Characters / The Invisible Man (2020)

Cecilia Kass

Cecilia Kass

"There you are!"

Played By: Elisabeth Moss

A young architect who leaves Adrian in the middle of the night with Emily's help. After he commits suicide, Cecilia is left with a share of his fortune, but she suspects that he's still alive after eerie events start unfolding.

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• And Then John Was a Zombie: She becomes an Invisible Woman to kill Adrian in the film's final scenes.
• Broken Bird: From years of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse at Adrian's hands.
• Broken Pedestal: Thanks to Adrian, she was initially this towards her sister Emily, her best friend James and his daughter Sydney for crimes committed against them, despite her established good relationships beforehand. After realizing her innocence, James and Sydney now view her as a Rebuilt Pedestal, though with the unfortunate realization that the trauma she's gone through has hardened her into a Vigilante Woman with signs of sociopathy who's turned James into an accessory for murder.
• Composite Character: She's essentially an amalgamation of the novel Griffin's enemy Kemp and his 1933 counterpart's girlfriend Flora. Her storyline of being framed for murder and becoming invisible herself comes from Geoffrey Radcliffe from The Invisible Man Returns.
• The Cassandra: Cecilia becomes this when Adrian begins framing her for terrorizing her friends and family and making her look like a Broken Pedestal in the front of them despite their established stable relationships, with James, Sydney, and even Emily not believing her of her innocence and Adrian being still alive.
• Disowned Sibling: Emily, by closing the door in Cecilia's face after thinking the latter insulted her with an email without hearing claims of innocence first, disowns Cecilia as her sister on the spot for something she did not do, much to the latter's devastation. However, she is willing to reconcile with her when the sisters get together again, only to get a Slashed Throat.
• Dudley Do-Right Stops to Help: Cecilia can't take her mistreated dog Zeus with her, but she does take off his collar when he follows her... which leads to the car's alarm going off and to Adrian nearly catching her.
• Exhausted Eyebags: Cecilia spends the entire film with very heavy eyebags.
• Guile Heroine: She's fairly savvy when it comes to detecting the Invisible Man and figures out his weaknesses early in the film. Unfortunately, Adrian is usually two steps ahead and slips out of almost every situation while simultaneously painting her as the crazy one.
• Heroes Love Dogs: As part of Cecilia's Establishing Character Moment, she encounters her dog Zeus on the way out of the house and nearly sabotages her carefully planned escape attempt by going back to remove Zeus's cruel shock collar.
• Heroine With Bad Publicity: When Adrian frames her for actions against her friends and family, from nastily emailing her sister Emily to assaulting Sydney to finally Emily's murder.
• Meaningful Name: Cecilia means "blind" in Latin, as ironically, she can't see the Invisible Man. Her nickname "C" (as in "see") is also suitably ironic. Kess also sounds similar to Arthur Kemp's surname in the original novel.
• Rape as Backstory: Cecilia mentions that Adrian raped and sexually abused her in the past.
• Rebuilt Pedestal: After clearing herself of Emily's murder and any other crimes committed by Adrian, she becomes this towards James and Sydney. However, the look on James's face also indicates that he knows he's just become an accessory to murder by allowing Cecilia to get away with killing Adrian, possibly with the additional realization that Cecilia's trauma has potentially pushed her down a dark path.
• She Who Fights Monsters: She appears to have undergone this by the end of the film after killing Adrian with cold satisfaction.
• The Shut-In: After seemingly escaping Adrian, she becomes a compulsive shut-in stuck in her friend James's house. When she hears of Adrian's death, she quickly gets over it, but Adrian's apparent return forces her back into a paranoid mindset.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: Cecilia always wears a baggy and ill-fitting sweater and leggings. At the end, when she is reunited with Adrian, she wears a fitted black dress.
• Tragic Heroine: A victim of domestic abuse who continues being tormented and framed for misdeeds she did not commit by Adrian.
• What Does He See in Her?: Deconstructed. Cecilia notes that nobody understood what the rich Adrian saw in a "suburban girl" like her. It's clear to the audience that (on top of Cecilia being pretty) Adrian is a sadist and he can't bear "losing" Cecilia.
• Vigilante Woman: When she decided to take matters to her own hands in confronting Adrian and then killing him as payback for everything he has done to her. Even after letting her killing of Adrian slide, James knows it's an act of lawless vigilantism that he has become an accessory to.

