The Hood (Thunderbirds)

The Hood is the main villain in the "Thunderbirds" TV series.

History

TV series

The Hood's precise origins are unknown. While it is known that he is the half-brother of Kyrano, the precise details of their relationship- such as which parent they share or which of them is the elder- remain a mystery, as do the origin of his mysterious hypnotic powers. Even his real name remains a mystery; throughout the entire TV series, he was only ever referred to as 'Agent 79', and even that was only on one occasion when he was in contact with the equally mysterious 'General X'.

What is known for certain about the Hood is that he possesses a significant reputation among the less ethical groups of the world, as he has been shown to be contacted by spy agencies or military generals seeking information or for a target to be eliminated, such as in "Edge of Impact" when he was hired by a general to sabotage the Red Arrow program as it was a threat to his work. However, his driving goal is to discover the secrets of the Thunderbirds machines and use them for his own goals. To this end he has been known to create several disasters in an attempt to photograph their machines in action, such as sabotaging the "Fireflash"'s maiden flight by planting a bomb, causing actors for a film to be trapped in a cave, or attempting to sneak a miniature camera in the form of a mouse into Thunderbird 2. However, these plans invariably failed, either through direct intervention on the part of International Rescue and their agents or through his own mistakes; when he sent the mouse-like camera into Thunderbird 2, its program- to photograph movement- caused it to instead photograph the screaming Lady Penelope, who had wanted to see the Tracy brothers in action and thus accompanied Virgil, rather than Thunderbird 2's controls.

Although capable of coming up with sophisticated plans, the Hood was commonly shown to have a short temper and be very poor at improvisation when his schemes didn't work out the way he had planned. On one occasion when he actually managed to obtain footage of Thunderbirds 1 and 2 in action, the subsequent pursuit after they learned someone had been filming them culminated in the Hood stealing a plane with engine trouble that he had no idea how to fly, reflecting his inability to consider alternative plans if his original one failed. His arrogance is also a noteworthy handicap; when attempting to escape the scene after his sabotage of the Red Arrow project was uncovered, he crashed through a roadblock assuming that it had been erected to stop him, only to realise too late that it had actually been to stop people from driving over a damaged bridge.

Although he and the team never came face-to-face in the series- save for when he hypnotised and tortured Brains to learn the location of a lost treasure-, the Tracy brothers were nevertheless aware of his existence. Having thwarted his plan in "Martian Invasion", Virgil commented that he was convinced that 'Studt'- the Hood's alias at the time- was the same person who'd been after them since they first began the rescue business, with Scott agreeing with the assessment but nevertheless confident that they would one day capture him.

In his last appearance, in the feature film "Thunderbirds Are Go", the Hood was unmasked and exposed by Scott as attempting to infiltrate the new Zero-X spaceship, having unintentionally sabotaged the original one two years previously while attempting to photograph it. His helicopter was shot down by Lady Penelope during his escape and he was subsequently assumed to have perished, although many fans note that the Hood had survived such seemingly certain-death situations before and always survived.

Comics

During his appearances in the comics, the Hood's plans became even more daring. On one particularly memorable occasion he attempted to expose International Rescue's location by bombing Thunderbird 2's hanger, forcing Virgil to move the craft onto the runway where he subsequently took photographs of the vessel. During the subsequent cover-up attempt- claiming that Tracy Island was simply a theme park based on International Rescue, Thunderbirds 1 and 2 were sent into space with Thunderbird 5 while Lady Penelope and Parker staged a rescue, the intention being for the Thunderbirds to arrive at the scene and thus confirm that they hadn't come from Tracy Island-, the Hood managed to infiltrate the island, nearly hypnotising John and Brains, but was captured and had the last week or so of his memory erased. Another occasion featured him setting up three satellites that allowed him to take control of Thunderbirds 1 and 2 via remote, but Thunderbird 1 was able to escape his control and Thunderbird 3 subsequently destroyed one of the satellites and ruined the network when he attempted to do the same to Thunderbird 2.

Film

In the live-action film "Thunderbirds", where he was portrayed by Ben Kingsley, the Hood's actions against International Rescue were far more direct; having tracked them to Tracy Island, he trapped Jeff Tracy and the four eldest brothers on Thunderbird 5 with a missile attack, subsequently proceeding to steal Thunderbird 2 and the Mole and use them in an attempt to rob the Bank of England. The nature of his powers also changed; while he no longer appeared to possess his hypnotic powers, he now possessed powerful telekinetic abilites, although over-use of this power weakened him.

It was revealed during the film that these powers apparently activated after the Hood was left for dead during one of International Rescue's first missions; the Hood accuses Jeff Tracy of leaving him to die, but Jeff later tells Alan that, at the time, he left the Hood because he could see no way to save him that wouldn't kill them both. Despite what the Hood had done to him and his family, however, when faced with the chance to let the Hood fall into the Mole's drilling mechanisms, Alan instead saved him when the Hood was weakened by over-use of his powers, subsequently allowing him to be captured.

Powers and abilities

TV Series & Comics

Throughout the series, the Hood was shown to be a master of disguise, using various masks to try and discover the secrets of the Thunderbirds machines and carry out various missions. He also possessed strange hypnotic powers of unknown origin, although these abilities were apparently limited to making people carry out simple commands, such as to follow him or put them to sleep. He was also apparently unable to use these powers to acquire information; on one occasion he attempted to force Brains to tell him the location of a lost treasure by burying him up to his neck in sand and sunlight and depriving him of water rather than simply hypnotising him to learn the answer, suggesting that he cannot make people tell him information but simply make them carry out certain actions.

The only exception to this ability has been when he hypnotises Kyrano, as he was able to make Kyrano tell him such information as when International Rescue would be ready to start operating or where the organisation's headquarters was located. These abilities were apparently aided by a statue of Kyrano he had in his temple, as he always stood in front of it when making contact. He was also able to implant post-hypnotic suggestions to make Kyrano carrying out certain actions, such as when he had Kyrano disable the automatica camera detectors prior to the rescue in "Martian Invasion". Although these hypnotic attacks always have a significant effect on Kyrano, causing him to collapse to the ground in pain before he is finally forced to reveal the information the Hood seeks, it would appear that Kyrano is not consciously aware of these assaults, as he always passes them off as mere 'dizzy spells' in their aftermath despite his otherwise unquestionable loyalty to Jeff Tracy.

Film

In the film, the Hood's abilities were changed to telekinesis, allowing him to levitate himself and move objects, although his temporary control of Lady Penelope and Parker's bodies when they attempted to rescue the Tracys suggests that he retained at least some of his old hypnotic powers. However, over-use of these abilities weakened him, and—in a marked contrast to the series—his niece Tin-Tin (Vanessa Hudgens) was also shown to possess these abilities, although she only ever used them to help her friends—she even managed to overpower her uncle in a duel.