Characters / A Walk Among the Tombstones

Scudder

Matthew Scudder

Played By: Liam Neeson

• The Alcoholic: Scudder had a serious drinking problem when he was a cop; following My Greatest Failure, he puts the plug in the jug.
• Anti-Hero: Matt is a former dirty cop whose recklessness and alcoholism got a young girl killed and he's still something of a shady character now, not afraid to use questionable tactics to achieve his goals. But he's still firmly on the side of good.
• Badass and Child Duo: With TJ.
• Dark and Troubled Past: When he was a cop, he accidentally killed a kid during a shootout.
• Dirty Cop: He was corrupt while he was on the force. While he didn't love being on the take, he notes it was both necessary to support his family and keep the trust of colleagues.

• Guile Hero: He regularly uses his wit and understanding of other to succeed rather than brute force.

• My Greatest Failure: When he was a cop and in the throes of delusional alcoholism, he got into a shoot-out with some criminals. Scudder takes a bad shot, and accidentally shoots a little girl in the head through the eye.
• Nerves of Steel: Played with. On the surface, Scudder is cool and unable to be intimidated. He's seen psyching himself up and praying before his meet-up with the kidnappers, however, showing that he is concerned about the possible ways the meeting could go wrong.

• Tropaholics Anonymous: As a recovering alcoholic, he attends AA meetings religiously.

The Kristo Brothers

Kenny

Kenny Kristo

Played By: Dan Stevens

• Cain and Abel: Done in an interesting way. Neither of them are upstanding members of society, but Kenny is a successful man who has control of his life. Peter is a ne'er-do-well junkie.
• The Lost Lenore: His wife, who is killed before the events of the film begin.
• Revenge: His driving motivation is to wreak vengeance on the kidnappers for the death of his wife.

Peter

Peter Kristo

Played By: Boyd Holbrook

• Cain and Abel: Done in an interesting way. Neither of them are upstanding members of society, but Kenny is a successful man who has control of his life. Peter is a ne'er-do-well junkie.
• Deathbed Confession: He attempts to confess to Kenny that he had an affair with his wife, but expires before he can get the words out.

The Kidnappers

In General

Ray & Albert

Played By: David Harbour & Adam David Thompson

• Adaptational Jerkass: While still horrifically monstrous characters in the book, when returning the dismembered bodies of their victims there, they didn't include audiotapes of them torturing the women to death.
• Ax-Crazy: Despite this side to themselves mostly been hidden by their mostly emotionless personalities, it's clear they share the same savage mindset of a rabid dog. Only difference is that they enjoy their savagery.
• Ambiguous Situation: Just what is their relation to each other? Brothers? Partners in crime? Lovers? It's never spelled out.
• Batman Gambit: Their plan revolves around the idea that kidnapping the loved ones of high-ranking criminals means that those criminals won't involve the police. Their plan works for the most part; the various drug lords/dealers are practitioners of Pragmatic Villainy and assume they can be reasoned with. The money, however, is secondary to the enjoyment they get from their "work".
• Big Bad Duumvirate: They work in conjunction.
• Bullying a Dragon: They purposefully target drug dealers who won't go to the police. Of course, these are dangerous men anyway. It seems likely they would have eventually stumbled onto a sociopath who just takes their kidnapping as an insult.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Neither has any illusions whatsoever about what vile subhuman monsters they are and absolutely revel in their sadism and evil.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: They specialize in giving their victims utterly horrific, agonizing deaths.
• Dies Differently In The Adaptation: In the book, Albert gets shot and Ray kills him to avoid treating his wound, then Ray is captured by Kenan and brutally tortured to death in retaliation for his wife's murder. In the film, Albert and Ray's fates are reversed with Ray getting shot by Scudder and then garroted by Albert, while Albert is shot dead by Scudder not long afterwards.
• Disposing of a Body: They cut their victims into pieces for disposal...while they're alive.
• Evil Is Bigger: They both stand at around 6'3, towering over everyone but Scudder.
• Eviler than Thou: These guys make drug lords who could be generic villains in any other film look downright sympathetic and reasonable in comparison.
• Fingore: They slice off fingers, and do so to Yuri Landau's daughter before a deal is made.
• For the Evulz: They barely seem to care about money, only getting as much pleasure as they can from their vile actions.
• Hate Sink: There's absolutely nothing good or redeemable about these two and they may well be two of the most repulsive killers ever put on screen.
• The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: A downplayed version once Scudder starts after them, although they get off easy compared to the Nightmare Fuel Pay Evil unto Evil /Laser-Guided Karma that Ray gets in the book.
• Kick the Dog: Their whole MO is to kill their victims regardless of wheter they get paid and to make sure to do so in the most sadistic manner possible.
• Lack of Empathy: They are utterly remorseless psychopaths who get their pleasure from the pain of others.
• No Honor Among Thieves: Despite being a partnership, they show little concern for each other. After Ray is badly wounded, Albert casually goes to the bathroom before seemingly attending to his wounds...only to kill Ray and go upstairs to eat dinner.
• The Perfect Crime: Their MO is to kidnap the family members of powerful drug lords and demand high ransoms, knowing they won't go to the police, and then murder the victims anyway.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: They rape the women they have captured before murdering them.
• Razor Floss: One of their preferred torture devices is a loop of razor wire.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Ray is the red, being much more emotive and talkative, while Albert is the blue, being reserved and quiet.
• Sadist: They get their kicks from torture, rape and murder.
• Serial Killer: Money seems to be a secondary goal to their urge to kill. They take pleasure in their work.
• Serial Rapist: They're both rapists.
• The Sociopath: Ray and Albert are ruthless sadists of the highest order. Albert comes across as slightly creepier than Ray, due to him being so cold, humourless and silent.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: They are always quiet and speak calmly, especially Albert, and are motivated solely by sheer cruelty.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: The issue with working with another sadistic sociopath is that they are very likely to turn on you if they have to or just for fun. Ray finds this out the hard way when Albert kills him the second he becomes an inconvenience.
• They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: They're both fairly ordinary looking guys with nothing about either of them that hints at their true nature.
• Would Harm a Child: Neither of them has any compunction about murdering young children.
• You Said You Would Let Them Go: They enjoy tricking their victims' loved ones into believing they will let them go after getting the ransom money. They set everything up...only to show off what's left of the bodies.