Adrian Griffin

Adrian Griffin

"You think you're learning how to beat me, so I'm gonna truly teach you something. If you fight me, I won't ever hurt you. I'll find someone you love and hurt them instead."

^{Click here to "see" him as the Invisible Man} 

Played By: Oliver Jackson-Cohen

Cecilia's abusive and controlling ex-boyfriend. Adrian is a wealthy entrepreneur and scientist specializing in optics who commits suicide shortly after Cecilia leaves him... but he may not be dead after all.

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• Adaptation Name Change: While he retains the name Griffin from the novel, it's used as his surname here, with his first name being Adrian.
• Adaptational Job Change: He's reimagined from a chemist to an optics magnate.
• Adaptational Modesty: The original version is nude when invisible. Here, he has a suit that makes him invisible, keeping him clothed most of the time.
• Adaptational Superpower Change: While the novel makes him invisible due to a potion, it's due to a technological optics suit in the film.
• Adaptational Villainy: Zig-zagged. While this Griffin is far less destructive than the 1933 Invisible Man, (who derailed trains and terrorized whole villages), his single-minded torment of Cecilia and total lack of any redeeming qualities make him a much more loathsome character than Claude Rains' bombastic though occasionally sympathetic version. There's also the difference that Claude Rains' Griffin was initially a well-meaning, albeit misguided scientist before he experimented with the invisibility potion and because it's been established in the movie that a huge side-effect of the invisibility potion is insanity, it's possible that Griffin's criminal actions are solely driven by the potion's corruption of him, not an active desire to do evil. In this movie, Adrian's an abusive asshole right off the bat, the invisibility suit only intensified and made it easier to get away with his villainy as opposed to starting it... and since he can take it off whenever he wants, it's clear the suit has no hold over his mind.
• Asshole Victim: With how he's a remorseless abuser, absolutely no one (not even his brother) pitied him when he killed himself. It becomes much more cathartic when he dies for real after putting Cecilia through absolute hell using his invisibility suit.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: We get an early hint to his awful nature when we see he keeps Cecelia's dog Zeus under a shock collar in the opening.
• Believing Their Own Lies: Like many real-life abusers, Adrian seems to honestly believe he's innocent or even a victim—with Cecelia being "at fault" for what he does.
• Big Bad: He's the titular Invisible Man who's gaslighting and stalking Cecilia as revenge against her for leaving him.
• Big Brother Bully: Towards his brother Tom, who claims he abused him the same way he did Cecilia when they were younger and that he was even relieved to hear Adrian had killed himself. With The Reveal that Tom was actually working with him, however, it calls into question how much of it was true. Regardless, Adrian had no problem throwing his brother under the bus after he got himself killed by Cecilia nor does he seem overly upset at his fate.
• Big Fancy House: He has an impressively large one that shows his incredible wealth and also doubles as a research lab where he houses his invisibility suit. It's also covered in security cameras, further showcasing his controlling nature.
• Blasphemous Boast: A nonverbal example. The dog he keeps on a shock collar is named after Zeus, head of the Greek pantheon of gods.
• Broken Ace: He's a wealthy, respected, and good-looking tech icon... as well as a violent, sociopathic abuser with a cruel strike a mile wide.
• Clothes Make the Superman: In this adaptation, Griffin's invisibility comes from an advanced full-body camo suit rather than a potion. It's also possible that the suit gives him a degree of superhuman strength... though since he's got a powerful build, he might just be that strong.
