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Main Characters
Brian Flagg
Brian Flagg
Played By: Kevin Dillon
A local bad boy and one of the first characters to encounter the Blob. He and Meg are also the first to find out where the blob came from.
- All Guys Want Cheerleaders: Double Subverted. He doesn't show much interest in Meg at first, but they end up together by the end of the movie, although it's relatively subtle.
- Anti-Hero: A delinquent to be sure, but he helps save the day in the end and is a good person deep down.
- Badass Biker: He rides motorcycles and is able to fight trained soldiers hand to hand and helps defeat the Blob.
- Battle Couple: With Megan, who helps him fight and subdue The Blob in the climax.
- Chekhov's Skill: He's introduced by attempting to jump over a disconnected bridge with his motorcycle but fails. The bridge would appear again when he's fleeing Dr. Meddows's soldiers on his motorcycle, but was able to make the jump and outruns their vehicles.
- Deadpan Snarker: Half of his lines are sarcastic quips.
- Disappeared Dad: Deputy Briggs makes an off-hand comment about his mother sleeping around and not knowing who Brian's dad even is.
- Hell-Bent for Leather: Naturally being the local biker delinquent, Brian sports a leather jacket throughout the film.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Starts out as this, being considered a delinquent and punk. And then subverted when the town doesn't turn against him when Dr. Meddows tries to paint him as a Patient Zero who could infect and kill everyone in the town.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Brian was naturally skeptical of Dr. Meddows and how he and his team arrived not long after the Blob as been unleashed on Arborville and somewhat already knew how to handle the situation. Turns out he was right for not trusting Dr. Meddows, especially when its revealed that he's the one responsible for the Blob's creation and is willing to put innocent people's lives at risk to watch it grow to a weapon he can utilize. Brian does not hesitate to out him to the whole town in the Mexican Standoff in the climax.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: For all that he claims not to care about anyone in Arborville but himself, he sure shows concern for them when the chips are down, for the old homeless man in particular. He also returns to rescue Meg and Kevin in the sewer and even helps out one of Meddows' soldiers.
- Mexican Standoff: Between him, Meddows, the military and local police.
- Missing Mom: When Brian is arrested the police department state how they're unable to contact his mother, and Briggs quipped that she might be hanging around with some other guy, implying that she's not in Brian's life that often.
- Mistaken for Murderer: When the Can Man and Paul end up dying gruesome deaths at the hands of the Blob, he immediately becomes suspect number one due to eyewitnesses placing him at the scene and his reputation as a delinquent. The Sheriff releases him not much later since the evidence is circumstantial at best, acknowledging that while Flagg may be a punk, he's not a psychopath.
- Noble Male, Roguish Male: The roguish male to Paul's noble male. He's a Delinquent and frequently gets in trouble with the authorities. Paul however is an athletic Nice Guy and is well respected around town. Ironically, Brian's rebellious nature is what allows him to live to the end.
- Opposites Attract: The teenage rebel with a problem for authority figures ends up with Nice Girl Meg
- Parental Abandonment: It's implied that he has a single mother who Really Gets Around and is often out of contact in addition of nobody having the knowledge of who his dad even is.
- The Scapegoat: Subverted. He gets arrested and was suspected of Paul's death, but was let go after no evidence of him being the killer was found. The Sheriff isn't sleazy enough to pin the murder on Flagg just to close the case.
Meg Penny
Meg Penny
Played By: Shawnee Smith
Paul's (and later Brian's) girlfriend. She and Paul were on a date when the blob first crashed in. After Paul is killed, she and Brian try to find out where the Blob came from. She ends up having to save her brother when the blob attacks the local movie theater.
- Action Girl: Towards the climax, she takes on The Blob with an assault rifle while taunting it to lure it towards Moss's ice truck.
- Battle Couple: By the end of the film, she becomes this with Brian by taking on (and defeating) The Blob.
