Character page for the Fargo film by The Coen Brothers.
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Brainerd Police Department
Marge Gunderson
Marge Gunderson
"I'm not sure I agree with you a hundred percent on your police work, there, Lou."
Played By: Frances McDormand
"And for what? For a little bit of money. There's more to life than a little money, you know. Don'tcha know that? And here ya are, and it's a beautiful day. Well. I just don't understand it."
A pregnant and chipper police chief whose folksiness belies her competence.
- Affectionate Nickname: Her closest acquaintances and friends refer to her as "Margie".
- Beware the Nice Ones: Her cheerful, friendly personality doesn't conflict with her natural talent for policework or her willingness to use her gun when she has to.
- Big Eater: Being pregnant, she kind of has to be.
- By-the-Book Cop: She follows every rule of law enforcement to the letter.
- Character Development: It's done very subtly, but Marge does grow as a character over the course of the story. While initially a perpetual optimist, eager to blindly trust and see the best in people, her meeting with Mike Yanagita changes her perception of human nature. After learning that everything Mike told her about his life was a lie, she returns to Jerry's office and is much more assertive with her line of questioning. This ultimately leads to Jerry's part in the kidnapping being discovered and the case being solved.
- The Cutie: Let it be known that Margie is a sweetheart and one of the sunniest characters in fiction. That is, on top of being a relentless and highly effective policewoman.
- Determinator: Being seven months pregnant won't stop her from solving a bizarre crime mostly by herself.
- Dissonant Serenity: To comedic effect. Marge conducts keen police work with unbending persistence, all while having a sunny disposition and being in the delicate position of being pregnant.
- Establishing Character Moment: Her first scene has her instantly work out what happened the previous night based on the crime scene and figure out that the culprits were from out of town and correcting Lou but quickly adjusting to show that she wasn't trying to be condescending and thanking him for getting her coffee. This shows right away that Marge is kind, warm and humble while also being very capable at her work.
- Family Versus Career: She's a consummate policewoman, but her top priority is Norm. So much that not a peep comes from her masterfully solving a kidnapping and multiple murder case when she gets home. That gruesome stuff doesn't belong at their marital haven, so it doesn't even occur to her to bring it up.
- Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: One of the most famous quotes of hers alludes to this, when she's speaking to Grimsrud. After arresting him at the end of the movie, Marge can't understand why he and his partner would get so many people killed, all for some money.
- Good Is Not Dumb: Marge's folksy demeanor and sincerely likable personality do not make her naive or incompetent as she repeatedly demonstrates that she is a very skilled detective, following the trail of the crime easily.
- Great Detective: She's highly competent, putting together clues quickly and swiftly getting on the right path. The only thing that hinders her is her optimistic view of people, and even that doesn't hinder her much.
- Happily Married: To ol' Norm son-of-a-Gunderson.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Played with when she finally finds Gaear Grimsrud. It takes skills to pull off a leg shot at 50+ feet with a snub-nose, and she only hits him the second time.
- Minnesota Nice: In a film full of this trope, Marge is easily the most shining example. She's a sweet, friendly woman, rarely losing her chipper cheer, and she does it all with a folksy Northern twang.
- Nerves of Steel: She's about everything you could want in a good law enforcement officer, but then you consider what the likelihood is that there's been any multiple homicides in Brainerd recently (especially ones as violent as these), and this quality suddenly stands out much more.
- Nice Girl: She's perpetually cheerful, good-natured, optimistic and considerate of others.
- Pregnant Badass: She's seven months into her pregnancy and still arrests the dangerous Gaear Grimsrud. And she subdues him by shooting him in the leg.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: It doesn't come from hate or cruelty (it's doubtful Marge has a malicious bone in her body), but from sheer incomprehension that a person would be as evil as to commit six counts of homicide for money. The speech is almost inadvertent.
- Sherlock Scan: Arriving at a few-hours-old crime scene, Marge deduces exactly what happened with a quick survey of the area, then figures out that the perp's car had dealer plates from the dead state trooper's memo.
- Smarter Than You Look: She tends to be the smartest person in the room, and the least obvious.
Lou Getchell
Lou Getchell
"Under the plate number, he put DLR — I figure they stopped him or shot him before he could finish fillin' out the tag number."
Played By: Bruce Bohne
"Yah."
An officer with the Brainerd Police Department.
- Clueless Deputy: He's clearly embarrassed when Marge points out his mistake with the licence plates. She's far too kind a person to hold it against him.
- Good Is Dumb: He means well and helps provide some leads, but he's not the smartest cop, per se.
- Nice Guy: He seems to be genuinely friendly.
Lundegaard-Gustafson Family
Jerry Lundegaard
Jerry Lundegaard
"Well, we've never done this before. But seeing as it's special circumstances and all, he says I can knock a hundred dollars off that TruCoat."
Played By: William H. Macy
"It's my deal here, see."
A desperate, middle-aged car salesman who needs money to pay his debts. His ridiculous and greedy plan to get some sets the plot in motion and quickly spirals out of his control.
- Animal Motifs: It's subtle, but there are pig figurines all over his house, symbolizing his gluttonous greed.
- Anti-Villain: Jerry isn't sadistic or cruel. His evil comes from his selfish nature and deep-rooted sense of inferiority.
