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Characters in The Road, both the original novel by Cormac McCarthy and the film.

The Man

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/9b65f8c1_762c_4745_b5c3_81fa8737638a.jpeg
Played in the film by: Viggo Mortensen

The boy's father.

  • Anti-Hero: He loves the Boy and will go to great lengths to protect him, even if it means ignoring the plight of other survivors who are likely doomed anyway.
  • The Anti-Nihilist: Though he teeters on Straw Nihilist on occasion, he firmly believes that he and the Boy are "carrying the fire" in a world devoid of any sense of hope or reason to go on living.
  • Author Avatar: For McCarthy, due to sharing a similar outlook on life, and many of his conversations with the Boy were taken verbatim from Cormac's conversations with his son John.
  • Badass and Child Duo: With the Boy, his son.
  • Incurable Cough of Death: In both. He eventually dies from it in the end.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He disregards the wellbeing of other survivors out of necessity and occasionally yells at the Boy, but cares about and loves him deeply, more than himself.
  • Kick the Dog: Stripping the thief down to nothing and sending him off to die a long, cold death in the process. Granted, he did it to conserve the last bullet in his gun, but it was still unjustly cruel, especially for someone who would frequently remind his son that they're the "good guys".
  • Knight Templar Parent: Necessitated by the horrific world. He only has the Boy.
  • Papa Wolf: And how. He'll do anything to protect the boy.
  • Pet the Dog: Usually at the Boy's urging, he'll help out a less fortunate survivor.
  • Secretly Dying: He knows it's not looking good for him, but lives in denial because he cannot bear the thought that he'll leave the Boy alone.

The Boy

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/89980f4e_3726_438a_86a0_cdc554579065.jpeg
Played in the film by: Kodi Smit Mcphee

The boy, the Man's son whose innocence he tries to protect above all else.

The Mother

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/92f640da_02cb_438b_b235_f3335cd0fb02.jpeg
Played in the film by: Charlize Theron

The boy's mother and the man's wife.

  • Advertised Extra: In the film. She's advertised as a third lead behind Smit-McPhee and Mortensen, but she has only minutes of screen time.
  • Death Seeker: She wants to kill the Man and Boy alongside herself, but the Man doesn't let her.
  • Driven to Suicide: She commits suicide in both the book and film.
  • Posthumous Character: Her flashbacks, as she's dead when the story begins.
  • Women Are Delicate: Played with. The Man stops her from killing the Boy because he still has hope (and he continues to protect the Boy after her death). But she's certainly right that a Cruel and Unusual Death awaits them.

The Cannibals

Survivors of the apocalypse that eat human flesh.

  • Always Chaotic Evil: If there are any of them that have even a slight amount of good left in them, they are never encountered.
  • Ax-Crazy: They have long since abandoned their humanity in favor of survival, rounding up other survivors and breeding them to continue their food supply.
  • The Dreaded: The narration sums it up.
    Cannibalism is the great fear.
  • Eats Babies: In one scene, the Man and the Boy find an eviscerated baby on a spit, roasting over a fire.
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: Presumably most of them were just normal people from all walks of life pre-apocalypse but desperation and hunger has turned them into these inhumane cannibals that will do beyond horrific things just to live another day.
  • I'm a Humanitarian: Reread the header of this section in case you didn't get it the first time.
  • Would Hurt a Child: In the book version, three people roast a baby on a spit, and in the movie, they're shown chasing after a mother and her young son. The latter heavily implies that they caught them.

Old Man/"Ely"

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cb63ec0a_b9f0_4799_ab3f_b3ffa764a42c.jpeg
Played in the film by: Robert Duvall

An old man that the boy and the man encounter on the road.

  • Ambiguous Situation: How a seemingly defenseless old man is able to survive in this dog-eat-dog post-apocalyptic world is never explained, even when the man questions him on his survival Ely is very evasive with his answers.
  • Death Seeker: Defied. He sees death as a luxury, and finds it foolish to want it After the End.
  • Outliving One's Offspring: Lost his son, though he never explains how.
  • Straw Nihilist: He knew the end of the world was coming and continues to hold a pessimistic attitude long after.
    There is no god and we are his prophets.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: After spending a night with the Man and the Boy, and sharing some of their food, he's never seen again.

The Thief

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/7dfd2d2b_78dc_482f_91d7_fc3f88f8ce72.jpeg
Played in the film by: Michael K. Williams

  • Anti-Villain: He's really just trying to get by in a world in its death throes, with none of the malevolence of the cannibals.
  • Alas, Poor Villain: Sure, he was willing to steal everything the Man and his son had, but given the world they're living in now, you really can't blame him. Plus, when the father forces him to give them everything he has, down to the clothes on his back, you can't help but pity him.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: Heavily implied that after being forced to strip, he eventually dies of exposure.
  • Red Right Hand: Two of his fingers are missing.
  • Scary Black Man: Downplayed in the movie, where he's portrayed as black. He may undoubtedly be dangerous, but he's ultimately more pitiful than anything once the man forces him to strip down.
  • Villains Want Mercy: Probably one of the most heartbreaking examples of this trope. While the man holds him at gunpoint and forces him to strip, all he can do is sob and beg for his life.
    Please mister, you don't have to do me like this.
  • Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Even though he was so desperate that he tried to steal from the Man and the boy, he had the opportunity to kill or do something even worse to the boy who was asleep, yet he left him alone.

The Veteran

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/0bfb51bb_fd74_41cb_8f79_6c95d460d6d8.jpeg
Played in the film by: Guy Pearce

A man that the boy meets on the beach after his father dies.

  • Ambiguous Situation: He claims to be one of the good guys, and certainly seems to be more trustworthy and friendly than the bandits and cannibals out on the road, but it remains up in the air if he actually is. On the one hand his insistence that the boy keep his gun, even when he offers it to him, suggests he can be trusted but on the other the fact that he and his family followed the Man and the Boy for miles yet never approached them until the man was dead and the boy was alone is undeniably suspicious.
  • Heroes Love Dogs: In the movie, he's shown to have a dog. He also seems to be one of the few genuinely good people left in the world, at least relatively speaking.
  • Nice Guy: If we're to take him at his word. He does let the Boy say goodbye to his father and cover him up before taking him under his wing.
  • Parental Substitute: Becomes the Boy's new guardian at the end.
  • Shotguns Are Just Better: He carries a shotgun and a bandolier of shotgun shells.

Motherly Woman

Played in the film by: Molly Parker

The Veteran's wife.

  • Action Mom: She's survived for as long as she has in the Death World, so it's safe to assume she is.
  • Nice Girl: Seemingly. She says she was worried about the Boy after watching him and the Man for so long.
  • Parental Substitute: Takes in the Boy as one of her own children.

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