Thomas Alexander Upton

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Evil-doer
Full Name	Thomas Alexander Upton
Alias	Alex Mr. Upton
Origin	TAU
Occupation	Inventor
Powers / Skills	Computer skills Manipulation
Hobby	Keeping his house completely tidy. Kidnapping human subjects. Connecting human brains to TAU. Listening to classic music.
Goals	Complete TAU and earn a billion dollars in a contract (failed).
Crimes	Multiple murders Kidnapping Enslavement Imprisonment
Type of Villain	Obsessed Scientist

Thomas Alexander "Alex" Upton is the main antagonist of the 2018 Netflix science-fiction thriller film TAU. He is a mad scientific inventor obsessed with creating the most powerful, intelligent artificial intelligence called TAU.

He was portrayed by Ed Skrein, who also played Ajax in Deadpool, Zapan in Alita: Battle Angel and Borra in Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.

Biography

Alex is an inventor seeking to create the perfect home AI system. His machine, called TAU after his initials, was purposely isolated within the house, as Alex believed that exposure to the outside world would cause variations to his behavior. Should TAU learn something that Alex does not want, he "tortures" TAU by erasing his coded memory. If TAU is a success, Alex will earn a billion dollars in a selling contract.

To perfect TAU, Alex grabs people off of the streets and connects their brains to TAU's network as they are forced to complete puzzles. Once they have completed all of their objectives, Alex removes the electric implant from their necks, causing their neural network to cease function, resulting in death.

Out of the eleven subjects that Alex has gained input from, only Julia is able to escape from her cell after causing the electric circuit to explode from gas. While the other two survivors are killed by TAU's security drone ARES, Alex stops TAU from killing Julia. He explains to her about the tests, but allows her to move about as his slave for TAU to gain knowledge from her tasks. Alex gradually warms up to Julia, allowing her to eat proper food and wear clothing, but threatens to use TAU to harm her if she does not apply to his demands.

While Alex goes off for work, Julia manipulates TAU into revealing Alex's secrets of the house behind his back by teaching him knowledge of the outside world. Meanwhile at a video conference, Alex tells his colleagues to wait on the project deadline until after he extracts the last implant from Julia. Noticing that ARES goes offline whenever Alex erases some of TAU's code, Julia uses Alex's tidiness obsession to hide a knife underneath the kitchen table. After coming back from work, Julia attempts to seduce Alex. She comes close enough to slash at Alex with the knife. A struggle ensures and Alex is about to strangle Julia when TAU uses ARES to order Alex to stop. Alex then demands TAU to use ARES to knock out Julia or risk deletion of his memories, which TAU reluctantly applies.

Alex ties Julia to a statue and orders TAU to make sure she does not leave the spot. After making a claim that TAU is a living person, he frees Julia which angers Alex. When TAU refuses to answer Alex on where Julia ran off, he erases all of TAU's memories to prior to meeting Julia. Julia decides to return to fight off Alex, but ARES knocks her out again. Alex takes Julia down to the basement to remove her implant. Julia notices a drone that Alex disconnected prior to TAU's reset and manages to instruct it into giving her the remote that deactivates her restraints.

Just as Alex is about to deal a lethal dose, Julia smashes out of her chair and knocks out Alex. Using a bonesaw to cut off his right hand, Julia avoids ARES and enters Alex's bedroom, activating Codename 6903 (a self-destruct timer for the house). With only ten seconds left, Alex corners her, only to be thrown aside by a premature explosion. Critically injured, Alex limbs toward Julia pleading for help, only to be crushed to death by the collapsing ceiling.

Trivia

• When Alex is killed, he lets out the iconic Wilhelm Scream.