Characters / The Book of Eli

Eli

Eli

Played By: Denzel Washington

• Above the Influence: The rejection of Solara
• Absurdly Sharp Blade: So many shings.
• As the Good Book Says...: He quotes from it so many times.
• Badass Boast: "Put that hand on me again, you won't get it back."
• Badass Longcoat: Wears a somewhat dirty throughout the whole film.
• Badass Preacher: Played with. Although Eli is not a literal preacher, he is the closest thing to a religious figure in the post-apocalyptic world and he is so totally badass that only God can help you if you mess with him.
• Blind Black Guy: He is blind and black.
• Blind Seer: He 'sees' what his mission is, what he needs to do. He literally goes "by faith and not by sight." To the point where you don't realize he's blind until the end. Though more astute viewers can pick up little bits of Foreshadowing of this fact, such as Eli bumping into things a couple of times, or using his senses of smell and hearing to track prey.
• Blind Weaponmaster: Eli uses a machete, a bow, and a number of guns effectively despite his blindness.
• Cool Shades: He never takes them off in the movie, possibly due to his blindness.
• Covered with Scars: Remnants of the Flash showing all over Eli's body in a scene where Eli is washing himself down.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The opening fight under the bridge, the bar fight, the town fight...
• Determinator: He can't be stopped by anything. He's on a mission from God, after all.
• The Drifter: At a certain point, Solara asks him if he is sure of where he's going. Made funnier with the last scene's Reveal.
• Good Shepherd: He is a good man who teaches prayer and quotes scripture. The only thing he's lacking is formal ordination.
• Handicapped Badass: Implied in several scenes that he is blind, but can more than hold his own in a post-apocalyptic world.
• Immune to Bullets: Carnegie's Mooks start to believe this applies to Eli. Carnegie disagrees and intends to prove it...
• Made of Iron: Eli gets fucking gut-shot, then patches himself up with duct tape and survives long enough to recite the entire Bible aloud from memory.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The movie never explicitly explains if Eli's impressive fighting skills even though he's blind are simply the result of a mix of his exacerbated senses and sheer luck or if he is supernaturally protected.

• Miles to Go Before I Sleep: He's tough enough to last a long time, but after Carnegie shoots him in the gut in the third act, he's a dead man walking. He finishes his mission and tells the whole Bible to the people in Alcatraz Island before passing away, though, and his final narration has him being thankful to God for letting him rest, knowing that he carried it to completion.
• Milky White Eyes: His eyes which are usually hidden behind his sunglasses are clouded over, implying complete blindness or at least some form of vision impediment.
• One-Man Army: He takes on a bar full of hostiles and is the only one left standing.
• Only One Name: Eli.
• Real Men Love Jesus: A One-Man Army who firmly believes in the bible, and protecting it.
• Robbing the Dead: Does this in order to replace worn out gear, since the dead have no use for it any more.
• Super-Senses: Eli can shoot an arrow into a cat from a distance despite being blind. Presumably it has to do with his other senses. Eli himself believes it is God's guidance.
• These Hands Have Killed: He's killed many people and isn't exactly flippant about it.
• Walking Armory: Let's count 'em: kukri, axe, shotgun, pistol, and bow, plus ammo, sharpening tools. and a decoy book with a bomb inside.
• Walking the Earth: On a mission for 30 years to take the Bible he has to the west.

Carnegie

Carnegie

Played By: Gary Oldman

• Big Bad: Of the entire film.
• Brains and Brawn: He and Redridge; the former reads the books and the latter fires the guns.
• The Chessmaster: He is shown playing chess with his wife while manipulating his adopted daughter to do his bidding.
• Cool Shades: Like most people in the film, he wears shades when outside to protect his eyes from the harsh light.
• Determinator: He refuses to be deterred from chasing Eli until he gets the bible.
• Handicapped Badass: Walked with a notable limp
• Faux Affably Evil: Carnegie presents himself as a well composed and polite man but takes extremely brutal measures to ensure he gets his way: beating his mistress for her daughter, Solara, failing to seduce Eli and threatening to kill Solara if Eli does not give him his book, maintaining his same jovial tone while pointing a gun at her head.
• Feudal Overlord: He rules over his little "kingdom" like an absolute despot, taking whatever he wants from whomever he pleases and enforcing his will with a small army of thugs.
• Jerkass: Condoning rape, murder, and the exploitation of other people's faith in order to get what he wants. Oh, and fascist rule over a town and abuse of a mother and daughter, the latter by proxy.

• Meaningful Name: He wants to influence people with a book. Now, which other Carnegie wrote an extremely influential book on influencing people?
• Meaningless Villain Victory: Carnegie ultimately gets the book he so desperately fought for and wants to use to expand his control...but it's in braile. His abused girlfriend refuses to read it for him, many of his men were killed trying to get the book in the first place and he's lost control over the town. Not to mention he has an infected wound that is likely to kill him.
• More than Mind Control: His men do display a lot of loyalty towards his vision despite not understanding it.
• Red-Flag Recreation Material: The first thing we see of Carnegie is him sitting in his office (in the town he took over) reading a biography of Benito Mussolini.
• Sinister Minister: Notably in that he is not one yet; his Evil Plan is to become one after getting a bible that will give him the words to twist around so people will obey him.

