Benny

Benny is the head of the Chairmen of New Vegas in 2281. The brains behind a complex scheme to usurp control of New Vegas from Mr. House, he serves as the secondary antagonist of Fallout: New Vegas.
==Background==
Benny was a member of a nomadic tribe called the Mojave Boot-Riders before Mr. House took over Vegas. As one of the three tribes who agreed to House's new rule, the Boot-Riders were assigned to renovate the Tops casino. They were given suits and ties and renamed "The Chairmen."The Courier: "Was your tribe always called the Chairmen?"Benny: "Nah, in the way-back we called ourselves the Boot Riders. Silly name, but that's how we rode the Mojave, dig? - on our feet. We were nomadic badasses, not to be trifled with. A gang of ruffians, though with a certain panache. When House gave us the Tops to renovate, his robots dropped off boxes full of suits and ties and wingtip shoes. Told us we were the 'Chairmen' now. That caused an uproar. But I said 'the name sticks.' Ciao to the old ways, baby - time to swing in style. If the shoes fit, you wear ."(Benny's dialogue) Benny saw the potential of New Vegas, but the tribe's chief at the time, Bingo, wanted to stay nomadic. To determine the direction of the tribe, Bingo challenged Benny to a knife fight, and the winner would be the leader of the tribe. Benny stabbed Bingo in the throat, killing him and winning the fight.The Courier: "How long were you the head of the family?"Benny: "Seven years. Took over three days after Mr. House introduced himself. Our chief at the time, mountain of a guy named Bingo, wanted to stay nomadic. I disagreed, so he challenged me to the knife. He looked so surprised when I stuck that knife in his neck. Thought he was so tough, but he was so slow. That's how I made chief. It's how things were back then."(Benny's dialogue) Benny is quick to stamp out dissent among those Chairmen who support a return to the old ways, even killing an old friend, an unnamed singer, with a Psycho overdose.All Roads, p. 12-13:Benny: "Tommy can cry in the rain for all I care. And I did help. That singer all taken care of?"Swank: "Word on the Strip is, took to much psycho, killed himself. Brought the vial back, just like you said."All Roads, 37-39: Benny: "How you feeling? I forgot, you don't talk. Smoke? Not your chem of choice, I take it. I've heard about Bitter Springs. Crying shame. Happened a long time ago, though. Don't get me wrong, I understand how that stuff can eat you up, I do. Let me tell you a story. 'So -- I run this casino, the Tops. Great view, can see all Vegas from the window. We had acts coming in from all over the Mojave to preform there, entertainment. Class acts. But there was this one, see, this singer. This singer used to run with us back when our gang rode the Mojave -- like you Khans. The boys loved him. He'd sing around the campfire -- songs about us in the old days. Then we walked the road to Vegas, all the lights of the old world still glowing pretty as you please. Met the man who runs Vegas. He showed me a whole new way to live. Didn't need to play tribal anymore. Thing is, this singer came with us, too. And he didn't see Vegas the way I did. Kept singing the old songs from when we were riding the Mojave, kept talking about how we should hit the road again. So he did -- in his own way' Problem was, when he sang, my boys, they started thinking about how things used to be. You could see it -- that last little touch of the old ways there, plucking their heartstrings like a piano. Nostalgia's a drug, Chance. You felt it when you decided to kill those Fiends. You want to be back there with those Khans in Bitter Springs, and this time, make it right. That singer wanted to go back, too -- and the only way he could was to shoot himself up with all sorts of shit. He could have left if alone, cleaned up, changed his tune. But he didn't want to change. Me, I'm not like that singer. I'm done thinking about how things used to be."