• Control Freak: As Cecilia describes, Adrian has to be in control of everything and everyone around him. He dictated how she dressed, how she talked, what she ate, and even what she thought. Oh, and if he even got the idea that she was doing or thinking about stuff she wasn't "supposed to," he would physically beat her "among other things." This is also why he puts Cecilia through so much torment—he can't fathom the idea of someone else leaving him.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: He's one of the leading scientific minds in optical research, and even invented a suit that renders its wearer invisible. This would be considered a technological marvel, and he squanders it to get revenge on his ex-girlfriend. Downplayed due to the fact that he's already used his other inventions to become extremely wealthy, with a news article mentioning he was planning a $2 billion venture, and merely acquiring more money doesn't seem to interest him as much as controlling and dominating the people in his life. It's also justified by the fact he's a narcissistic sociopath.
• Domestic Abuser: Even before he was invisible, Adrian was domineering and abusive towards Cecilia. Once she finally worked up the courage to leave him, he becomes a whole new brand of bad.
• The Dreaded: Cecilia lives in constant fear of him—to the point that she can't even bring herself to walk further than the Lanier house's mailbox two weeks after her escape. That's before she finds out about his nefarious usage of the invisibility suit, which puts her even more on edge.
• Driven to Suicide: Cecilia leaving him drove Adrian to kill himself. Of course, this ends up being subverted when he turns up alive and well—using his invisibility suit as part of his Evil Plan. Ironically, when Cecilia kills him for real, she stages it as a suicide.
• Endearingly Dorky: He is either a dark version of this or good at acting the part given his awkwardness and stuttering towards the film's end.
• Establishing Character Moment:
  • After realizing Cecilia's trying to escape him, he sprints to Emily's car and begins pounding on the door while angrily demanding she get out. When she doesn't comply, he punches through the passenger side window and tries to drag her out of the car. This whole sequence is less than a minute long and firmly establishes him as a violent Control Freak.
  • Even before that, his controlling nature is shown when Cecilia carefully deactivates security cameras that cover every room of his expansive house. We also see the first signs of his cruel nature when we see he's put an electric shock collar on his dog that Cecelia removes before leaving.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Subverted. He's been so hellbent on getting Cecilia because she's pregnant with his child. However, knowing how controlling and abusive Adrian acts towards her, it's highly unlikely he would have been an ideal father figure, and it was more likely that he wanted to use the child as an anchor to keep Cecilia from leaving him. Or even worse raise the child in his own image (as if having one of him wasn't bad enough). Alternatively, he simply wants the child because he views it as his property and nothing more. He doesn't even seem to care about his brother Tom and discards him with no issue as soon as he's ceased being useful. Adrian doesn't have people he loves but possessions he owns.
• Evil Genius: He's a brilliant scientist and a controlling sociopath who invented an invisibility suit.
• Evil Is Petty: He really doesn't take well to Cecilia leaving him. In fact, she's the first person to do so. Rather than accept or consider he was the one who drove her away, he uses an expensive invisibility suit to psychologically torture her into getting back together with him... all because his ego can't stand losing control of someone.
• Evil Plan: Adrian's scheme involves gaslighting and stalking Cecilia while isolating her from her loved ones—all before forcing her (and probably their child) to stay with him for the rest of their lives.
• Evil Wears Black: He's the evilest character in the film, and has a spiffy all-black getup for formal meetings. The default color of his suit is also black.
• Eyes Do Not Belong There: His invisibility suit's covered in thousands of tiny camera lenses, projectors, and reflectors. After being uncloaked, it looks like he is covered head-to-toe in black eyes, making him a walking embodiment of surveillance paranoia.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: He's quite handsome, being played by a former model and all... but it doesn't change how he's a vile and manipulative abuser.
• The Faceless: His face isn't clearly shown until the film's final scenes.
• Faking the Dead: Knowing how Adrian was, Cecilia is immediately skeptical of his apparent suicide. She was right to be.
