The Man in Black is a main character in the sci-fi western TV series, Westworld. He is a gunslinger and longtime visitor to the theme park, Westworld. He is played by Ed Harris.
Biography
Background
The Man in Black has been visiting Westworld for more than thirty years, and wants to visit the deeper levels of the "game" he believes is hidden in the park. He regularly visits Dolores Abernathy, a host who lives on the outskirts of Sweetwater. Among other hosts within the park, he has made acquaintances with Teddy Flood and Lawrence.[1]
The Man in Black is a wealthy person outside Westworld, wealthy enough to operate a "foundation" and to be recognised by other guests in the park. He does not though, appreciate having his vacation interrupted by guests who recognise him.
Season One
The Original
On one of his many visits to the park, the Man in Black has the intentions of finally reaching the deeper levels of Westworld. He pays a visit to Dolores one last time, killing Teddy Flood in the process. On a later day, he visits the Mariposa Saloon to meet Kissy, a card dealer. At nighttime, he sneaks up on Kissy and slits his throat, rendering him powerless, and quietly drags him away to the mountains. There, after explaining his intentions to find the truth of Westworld and its deeper game, the Man scalps the host. On the inside of the host's scalp, he finds a map for an unknown maze.[1]
Chestnut
On his journey, the Man in Black halts a hanging proceedings for Lawrence by killing all the men in the area. He greets his old acquaintance, who has no recollection of ever meeting him before. He uses Lawrence's bonds to tie him to the horse and he's dragged away to the town where he originated from. In order to learn more about the maze in the deepest part of the Westworld game, the Man in Black threatens Lawrence's family. He quickly shoots down all the host attackers, who are unable to kill him and then kills Lawrence's wife to add to the persuasion. Eventually, the gunslinger receives a system message spoken through Lawrence's Daughter, which provides with information on how he can reach the maze. Taking Lawrence with him, he departs from the town.[2]
The Stray
The Man in Black appears in Dolores' nightmares and memory flashbacks, during their interaction that apparently happened offscreen in The Original. He throws her on the hay in the barn, pulls out a large knife, and suggests they reacquaint themselves. He tells her to "Start at the beginning." When Dolores kills Rebus in the barn, she is seeing the memory of the Man in Black standing in the same spot, and hears a voice say "Kill him" when she shoots Rebus.
Dissonance Theory
In the desert, Lawrence talks to the Man in Black about why he wants to find this maze. The Man says that this entire world is a story, and he’s read every page except the last one. He needs to see how it ends, and what it means.
They come across Armistice bathing in the river, and the Man notices the tattoo of her snake around her body. She is dismissive of him, and the Man wonders why they’ve never met. He wants to know the purpose of her tattoo, and agrees to join to her gang and help them in return for the story.
In camp, the Man in Black is approached by two guests who are with the posse. One approaches and begins to thank him, because his foundation saved his sister’s life. The Man stops him with a threat to kill him, and says “This is my fucking vacation.”
Lawrence tells him that the posse plans to get someone out of Ojai Prison, and want to steal a cannon from the Calvary to do it. The Man says he doesn’t have time for that, and offers to go in alone to get the man they want. All he wants is the story of Armistice’s tattoo. He asks her if she’s familiar with Arnold, and says you could say he was the original settler of the area. He says Arnold created a world where you can do anything, except die. No matter how real the world seemed, it was just a game. But then, he says, Arnold died in the park, but had one story left to tell, one with real stakes and violence. The Man in Black says he’s there to honor Arnold’s legacy, and that the tattoos are the next piece of the puzzle.
The Man and Lawrence get arrested, in a stagecoach headed to the prison. As Arnold glowers, the Man in Black offers the deputy a cigar. Meanwhile, he tells Lawrence that Lawrence blames the Man in Black for taking away his choices, forcing him to come along, but that Lawrence has truly no choice that was ever his own in the park and was always a prisoner. The Man in Black says he’s there to set him free, and smiles.
At the prison, they lock up The Man in Black, and recognize Lawrence as having to been executed. In the jail cell, the Man in Black meets Hector Escaton, the one he’s there to rescue. Hector says they never met, and the Man in Black admits that’s true, that he was never interested in meeting before. The Man asks for Hector’s worldview, and Hector replies that the world will end badly and no one will be saved, and only the brave can understand it. The Man notes that they have more in common than he thought. The Man in Black stages a jailbreak, using explosives hidden in the cigars he brought, to break the jail cell door and kill the deputy who brought them in. They rescue Lawrence from the firing squad and head back to meet Armistice.
Armistice tells the story of a group of men who attacked her village when she was a child, and who gutted her mother. She painted herself in her mother’s blood to make them think she was dead. She has tracked down each of the men, filling in a part of the snake tattoo with their blood. Only one remains: Wyatt.
The Man and Lawrence ride off in search of Wyatt, with Lawrence attempting to talk him out of it. In the desert, they come across Teddy, tied up to a tree and bloodied. The Man decides to free Teddy and bring him along.