Benny's long-term goal is simple: to control New Vegas. The chances of such a thing happening seemed very slim, but as Benny himself would say, he was not done rigging the odds yet.The Courier: "What makes you think you can succeed?"Benny: "Baby, the odds may look long, but that's just we ain't done rigging them. I won't toss the dice until we are. "(Benny's dialogue) After disabling one of Mr. House's Securitrons with a pulse grenade, Benny brought it in for examination. Unable to fix it himself, he allowed Emily Ortal to inspect it in exchange for her reprogramming it. After finishing the reprogramming, the Securitron became known as Yes Man, an AI designed to obey every command given to him. Benny used Yes Man's compliant nature to interrogate him on the details of House's machinations.The Courier: "What's the deal with your secret workshop and 'Yes Man' friend?"Benny: " Once he was on the nod, I yanked some wires and dragged him up to the workshop. I had... Gal named Emily, one of the Followers over in Freeside, a real whiz when it comes to things technical. She programmed his personality. Once Yes Man was hooked back in to House's data network, I started learning a lot more about what he was up to, dig? Like where and when to find you."(Benny's dialogue)The Courier: "Is there another way to get Mr. House's data?"Emily Ortal: " Uh... oh yeah, I didn't tell you about the first time. I'd rather not talk about it, if you don't mind."The Courier: ""Emily Ortal: "[SUCCEEDED] True. The first try was a little less 'professional'. Someone important on the Strip had access to some of House's technology. Specifically, a Securitron. And more specifically, the 'someone' was Benny. I know, I know... he shot you in the head and everything. But this was a while ago. I knew he was sleazy, but I didn't realize he was so cold-blooded."The Courier: "Did Benny say why he had the Securitron?"Emily Ortal: "He sure didn't. Benny was pretty tight-lipped and cryptic about the thing, but he did let me poke around in it for a while. I wound up helping Benny a lot more than he helped me. Once he had access to the Securiton's memory banks, he kicked me out of the Tops. Big surprise, right? I should have seen that coming."The Courier: "What did he have you do?"Emily Ortal: "The Securitron was disabled somehow. Might have been an EMP, given some of the damage I saw. Anyway, he wanted it re-enabled and connected to Mr. House's data network. The trick was getting it to be invisible on the network. If Mr. House detects a 'rogue' Securitron in his system, he remotely fries it. Getting around that security feature was a bit tricky."(Emily Ortal's dialogue)
He learned Mr. House had something buried underneath the Fort and of the platinum chip - the key to all of House's plans.The Courier: "What is the Platinum Chip?"Benny: "It's the House edge, baby. The key to stacking the odds in his favor - or was, I swiped it. There's more to it, but we don't have the time. By which I mean you don't."(Benny's dialogue) He also learned of the seven couriers hired by Victor - six decoys and one carrying the chip.The Courier: "If the Chip's so valuable, why use a single courier to transport it?"Robert House: "You do realize you were just one of many couriers, the rest of them , so to speak? Add to that many thousands of caps worth of mercenary protection to screen your avenue of approach. Had I used an armed caravan to transport the Chip, I might as well have been announcing to the world 'this is important. Attack this!' I didn't want to attract the attention of groups like the Great Khans or the Brotherhood of Steel. Alas, the real threat was closer to home."(Robert House's dialogue) Using Yes Man, Benny was able to discover the route the Courier would take, and hired Jessup, McMurphy and Chance to help him finish the job. The Courier was bound and shot in the head, buried in an unmarked grave at Goodsprings Cemetery, and left for dead.Fallout: New Vegas intro
After betraying his Great Khan accomplices, Benny made his way to the Tops and stayed in the casino area with four loyal bodyguards. However, unbeknownst to Benny, the Courier was not dead, and his actions had not gone unnoticed by Mr. House either.The Courier: "Were you aware that he hijacked a Securitron and used it to infiltrate your network?"Robert House: "I suspected he'd found a way to access my encrypted databases, but well - this explains it. That would be how he learned of the Platinum Chip in the first place... not to mention where to intercept you, on your way in. Highly resourceful, Benny. He would've made a fine agent, had he stayed loyal. It's fortunate you came along to replace him - and ironic."(Robert House's dialogue)
==Interactions with the player character==
===Interactions overview===
===Quests===
* They Went That-a-Way: The Courier tracks Benny in an attempt to discover the purpose of the package and get revenge. Manny Vargas is the first person to give the player character Benny's name and where he went. Jessup in the Boulder City ruins will reveal that Benny betrayed his Great Khan partners after intercepting the Courier, traveling to New Vegas and leaving them to fend for themselves when cornered by the NCR.
* The House Always Wins: House wants the platinum chip back in his possession. He needs the Courier to recover it from Benny.
* Ring-a-Ding-Ding!: The player character must confront Benny at the Tops casino, which results in either Benny's death, or him escaping to Fortification Hill with the platinum chip in an attempt to activate House's secret weapon, where he is captured by Caesar.