• Faux Affably Evil: Puts on an Endearingly Dorky façade when he isn't wearing his invisibility suit.
• Freudian Excuse: He has a condition that causes his right hand to shake, and goes to great lengths to ensure people don't see it. This is likely the cause of his psychopathic need to control everything and everyone around him.
• Gaslighting: Much of his Evil Plan involves trying to drive Cecilia mad by orchestrating several events meant to make her start questioning her sanity.
• Genius Bruiser: He created an invisibility suit and is physically quite formidable. While the suit obviously gives him a huge advantage as his victims can't easily defend themselves, he does show a considerable degree of brute strength and accuracy when he fights, and when we finally see him without the suit, he is quite powerfully built. The opening scene even has him punch through a car window easily, showing his physical strength.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Cecilia describes Adrian as flying into violent rages if he so much as suspected she was thinking something he didn't like. The film's opening scenes confirm his violent side when he violently tries to force her back into his stranglehold—even punching through the window of Emily's car in an attempt to drag her out.
• Hate Sink: There is absolutely nothing good about this guy. He's controlling, abusive, selfish, horrifyingly cruel, and completely lacking in any redeeming or sympathetic traits, not even mentioned as having a troubled backstory to explain how he ended up so vile.
• Invisible Jerkass: Oh, so much given what he does throughout the film while he's in his invisibility suit. It helps that he was already a horrible human being well before he ever put it on.
• Invisibility Cloak: Instead of a serum like the original novel, Adrian's invisibility comes from an suit he invented, which is equipped with a lattice of tiny projectors/cameras that seamlessly project an image of what's on the opposite side, not unlike a chameleon's ability to blend into its environment.
• Karmic Death: Cecilia slits Adrian's throat just like how he slit Emily's throat.
• Limited Wardrobe: Implied. Adrian's walk-in closet contains multiple sets of identical clothes.
• Mad Scientist: A petty and controlling sociopath who is still smart enough to invent a suit that gives the illusion of invisibility.
• Meaningful Name: Adrian's first name (invented for the film) is presumably a Shout-Out to Rosemary's Baby.
• Narcissist: He has all the telling signs—such as inflated self-importance, an inability to accept responsibility or admit fault, a lack of empathy, a disregard for the lives and feelings of those around him, and a tremendously fragile ego. Cecilia leaving him was such a slight to him that he used an invisibility suit to torment her.
• Near-Villain Victory: He almost succeeds at getting away with everything after he frames Tom as part of a Deceased Fall-Guy Gambit, but his refusal to admit he's the mastermind behind the Evil Plan is what drives Cecilia to murder him.
• Never My Fault: Like many real-life abusers, Adrian never accepts responsibility for his actions and even thinks of himself as the victim in his relationship with Cecelia. His supposedly posthumous letter to Cecelia even blames her for their relationship's decline and ignores his horrific treatment of her, framing himself as nothing worse than an imperfect boyfriend whose love Cecelia heartlessly discarded.
• Obliviously Evil: He's a very dark example of this. Adrian honestly doesn't think of himself as bad—just an imperfect but loving boyfriend who tried his best with a difficult girlfriend.
• Poltergeist: Early on, there are hauntings like Adrian is now stalking and gaslighting from beyond the grave, leaving the audience wondering if Cecilia can really trust her senses. However, Adrian is very much alive and not long into the film, Cecilia is able to reveal his invisibility suit by tossing a can of paint by surprise.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Adrian may be smart and calculating, but he has poor self-control and is easily wounded by things not going his way, taking things out on people physically even though doing so would likely expose him. There are numerous times where he could have killed Cecilia by accident because he could barely keep his tantrums in check. Just the fact that he created a suit that can render the wearer completely invisible, something that would no doubt be considered a major technological achievement, and wastes it on tormenting his ex-girlfriend into getting back together with him speaks volumes about his lack of maturity.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Never outright stated, but Cecelia's comment about the "other things" he did to her when he was enraged heavily imply this was the case.