Ray

Ray

Played By: David Harbour

• Asshole Victim: No one sheds any tears when Albert murders him out of sheer petulance.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Being violently strangled to death with razor wire is a pretty bad way to die. Though it's not like he didn't deserve every second of it.
• Deadpan Snarker: When Scudder remarks that the duo cut Yuri's daughter's fingers, he dryly and mockingly responds they did so before a deal had been reached.
• Dirty Coward: After he's shot by Scudder, he flees in terror and he cries and whines about his wound to an uncaring Albert, bitching that he's never been wounded before. He's also noticeably uneasy when his intimidation doesn't work on Matt, showing he's not used to actual opposition. It's also telling that his main victims are smaller women and a young girl he could easily overpower.
• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: He's fond of making exceptionally dark jokes about his actions, such as the above mentioned moment with Yuri's daughter.
• Faux Affably Evil: He has a very jovial and exuberant personality, but it does nothing to disguise the fact that he's a subhuman sadist. He's angered when Scudder gives him a Shut Up, Hannibal!.
• Hannibal Lecture: He absolutely loves this trope, talking at length about the awful stuff he's done or will do to victims and lording what he believes to be his intellect over everyone. He becomes noticeably uneasy when it doesn't work on Scudder and Matt makes makes clear that he sees Ray for what he is, a depraved, sadistic lowlife who isn't anywhere near as intelligent or impressive as he thinks he is.
• Karmic Death: Throttled with the razor wire he used to torture his victims and is regarded with the same indifference by Albert as their victims were.
• Motor Mouth: Ray loves the sound of his own voice, particularly when taunting victims.
• Pædo Hunt: Given the way he looks at the fourteen-year old Lucia, it's all but outright stated he's a paedophile.
• Smug Snake: Ray thinks he's a lot smarter and untouchable than he actually is and is noticeably uneasy when Matt shoots down his delusions of genius and shows he isn't afraid of him.
• Villainous Breakdown: He starts freaking out after he's shot by Scudder, panicking in terror on the ride home.

Albert

Albert

Played By: Adam David Thompson

• Beard of Evil: He has a trimmed goatee, and he's pure evil, raping and murdering people with no remorse. Of course, Ray is also evil to the core and doesn't have a beard.
• Boom, Headshot!: How Scudder kills him.
• Creepy Monotone: His voice is very flat and emotionless.
• Evil Is Petty: He murders Ray largely because it would be simply too much effort to keep him alive.
• Killed Mid-Sentence: By Scudder. Just as Albert is about to get started on what is presumably going to be a Motive Rant, Scudder shuts him up because he doesn't care what this psychotic piece of shit has to say.
• Lean and Mean: He's much more wiry than Ray, who has a broad build.
• No Honor Among Thieves: Murders Ray as soon as he becomes a burden without a second's hesitation.
• The Quiet One: Albert says almost nothing, in contrast to the more talkative Ray.
• Suddenly Voiced: He's silent for most of the film, never speaking unless he absolutely has to.
• Villainous Widow's Peak: He's a sadistic monster with a noticeably receding hairline.

Other Characters

Jonas

Jonas Loogan

Played By: Ólafur Darri Ólafsson

• Driven to Suicide: Jonas throws himself off the roof of his building after Scudder tries to enlist his help in finding Ray and Albert.

• Everyone Has Standards: He might be a sleazy pervert with bizarre fantasies, but he's not nearly on the level of Ray and Albert. He's horrified by their antics.
• Stalker with a Crush: To one of Ray and Albert's victims. He became obsessed with her from a distance, and even wrote a book about how himself "rescuing" her from her drug dealer boyfriend.
• What You Are in the Dark: Jonas fantasized extensively about being a hero for the woman he was stalking, rescuing her from her boyfriend. When Ray and Albert actually do kidnap her and get ready to torture her, he's not evil enough to actually harm her but also not brave enough to save her. He runs away.

TJ

TJ

Played By: Brian "Astro" Bradley

Yuri

Yuri Landau

Played By: Sebastian Roché

• Affably Evil: More affable than evil even.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He might be a drug dealer, but he has an ill wife he cares for and dearly loves his daughter.
• Evil Versus Evil: Yuri and Kenny team up to try and take down Ray and Albert. Possibly averted somewhat as Yuro is not even in the same ballpark as Ray and Albert in terms of evilness.
• Papa Wolf: For his daughter.