* Render Unto Caesar: Benny is captured by Caesar, who offers the Courier a gift by allowing the Courier to choose how Benny dies. Benny, for his part, seems accepting of his impending death and urges the Courier to take over his plan and create a truly independent New Vegas. Benny can be killed outright, be made to fight the Courier one-on-one inside the arena, or be crucified by the Legion (only the latter fate causes Benny to panic in any way, given its incredibly painful and torturous nature, the Courier will gain negative Karma by doing this). Benny can also be untied by the Courier, at which point he will flee Caesar's tent and disappear from the game. Sparing Benny will cause Caesar and his praetorian guards to become hostile, leading to a very difficult fight. If the Courier kills Benny (when he is tied up in the tent) before they take the quest, Caesar and his guards will also become hostile. The Courier can free Benny from captivity by giving him a Stealth Boy and a bobby pin. However, this will also result in the Legion turning hostile.
===Other interactions===
* Female Couriers with the Black Widow perk can convince Benny to take them to his room, where they can either attack him or sleep with him. After some humorous dialogue, they are given the option to kill him quietly in his sleep or leave him be. If the Courier chooses the second option, Benny will instantly teleport to Caesar's tent, making it impossible for the Courier to kill him on the Strip.
* If Caesar is killed while Benny is still tied up in the Fort, he will say "You're a scrapper, baby," then give the option of freeing him, leaving him, or killing him once finishing the dialogue.
* The Gun Runners' Arsenal challenge Talk About Owned requires the Courier to kill Benny with his own pistol, Maria. This can be achieved by pickpocketing it from him first, or shooting the gun out of his hand and then grabbing it.
* Killing Benny with a light machine gun, minigun, or submachine gun of any kind will count towards the Gun Runners' Arsenal challenge Nyah! See?
===Effects of player's actions===
* Upon first interaction, Benny will mention the Courier's reputation with the Strip or if the Lucky 38 was entered. 
* When Benny is spared in his sleep with the Black Widow perk, he will leave the note Thanks, baby for the Courier saying not to follow him to the Fort. The note also says that when he gets back, the Courier and him are going to go on a date.
==Inventory==
==Notes==
* After being killed, he will usually only have a single 9mm round on his corpse. This is due to a quirk in the game engine where NPCs require at least a single bullet to use a weapon (Maria in Benny's case). This single bullet allows the NPC to fire indefinitely.
* Benny becomes a superfluous character in the NCR questline. Should the player character pursue an NCR victory, they do not have to interact with Benny upon entering the Strip, and he can survive until the end of the game.
* When the Courier steals from Benny and he sees it, there will be no Karma loss. In addition, he may mutter "That don't belong to you!"
==Notable quotes==
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==Appearances==
Benny appears and .
==Behind the scenes==
* In the deck of Vault playing cards included with the Collector's Edition of Fallout: New Vegas, Benny is a joker. The other is Courier Six.
** A "Benny" is a trump card in trick-taking games, essentially a wild card, and is often represented by the joker.
*Benny's voice actor, Matthew Perry, was best known for his decade-long role as Chandler Bing on the hit 1990s sitcom Friends. Perry was cast for Fallout: New Vegas after expressing his fandom for Fallout 3 on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, saying he injured his hand after playing Fallout 3 so much and presenting Ellen DeGeneres with a signed copy of the game.How Ellen DeGeneres got Matthew Perry his role in Fallout: New Vegas - Engadget He passed away on October 28, 2023.
* The icon on his gun is Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe. This was likely a reference to Tybalt's handgun in Romeo + Juliet. Due to the prominence of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe in Latin American culture, Benny is sometimes claimed by Latin American and Indigenous fans. 
** A further parallel between Benny and Indigeneity may be drawn from how the Boot-Riders were forced to give up their former identity and take on "Rat Pack" affectations to become the Chairmen and manage the Tops. This was to serve as part of Mr. House's project to create an artificial for-profit culture on the Strip.
* Benny's suit is a reference to Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, who is often thought of as the father of modern-day Las Vegas.Joshua Sawyer on Formspring (Archived):Jspoel: "Can you tell me if Fallout: New Vegas' Benny is based on or a reference to the American gangster Benjamin 'Bugsy' Siegel? His name, looks, checkered suit and location (Las Vegas) indicate that."Joshua Sawyer: "Yes." His name is also similar.