• Silent Antagonist: In the invisible suit, he is very nearly this—as he has only a couple of lines. To remain hidden, he has to be as quiet as possible, and even when he's alone with Cecilia, he never gives her the satisfaction. Outside the suit, he is much more talkative.
• Slashed Throat: How he murders Emily and also how he meets his own end at Cecilia's hands.
• The Sociopath: He's pathologically incapable of recognizing wants and needs beyond his own yet maintains a superficial charm to appear affable, has no emotional attachment to anyone, not even his own brother, sees everyone as his to control and as deserving of being punished if they disobey him, never accepts responsibility for his actions and has seemingly no empathy for anyone. This especially shines in his final scene with Cecilia where he appears to physically struggle with apologizing and exhibiting sympathetic emotions.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: Whenever he speaks while wearing his invisibility suit, and it's justified by how he's trying to be undetected by others.
• Something Only They Would Say: In their final meeting, Cecilia tries to get Adrian to confess to being the Invisible Man that had been torturing her and not the innocent victim of Tom that he was pretending to be. Either suspecting she was wearing a wire or just trying to gaslight her again, he denies everything. Then he claims he knows her better than anyone and that shouldn't come as a… "surprise," putting specific emphasis on the word. Earlier in the film, he'd texted her "SURPRISE" from an unknown number and said it to her with the same inflection after he had her framed for her sister's murder. It leads to his Karmic Death.
• Super-Persistent Predator: He never stopped stalking Cecilia until she killed him, and Emily's murder proved she wasn't even safe in public spaces.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: He has the look anyway, and it helps that he's 6'3.
• Tech Bro: This time, the titular character is a young, handsome, and wealthy optics magnate who lives in a large, stark-looking house with Cecilia prior to his "suicide." Adrian's also a controlling abuser who uses an invisibility suit he created to torment his ex-girlfriend after he fakes his death.
• Technically a Smile: It's the only kind of smile he can make.
• Undignified Death: Dies by Cecilia's hands and bleeds out after she mocks him.
• The Unfettered: There is no boundary Adrian isn't willing to cross to get what he feels he is owed to him.
• Uriah Gambit: He pulls this move on his brother Tom as part of a Deceased Fall-Guy Gambit.
• Villainous Breakdown: After Cecilia reveals him on a ladder with a can of paint, he flees in panic with Cecilia eventually catching up with him in the home kitchen. He has successfully removed the paint from his suit and starts physically lifting and throwing her around the room with considerable force. From this point on, he's willing to kill the people she cares about most.
• Villain with Good Publicity: As far as the world is concerned, he's a brilliant tech icon—with only Cecilia being aware of the depths of his villainy.
• Visible Invisibility: Averted for most of the film barring scenes of his suit glitching out or liquids staining it. Adrian's invisible to both other characters and the audience, fueling constant paranoia about whether or not he's even onscreen.
• Would Hit a Girl: He has a history of domestic abuse with Cecilia, which firmly lands him in this trope's territory. He also murders Cecilia's sister Emily by slashing her throat.
• Would Hurt a Child: Adrian punches Sydney in her face while he's wearing the suit (to make her and James believe Cecilia did it), and he has no qualms about attempting to mastermind her murder out of violent spite against his ex-girlfriend.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: He frames Tom for his crimes by pretending to be held captive by him in the basement.
• Yandere: Adrian's possessively controlling ways are to the point he once threatened to murder Cecilia if she tried to leave his house. That was before he becomes invisible courtesy of a suit that he invented.