- Big Sister Instinct: She risks everything to save Kevin (and to a lesser extent his friend Eddie).
- Break the Cutie: She doesn't take Paul's death well and feels alone knowing nobody will believe her he died from a literal monster. She gets better when she confides and bonds with Brian.
- Cassandra Truth: Nobody believed her when she saw Paul be devoured by the blob at first, she breaks out of her home to search for Brian since he's the only other witness.
- Clothing Damage: Not to an indecent level, but her shirt gets torn around the shoulder after fighting the blob.
- Combat Pragmatist: She manages to briefly fend off The Blob with a fire extinguisher after figuring out its weakness to cold.
- Deuteragonist: The second most prominent lead character after Brian. Being one of the first witnesses of the Blob's arrival and the one, along with Brian, to lead it to its downfall.
- The Fettered: Meg is good-hearted, but is rule-abiding, which lets her come to conflict with the rebellious Brian who decides to get out of dodge over not trusting Meddows protecting their town. While being transported by them, she stays in the van while he jumps out. She ends up rebelling once she hears her brother is in trouble and leaves the safety of the military to his rescue.
- Good Wears White: The kind, upstanding Meg wears white, cream-colored clothing through most of the film.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: The blonde Meg, one of the protagonists, is the most heroic compared to the roguish Brian, willingly putting herself to help out anyone she can.
- Heroic BSoD: After witnessing Paul's death she becomes hysterical and has to be picked up by her parents, but quickly gets back up.
- Nice Girl: Meg is shown to be a good-natured girl, whether helping out strangers or her loved ones.
- Opposites Attract: The well-off, good-girl Meg ends up with the rebellious delinquent Brian by the end of the film.
- Precision F-Strike: She angrily shouts at Brian for "being full of shit" when he mocks her for being hysterical after witnessing Paul getting killed by the Blob. Brian actually found it funny and surprising to hear her swear for once. She would swear a little more later in the film due to the dire circumstances fighting against the Blob.
- Took a Level in Badass: At the beginning of the film she was your average teenage cheerleader who was scared of what's going on, by the climax, she is fighting the Blob with a fire extinguisher and an assault rifle.
Paul Taylor
Paul Taylor
Played By: Donovan Leitch
Paul is a popular jock who was on a date with his girlfriend Meg, when the Blob first shows up. Before long, he and Meg come across Brian and an old man who was attacked by the blob. Not long after that, he is killed by the blob in the hospital.
- Abuse Mistake: When Scott buys condoms from a pharmacist, he lies that it was for Paul and his date that he wants to take advantage of. When the pharmacist turns out to be Meg's dad, he immediately gets furious believing that Paul's planning on using the (ribbed) condoms he sold to Scott on his daughter.
- The Ace: Everyone in town seems to like him, not only because he is an incredible football player, but a total Nice Guy.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Not that the other deaths by the Blob weren't horrific, but the later victims at least died quickly. Paul's death was slow and lingering, perhaps because the Blob wasn't so big yet.
- Decoy Protagonist: The film's opening credits are spent showing him winning a football game with Meg cheering him on. Next twenty minutes are about his date with Meg, then he gets snacked on by the blob.
- Futile Hand Reach: When the Blob eats him alive, he was screaming beneath it while trying to reach out for someone to help him. Meg does grab onto his hand to save him, but it tore off in her grasp.
- Lovable Jock: He's not your typical football player stereotype, making his gruesome death especially horrifying.
- Nice Guy: A helpful, all-around decent guy. The reason he gets killed is because he decided to stay with the homeless man at the hospital.
- Noble Male, Roguish Male: The noble to Brian's roguish. Paul's an athletic Nice Guy and is well respected around town while Brian's a rebellious Delinquent and often gets in trouble with the authorities.
- Sacrificial Lamb: The film starts out focusing on him, before he gets eaten by the Blob, showing that Anyone Can Die.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Paul is a sweet dependable and selfless young man but dies a truly horrific death as a result of trying to help others.