- Bad Liar: He can't tell a lie to save his life. He only gets away with lying because he usually seems innocuous.
- Big Bad Wannabe: He wants to think of himself as a cool-headed mastermind, but he's way out of his league. He quietly panics the minute any of his plans go wrong, and all of his attempts at Xanatos Speed Chess are unsuccessful.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: In public, Jerry appears to be a meek and ingratiatingly polite milquetoast salesman whom one would never suspect of breaking the law. In reality, Jerry's pleasant demeanor is merely a facade for his true nature as a highly amoral, petty individual who's willing to harm his own family to appease his grandiose sense of entitlement.
- Butt-Monkey: Nothing ever goes right for Jerry, and very few people even pretend to give him any respect. For good reason, since all of his decisions both before and during the movie wind up making things worse for everyone.
- The Chessmaster: Jerry thinks he's this. He's not. From the very first scene, it becomes clear that his scheme was horribly thought-through, and a number of glaring issues stand out. If Jerry needed the money so bad, and if getting a ransom from his father-in-law was his only option, he just as easily could've staged his wife's kidnapping and sent her to a safehouse to hide in, or at the very least let her know what he was planning for her. Needless to say, everything goes wrong.
- Decoy Protagonist: The early scenes focus mainly on Jerry, setting him up as the film's Villain Protagonist. This changes when Marge, a more clear-cut hero, enters the picture.
- Didn't See That Coming: Jerry's plan was that his wife would be kidnapped for a day or two, he would get the ransom, pay off his debts, and no one would be the wiser. It all goes wrong very quickly. The three dead bodies, his father-in-law refusing to play ball, the murder of his wife, and the unraveling of his lies destroy him.
- Didn't Think This Through:
- Jerry's entire plan. He hires two thugs whom he doesn't know and can't control on the recommendation of a violent parolee to kidnap his wife, apparently without considering the traumatic effect it might have on her. Or that the thugs might try to blackmail him for more money once they have his wife and know that he is scamming his father-in-law. Or that his stingy, bossy, and distrustful father-in-law might try to interfere rather than just hand over a million-dollar ransom. Jerry also completely forgot to consider how his semi-estranged teen son would take the kidnapping (and possible murder) of his mother.
- Jerry thought that bringing his financial proposal to Wade would award him the total profits of the deal, as if Wade would have just handed it to him with no compromises. He wants to have his cake and to eat it too.
- Furthermore, Jerry is trying to use the money from the kidnapping to repay a series of government loans he took out on non-existent inventory at the dealership, being hounded for the plate numbers of the nonexistent cars by the government. Simply paying back the loan doesn't get him off the hook for potential fraud charges when he's unable to point to the cars involved in his loan.
- Dirty Coward: He tries to steal $320,000 from his father-in-law to cover his debts. At the end of the movie, he's still trying to escape out of the window of his hotel room. He doesn't get far. He also very pathetically cries like a grown-up baby as he's being arrested.
- Everyone Has Standards: He's a cowardly jerk, but he's horrified by the murders that resulted from his scheme.
- Evil Is Not a Toy: He finds this out the hard way when his wife and father-in-law are murdered, along with four other innocent people, and he himself is arrested, leaving his teenage son parentless.
- Fatal Flaw: His combination of pride and lack of foresight drives him to commit a serious felony without thinking the whole thing through. Once he completely loses control of the situation, he flees his home and is eventually arrested.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Even when his plan begins falling apart, he never swears once during the entire movie. The closest Jerry gets to it is an "Oh for Christ's sake!" when Showalter says he wants the entire $80,000 ransom, and "What the Christ" when he flees while being questioned by Marge.
- Greed: He tells Showalter and Grimsrud that he'll give them half of the $80,000 ransom for kidnapping his wife. Meanwhile, he tells Wade that they've demanded $1 million. While he needs $320,000 to pay his undisclosed debts, assuming he would have paid the $40,000 to the kidnappers, that would net him $640,000 in pure, stolen profit.
- Hidden Depths: Jerry is defined by his callous stupidity. However, he does manage to come up with a decent proposal for a real estate deal that impresses his usually mean-spirited father in law and his business partner. Unfortunately, he didn't anticipate them choosing to go about the deal themselves while offering Jerry a small finder's fee. The implication is that Jerry could be successful if he bothered to put more thought and work into his actions.
- It's All About Me: As a man willing to have his own wife kidnapped for the sake of a relatively paltry one million dollars, it is glaringly apparent that Jerry Lundegaard cares only about himself.
- It's Personal: He aims to swindle his father-in-law not only out of need but also because he really hates the old bastard.
- Kick the Dog: He knowingly endangers his wife by having her kidnapped by a pair of criminals just for the sake of cheating his Jerkass father-in-law out of a million bucks.
- My God, What Have I Done?: The consequences of his actions only seem to affect him when he finds the corpses of Wade and the parking attendant.
- Noodle Incident: The circumstances that led to him desperately needing $320,000 are never explained, the implications being it was something shady, as he can't get the loan by legal means.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: During his second interview with Marge, he panics and decides to flee. The police later track him to a motel in Bismarck, where he is arrested trying to climb out the window.
- Skewed Priorities: Gracefully accepting the finder's fee his father-in-law offered would have left him in better standing with the old guy, as it was a great proposal. However, Jerry had planned for way more than the fee.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The man "just" planned a kidnap-and-ransom scheme...which quickly spiraled into several murders, his wife being murdered, his father-in-law being shot, and his own imprisonment.
