Gerry Garner

Gerald "Gerry" Garner is the main protagonist of the film Heavyweights. He is an 11-year-old boy who ultimately becomes the leader of the Chipmunks at the fat camp called Camp Hope. On his first summer there, when it comes under the despotic, merciless control of Tony Perkis, Gerry intends to rid it of Tony for good and return it to the fun, enjoyable place it used to be. 
He is played by Aaron Schwartz.
==Biography==
===Last Day of school===
As school ends for the summer, Gerry is sent by his parents to Camp Hope, a weight loss camp for boys, despite his protestations, as well as telling them he has plans to hang out. Despite worrying at first, Gerry makes friends easily at the Chipmunk Cabin (which the boys have named a long time ago). He also learns that Camp Hope is actually a lot of fun (as well as not nearly as bad as he first thought), and discovers that the other campers have smuggled in enough junk food to easily stave off the hunger pangs and probably counteract any weight loss that the camp programs cause.
===Sent to Camp Hope===
The first night of the summer brings the revelation that the original owners of Camp Hope, Harvey (Jerry Stiller) and Alice Bushkin (Anne Meara), have entered bankruptcy, and Tony Perkis (Ben Stiller), a fitness entrepreneur, has (seemingly) bought the camp. (It turns out that his wealthy father actually bought it for him.) Tony announces his plan to make the camp’s new exercise regimen into the top weight loss infomercial in the country. Although Tony tries to make himself seem like someone the campers can relate to, even saying that he was a fat kid when he was younger, his methods of motivating the campers border on psychotic.
Tony cleanses the cabins of the campers’ food caches, cuts off their contact with the outside world and installs an exercise outline of trendy fitness techniques that downplay fun to the point of humiliation. During this event, Josh (Shaun Weiss) taunts Tony while in the protection of Gerry, and ends up getting kicked out of the camp without a refund. Many campers question what Josh’s fate was after this event. Josh’s father, who is a lawyer, threatened to sue Tony; as a result, Tony has no choice but to allow Josh to return to the camp.
One day when Tony goes out for a run, Gerry, Josh and a few other campers sneak into Tony’s office to search for food, and find that Tony was holding onto all of the letters the campers sent to their parents that complained of their hardships, including the letter that Gerry wrote to his grandmother. As they leave the office, Gerry and his friends come across a fellow camper eating a hamburger. The camper tells them of a secret food stash in the forest. The campers eventually gain more weight (despite Tony’s fitness regimen), which Tony notices after measuring some of the campers’ weight losses. As punishment, Tony forces them on a 20-mile hike, reasoning that this will not only help the boys work off some of their extra weight, but will also restore discipline.
On the hike, the campers trick Tony into falling into a deep pit, and then bring Tony back to camp, where they imprison him in a makeshift cell that consists of chicken wire electrified with a bug zapper. With Tony in custody, the campers openly rebel against Tony’s counselors, tying them to trees and tormenting them. The original Camp Hope staff are left free while Tony’s workers are thrown out, except for Tony’s cameraman Kenny, who did them no wrong, and a counselor named Lars (Tom Hodges). At first, Lars is teased by the campers when his tough guy mask falls away, but is eventually given a choice — recognize the authority of the children and join the new Camp Hope, or stay tied to the tree and face deportation for not working. Lars enthusiastically joins the children.
In the celebration of Tony’s downfall, there is a lot of binge eating. Gerry and the other boys, along with some of the camp counselors, order in pizzas and submarine sandwiches, and gorge themselves on chocolate and soda, while Lars hands out éclairs. The next morning, Pat Finley (Tom McGowan), a counselor who had come to Camp Hope every summer since he was 10, tells the kids to finally start taking responsibility and start actually losing weight. The boys begin following a more healthy regime, and start to make Camp Hope a fun place again.
