Syndrome

**Syndrome** (real name **Buddy Pine**) is the main antagonist of *The Incredibles*. He originally wanted to be a superhero, but when his former idol Mr. Incredible rudely turned him down and rejected his offer, Syndrome went insane, became a supervillain, and devoted his life to killing superheroes for revenge on Mr. Incredible so he could take over as the world's sole "superhero", in addition to selling his impressive inventions to the world so that "everyone could be super" and therefore nobody would be unique.

He was voiced by Jason Lee.

### Personality

As a young Buddy Pine, the boy who would become Syndrome aspired to become a superhero and this goal led him to beg Mr. Incredible to hire him as a sidekick IncrediBoy. Sadly, after Bob categorically and justifiable refused to grant Buddy's favor, Buddy returned home in disgrace and rejected the righteous path. He had stopped idolizing Mr. Incredible and became embittered, eventually descending into megalomania.

Buddy was a technical genius and even at an early age, could create wondrous gadgets to circumvent his lack of "super" powers. After his dismissal at the hands of Mr. Incredible, and the dissolution of classical superheroes, the young man turned his gifts towards evil, eventually killing several superheroes with his Omnidroids and various superweapons. He was a classical sociopath, caring not at all for the rules of society; and seeing it as his mission to make himself the world's ultimate hero through trickery and technology, and when he grew tired of that, to make superheroes entirely obsolete by selling his weapons to the highest bidder. Because "when everyone is super... no one will be."

Syndrome appeared to be driven at an early age for recognition and ego nourishment, which are normal traits for that of a child prodigy as seen by him trying to overcompensate for his lack of super abilities with his brainpower and technology. Perhaps even if Mr. Incredible had not rejected Buddy, he would have still descended into villainy (or simply become an anti-hero) as he proved of having no grasp on the terms of what it means to be a hero, which was shown when he still considered himself one despite having killed real heroes. To put it simply, Syndrome, having never been told he was special or could do great things, wished to remove the world of *its* specialties (specifically supers) by either eradicating them or turning them redundant with his technology, which made him a bit of a complex character as well.

Despite his evil personality, he had assured Mirage he does care about her since he explained he was calling Mr. Incredible's previous bluff to crush her. When she storms off anyhow, Syndrome expresses shock and confusion. Syndrome is shown to have a comedic side, as he says that Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl "got busy" when he sees their children and he accidentally throws Mr. Incredible away while he reveals himself to his former idol.

Aside from being bitter and sociopathic, Syndrome was intensely sadistic as shown by how he taunted Mr. Incredible with his family's supposed death and a second time when he gloated to the family on how he would steal away Jack-Jack and turn him into a sidekick in a last-ditch attempt to spite Mr. Incredible.

Though it was years and his vindictiveness had completely absolved him, Syndrome did have a memory of why he respected Mr. Incredible and was visibly impressed when he tricked the probe by hiding from the corpse of Gazerbeam while claiming "he truly was Mr. Incredible" and was "still geeking out about it."

## History

Buddy Pine was a superhero fanatic and inventor who sneaks into a youthful Mr. Incredible's car, willing to be his self-appointed sidekick IncrediBoy. Mr. Incredible recognized Buddy from his fan-club and said that he posed for photo and signed every scrap of paper Buddy gave him, but Buddy arrogantly informed Mr. Incredible that he didn't have to worry about training him since he knows everything about him, being his number one fan. However, rather than allowing IncrediBoy to accompany him, Mr. Incredible ejects Buddy from his car and speeds off, with Buddy calling out from the road and telling him to wait.

Later on that night, right when Mr. Incredible saves pedestrian Oliver Sansweet from near-suicide convoluted into a bank robbery hostage to stop Bomb Voyage, Buddy showed up again as IncrediBoy, and told Mr. Incredible that he made new rocket boots and that he finally figured out who he is: his ward, IncrediBoy. However, when Mr. Incredible tells him that he's now officially carried it too far, Buddy unfairly assumed that it's because he doesn't have powers, despite the fact he didn't have any evidence to back him up, and says that not every superhero has powers and they can be super without them.

After asking Mr. Incredible if he can fly since he can with his rocket boots, he responded (while holding up Bomb Voyage, who tried to escape during his and Buddy's conversation), "Fly home, Buddy. I work alone." Buddy tells Mr. Incredible to just give him one chance and that he will show him by getting the police; but as he was leaving, Bomb Voyage throws a bomb on the end of his cape (which Buddy was unaware of and would echo a later scene in the movie regarding the dangers of wearing a cape by Edna), so Mr. Incredible was forced to let Bomb Voyage escape to save Buddy and dispose of the bomb because of the latter's recklessness. Unfortunately, the rescue ended up opening the floodgate of other lawsuits against supers (because of the two lawsuits that Mr. Incredible faced and lost) and thus, it abolished supers altogether.