- Villainous Breakdown: He has several small ones over the course of the film, but the big one comes right at the end when the police track him down and arrest him in a motel room in Bismarck, making a rather pathetic attempt to escape through his window and crying out in a high-pitched squealing noise when they grab him and pin him to the bed.
- Villain Has a Point: His insistence that Wade stop trying to stray from the kidnapper's demands. He's doing it so that his scheme goes off without a hitch, but he's still right in doing so. As far as Wade knows, Jerry is correct in saying the kidnappers hold all the cards and following their instructions is the safest option. Wade deviating from the plan results in his and an innocent parking attendant's murders.
Jean Lundegaard
Jean Lundegaard
"I am talking about your potential. You're not a C student. Yet you're gettin' C grades. It's that disparity there that concerns your dad and me."
Played By: Kristin Rudrüd
"Hi, hon. Welcome back. How was Fargo?"
Jerry's wife who he has kidnapped to scam her father out of $1 million.
- Alone with the Psycho: She doesn't survive her time with Grimsrud.
- Bound and Gagged: To be precise, she has a black sack over her head after her abduction and her hands are tied behind her back.
- Butt-Monkey: When all is said and done, Jean is at the very bottom of the film's pyramid. Not only does her own husband hire two dangerous idiots to kidnap her for $1 million, but her own father decides to haggle with the kidnappers despite being already very rich. Finally, she gets beaten to death offscreen and nobody seems to care.
- Daddy's Girl: She's Wade's pride and joy, being the reason why he has so much oversight over her married life. This breeds resentment from her husband Jerry, making him disregard her safety for personal greed.
- Demoted to Extra: She starts out as an important character, but the second she is kidnapped, she becomes nothing more than a Hostage MacGuffin without any lines. Though she continues to survive for most of the film as a Living Prop, she is offhandedly killed offscreen by Grimsrud, almost as if her death was an insignificant event even to the Coens.
- Education Mama: Downplayed. She lightly admonishes Scotty for getting Cs, but she still lets him go meet up with his friends.
- Flat Character: Her purpose in the film is to serve as the Hostage MacGuffin. She doesn't receive much characterization.
- Hoist by Her Own Petard: Her attempt to escape during the kidnapping fails when she panics, runs out blinded by her shower curtain, and falls down the stairs knocking herself out.
- Housewife: She doesn't receive much more characterization than wife and mother.
- Killed Offscreen: She's beaten to death by Grimsrud for shrieking too much.
- Living MacGuffin: She's the object of contention for the story.
- Nice Girl: She's very nice and sweet which makes her death at the hands of Grimsrud even more sad and tragic.
- Oblivious to Hatred: She's blissfully unaware that Jerry's hatred for her dad led him to completely disregard her safety and make her the object of a kidnapping. She ultimately dies not knowing that Jerry's actions caused her death.
- Smarter Than You Look: Her attempt to escape the two kidnappers by hiding in the shower next to the open window is surprisingly clever and almost fools them. Almost. Grimsrud may be a psychotic monster but he's certainly not dumb.
Scotty Lundegaard
Scotty Lundegaard
Played By: Tony Denman
Jerry and Jean's teenage son.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Downplayed. He's apparently not living up to his academic potential, and would rather play hockey and hang out at McDonald's with his friends.
- Polka Dork: He apparently plays the accordion and is a fan of polka music.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: His mother and grandfather are murdered, and his father is sent to prison. He likely inherits money from Wade and will be financially secure, but it's not clear what will happen to him until he turns 18.
Wade Gustafson
Wade Gustafson
"Jean and Scotty never have to worry."
Played By: Harve Presnell
"I'm thinkin' we should offer 'em half a million."
Jerry's wealthy father-in-law and boss, who owns the car dealership that Jerry works at.
- Asshole Victim: He gets shot to death by Carl when he confronts him at the parking lot.
- Character Death: He's shot seven times by Carl Showalter.
- Control Freak: Despite the strict instructions of the kidnappers, Wade ignores all advice to the contrary so he can oversee the money transfer himself.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: While more mean than corrupt, he has little qualms muscling his own son-in-law out of a real estate deal he proposed.
- Didn't Think This Through: It turns out that trying to play the hero and act tough with a trigger-happy criminal who's already in a bad mood won't end well. Even when he manages to get a shot off after Carl shoots him point-black in the chest, he's so dazed that he only grazes Carl, and still winds up dead for his trouble.
- Dying Moment of Awesome: He adamantly refuses to hand over the money if he doesn't get his daughter back first. As a result, he gets shot in the stomach for trying to be a hero, but before dying he squeezes off a shot that grazes Carl's cheek, leaving Carl whining, bleeding all over the place and screaming in pain.
- Fatal Flaw: His pride and Control Freak tendencies lead him to try and confront Carl at gunpoint over his daughter's ransom instead of listening to Jerry. This gets him killed.
- Greed: He's willing to haggle with his daughter's kidnappers over the ransom money, despite already being a very rich man.
- Grumpy Old Man: Wade is in a perpetually foul mood.
- Jerkass: He makes no secret of his dislike for Jerry, viewing him as a screw-up. In all fairness, that is a pretty accurate summation of Jerry.