Arborville Residents
Sheriff Geller
Sheriff Herb Geller
Played By: Jeffrey DeMunn
The local sheriff who investigates Paul's death.
- Death by Adaptation: Neither of the cops from the original died.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Was set up to be a major character, only to get captured off screen by the Blob. Fran has the misfortune of witnessing him being dissolved before the Blob eats her as well.
- Expy: He resembles Captain Esteridge, another Reasonable Authority Figure police officer who pursues the main character for a crime they did not commit played by Jeffrey DeMunn.
- Nice Guy: He seems to genuinely like Brian despite considering him a "punk," and makes an effort to reign in his more abusive deputy Briggs.
- The Sheriff: Of Arborville.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: While he dislikes Brian, he lets him out of custody when they have no proof that he killed Paul.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: He has a crush on Fran, and the feeling seems mutual. Sadly, it stays unresolved, since the Blob gets them both.
Deputy Briggs
Deputy Bill Briggs
Played By: Paul McCrane
Sheriff Geller's hotheaded deputy.
- Clueless Deputy: Compared to his superior Geller, he's not too bright.
- Death by Adaptation: Neither of the two cops from the original died.
- Fold-Spindle Mutilation: The Blob bends him in half to pull him through the barricade.
- Irrational Hatred: He believes that Flagg is a violent criminal capable of murder, evidence be damned.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Briggs is hotheaded and unreasonable, but he has the interests of the town at heart and gets along well with Sheriff Geller.
- Rabid Cop: He is a hotheaded and unreasonable deputy.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: He becomes this in the end, pitching in to help stop the Blob and protect the townsfolk.
- Redemption Equals Death: Shortly after becoming a Reasonable Authority Figure, the Blob gets him.
Kevin Penny and Eddie Beckner
Kevin Penny and Eddie Beckner
Played By: Michael Kenworthy (Kevin), Douglas Emerson (Eddie)
Meg's younger brother and his best friend. They snuck off to go see an R rated movie.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: While escaping the sewers after The Blob attacks the theater, Eddie apologizes to Meg for sneaking off into the theaters without their parents knowledge and promises to never see an R rated movie again.
- Chekhov's Gag: Kevin's jacket has a faulty zipper, which his mom has to fix up for him. This would later be what traps Kevin to a door when it closes on his jacket while fleeing from The Blob.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Drowning while being Eaten Alive is a horrific way to go, especially for a young child.
- Death of a Child: Eddie gets eaten by The Blob when Meg tries to get them to escape the sewers.
- Distressed Dude: The Blob attacks them in the middle of their movie, forcing Meg to abandon Meddows' quarantine to rescue them. Unfortunately, only Kevin was saved.
- Hope Spot: The Blob nearly gets Kevin when his jacket gets stuck to the emergency exit door, but he was saved at the last second. When The Blob catches up to them the second time in the sewers, it grabs Eddie by surprise, leaving enough relief that the film wouldn't have the audacity to have The Blob eat a child only to actually go with it this time.
- Those Two Guys: They're a pair of rebellious boys that hang out together, other than that, there's not a lot to their overall characters.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: They both sneak off to go see an R rated slasher movie because Eddie's brother works at the theater. Mrs. Penny objects to the idea but Eddie reassures her that there's no sex in it, not that it changes her mind.
Tom Penny
Tom Penny
Played By: Art LaFleur
Meg and Kevin's father, who works as a pharmacist at Arborville.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: He tends to get angry easily, especially when he has a sense that his children are in danger. This does not make a good first impression for Paul when Scott lies to Tom about how he's going to use the ribbed condoms bought on his date... who happens to be Meg. Meg does assure Paul that he's usually not like this.
- I Need A Drink: After taking Meg home from the hospital after she becomes hysterical from Paul's death, he takes out a can of beer to calm himself down.