Now sick and tired of Buddy, Mr. Incredible handed him over to the police in the back of their police car, telling them to send him back home and tell his mom what he has been doing so she can have a talk with him. When Mr. Incredible told the officers that Bomb Voyage escaped, he also added that "Skippy" made sure of that, only for Buddy to correct him, but Mr. Incredible responded that he is not affiliated with him.

#### Becoming a Supervillain

After Buddy was sent home and probably even scolded and sent to his room by his mom (which was shown in a flashback with a grown-up Buddy {as Syndrome} telling it to an older Mr. Incredible), he believed that he could not trust anyone, and that he realized that his lifelong dreams had been crushed, which gradually drove him to anger and hatred for Mr. Incredible and the other supers for not giving him the opportunity to become a superhero. Finally, Syndrome decided to let it drive him to revenge, becoming a supervillain to get his revenge on Mr. Incredible for refusing him to be his sidekick, as well as possibly getting him in trouble with his mom. Therefore, he started plotting, not acknowledging that it was his arrogance and reckless actions that caused him to be rejected in the first place.

For the next 15 years, Buddy worked his way into becoming a weapons designer, and became rich selling his weapons (possibly through the black market). His wealth became accumulated, that he was able to buy a remote island called Nomanisan, where he built up his operation base and hired thugs to serve as security guards.

Operating through his agent Mirage, Buddy (now known by his new super-villain name Syndrome) contacted several retired superheroes, tasking them with the defeating of various prototypes of the enormous Omnidroid battle robots, witht he explicit order to not completely destroy them. This was secretly a plan to test the robots against the supers. If the super died, Syndrome would recruit another and repeat the process. If the super survived and disabled the robot, then the data accumulated from the battle would be used to improve the Omnidroid's design, and the victorious super would then be sent to disable the new model; no super ever survived the second encounter. This led to the Omnidroids becoming more difficult to defeat every time, with Syndrome's eventual goal being to make the Omnidroid powerful enough to defeat Mr. Incredible.

#### Formulating a Plot for Glory

Deciding that his Omnidroid was now good enough to fight Mr. Incredible, Syndrome had Mirage recruit his old idol, who was able to defeat the Omnidroid.

After repairing and improving the machine, Syndrome sent it to fight Mr. Incredible. When the hero was outmatched rather quickly, Syndrome revealed himself (also saying that all he wanted was to help Mr. Incredible, but what made him snap was when he told him to fly home and that he works alone) and he declared that he would be Mr. Incredible's new nemesis. Syndrome cruelly scolds Mr. Incredible for not letting him be his sidekick and ruins everything to him. Mr. Incredible sadly admitted that he didn't mean to treat Syndrome that way and apologized for it. Syndrome assumed that since he now had power over him he was bluffing, and he goes on a monologue with Mr. Incredible. After Mr. Incredible takes advantage of the moment to throw a log at Syndrome (who dodges it), Syndrome immobilizes Mr. Incredible with his zero-point energy ray, which is shot from the pointer finger of Syndrome's glove. Syndrome's zero-point energy ray causes a person (or superhero, in this case) hit by the ray to immediately become immobilized, lose all velocity, and levitate off of the ground, making them unable to speak or move. If their skin is exposed, then their facial movements are reduced to only being able to move their eyeballs, giving Syndrome complete control of their motion in all three dimensions. After using the ray to throw Mr. Incredible around several times to show his power over the superhero, Syndrome accidentally uses his zero-point energy ray to throw Mr. Incredible over a waterfall, much to Syndrome's irritation. Not wanting to take any chances, he then tried to finish him off with an explosive device to ensure his demise.

Mr. Incredible is now scared and sees the explosion in the water, but Syndrome sends his life-detector to see if Mr. Incredible survived the explosion. Mr. Incredible used Gazerbeam's skeletal remains (who had been presumably killed by Syndrome for knowing too much about his schemes) to make Syndrome think that he was killed by the bomb, which works.

Unfortunately, Syndrome was able to capture Mr. Incredible when he tried to infiltrate his base later on (during which Mr. Incredible discovered Syndrome's computer and found out that Syndrome had killed former superheroes before him with his Omnidroids, and had tracked down other retired superheroes as well), also realizing that he used Gazerbeam's remains to trick the probe into thinking that he was dead to being with. He admitted that he was right to idolize Mr. Incredible despite his grudge against him, though he is disappointed that he decided to call for help and that it was lame.