- Jerkass Has a Point: He's not wrong to have a low opinion of his son-in-law, even if not exactly for the reasons he believes. He's also rightly a bit incredulous when Jerry assumes that Wade will just give him $750,000 for his property deal, though he then goes on to try and muscle Jerry out of it.
- Obnoxious In-Laws: Wade is a textbook example. He refuses to lend his son-in-law any money at all (even backhandedly mocking him for it) and screws him over on an investment. His insistence in handling the money drop-off because he doesn't trust Jerry ends with his death.
- Papa Wolf: Deconstructed Trope. His insistence on handling the ransom money is tainted with his dislike of Jerry. As far as he knows, the kidnappers gave specific instructions for Jerry to bring the money, so going himself could very well endanger Jean. His John Wayne act when interacting with Showalter is completely ineffective, gets himself killed, and exacerbates the danger to his daughter's life even further.
- Revenge by Proxy: Jerry orchestrated the kidnapping of Jean partly to get back at Wade for the constant humiliations aimed at Jerry. Wade's attitude towards Jerry is one of the reasons the latter is so nonchalant at Jane's safety.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Wade's right in not wanting Jerry to handle the trade. However, that's only because of Jerry being in on the kidnapping, which is info unknown to him. He simply thinks of Jerry as a weak-willed screw up.
- Senseless Sacrifice: His daughter Jean was already dead when he went to ransom her from Carl. He lost his life and the ransom in a senseless display of power against someone like Carl, who didn't even care who the cantankerous old fart was.
- Skewed Priorities: He seems to give undue importance to being in control rather than giving Jerry the benefit of the doubt for the sake of his daughter's well-being (not that Jerry deserves it, mind you). His pride and his distrust of Jerry end up costing him dearly.
- Too Dumb to Live: Wade really, really thinks that pretending to be John Wayne is going to net him results when dealing with his daughter's kidnappers. He also tried to haggle down the ransom amount to half of it out of greed. Being blown away was an act of Laser-Guided Karma.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: He thinks he's a hardened tough guy in a Liam Neeson style action film who will rescue his daughter and put her kidnappers in the ground without breaking a sweat. In reality, his attempts at intimidating Carl do nothing but get him killed and wouldn't have helped Jean at all, even if she wasn't already dead.
Criminals
Carl Showalter
Carl Showalter
"Oh, fuck it, I don't have to talk, either, man! See how you like it. Just total fuckin' silence. Two can play at that game, smart guy. We'll just see how you like it. Total silence."
Played By: Steve Buscemi
"Okay, you're tasking us to perform this mission, but you won't tell us what... oh, fuck it. Let's have a look at the Ciera."
A fast-talking, funny-looking small-time criminal who tags along with Grimsrud only to find he's in over his head.
- Asshole Victim: He's killed by his own partner (i.e., Grimsrud) after he betrays him by telling him that he's keeping all of the money for himself.
- Bait the Dog: He immediately points out what a bad idea Jerry's plan is, and even starts trying to talk him out of it — before saying "fuck it" and committing to the kidnapping.
- Beware the Silly Ones: He's not threatening like Grimsrud. In fact he's a total moron and a poor excuse of a criminal. That said when he's pushed over he can be quite cruel as he viciously kills Wade and the park attendant.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Downplayed. Carl and Grimsrud are the two main villains of the story. However, the consistently clumsy Carl is constantly overshadowed by Grimsrud, the real stone-cold killer.
- Big "SHUT UP!": He shouts this to Jerry during their first phone call.
"DON'T EVER INTERRUPT ME, JERRY ! JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP !!"
- Boisterous Weakling: He fancies himself a hardened criminal. Needless to say, the tough guy image he tries to present fools nobody.
- Bullying a Dragon: He keeps insulting Grimsrud for great part of the movie despite knowing what a dangerous and murderous psychopath he is. This leads him to his gruesome death after he refuses to pay the Sierra's value. He also dares to tell a furious Shep to smoke a "fucking Peace Pipe" which only causes him to get beaten even more.
- Bribe Backfire: He tries to bribe the state trooper who pulls them over, which only arouses suspicion and leads to Grimsrud killing the trooper.
- Butt-Monkey: Despite being a crook, he gets the short end of the stick from pretty much everyone even his partner. It doesn't help that he dies in a very humiliating way (i.e., chopped to pieces and then having his body parts getting shredded in a woodchipper.)
- Catchphrase: "I'm not gonna debate you, Jerry."
- Cluster F-Bomb: He drops these anytime he gets angry or worked up about something, which, needless to say, is pretty often.
- Co-Dragons: He and Grimsrud were supposed to be this to Jerry. It doesn't play out that way.
- Deadpan Snarker: Averted. He seems like one because he's played by Steve Buscemi, and he does constantly make sour little remarks in a tone that suggests snarkery, but they're seldom witty or even funny; he just bitches constantly, and it drives his partner up the wall. He is shown elsewhere to be a hopeless dork who thinks that the music of José Feliciano is the height of sophistication.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Even he seems unsettled by Gaear's brutality and ease with killing people as easily as breathing and upon learning that he murdered Jean simply for crying. He's also smart enough to see how terrible Jerry's plan is but goes along with it anyway.