Contrapasso
The Man in Black has given Lawrence’s horse to a slumped and nearly unconscious Teddy, and Lawrence chides the Man’s decision to bring along Teddy. The Man says that Teddy’s going to lead them straight to Wyatt. The Man says that Lawrence’s path is always to be with him, and admits that he might like Lawrence’s company, saying that no one would take the tone that Lawrence does around him. He hints “In a past life, perhaps.” As they tend to Teddy, who has lost too much blood, Little Boy comes across them, and the Man sends him to get water for Teddy. The Man in Black notes the boy is “too small.” As Lawrence asks what he means, The Man sets up a bag under a tree and slits Lawrence’s throat. He ties Lawrence up to the tree and begins collecting his blood, as he apologizes to Lawrence.
As Teddy wakes up, he tells the Man in Black that the Man should have put a bullet in him. The Man tells Teddy he used to be beautiful, and that he opened up “one of him” once, but then they changed Teddy, making him a sad mess. The Man says they did it because it was cheaper, that Teddy’s humanity and suffering was cost-effective. The Man tells Teddy that Wyatt made off with Dolores, and that fires Teddy up to help him. He pulls Teddy up and they leave, as the Little Boy stares at Lawrence’s dead, hanging body.
The Man in Black takes a hurting Teddy into a saloon. The woman of the house says she can rouse a girl, but the Man says he just wants whiskey. As Teddy looks weak, the Man implores him to get stronger. As they talk, the piano player stops playing, and brings over the whiskey and two glasses, and he’s revealed to be Dr. Ford. The Man is surprised to see him. The Man asks Teddy if he knows who that is, and Teddy says he doesn’t. The Man credits Dr. Ford with everything good and rotten that’s ever happened in Teddy’s life. He then asks, “How am I doing, Robert?” Dr. Ford asks the Man what he’s looking for. Teddy interjects, saying they’re looking for Wyatt, who killed a rancher and took her daughter. Ford comments that the last part doesn’t sound familiar, and The Man says that Dr. Ford’s story needed a little embellishment. The Man says that the place had always been missing a real villain, hence his contribution. Dr. Ford says he couldn’t conceive of someone like him, but that the urgency doesn’t fit the character, and belies some anxiety. The Man notes that Wyatt is something new, and asks if he’s a worthy adversary, someone to stop the Man from finding the center of the maze. Dr. Ford asks what he’s hoping to find there.
The Man pivots to Teddy, and talks about the real world, which Teddy ignores. He says it takes care of every need, except one: purpose. So real people come here to have a vacation, but the Man thinks there’s a deeper meaning here, given to the person who created it. Something true. Dr. Ford says that if the Man wanted a moral, all he had to do was ask, but the Man says he’d have to ask someone who had been dead for 35 years. One who almost took this place with him. Almost, but not quite, thanks to him. But maybe that man left something behind. The Man pulls out his knife and wonders what he’d find if he opened up Dr. Ford. Teddy springs into action and grabs the knife by the blade, driving it to the table, and the Man laughs at his spryness, being close to death. The Man asks Dr. Ford if he’d come to talk the Man out of it. Dr. Ford says far be it for him to get in the way of a voyage of self-discovery. He hands the Man back his knife, and tells Teddy “We must look back and smile at peril’s past, mustn’t we?” Dr. Ford snaps his fingers, and the piano plays music automatically, at an accelerated speed. Teddy, no worse for wear, checks his revolver and tells the man they should get back on the road. The Man finishes his whiskey and follows him.
Personality
The Man in Black is a ruthless figure, who has no compunction killing, torturing or mutilating hosts in a number of ways. Unlike some other guests that see the hosts as nothing more than toys to be used or discarded with impunity, the Man in Black relishes the game. He will slip in and out of talking to the hosts in character and out of it. He will occasionally mock or taunt them, but it is usually as a way to mess with their minds, force them to realize they are in some way powerless next to him or to bring out extreme emotions from the hosts.
The Man alternately sees Westworld as a park and as a game. He feels he has seen almost everything about the park except the "Final Chapter", although he notes along way there are some characters and storylines he had not yet indulged in his 30 years of visits. While he takes advantage of the inability to be killed, he appears to crave a worthy adversary, and the real danger of the possibility of death.
In the real world, the Man in Black is at least connected to a foundation that saves people's lives. However, at least while in the park, he has no problem threatening a real human. It is unknown if that is him playing to a ruthless black-hat character he is in the park, or that is his true personality outside the park as well.
Relationships
to be added
Notes
- The Man in Black's appearance and outfit is a callout to the Gunslinger from the original film Westworld, played by Yul Brenner. In that film, the Gunslinger was a robot programmed to start duels and lose, but he begins killing humans. He was the main antagonist in the original film. The Man in Black being human may be representative of the TV series' willingness to subvert the original movie, and/or a perspective change in that now the humans are the ones acting evil and the robots are the innocents being killed. The Man in Black, at least in a conversation with Lawrence, sees himself as the potential hero for the hosts, claiming he is there to set them free.
- When asked about the Man in Black on the Westworld web site. Here is the response.
- AEDEN: I’M SORRY, PER THE WESTWORLD CONFIDENTIALITY POLICY, WE CANNOT DISCLOSE PERSONAL INFORMATION ABOUT ANY OF OUR GUESTS.
- AEDEN: JUST BETWEEN YOU AND ME, THOUGH, THE MAN IN BLACK IS SOMETHING OF A VIP. WHAT ELSE WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW ABOUT THE PARK?