Emily Kass

Emily Kass

"Cecilia, what is going on? Are you okay?"

Played By: Harriet Dyer

Cecilia's sister—who helps her escape from Adrian.

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• Death by Irony: In the heat of the moment, she accuses Cecilia of being weak for getting into a relationship with Adrian. She calms down after she realizes Adrian has been setting Cecilia up, but both she and Cecilia herself agree that she's the stronger of the two. Adrian kills Emily effortlessly while Cecilia not only fights back but wins against him and his brother Tom later on.
• Faux Action Girl: An In-Universe example. She has a confrontational, no-nonsense demeanor, she initially dismisses Cecilia as weak for getting involved with Adrian, and Cecilia praises her for her toughness, but Cecilia is the one to defeat Adrian while Emily is disposed of in short order. Combined with her judgemental attitude earlier, this serves to emphasize that Emily is a talker with an overly high opinion of herself while Cecilia is a fighter.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: In her first and last scenes, she becomes aware of Adrian's presence behind Cecilia and looks past her in confusion a moment before Adrian strikes.
• Foreshadowing: Emily's first actions in the film (described under Idiot Ball below) show that for all her talk she (a) totally underestimates the threat Adrian poses, and (b) isn't as fearless or decisive under pressure as her demeanour suggests.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: She is killed just after reconciling with Cecilia, starting to realize her innocence, re-owning her as her sister and was about to listen to Cecilia's explanation about what's really going on and how Adrian was trying to turn both sisters against each other.
• Idiot Ball: At the beginning when Cecilia is running away from Adrian's mansion and instructs Emily to arrive in a car, pick her up and drive her away, Adrian catches Cecilia in the act and in only a few seconds is able to get to Emily's car. After Cecilia gets in, Emily doesn't go but tries to make chat with her. Adrian catches up and starts banging on the window, but Emily STILL doesn't drive, she just asks, "What is happening?" Only when Adrian cracks through the window and clutches onto Cecilia, Emily screams then drives.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: The email Adrian sent (in addition to a number of other negative things about her,) says that people who are genuinely confident in themselves don't need to treat waitstaff badly, and her disowning Cecilia on the spot suggests that attack hit home.
• Jerkass Ball: She initially thought Cecilia insulted her with an email, angrily refusing to believe her protesting her innocence and that the still-alive Adrian framed her for it and then closing the door in her face when Cecilia meets her in person and learns of this Frame-Up against her, apparently disowning Cecilia as her sister for allegedly condemning her like that.
• Nice to the Waiter: This is defied given that she's unnecessarily rude and sarcastic to the waiter at the restaurant in a way that is not excused by her own emotional state—with the email Adrian sent referring to her doing this. Presumably, at some point in their relationship, Cecilia told Adrian about this tendency of hers.
• Sacrificial Lion: She is murdered by Adrian just as she starts to reconcile with Cecilia.
• Slashed Throat: How Adrian kills her.
• Vasquez Always Dies: Emily's described as being physically and emotionally "stronger" than Cecilia... yet she's the first character to die.

James Lanier

James Lanier

Played By: Aldis Hodge

Cecilia's childhood friend, a police detective, and Sydney's father. He lets Cecilia hide in his home after she leaves Adrian with Emily's help.

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• Agent Scully: He refuses to believe in any bizarre explanation, especially not that Adrian is alive and invisible. At least at first.
• Fair Cop: A good-looking police officer, to say the least.
• Friend on the Force: He's Cecilia's best friend and a police detective.
• Good Parents: He adores his daughter Sydney and states his first priority is protecting her, and may play a part for Cecilia's child.
• Inspector Javert: He swings between this and being a Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist. He's a police detective, but doesn't believe Cecilia about Adrian being still alive, instead questioning her sanity and thinking she is the one committing the crimes that were actually done by Adrian. It's not until the climax that James realizes that Cecilia is innocent and Adrian really is alive.
• Meaningful Name: He shares his first name with James Whale, who directed five classic Universal Horror films, including The Invisible Man.
• Mr. Fanservice: Gets a scene in a vest to show off his impressive physique.
• Nice Guy: James is a very kind man, giving Cecilia shelter without any hesitation when she needs it and helping her deal with the trauma and adjust to life after Adrian.
• Papa Wolf: James is very protective over Sydney and doesn't hesitate to rush into danger to defend her.
• Police Are Useless: He's a police detective, but initially did not believe Cecilia about Adrian terrorizing her again and framing her. He couldn't even hold out on his own when Tom subjected him to a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown until Cecilia comes to the rescue. Lampshaded by Cecilia when James offers to help her while she said he can't either when visiting her at the mental hospital for the criminally insane in a Missing Trailer Scene or at the police station after clearing her name of her sister's murder and other misdeeds committed by Adrian near the end of film.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: He's a police detective who willingly provided aid to Cecilia with shelter and even still show some compassion towards her despite being the prime suspect for Adrian's crimes while she was incarcerated and instead blames himself for Cecilia to end up this way. He also let Cecilia's revenge killing of Adrian slide despite knowing it's a crime of lawless vigilantism.
• Token Black Friend: He and his daughter are the only people of color in the film, and he is Cecilia's best friend.
• Secret-Keeper: By the end, he is the only one aware of the invisibility suits and that Cecilia murdered Adrian.

Sydney Lanier

Sydney Lanier

Played By: Storm Reid

James' teenage daughter.

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• Crazy-Prepared: She keeps a canister of pepper spray by her bed while she sleeps. Having a cop for a father may have something to do with that.
• Nice Girl: Sydney's a young girl who wants to become a fashion designer.