- Evil Is Petty: First, he gets into an argument with a parking attendant over $4 when he's about to get $20,000. Then he attempts to haggle over a few thousand dollars with a guy that he knows has a hair-trigger temper right after stashing almost $1 million. The last one gets him killed.
- Fatal Flaw: His constant need to put down and belittle others ends with him finally provoking Grimsrud into burying an ax into his neck.
- Gonk: He's very "funny looking" after all for a reason.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: He's very easilly angered and prone to violence. Though kinda justified considering the abuse and the troubles he gets through.
- Hate Sink: His entire personality can be summed up in one word: Jerkass.
- Jerkass: He's just a mean son of a bitch that curses out everyone he comes across for no good reason.
- Jerkass Has a Point: He correctly points out the flaws in Jerry's plan and wonders why he can't simply swallow his pride and ask Wade for the money and later gets justifiably annoyed at his poor planning and failure to get the money together. His frustration with Gaear is also understandable.
- Karmic Butt-Monkey: He constantly gets beaten and injured but deserves it for being a pervy and sleazy Jerkass.
- Kick the Dog: He heartlessly laughs as a scared and desperate Jean attempts a hopeless getaway, falling down in the snow. He later kills a totally innocent parking attendant.
- Lean and Mean: He's quite thin and a very unpleasant person.
- Laughably Evil: He may be a foul-mouthed and rather perverted crook, but despite that, he's got comedic moments from time to time, in contrast to his partner (Grimsrud) who's more of a Knight of Cerebus.
- Motor Mouth: In sharp contrast to Grimsrud, Carl cannot shut up. He's fully capable of carrying on entire conversations by himself. This was supposedly the inspiration for Walter's Catchphrase ("Shut the fuck up, Donny!") in the Coen Brothers' next film; it references the fact that Steve Buscemi's character in his previous film never shut up.
- Mouth of Sauron: He does all the talking, despite the fact that, as Shep later reveals, Grimsrud is supposed to be the one in charge.
- Mutilation Conga: First, Carl is given a humiliating beatdown by Shep. Then Carl is shot in the face by Wade during the botched ransom collection. Then Grimsrud decides to bury an axe into Carl's neck. While that kills Carl, his body is then stuffed into a woodchipper.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: He suffers one at the hands of Shep.
- No Honor Among Thieves: He was more than happy to take the majority of the million dollar payday for himself without telling Gaear and leaving Jerry with nothing for his trouble.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: True, he's a textbook example of a wannabe criminal. With that said, he still commits two of the film's seven murders.
- Phrase Catcher: He's frequently described by others as 'funny-looking'.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: He tells Shep Proudfoot to "go smoke a Peace Pipe" when the latter angrily confronts him over threatening his parole. It just gets his ass kicked even more.
- Porn Stache: It contributes to the aforementioned funny look.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The talkative, hot-tempered red to Gaear's icy blue. Somewhat downplayed, he's somewhat less likely to resort to violence first to solve problems than Gaear.
- Sadist: He cruelly laughs as he watches Jean's futile attempts to escape blindfolded even stopping Grimsrud to catch her as he wants to enjoy the show.
- Screams Like a Little Girl: He screams like this when he turns around and sees Grimsrud, who's about to attack him with an axe, after he insults both him and Shep. He also did this while being whipped with his own belt by Shep and after being shot in the face by Wade.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: His swearing increasing in frequency as the film goes on. It helps that he's portrayed by Steve Buscemi, who's famous for playing very foul-mouthed characters.
- Skewed Priorities: When Shep angrily confronts him and shoves the hoooker he's (trying to, to be honest) having sex aside Carl's complaints that he was "banging that girl."
- Small Name, Big Ego: He thinks he's a lot more cunning and imposing than he actually is.
- Stupid Crooks: He sets up a clandestine meeting in a parking lot, despite there being an obvious witness (the parking attendant) that he'll have to kill, thus creating another murder scene. He also forgets to switch the license plates on the car, which a cop notices, and thus sets off an escalating series of fuck-ups. He buries the money in a field by a fence post, with the only marker being a pathetic ice scraper.
- Suspect Is Hatless: He's on the receiving end of this. Everybody who has met him and is interrogated by the police can only describe him as "funny-looking" and even then it's "in a general way". The only other detail the police receives, from a prostitute he had sex with, is "uncircumcised".
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: He and Grimsrud can't stand each other. Their personalities clash constantly while their circumstances force them to work together. It all comes to a head when Carl pushes his luck one too many times and is murdered for his troubles.
- Too Dumb to Live: First he goes out of his way to insult Shep by telling him to smoke on a peace pipe which results in him getting beaten up in the process and then he shoots Wade only for him to get shot in the face in return. Later, he argues with Grimsrud over splitting a car (despite having just made almost $1 million in secret). Arguably justified, since he did just get shot and spent several hours bleeding out without seeking medical attention, so he may not have been thinking straight.
- Would Hurt a Child: He threatens to kill Scotty if Jerry doesn't bring him the ransom money. While that could be just words of anger nothing suggests he was bluffing either.
Gaear Grimsrud
Gaear Grimsrud
"Where is pancakes house?"
Played By: Peter Stormare
"Shut the fuck up! Or I'll throw you back in the trunk, you know?"
A sociopathic hired criminal from Sweden who rarely speaks.
- Alliterative Name: Gaear Grimsrud.