* In a 2017 retrospective, Chris Avellone named Benny as one of many characters he would have liked to implement as a possible companion.The Making of Fallout New Vegas: How Obsidian's Cult Sequel Became a Beloved Classic - US Gamer (Archived)
* At one point in development, the Chairmen were going to be called the Geckos, with Benny as the head of the Gecko family. However, this name was dropped from development and thus did not make it into the final version of the game. This detail was described in a press release published in Shacknews two months before Fallout: New Vegas released.Shacknews - Fallout: New Vegas Celebrity Vocal Cast Revealed (Archived) 
** An Empire Online article published a month after the game's release, titled "16 Movie Stars You Didn't Know Appeared In Games," referred to Benny as "Benny Gecko," appearing to mistake Gecko as a surname for Benny based on pre-release information about the Gecko family. The name "Benny Gecko" has since been used by fans to refer to the character, though this full name has never appeared in official content.Empire Online - 16 Movie Stars You Didn't Know Appeared In Games (Archived)
* A cut encounter would have had Benny meeting the Courier again after being freed from the Fort. In the encounter, Benny would have equipped a Stealth Boy in order to sneak up on the Courier and initiate dialogue in which he would mock them for showing him mercy and after that go into attack mode, which would most likely cause him to be killed by the Courier. This was cut from the final game.
==Bugs==
* If one chooses to crucify Benny, he will end up being crucified outside of the Fort. Sometimes, both the crucified and regular versions of Benny will appear, and the regular version can be killed for Maria. One cannot receive Maria twice; it will only be on the Benny that is standing up next to the cross. Talking to Benny next to the cross will result in you deciding to kill him again.
* If one kills Benny before talking to him in his casino without getting noticed, the guards will continue to stand in their positions as if they were still protecting him.
* If one performs the Ranger Takedown on Benny while he is kneeling in Caesar's tent, Benny will be knocked from his position on the floor, stand up and protest. Caesar and his guards will not protest or react even though "Benny is forbidden to speak under penalty of death," until he is killed, at which time one of the guards may praise the player character's fighting prowess immediately before attacking the Courier.
* If one has the Super Slam! perk, the Ranger Takedown perk or a weapon that inflicts fatigue damage, it is possible to knock Benny off his cross. Upon landing, he will continue to act as if on the cross, but he will be standing on the ground. The same also happens when Benny is in Caesar's tent kneeling.
* If one chooses to crucify Benny and kill him while he is crucified, he can respawn if the player character kills Caesar and they can let him down for Karma. Benny will have his suit on but he will not have Maria.
* If the player character has Benny come up to the presidential suite with them, and lets him survive, he will move to the front of the Tops lobby. With a Barter skill of 35, one can then repeatedly choose "What'd you have in mind?" and then "The suite's a nice touch...", which will provide 500 caps and 250 The Tops chips every time. This bug allows for effectively infinite money.
* Upon talking to Benny for the first time in the Tops casino, by standing up in front of him and letting him survive, one can repeatedly choose between the Speech and Barter checks during dialogue. Speech will award 60 XP, and Barter will provide 500 caps, 250 The Tops chips and 35 XP. This allows one to get infinite XP and money.
* Sometimes, after talking to him in his suite, his bodyguards will not come in and attack, but if one rescued him from the Fort and talked to him back in his suite, after ending the conversation, he will get up, walk out of the door and his guards will enter the suite. This bug also makes him disappear from the game completely.
* Sometimes, Maria cannot be pickpocketed from him while in Caesar's tent. This can be fixed by placing a live explosive in his inventory, and after that taking all contents ("Take all"). Optionally, one can select Maria before Benny explodes.
==Gallery==
FNV Coll Edition 5.jpg|Concept art, Fallout: New Vegas Official Game Guide/Behind the Bright Lights & Big City
Benny card enlisted.png|Benny Collector's Edition card, enlisted
Benny (intro).jpg|Benny as he appears during the game intro
McMurphy intro.jpg|Benny draws Maria and prepares to kill the Courier
Benny 1.jpg|Benny with members of the Great Khans in the Fallout: New Vegas intro
Benny crucified.png|Benny, crucified at the Fort
File:Benny card front.png|On the Joker playing card
Fallout magic Lethal Scheme.png|Magic: The Gathering card (Lethal Scheme)
Fallout magic Lethal Scheme Extended Art.png|Extended Art
Fallout magic Lethal Scheme art.jpg|Card art
Fallout magic Lethal Scheme art behind the scenes.jpg|behind the scenes
==References==
Non-game
Category:Fallout: New Vegas human characters
Category:Fallout: New Vegas sleeping partners
Category:Collector's Edition playing card characters
Category:All Roads human characters
Category:Chairmen characters
Category:Tops characters
Category:The Fort characters
Category:Antagonists
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