| “ | Failure is not an option. The price must be paid. | „ |
| ~ Thomas Magruder |
| “ | I will not be denied! | „ |
| ~ Magruder |
Thomas Magruder is the main antagonist of the best-selling Western themed videogame 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 is voiced by Lance Henriksen.
History
In the game Magruder is revealed to have been a Confederate military commander 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. 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, shot him in the eye, 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 puts himself in railroad bussiness which made him rich instantly. He then forces the Apaches to give up their land. But his pusuit to find Quivira is still with him. He then recruited henchmen to find the cross.
Magruder in the rest of the game acts just as brutally to his henchmen. He feels no remorse and will do everything to get what he wants. Failure for him is not an option, and those who fail are severely punished. For example, when Reverend Josiah Reed did not secure the object in the steamboat raid at the beginning of the game, Thomas Magruder had his ear sliced off for it.
His favorite weapon is a seven-barrel Nock gun. He is always prominent in using 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 quite smart tactic. He also experiments on guns, inventing guns of mass destruction like a portable canon shrunk to appear like a rifle (Canon Nock Gun as it is called in the game). He also owns and rides a tank-like train filled with guns and artilleries which he also use for ramming, and also transporting his weapons and soldiers.
Magruder also has a big hatred for Native Americans. He is said to use them for target practice and in slave labor camps.
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 Magruder finally arrives in the underground city of Quivira, but got his leg stuck under a rock in the ensuing fight with Colt when he threw a big pile of dynamite that made Quivira collapse. After being taunted by a victorious Colt, Magruder sat holding Coronado's Cross, yelling at Colt as he struggled to flee the crumbling city of gold. Heckling and laughing as Colt slipped off a ledge, a large rock Colt jumped on to escape became loose and tipped over on top of the former commander, killing him, just as the Apache had predicted 16 years earlier.
Trivia
Magruder in Gun 2: Magruder's ghost
- 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..."