- Ax-Crazy: He can be set off into murderous rages by seemingly the slightest things. As Carl finds out, he can be this in a very literal way.
- Badass Longcoat: Gaear has a liking for long leather trench coats.
- Berserk Button: Threatening his friend and fellow criminal Shep Proudfoot is a good way to set him off. Carl finds this out the hard way, though this seems more about his refusal to give Carl the Cierra.
- Beware the Quiet Ones: He doesn't have much to say, but when he does say something, it's quite important.
- Big Bad: He technically shares the role with Carl, but Grimsrud is the most violent and pressing antagonistic force. Jerry may be the one who hired him, but Grimsrud turns the simple kidnapping into a brutal spectacle, murdering his way through any problems he encounters. In the end, after he kills Carl and Jerry flees, he becomes the final enemy for Marge to face.
- Big "SHUT UP!": He gives one to Jean Lundegaard when she starts whimpering after he shoots the cop.
- Catchphrase: He says "You know?" four times in the whole movie, and he doesn't get many lines.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: A darker example than most. Grimsrud seems to live in his own little world; he has a constant craving for "pancakes house," suffers from a weird case of Skewed Priorities (he wanders off and goes searching for ointment for a hand injury, right in the middle of the kidnap job he's been hired for), has no emotional reaction or investment to anything except cheesy soap operas, and casually murders his own hostage and can't provide any other reason for it than "she started shrieking."
- Co-Dragons: He and Carl were supposed to be this to Jerry. It doesn't play out that way.
- Cold Ham: A very quiet man of few words who is, nevertheless, very intense.
- The Comically Serious: He's an emotionless, murderous machine, but he's this in his more comedic moments — his broken English and Skewed Priorities intermixed with his deadpan reaction to absolutely everything create some moments of levity with him between his constant murders.
- Cop Killer: He kills the state trooper after he notices Jean in the back seat.
- Creepy Monotone: His voice is eerily dead-sounding.
- Deadpan Snarker: He's not impressed by Carl's pathetic attempts at bribery."You'll 'take care of it'. You're a smooth smoothie, you know?"
- Death Glare: He often gives one to Carl showing that despite his calm demeanor he's visibly annoyed by his talkative partner.
- Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of the brutal and sociopathic hitmen usually seen in crime films. Gaear is so volatile and brutal that he ends up creating more problems than he solves and is responsible for bringing the case to the attention of authorities. He also murders Jean for making too much noise, meaning the whole scheme would have been for nothing even if Marge hadn't tracked him down, and then murdering Carl out of similar petulance. Gaear is less an effortlessly efficient criminal than a volatile sadist with almost no impulse control.
- Didn't Think This Through: Exactly what he planned to do after grinding Carl's body up in the woodchipper is unclear, given the massive bloody red stain it left all around it in the snow.
- Disproportionate Retribution: He kills Jean cause her screams didn't allow him to watch the soap opera and later does the same with Carl with an axe for wanting to take the Cierra without paying for its value.
- Dissonant Serenity: When Carl notices Jean's dead body and asks what happpened to her Grimsrud, without looking away from the TV, simply replies that "she started shrieking".
- Dragon-in-Chief: He may not have masterminded the kidnapping, but it later becomes clear that Grimsrud is the biggest threat when compared to the less competent Carl and the outright inept Jerry.
- Enigmatic Minion: He works as this.
- Establishing Character Moment: He kills a cop who refuses Carl's bribe and then two unfortunate witnesses who happen to drive by the crime scene. All without showing any emotion at all.
- Evil Is Bigger: He's a tall and imposing murderous monster.
- Evil Is Petty: He kills Mrs. Lundegaard because her shrieking was annoying.
- Evil Sounds Deep: In the German dub, his voice is deeper than the original, who is more low than deep.
- Fatal Flaw: Gaear is definitely a competent criminal... but his sociopathic wrath means he needlessly creates more bloodshed than necessary. He straight up murders Jean for being a nuisance, and after killing Carl, he takes the time to grind his body in a woodchipper, which is what exposes him to Marge since he left quite a bloody mess. It's also his murder of the state trooper and the witnesses that gets the case noticed by Marge and ends up bringing everything down, as Jerry had been able to convince Wade and Stan not to go to the cops.
- Final Boss: The story concludes when he is finally apprehended.
- Funny Foreigner: Being a Swede, he can be this in his lighter moments.
- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: The latter.
- Hell-Bent for Leather: He wears a leather trenchcoat for most of the movie.
- Hyper-Competent Sidekick: It's little wonder that Shep would only vouch for Gaear. He frequently shows himself to be smarter and more efficient than Carl, quickly taking care of 'problems' like a state trooper. In retrospect, things might have progressed a little more smoothly if Gaear had been the one to make the exchange. His bad temper eventually gets the better of his competence, however.
- Jerkass: He's a cold-blooded and sociopathic criminal who shows no remorse about killing others in cold blood.
- Kick the Dog: He murders Jean out of sheer petulance, and Carl afterwards over the car.
- Lack of Empathy: The fact he kills people left and right without even blinking and justifies Jean's murder by saying simply that "she started shrieking" without remorse shows how little he respects the lives of the others. When Marge finally arrests him and very calmly shows her disgust at his crimes pointing out that "There's more to life than a little money" he simply remains stone-faced without changing expression. It's quite clear he doesn't feel remorse for what he did.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Grimsrud finally gets his comeuppance when Marge witnesses him shoving Carl's body parts inside a woodchipper and is shot and arrested afterwards.
