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| “ | Failure was not an option. The price must be paid. | „ |
| ~ Thomas Magruder |
| “ | I had to waste a perfectly good whore to get to the truth about you. | „ |
| ~ Thomas Magruder to Colton White, referring to a deceased Jenny. |
Thomas Magruder is the main antagonist of the 2005 Western-themed video game Gun and Gun: Showdown. He's a railroad tycoon who has taken large parts of the Western United States from both Native Americans and the federal government.
He was voiced by Lance Henriksen, who also played Sergeant Daniel Neff in Damien: Omen II, Jesse Hooker in Near Dark, Rafe Garrett in Johnny Handsome, Chains Cooper in Stone Cold, Emil Fouchon in Hard Target, Dr. Jarret in Man's Best Friend, and John Milton in Scream 3.
Biography[]
In the game, Magruder is revealed to have been a Major in the Confederate Army who lead the Texas Mountain Rifles. During the Civil War he undertook a mission to find the lost city of Quivira, an ancient city of gold.
On the search he met Ned White, who knew a person who had been to Quivira. Fueled with the news, Magruder and his cavalry arrive at an Apache tribe, where he comes across Dr. Campbell, the man who had apparently been to the lost city.
While the premises are searched and Magruder questions the doctor, Campbell's Indian friend confronts him and proclaims that "Someday you (Magruder) will find what you're looking for and that day will be your last.". Angered by the words, Magruder shoots the Indian in the head. Ned White, now conflicted, condemns his actions, prompting Magruder to shoot and wound him as well. Dr. Campbell, kneeling at his dead friend, calls Magruder a "son of a bitch" and tells him that he doesn't deserve the cross. Furious, he gets off his horse, draws his cavalry sword, and decapitates him.
Corporal Allister eventually found Coronado's Cross and gave it to Magruder, which in the game is a map to Quivira. Campbell's wife, armed with a shotgun, fired at the dastardly Major, knocking his eye out and simultaneously breaking the cross in two pieces. He fell unconscious, and with the cross gone from his grasp, it was lost in the ensuing firefight with the Texas Mountain Rangers and the Apache Indians.
After the war, he put himself in the railroad business, settling the Western United States and amassing great wealth and power. He also forces the Apaches to give up their land. Despite his economic success, his urge to find Quivira still lingered over him. Magruder slipped into the crime business by hiring an army of bounty hunters, criminals, henchmen, as well as an elite militia of mercenaries (both former Confederate and Union alike) to help him find the lost city at all costs, willing to violate any laws and commit any crimes in the process.
Magruder in the rest of the game acts just as brutally to his henchmen. He feels no remorse and will do anything to get what he wants. Failure in his mind is not an option, and those who fail him are severely punished. For example, when Reverend Josiah Reed did not secure the piece of the cross in the steamboat raid at the beginning of the game, Thomas Magruder sliced a piece of his ear off. In addition to his cruelty to individual people, Magruder also has an extreme, presumably racist, hatred for Native Americans. He is said to use them for target practice and for slave labor.
His weapon of choice is a seven-barrel Nock gun. He is also a prolific user of dynamite, even at the cost of his henchmen's lives. On the rare occasion that he engaged in combat, Magruder wore metal body armor as a means of protection from bullets and explosions, a fairly clever tactic that is somewhat ahead of his time in the era. He also experimented with using cutting-edge technology, such as gun and vehicle designs, mostly for his personal use, including small arms of untold destruction like a man-portable, heavy-bore cannon that is miniaturized to the point of being the size of a mere rifle, (in-game, this is his aforementioned Nock gun.) he owned and operated an experimental tank-like train that sported affixed and mounted guns and artillery, serving as a transitory base of operations, which transported not only himself in his search for the lost city but also his vast arsenal of equipment and weapons and army of criminal henchman and professional soldiers.
Death[]
| “ | I'd like to shoot you in the teeth but that would be too kind. Reckon instead I'll take my knife, whittle you some like you did Soapy. Then slit your throat like you did Jenny. Or maybe I'll take this cross and jam it in your good eye and watch you twitch. But none of that will bring back my Ma and Pa, or all those villagers you massacred. Nor Ned who raised me as his own. | „ |
| ~ Colton White to a defeated Thomas Magruder. |
In the end, Thomas Magruder finally arrives in the underground city of Quivira. Colton White, out to assassinate him, gets there simultaneously and a gunfight ensues. Eventually, he got his leg crushed under a rock in the fight when he threw dynamite that made Quivira begin to collapse. After being taunted by a victorious Colt, Magruder was left behind holding Coronado's Cross, yelling at Colt to help him, even offering to "make it worth [Colt's] while". As Colt struggled to flee the crumbling city of gold, Magruder started heckling and laughing as Colt slipped off a ledge. However, a large rock became loose and tipped over on top of the former Confederate Major, killing him, just as the Apache had predicted 16 years earlier.
Trivia[]
- In a demo of Tony Hawk's Proving Ground, a fake film poster can be seen called Gun: Magruder's Ghost stating, "Sometimes a man will shoot back -- even from beyond the grave...".
- Both Magruder's & Reed's voice actors portrayed killers in infamous horror movies. In Henriksen's case, John Milton in Scream, and in Dourif's case, Chucky from Child's Play.