Tom Griffin

Tom Griffin

"[Adrian] needs you, because you don't need him."

^{MAJOR SPOILERS} 

Played By: Michael Dorman

Adrian's brother and a lawyer.

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• Adaptation Name Change: From Thomas Marvel to Tom Griffin.
• Adaptational Job Change: In the novel, Thomas Marvel was a homeless man-turned-inkeeper and tourist trap owner. Tom is a lawyer.
• Adaptational Villainy: In the book, Thomas Marvel is strong-armed into being Griffin's assistant and escapes the first chance he gets. In the film, Tom Griffin is in on his brother's plan from the beginning—eventually using an invisibility suit to attack Sydney and James.
• Agent Scully: He's skeptical when Cecilia claims that Adrian faked his death and is tormenting her by somehow being invisible. Subverted once it's revealed he's involved in Adrian's Evil Plan.
• Amoral Attorney: He's the lawyer representing Adrian's trust, and he's as morally bankrupt as his brother—having no scruples about helping to psychologically torture Cecilia or trying to murder Sydney.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Despite appearing to have sympathy towards Cecilia, Tom reveals he's just as manipulative as Adrian. She even calls him out on it, deeming him "like [his] brother but without the spine."
• Cain and Abel: He reveals that Adrian controlled and abused him the same way he did Cecilia, making him the Abel to Adrian's Cain. It gets subverted later on when he turns out to be in cahoots with Adrian. Maybe.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Thanks to his invisibility suit, James can't even get a hit on Tom before he's utterly beaten into a bloody pulp. Tom receives one in turn when Cecilia makes his suit with a fire extinguisher and shoots him four times.
• Death by Adaptation: In the book, Thomas Marvel escapes Griffin and eventually settles down with his stolen money. Here, Tom is killed and set up as part of a Deceased Fall-Guy Gambit.
• Deathly Unmasking: After getting shot to death by Cecilia, he's unmasked as the Invisible Man who attacked the Laniers.
• Deceased Fall-Guy Gambit: He's the victim of this when Adrian makes him appear to be the mastermind after Cecilia kills him.
• Dirty Coward: He's reliant on Adrian's wealth to stay afloat, which allows Adrian to use him as a pawn in his scheme. Tom doesn't have the spine to stand up to his brother and sides with him regardless of how he's been tormenting others. Cecilia even calls him this to his face.
• The Dragon: Tom is Adrian's accomplice. After Adrian frames Cecilia for Emily's murder, his true colors are revealed when he relays the option of going back to his brother in exchange for her freedom. After Cecilia continues to be defiant, Tom is sent by Adrian to kill Sydney so they can "truly teach [her] something."
• Fall Guy: Once Cecilia shoots him dead, the police conclude he was the Invisible Man all along. However, Cecilia correctly deduces he was only in a suit for the attack on Sydney and James, with Adrian doing everything else before framing his brother. It almost works.
• Invisible Jerkass: Late in the film, Tom becomes an Invisible Man and tries to murder Sydney at Adrian's behest.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: He comes off as a sleazy lawyer, but he also mentions how Adrian abused him since they were kids. Turns out he's just a slimy, spineless creep who's willing to be his brother's enforcer.
• Multiple-Choice Past: It's left ambiguous if any of what Tom said about Adrian being a total bully is accurate. It wouldn't be a surprise given what a Control Freak Adrian is, though.
• Mythology Gag: At the end of the book, Thomas Marvel is shown to still be in possession of Griffin's notebooks and reads them on his days off in the hopes of one day recreating his work. In the film, Tom Griffin eventually gets to wear an invisibility suit as part of his brother's scheme.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Tom absolutely pummels James into an unconscious, bloody mess since he can't see him.
• Related in the Adaptation: Griffin's accomplice in the book is reinvented as his brother for the film. Tom is also Adrian's accomplice here.
• Walking Spoiler: The fact he's The Dragon to Adrian spoils much of the film's second half.
• Would Hurt a Child: He has no qualms about attempting to murder Sydney—a young teenager who was close to Cecilia—on Adrian's orders.