- Leave No Witnesses: Coupled with Murder Is the Best Solution. When he sees the couple that saw the dead state trooper, he chases them down in the car and kills them both.
- More Despicable Minion: Jerry is too pathetic to be considered pure evil, Carl is quite clumsy and slow-witted (though far from being a good person) but Grimsrud is a multiple murderer and a very dangerous and unpredictable psychopath.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: A true believer in this. Just ask the state trooper and the couple.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Gaear Grimsrud.
- No Honor Among Thieves: He brutally murders Carl the second they no longer need to work together and after Carl gets on his bad side.
- Offing the Annoyance: He kills Jean after her screams get on his nerves.
- Psycho for Hire: He's a remorseless monster who doesn't hesitate to brutally murder anyone who causes him a slight inconvenience.
- The Quiet One: Something that Carl notes with annoyance.
- Real Men Wear Pink: He seems genuinely invested in the soap opera he's watching. He certainly empathizes with the characters in the show far more than he empathizes with anyone he meets in person.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The stoic, quiet blue to Carl's red. Somewhat downplayed, as he's more willing to use violence as a first resort to solving problems, as demonstrated when he and Carl were pulled over by the State Police officer.
- Ruthless Foreign Gangsters: He's Swedish and a cruel, violent and remorseless criminal.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Though not on Carl's levels, much of his dialogues contains the "F" word.
- Skewed Priorities: He decides to go upstairs and go rifling around for ointment for his wounded hand... in the middle of a kidnapping."I need unguent!"
- The Sociopath: The guy has no problems casually committing murder to solve his problems, which include even the pettiest offenses. It might be downplayed a bit, as he seems to be legitimate friends with Shep Proudfoot.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: The few times he talks, he sounds very calm and collected.
- The Stoic: He doesn't change expression beyond that of a bored gaze until he's shot.
- Suspect Is Hatless: On the receiving end of this. The only thing witnesses who saw him can recall about him is "looks Swedish".
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: He and Carl can't stand each other. Their personalities clash constantly, while their circumstances force them to work together. It all comes to a head when Carl pushes his luck one too many times and is murdered for his troubles.
- Trademark Favorite Food: He loves pancakes, enough that he makes Carl stop so he can have some.
- Tranquil Fury: Even when he's angry or upset, he doesn't raise his voice at all, with the exception of when he gives a Big "SHUT UP!" to Jean Lundegaard when she whimpers in the back of the car.
- The Unfettered: Kidnapping, murder, mutilating a corpse... nothing slows Grimsrud down. Except getting shot in the leg by a pregnant woman.
- Verbal Tic: He has the tendency to finish some of his sentences with "You know".
- Villain Ball: He has one moment towards the end. After killing Carl, he decides to get rid of the body... by grinding it up in a woodchipper. Not only does this fail to hide the body, since it paints the surrounding snow red for yards around, it also creates such a racket Marge can pull up and find him within seconds without him noticing.
- Villainous Friendship: Averted with Carl but played straighter with Shep Proudfoot. It's even possible that the reason why he killed Carl was because the latter threatened Shep. Though this seems more like caused by Carl's refusal to pay him for half for the Ciera.
- White Hair, Black Heart: He has white-blond hair and is a psychopathic monster.
- Would Hit a Girl:He kills a female witness trapped in the wrecked car and Jean for being too noisy.
Shep Proudfoot
Shep Proudfoot
"Nope."
Played By: Steve Reevis
"Never heard of him. Don't vouch for him."
A Native American ex-con who puts Jerry in touch with Grimsrud.
- Affably Evil: He's a career criminal, but he's also pretty friendly during his interactions with Jerry, and speaks highly of Gaear Grimsrud, which would imply a friendship between them. The only person he isn't polite to is Carl Showalter, and only because his presence threatened his parole.note
- Badass Native: He's an ex-convict who's good in a fight.
- Berserk Button: He does NOT want to go back to prison. Carl learned this the hard way when Shep confronts him by beating him up for having drawn police's attention on him.
- Beware the Quiet Ones: Like Grimsrud, he doesn't talk much, but despite this he can be quite aggressive, especially at the thought of going back to prison, as Carl finds out.
- Cluster F-Bomb: When furiously beating up Carl for getting him on the police's radar.
- Don't Make Me Take My Belt Off!!: He uses Carl's own belt to whip him with it.
- Grease Monkey: He works as a mechanic.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Downplayed. The guy he vouched for is easily the more sociopathic and violent of the two, but both are criminals and pretty horrible people overall, and Grimsrud is competent when his temper isn't overtaking his judgment.
- Kick the Dog: He beats up a man who simply asked him to keep the noise down and he even gives the hooker a kick to the butt when she runs out of the room during his confrontation with Carl.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: He gives one to Showalter, including whipping and strangling him with a belt, when it becomes apparent that his parole is threatened by the man's presence. He's so enraged that he also assaults the escort Showalter was with and a man who comes to complain about the noise.
- Not So Stoic: When Jerry and later Marge speak to him, he's terse and expressionless. When he's beating Carl to a pulp over blowing his cover about his involvement with them, not so much.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: He beats up Carl after the latter almost got him in trouble with the police for kidnapping Jean.