- Papa Wolf: He really cares about his children, not being afraid to speak up against Meddows' colleagues and even running towards The Blob to ensure their safety.
Reverend Meeker
Reverend Jacob Meeker
Played By: Del Close
The local reverend, who sees the Blob as a sign of the Apocalypse.
- All There in the Manual: His first name is given in the Novelization.
- Driven to Madness: As a result of witnessing the blob's attack on the town and being accidentally burned by a misfired flamethrower.
- Face–Heel Turn: Implied. He was certainly driven mad by the experience, but whether he becomes outright evil is another matter entirely.
- Nice Guy: Seemed to be a stand up guy before the blob's rampage ruined him.
- Omnicidal Maniac: His experience with the Blob warps his mind. In the epilogue, he clearly believes the world will soon end, and that he personally should start it by releasing the Blob again.
- Sinister Minister: Seems to have become one by the end.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Another way of looking at his actions towards the end.
Scott Jeske
Scott Jeske
Played By: Ricky Paull Goldin
Paul's best friend and fellow jock. It is hard to understand why, exactly, that they're friends, since Paul is a Nice Guy and Scott is a date rapist and all around scumbag.
- Asshole Victim: Hard to feel all that bad when the Blob gets him. He's even killed by the Blob while attempting to molest an unconscious Vicki, not realizing that Vicki was already dead and the Blob had already digested her from the inside out.
- Jerk Jock: Scott takes advantage of and humiliates Paul, and drugs his dates until they pass out so he can rape them.
- Odd Friendship: He is a Jerk Jock, while Paul is a Nice Guy. Why are they friends, exactly?
Fran Hewitt
Fran Hewitt
Played By: Candy Clark
The owner of the local diner.
- Nice Girl: She is kind to everyone, makes a tired and hungry Flagg a sandwich despite the diner being closed, and gives him and an obviously traumatized Meg pie.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: Sheriff Geller seems to have a crush on her, and she seems to feel the same. It stays unresolved, since the Blob gets them both.
Can Man
Can Man
Played By: Billy Beck
A local transient with a habit of collecting cans, he has the misfortune of becoming the Blob's first victim.
- Crazy Homeless People: Downplayed. Can Man is definitely eccentric and a little spacey, but isn't violent or delusional. While he appears to be about to attack Flagg with an axe at one point, he's really making a desperate Life-or-Limb Decision and is only screaming because he's in a lot of pain.
- Expy: Of the old man from the original.
- The Gadfly: He silently mocks Flagg when he fails in a motorcycle stunt before stealing his beer can.
- The Hermit: He lives out in the woods in a makeshift hut with his pet dog.
- Life-or-Limb Decision: When the still-small Blob engulfs his hand, he tries to chop through his wrist with a hatchet. Subverted when the initial cut only attracts the Blob to engulf his forearm, too.
- Named by the Adaptation: His name is never said in the film, and he's credited as the Can Man. The novelization gives him the name Jimmy Nick.
Moss Woodley
Moss Woodley
Played By: Beau Billingslea
The owner of the local mechanic shop.
- Back for the Finale: After disappearing from the film after the first act, he shows up at the end helping fight off the Blob.
- Black Dude Dies First: Averted. He survives the Blob's climactic rampage through town, and is last seen helping move the remains to the ice house.
- Cool Bike: He owns a customized motorcycle that he loans to Flagg.
- Chekhov's Gun: His snow maker truck proves crucial in stopping the Blob.
U.S. Military
Dr. Christopher Meddows
Dr. Christopher Meddows
Played By: Joe Seneca
A scientist who is leading a military investigation on the town. He claims to be investigating the blob and its attacks and puts the town under quarantine before it turns out that he and his men created the blob as part of a germ warfare experiment. The quarantine was just part of his plan to get the town killed by the creature.
- Adaptation Name Change: His name is given as "Dr. Bruno Trimble" in the Novelization.
