Characters of the 2010 film adaptation of the comics Jonah Hex.
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The Title Character
Jonah Hex
Played By: Josh Brolin
- Adaptational Attractiveness: While he gets disfigured as per the comics, the results are far less hideous, with the upper side of his face spared (including his eye, which was blinded in the comics) and even then the lower side has enough flesh left to still cover his teeth, which were exposed in the comics.
- Badass Longcoat: This version of Hex is portrayed with a duster coat as opposed to his regular shell jacket he wears in most of his apparences. Presumably this is to use the common trope of The Gunslinger and/or evocate the motif of the superhero.
- Never Hurt an Innocent: What caused the rift between Hex and his friend Jeb was that Hex objected to Turnbull ordering them to attack civilians.
- Pummeling the Corpse: How he finally rids the world of Burke, in a rather different way this trope is usually used: first he kills him by pushing his head into a turbine, then he ressurects him and punches him into oblivion.
- Shadow Archetype: A resurrected Jeb lampshades the similiraties between Hex and Turnbull, saying how their behaviours are informed by their need to "make others pay for they own pain".
Allies
Lilah Black/Tallulah Black
Played By: Megan Fox
A prositute befriended by Hex during his journey.- Action Girl: Played straight at first but subverted. She is badass but she gets defeated and kidnaped by Burke and when she escapes, Turnbull takes her as a hostage to deter Hex from shooting him.
- Canon Character All Along: She is actually Tallulah Black, though considering her first name sounds close to her actual name, this is almost a
Captain Obvious Reveal for any fan. - Damsel in Distress: Burke kidnaps her on Turnbull's order to use as bait and to hurt Hex by proxy.
- Little Useless Gun: Lilah carries on herself a small, easily concealed caliber. The trope is averted the first time as she uses efficiently but played straight most of the time. Not because the gun itself is useless but because she's knocked out before she has a chance to use it.
Antagonists
Quentin Turnbull
Played By: John Malkovich
Hex's former commanding officer and the man who ordered the death of his family and disfigured him. After faking his death for many years, he resurfaces, planning to use a super-weapon to overthrow the US government.- Adaptational Badass: Turnbull was never a fighter in the comics, even if he rised to the occasion sometimes. The adaptation makes him a former commanding officer in the confederate army whose plans are far more grandiose and ambitious on the level that Comics!Turnbull coud never have hoped to achieve.
- Adaptational Origin Connection: He and Hex play a more direct part in each other's tragedies. In the comics, by the time Turnbull becomes aware of Hex's insistence, the latter had already gone through the terrible events that shaped him into who he is. In the film Turnbull is entirely responsible for Hex's tragedy and turning him into the man he is today, being the one who gave him his famous scar and having ordered the death of his family. Hex for his part, is depicted here as the one who killed Jeb Turnbull, Quentin's son, which wasn't the case in the comics, where Turnbull blames Hex due to a misunderstanding. In the comics, the hatred was mostly one-sided on Turnbull's part, with Turnbull hating Hex while the latter couldn't care less about it and the creative choice turns them from Unknown Rivals to full-blown arch-enemies whose enmity is absolutely mutual.
- Big Bad: The main threat of the movie and the one who made Hex what he is.
- Composite Character: Due to the film omitting Hex's adoption by a native tribe, Turnbull takes the role of Hex's adoptive father in being the one who disfigures him.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: His decision to hurt Hex is partly informed by the fact that he killed his son Jeb. When Hex talks to a ressurected Jeb Turnbull, the latter notes that Turnbull, like Hex, is trying to make others pay for their own pain, implying that Turnbull's plans are motivated by the grief of losing his son, showing that despite crossing the Moral Event Horizon multiple times over the cours of the story, Quentin genuinely loved Jeb.
- The Stoic: Unlike his maniacal dragon, Turnbull's attitude is very subdued and reserved, which does nothing to detracts from his cruelty, instead having the opposite effect.
- Western Terrorist : No pun intended. He and his troops' actions emulates the motifs of modern terrorism. Following the Battle of Gettysburg, they started attacking schools, hospitals and churches, with President Grant lampshading the use of the trope, giving the definition of terrorism when recalling these events and telling the audience that Turnbull's slaves used to call him "Terrorista". After his return, he plans to use a super-weapon to launch a full-on assault on the North.
Burke
Played By: Michael Fassbender
Turnbull's right hand man who burned alive Hex's family and in the present is helping his boss. A psychopathic irishman with tatoos who sports a bowler hat, he seems to follow Turnbull more out of sadism than belief in his cause.- Ax-Crazy: He is a murderous psycho who revels in every opportunity to inflict violence on others and whose very first scene involves him locking a woman and a child in a house before setting it on fire.
- Canon Foreigner: He has no clear equivalent in the comics, though Hex does meet several psychos similar to Burke in his travels.
- Dastardly Dapper Derby: He wears a bowler hat and is an evil psychopath with the highest bodycount of any individual in the film.
- The Dragon: Serves this role to Turnbull, being the one to execute most of his plans.
- Fighting Irish: He is a dark example, being an irishman who loves violence and is a competent fighter who.
- Go Out with a Smile: Spends his last moments smiling derangedly smiling at Hex before the latter pushes his head into a turbine. Averted for his second death where he seems panicked.
- Karmic Death: A blink and miss it moment but due to the way Hex's powers works, Burke's body begin to rapidly burn as he has been killed seconds before, and when Hex delivers the final blow, Burke's body gets burned to ashes. It's a fitting end for him since he was the one who burned Hex's family alive.
- Only One Name: Unlike the other characters we never learn his full name. "Burke" could even be a nickname.
- Psycho for Hire: Unlike Turnbull who is partly motivated by the loss of his son, Burke's motivation stems from his love for violence.
- Sadist: He's shown whistling, singing, smiling and even cackling like a maniac whenever commiting a heinous act.
- Tattoo as Character Type: He has tatoos on his chin extending all the way to his torso which serves to signal the audience that he is a maniacal psycho.