- The Quiet One: Almost as much as Grimsrud. It's probably why they got along so well.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: He says alot of swear words at Carl when he confronts him in his hotel room while beating him up.
- Unstoppable Rage: During his confrontation with Carl he becomes so enraged that he takes his anger out on a man who asked him to stop making any noise in order to get some sleep and even kicks the prostitute when she runs out of the room in fear.
- Villainous Friendship: It is implied that he has one with Grimsrud though it's not furtherly explained.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: After he beats up Carl, he never appears again. It's implied that he got arrested after confronting Carl considering that there were witnesses who saw him beat up Carl.
- Would Hit a Girl: He kicks the prostitute Carl was having sex with.
Other Characters
Stan Grossman
Stan Grossman
"The financials are pretty through. The only thing we don't know is your fee."
Played By: Larry Brandenburg
"We're not horse-tradin' here, Wade."
Wade's accountant.
- Continuity Nod: He becomes the first film character directly referenced in the series in the second episode of season 3. Emmit Stussy mentions him as another businessman he knows.
- Honest Corporate Executive: He's not as cold as Wade, and treats Jerry well while remaining a firm-willed and savvy businessman.
- Nice Guy: He's also the only one who considers how the kidnapping will affect Scotty — his own father and grandfather, on the other hand, are just concerned with the money.
- Only Sane Man: He lacks Jerry's weakness and corruption and isn't a hardass like Wade and simply wants to pay the money and get Jean back without any issue.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Stan disappears and isn't seen after Wade's death, though he's apparently decided to cooperate with the investigation according to Officer Lou.
- Season 3 of the series reveals that he is still alive as of 2010 and has made his fortune by building condos. Arguably a positive example of Laser-Guided Karma, seeing as he's one of the film's more decent, honest characters and the only adult between himself, Wade, and Jerry that actually cares about Scotty's well-being.
Norm Gunderson
Norm Gunderson
"Two more months."
Played By: John Carroll Lynch
"Hautman's blue-winged teal got the 29-cent. People don't much use the three-cent."
Marge's artist husband.
- Foil: To Jerry.
- While Jerry is an insincerely welcoming car salesman, Norm is a humble man of genuine virtue.
- Jerry does the somewhat sleazy work of car sales, while Norm is a self-reliant man who produces his own work.
- Jerry sells his own wife out for money, while Norm is happy to cook his wife a meal.
- Happily Married: To Marge. They don't make any big proclamations of undying love; their love is shown in small moments, like Norm making eggs for her or Margie being so proud that his stamp was chosen.
- House Husband: He takes care of the house and works on his paintings while his wife is off being a police chief.
- Ignorance Is Bliss: There's no indication of him having any awareness of the fact that his Margie successfully solved a quintuple murder case because that's not what's important for Marge at home.
- Nice Guy: He's a fundamentally sweet-natured guy who brings his wife lunch at work, contently spending his days fishing and painting.
- The Stoic: He doesn't show much emotion or excitement.
Mike Yanagita
Mike Yanagita
"I'm sorry, I... I shouldn't have done this. I shouldn't have done this, I shouldn't have... I thought we'd have a really terrific time."
Played By: Steve Park
"You were such a super lady... and I'm, I'm so lonely."
Marge's old classmate who asks her out to dinner.
- Asian and Nerdy: He's an engineer at Honeywell. Or so he claims.
- Basement-Dweller: He is a middle-aged man who lives with his parents.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Mike appears to be a Nice Guy, but in reality he's a creepy and obsessive stalker.
- Consummate Liar: Everything he says should be taken with a heaping spoonful of salt.
- Inelegant Blubbering: Mike breaks down into pathetic sobs when Marge rejects him.
- Shadow Archetype: To Jerry Lundegaard. His compulsive lying mirrors Jerry's attempts to deceive everyone in his life. And just like Jerry, he lies to avoid responsibility for the suffering that he causes.
- Small Role, Big Impact: He is only featured in a couple of scenes. However, Marge's brief time with him serves as the catalyst for her Character Development. Upon discovering that everything Mike told her about his life was a lie, Marge is inspired to see through Jerry's fabrications. This leads to Jerry's role in the kidnapping being discovered and the case being solved.
- Stalker with a Crush: He stalked a woman so much she had to move away, and then fabricated a story to Marge about how they were married but she died for pity points.
- Straw Loser: He's an unemployed, stalking creep who has to pitifully exploit the kindness of Marge to have any human connection. He makes Jerry look like a success story.
- Walking Spoiler: Almost everything he says is a lie, so it's hard to discuss him without spoiling The Reveal.
Bucky
Bucky
"These guys here. These guys. It's always the same! It's always more!"
Played By: Gary Houston
"We sat right here, in this room, and went over this and over this."
An irritable customer of Gustafson Motors who Jerry overcharges.- Hair-Trigger Temper: He seems easily angered.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Seeing how trying to get Jerry to sell him a sealant-free car is getting him nowhere, he agrees to pay for the overpriced car just to get things over with.
- Precision F-Strike: He tends to speak in the typical curse-free vernacular of the region, but when it becomes clear there's no way out of the scam, he gives in and calls Jerry "a fucking liar", with a stutter like he had to mentally prepare himself to swear for real.