• Take Over the World: He believes that the power of the bible could let him do this.
• Wasteland Elder: Carnegie is an evil version of this.

Solara

Solara

Played By: Mila Kunis

• Born After the End: The teenaged Solara asks Eli about the luxuries that people once casually discarded but now will commit murder over and has never seen a Bible before.

• Meaningful Name: Slightly ironic in that her name is related to the Sun, which caused the ruin of the world. She follows Eli from the east to the west.
• Took a Level in Badass: Originally The Load, who also falls for a trap, Solara is eventually able to overcome her captors using string as a garrote, takes out another vehicle with a grenade, then drives back to retrieve Eli.
• Walking the Earth: Starts doing this at the end of the film.

Redridge

Redridge

Played By: Ray Stevenson

• Bald of Evil: Doesn't have a hair on his head, serves as Carniege's right hand man and is implied to lust after Solara.
• Brains and Brawn: Carnegie and he; the former reads the books and the latter fires the guns.
• The Dragon: Carneige's chief advisor and enforcer, and a fairly competent one.
• Everyone Has Standards: He lets Eli go after Eli survives the first gun battle scene.
  • He also leaves Solara alone when she asks him to, and has obviously never forced himself on her.
• Died Standing Up: He even has enough strength to leave the car, and look around, despite the machete stabbed though him.
• Cool Shades: Like most others in this movie.
• Face Death with Dignity: Doesn't show any fear or anger after being impaled.

Claudia

Claudia

Played By: Jennifer Beals

• Domestic Abuse: On the receiving end of this by Carnagie. He does occasionally show her kindness by washing her head with the last bit of shampoo in the world.
• The Dog Bites Back: Carnegie tries to force her to translate the Bible that is written in Braille, but she pretends she doesn't remember how to read it.
• Sex Slave: To Carnegie. Being born blind doesn't help fighting off her abuser.

Martz

Martz

Played By: Evan Jones

• Beard of Evil: A scruffy guy, and nasty piece of work.
• Never Learned to Read: Like many people born after the apocalypse, he brings Carneige various books he steals or scavenges, but is unable to read any of them, and thus has no clue if he's found the bible or not until Carniege tells him.

Hoyt

Hoyt

Played By: Joe Pingue

• Born After the End: He has never seen or heard of a TV before. * The Driver: Is behind the wheel of Carneige's truck during his pursuit of Eli.
• Beard of Evil: Sports a thick beard and is one of Carniege's more notable and resilient henchmen.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: As he sees Carniege's people rioting after most of his men are killed, he just warily sits back and doesn't try to stop them, due to seeing he's outnumbered. Earlier, he tells Carneige that if they chase Solara, they probably don't have the fuel to do so and make it back
• Villain Respect: Feels a little respect/fear towards Eli as they see what he's capable of.
• Younger Than They Look: Slightly, given that his actor is in his mid-thirties, and he doesn't know what a TV is, hinting that he either wasn't born during the fall, or was only a baby or toddler at the time.

Martha & George

Martha & George

Played By: Frances de la Tour & Michael Gambon

• Affably Evil: They are surprisingly kind, for people who've lived for 30 years in the apocalypse. They're also quite upfront about what they've done to visitors, and its unclear if they would have tried to hurt Eli and Solara or not or just cannibalize people who antagonize them.
• Ambiguously Evil: It's not clear if all the people they killed actually were bandits, or if they've just been preying on random travelers.

• I'm a Humanitarian: They're cannibals, as discovered by Eli and Solara.

Engineer

Engineer

Played By: Tom Waits

• Cool Old Guy: A fairly nice townsman, who is abel to remember the old world and has the skills to crack into the bible.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Serves Carneige, but with no great malice, and not necessarily by choice.

Hijack Leader

Hijack Leader

Played By: Chris Browning

• An Arm and a Leg: Eli slices off his hand.
• Face Death with Dignity: The Hijack Leader just takes off his goggles and lets Eli kill him, knowing there's no way out.
• Faux Affably Evil: He's briefly light-hearted and jokey with Eli before he gets pissed off.

Young Woman Hijacker

Young Woman Hijacker

Played By: Lora Martinez Cunningham

• Decoy Damsel: For the Hijackers. She pretends to be alone on the road, thus luring in either Good Samaritans or more predatory types. Then the Hijackers ambush them.
• Everyone Has Standards: She tries to get Solara to leave quickly, not pleased with the idea of a young woman being subjected to more than just robbery. It's probable that she was in Solara's position once, and became part of a Hijacker gang in that way.
• Karma Houdini: The girl who would lure travelers into ambushes. Remember the fact that all of her (onscreen) guys were chopped up, and yet she appeared again pulling the same scam with an entirely different group of people.