little inheritance. With nowhere to turn, Silver went to the only place where he was welcome, the US Army, enlisting in 1968. After completion of Basic Training, Silver attended Ranger School in Fort Benning, Georgia and was then deployed to Vietnam with the 75th Ranger Regiment.
It was in Vietnam that Silver would meet one of the primary influences on his later life, Captain John Kreese. Kreese, then a First Lieutenant, was the Commanding Officer of the infantry company which Silver was assigned to, and had already distinguished himself with heroic service in combat during the previous years of the war. Kreese was a specialist in long-range surveillance patrols and an expert in jungle warfare, and was invaluable to the young Silver as a mentor and possible big brother figure. Silver credited Kreese with saving his life several times during harrowing night-time patrols in Vietnam's Central Highlands region, where the two came under enemy fire on countless occasions. Silver himself was awarded three Purple Heart medals over the course of his combat service from 1969 to 1972, and Kreese earned a Silver Star and was promoted to the rank of Captain.
In 1970, Kreese became the U.S. Army's Karate champion, at which point Silver requested that Kreese train him. Though he had no prior experience in Karate, Silver's exceptional athleticism and his physical stamina made him a natural for martial arts, and Silver began undertaking extensive karate lessons from Kreese in between combat missions. Kreese, who had studied under Kim Sun-Yung of South Korea, instilled in Silver the creed of "Strike First, Strike Hard, No Mercy". The two continued their rigorous workouts and sparring matches throughout the remainder of the war, along with others in their infantry company so that more soldiers could learn the valuable hand-to-hand combat skills. It was this small but elite group of soldiers who became the very first "Cobra Kai" class, and all of them received a distinctive tattoo of a fist clutching a cobra, which was to become the symbol of their brotherhood.
After his military service, Silver took advantage of the G.I. Bill to earn a college education. He attended California Institute of Technology, where he majored in physics and minored in business administration. He studied nuclear physics under the legendary Richard Feynman, receiving his Bachelor's degree in 1976 and his Master's two years later. He was a member of both the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity and the Phi Beta Kappa Society, in addition to being president of the CalTech Karate Club. The thesis of Silver's Master thesis was titled "The Disposal of Nuclear Waste in an Environmentally Responsible Society".
While in college, Silver had already begun to make clever investments in companies developing innovative technology, starting out with the small inheritance left by his deceased parents. Using his own knowledge of the scientific field, he was able to multiply his initial savings many times over; by 1977 he had earned his first million on the stock market, and the following year he had quadrupled this amount. In November 1978, he founded DynaTox Industries, a company dedicated to the disposal of nuclear waste.
In 1979, Silver traveled around Europe making contacts with nuclear power companies in the United Kingdom and France, where nuclear plants were booming in comparison with America, which was still reliant on fossil fuels. Silver, with his knowledge of nuclear physics, worked with several power plants helping them to manage their spent nuclear fuel in an efficient and safe way. He developed considerable expertise in the field of hazardous waste disposal, and was presented with the Ecological Guardian award by the British government. It was during this time that he first developed an interest in fine luxury automobiles, and he purchased several Rolls-Royce limousines as well as Jaguar sedans and Aston-Martin sports cars.
Silver also had a taste for fine clothes, cigars, champagne, and women, becoming an international playboy. It was also during this time in Europe that he met Margaret Spencer, a middle-aged receptionist at an energy company's London office, and Milos Dadok, a Czech hotel concierge in Prague. The two eventually became Silver's personal assistants and he arranged for them to travel back with him to the United States so they could work with him full-time, where Margaret became his personal secretary and Milos his butler.
In the early 1980s, Terry Silver was one of the most successful businessmen in the energy industry, and in 1982 Forbes Magazine listed DynaTox among the five-hundred richest companies in America. However, as said above, rather than safely dispose of nuclear waste as before, DynaTox now illegally dumped nuclear waste instead, and Silver began bribing jury people and DA who were investigating DynaTox in illegal activities.
As he had amassed a vast fortune, Silver now had the freedom to concentrate on his first love, which was Karate. He founded the Cobra Kai Karate Academy, which had locations throughout the San Fernando Valley, and he contacted his old friend John Kreese with the opportunity to serve as the head instructor at the academy's flagship dojo. Kreese, with his lifetime of leadership skills and his commitment to the teaching of martial arts, jumped at the chance, and the two war buddies resumed their partnership.
Unlike other Karate dojos which presented the sport as a "fun" and recreational hobby, Silver and Kreese placed a heavy emphasis on Karate as a deadly art, to be practiced only by the fiercest, bravest and most honorable students. Silver developed an innovative teaching technique called "QuickSilver", consisting of three basic rules. One: If an enemy can't stand, he can't fight. Two: If an enemy can't see, he can't fight. Three: If an enemy can't breathe, he can't fight. The QuickSilver method efficiently singles out the most vital areas of an opponent's body to ensure maximum damage, and is best practiced on a dummy in the shape of a human, made from pipes and wooden boards.
After the foundation of the Cobra Kai, Silver spent most of his time in his palatial Beverly Hills estate, studying Karate. He assigned the majority of responsibility for DynaTox to his vice presidents and secretary, and his own involvement in the day-to-day business of nuclear waste disposal is limited to the signing of contracts and telephone conversations with the international branches of his company.
Silver hired two Los Angeles teenagers — the cocky and arrogant Snake, and the strong, silent Dennis — to be his personal training partners, as well as general household assistants. Snake and Dennis lived with Silver in his colossal mansion, considering him to be the father figure they never had, and are fiercely loyal to him. He spars with them on a daily basis in the vestibule of his home, making sure that they are fully clad in protective gear so as to minimize any chances of injury.
The Karate Kid Part III
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 a result, Silver and Kreese's deal was off, and Silver, now done with the Cobra Kai, went back to running his company. His later fate is unknown.
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" (possibly 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 he joined 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 return on the series and team up with Kreese to take back the dojo. It is unknown if he is still wealthy.
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 unlikely that Silver would appear in Cobra Kai since Thomas Ian Griffith, his actor, quit acting in 2007. Nevertheless, Griffith could have agreed 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. It has recently been confirmed Thomas Ian Griffith will be reprising his role as Silver in the fourth season.
- Terry Silver's appearance was an inspiration behind Duke of Super Double Dragon.
 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 Others | ||