- Asshole Victim: Come on, he deserved it, not matter how he tried to justify his sacrificing the entire town to capture the blob.
- Bad Boss: In addition to be willing to sacrifice the town, he sees Colonel Hargis and his men as disposable too. When a soldier voices his concerns for the town's safety, Dr. Meddows states that he's well aware he's putting people in danger but willfully puts the concern aside for the sake of developing the Blob. When one of Hargis' soldiers is stuck in the sewer with Meg and Brian, Meddows makes a point of sealing all three of them inside with the blob despite Hargis' objections.
- Bald of Evil: He doesn't have a hair on his head.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He's helpful and friendly to Meg and Bryan when they first meet him — then he turns out to be OK with sacrificing an entire town to test the Blob.
- Evil Is Not a Toy: He thinks he can control the Blob that he created. He's very wrong.
- Gone Horribly Right: Considers the Blob to be this, as it is a much more dangerous weapon than a manufactured bacteria.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Meddows is revealed to be the mastermind behind the Blob's rampage.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: He gets eaten alive by his own creation just moments after he gives the order to kill off a teenager.
- Knight Templar: Meddows is convinced that the Blob will help the U.S. win the Cold War and help the U.S. in the long run. Very patriotic, until you realize he will kill literally anyone who gets in his way, and dismisses the town of Arborville as acceptable losses.
- Just Think of the Potential!: His original plan was to create a germ warfare weapon. He didn't intend for it to mutate into a flesh eating monster, but he is nonetheless pleased by the result.
- Mad Scientist: Emphasis on MAD. He is responsible for the Blob's creation while trying to develop a bioweapon to use against the Soviets. Dismissing the inhabitants of Arborville as "expendable" aside, using the Blob as a Bioweapon Beast would be a war crime in itself, as it targets soldiers and civilians indiscriminately.
- The Sociopath: Is capable of acting friendly and helpful, but manipulates the town dwellers and even his own men to achieve his goals, even if it means killing them. He also have high opinion about the botched monstrosity he created, comparing it to other scientific discoveries, like the discovery of the atom. Lastly, when things don't go his way, his composure quickly unravels.
- Walking Spoiler: Just mentioning that he has something to do with the Blob gives away a lot of information.
- We Have Reserves: One reason who he's fine trapping one of Hargis' guys in the sewer with Meg and Brian.
- Wise Old Folk Façade: His white hair makes him look like a grandfatherly figure, but he is actually a Mad Scientist willing to kill hundreds of innocents to achieve his goal.
- Would Hurt a Child: Not directly, but he has no qualms about keeping Meg, Kevin, and Eddie (A teenager, her younger brother and his friend) in the sewers to maintain the Blob, saying they're expendable.
Colonel Hargis
Colonel Hargis
Played By: Jack Rader
Dr. Meddows' second in command.
- A Father to His Men: He is visibly reluctant to carry out Meddows' order to seal one of his men in the sewer with the Blob.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: Before the Blob gets him, he detonates two grenades to avoid being painfully devoured.
- Heel–Face Turn: The second Meddows dies, Hargis and his men decide to help the townsfolk kill the Blob.
- Just Following Orders: He blindly follows Meddows' order to sacrifice the town and its inhabitants. He looks somewhat uncomfortable when Meddows tells him to trap one of his soldiers in the sewer with the Blob, but not enough to refuse the order.
- Redemption Equals Death: Dies after making a Heel–Face Turn.
- Taking You with Me: Attempts this with the grenades on his HAZMAT suit, judging by his devil-may-care grin as he pulls the pins a bare moment before being flattened. The Blob is not impressed.
The Blob
The Blob
The Blob
The monster itself.
- Achilles' Heel: The blob is very vulnerable to extreme cold temperatures.
- Adaptational Backstory Change: The Blob in the original film was an extraterrestrial, but here it is a genetically engineered slime mold mutation created by the government as a biological weapon.