On Parents’ Visiting Day, the parents are shown a video of Tony’s cruelty. While they are watching, Tony escapes his prison and, when the video ends, begins clapping sarcastically from his perch on the second story. He then does a flip from the second story and lands on the floor. When Gerry calls that Tony has to be stopped, Tony begins walking on broken glass and heading over to where Gerry is while saying that he cannot be stopped, and exchanges quips with Gerry’s father, who punches Tony before telling him that he is wrong and that he is through at Camp Hope. Tony soon recovers, and chops Gerry's father in the shoulders from behind knocking him down, then in an attempt to make an impressive exit, attempts a series of back-flips before stumbling and finally incapacitating himself. The parents and their kids look down at the fallen fitness guru, which the parents view as their way of telling him his days of terrorizing their kids are over; Gerry walks over to Pat, and they slap their hands together. When Tony’s own father, Tony Perkis Sr. (also played by Ben Stiller), shows up, he takes the keys and deed for the camp away from his son in order to ensure this does not happen again. He also states that the camp will be closed, and all of the money paid for admission refunded.
However, Gerry and the rest of the other campers do not want to leave Camp Hope; despite what happened with Tony, they still managed to have a lot of fun. Since there is no adult in charge of the camp now, Pat is voted to be the head counselor. Pat starts really putting the campers to work to win an annual competition against some athletic and competitive campers from an MVP camp, who are trained to go at this competition with everything they have (which, up until Pat took over, made the competition rather one-sided). Pat, however, has been training them not to lose hope, and just to have fun, which they do. It turns out that they have just enough ability to win. Pat gives the trophy to one of the kids, who then throws it into the lake after the opposing camp throws a tantrum over losing. The competitive campers believe that Pat is crazy for being more concerned about having fun than winning a trophy.
== Personality ==
Gerry is a character who grows a lot over the course of the movie. He starts out just wanting to hang out at home the whole summer, and is initially VERY pessimistic of going to Camp Hope. He starts looking forward to it a little more on the trip over there when Roy tells him what a fun place Camp Hope is. That optimism is shattered when Tony Perkis takes over the camp, removes everything fun from it, and runs it like a military school or a prison.
Gerry miserably tries to endure this for as long as he can, until a brutal hike Tony puts the campers through finally pushes Gerry and the others too far. Gerry gains newfound senses of courage and leadership, leading the campers in overthrowing Tony and taking over the camp. When Pat Finley, a good man who genuinely cares about the kids and wants them to grow in a safe and healthy way, takes charge of the camp, Gerry is his strongest supporter. Gerry also proves to have at least something of a merciful, forgiving nature, as he allows the counselor Lars (Who had been incredibly cruel to him and the others up to that point) to continue working there even after Tony is overthrown. Gerry continues to be a good leader for the Chipmunks, realizes the importance of self- control as well as having fun, and this newfound attitude leads to the rest of his summer (And, presumably, his life outside of the camp) becoming much happier and more fulfilling.
==Skills==
*Leadership: In his time of arriving at Camp hope, Gerry miserably tries to endure the Perkins exercise program for as long as he can, until a brutal hike Tony puts the campers through finally pushes Gerry and the others too far. Gerry gains newfound senses of courage and leadership, leading the campers in overthrowing Tony and taking over the camp. 
* Tactician: Gerry is a very clever young man whose capable of coming up with plans. As him and the campers sneak into Tony Perkins house to look for Candy, he breaks the lock on a treasure chest with a wooden mallet only find the letters that were meant to be sent to the parents. Then after a brutal hike, he and his friends sought self-defense to trick Perkins before he could force them to perform the dangerous activity by having Josh to chase him back in the woods only leading the latter to fall into hole in the ground for the group of boys to tie him with ropes and lock in an electrical caged fence. This bought them enough time to show their folks on "Parents Day" an infomercial of all the cruelty the campers have suffered and have them approved in ridding Perkins from owning the camp giving it to Pat turning it back to the way it was completely.
*Go-Cart Driving: Since arriving to camp, Gerry had his attention on riding the go-carts which he does during the Apache Relay. As he rides against one of the Camp MVP Racer's, he gets bumped into tress and still manages to on stay in balance on the course getting the lead in front. Then after being pushed back to far he actives the wings of cart allowing him to gain more speed briefly flying in the air over the racer and the make it at the finish line winning the race.
==Trivia==
*It revealed in a deleted scene that Gerry has an older brother.
*Gerry is from Long Island.
Category:Live Action Heroes
Category:Kids
Category:Leaders
Category:Narrators
Category:Movie Heroes
Category:Victims
Category:Loyal
Category:Pessimists
Category:Optimists
Category:Neutral Good
Category:Strategists
Category:Successful
Category:Protectors of Innocence
Category:Male
Category:Supporters