- Adaptational Villainy: Unlike the Blob from the original movie, which was a Non-Malicious Monster, this version has a sadistic streak, repeatedly toying with its prey instead of simply oozing over them.
- Antagonist Title: The movie is named after it. Though ironically it's never called "the blob" in-universe, usually addressed as "the organism" by Dr. Meddows or just "it".
- Ax-Crazy: Since the Blob is intelligent enough to be cruel and sadistic, it might possibly qualify for this.
- Big Bad: As the featured monster of the film, it doesn't get more self explanatory than this.
- Blob Monster: The Trope Namer in all its glory.
- Compact Infiltrator: Rather than simply oozing over everything in its path, the Blob is capable of using its liquid mass in surprisingly cunning ways. In one case, it infiltrates the diner by oozing up the plughole of the kitchen sink - and then grabbing the unlucky bastard trying to unblock it, dragging his entire body down the drain. Later, it also sneaks into the movie theatre via its ventilation system, not only ambushing the unlucky employee investigating the blockage in the A/C but also taking the entire audience by surprise.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: The Blob in general painfully devours anyone it grabs, dissolving their body with acid. However 2 of its kills stand out from the rest:
- It grabs ahold of the diner cook, George, and pulls his entire body into the sink drain, eating him and crushing him to death.
- Deputy Briggs winds up getting grabbed by the creature and pulled through a barricaded window, with his spine literally snapping in half before he gets pulled through and eaten.
- Foreshadowing: When the Blob chases Brian and Meg to the diner's freezer, it tried to enter through the door crack before letting out a painful squeal and retreating. Hinting its weakness to the cold.
- For the Evulz: This thing is at least intelligent enough to be sadistic, which is why it sometimes plays around with its victims or draws out their deaths for as long as possible. Scott's death at the hands of the Blob should give a little insight. Considering that it played Face Stealer with his girlfriend's hollowed-out corpse when it could have simply broke through and caught them both, all of it most likely was to see the glimpse on his face when it kills him.
- Hollywood Acid: The Blob secretes highly corrosive death acid that dissolves its victims in seconds.
- It Can Think: Unlike the previous rendition of the creature, this one has a fiendishly clever mind, which gives it the ability to lay traps, plans, and even on occasions displays a genuine streak of sadism while hunting.
- Kill It with Ice: As always. Freezing it solid is the only known way to stop it.
- Knight of Cerebus: It is this in comparison to it's previous iterations. See Adaptational Villainy, It Can Think, and For the Evulz above.
- Mega-Microbes: Meddows tried to develop it as a biological warfare weapon before it mutated into a macroscopic predator.
- Nigh-Invulnerable: Almost nothing can damage the Blob. It only recoils from freezing cold, although an explosive device thrown at it into the sewers really pisses it off.
- Psycho Pink: In contrast to the blood-red original, it is pink-colored, almost resembling an organ.
- Sadist: Judging from how it went about disposing of Scott and Fran, the blob seems to be incredibly sadistic towards its prey.
- Starfish Aliens: Averted, as it is not an "alien" perse in this adaptation.
- Suspiciously Stealthy Predator: It carefully avoids detection for a long time by using the aquaduct system underneath Arborville to move around. By the climax, it's grown big enough to just go on an all-consuming rampage down Main Street.
- Took a Level in Badass: At first it has to ambush its victims because of its small size. Later it just rolls over the victims because it's grown big enough.
- Villain Ball: There are several moments where the Blob could have easily eaten Meg, yet it doesn't think to grab her with a tentacle or just drop down on her, instead slowly creeping up to her for suspense. This would end up being its Villain Mistake as Meg, with the help of Brian, would end up bringing its downfall.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Bullets, grenades, and flamethrowers don't do anything to damage it. But a mere fire extinguisher does.
- Would Hurt a Child: As poor Eddie can attest to, it has absolutely no qualms with snacking on children.