Due to the fact that Elastigirl had activated the tracking device on his supersuit in an attempt to find where Mr. Incredible was, Syndrome and Mirage believed that he had made contact for reinforcements and began to interrogate him. Despite Mr. Incredible's intents that he never knew about the homing device and that he wasn't contacting anyone, he inadvertently recognize Elastigirl's voice on the transmission line as she's flying a government plane (borrowed by her old friend Snug Porter) to the island, making Syndrome believe that he had in fact been lying to him. With this knowledge, Syndrome decide to send a little "greeting" by having missiles to take down Elastigirl's plane.

Mr. Incredible begs Syndrome by telling him to call off the missiles and that he'll do anything, but Sydrome refuses, by saying in revenge that it's "15 years too late". The shock became intensified when Elastgirl announced that there are children on-board (as they stowed away to follow her), much to Mr. Incredible's horror and Mirage's shock, as she starts to question Syndrome's ways. As the last missile finally destroys the plane, Syndrome took great pleasure in killing the occupants (not knowing that they actually evaded the crash alive and are now using the powers to swim to the island), recalling how Mr. Incredible had told him that he worked alone after he offered to be his sidekick. Mr. Incredible then retaliated by threatening to kill Mirage by crushing her; but Syndrome refused to release him and goads him to crush Mirage.

Mr. Incredible decided to let her go, realizing that that wouldn't make things better and Syndrome teased that he knew Mr. Incredible couldn't do it, even when he's got nothing to lose because he says that Mr. Incredible's weak and that he's outgrown him. Mirage (feeling sorry for Mr. Incredible, who is crying over loss of his family) gets mad at Syndrome for being cruel to Mr. Incredibles and murdering heroes, especially when hers was threatened by Mr. Incredible, instead of valuing Syndrome attempts to appease Mirage that he just called Mr. Incredible's bluff and that he knew that he wasn't planning to hurt her, but a disgusted Mirage tells her former boss, "Next time you gamble... bet your own life!" and quits.

Mirage later learns that Mr. Incredible's family survived the crash and are on the island. She then frees Mr. Incredible from captivity, informs him of his family's survival, and helps him escape and reunite with his family. However, Syndrome (being unaware of Mirage's recent actions) was able to recapture Mr. Incredible along with his family by immobilizing them with his zero-point energy rays, and finally deduces that Mr. Incredible had married Elastigirl and had two children with her.

Believing that he had hit the jackpot by capturing an entire family of superheroes, Syndrome imprisons the Incredibles in one of his multi-prisoner containment units. He takes the opportunity to brag about how he had beaten them, even without having any superpowers for himself. As such, Syndrome reveals his true plan to the Incredibles: he intends to set the Omnidroid on Metroville to go on a rampage, and then stop it himself, therefore taking the credit and setting himself up as the city's new hero for years until he retires. Syndrome also announces that after his retirement, he will sell his inventions to the world so that others could be super, thus destroying the concept of supers and making the term meaningless.

Believing that he finally beat the best superheroes as well as the Incredibles, Syndrome heads off to Metroville to finalize his plan, putting up a show 'fighting' against the Omnidroid-stopping it from nearly killing a woman and her baby. However, Syndrome realized too late that the Omnidroid's ability to learn allowed it to identify Syndrome as a threat, blasting his remote control wristband from his wrist. Panicking, Syndrome attempted to flee the area, pushing several bystanders out of his way, before the Omnidroid destroyed one of his rocket boots, sending him flying out of control into a building, knocking him out cold.

He remained unconscious during the Incredibles' escape and return back to Metroville, where they teamed up with a fellow superhero Frozone to destroy the Omnidroid by taking out its brainpan, causing it to shut down and explode. As soon as Syndrome regains consciousness, he is angry to see that the Incredibles have foiled his plan.

### Death

With Syndrome's plot now exposed to the public, his assets are frozen by the government and a warrant is put out for his arrest (as stated by Rick Dicker), Buddy now must find a way to continue his operations and his revenge. Angry to see what was happening to him, Syndrome made one final attempt at revenge by breaking into the Incredibles' house and abducting Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl's infant son Jack-Jack. He persuaded his current babysitter that he was a replacement, telling her that the S on his shirt stood for Sitter and that he could not run around with a "BS" on his shirt in public. Kari believes him without question, wanting to get away from Jack-Jack as she was having a lot of trouble with the superpowered baby. When the Incredibles arrived to rescue Jack Jack, Syndrome zapped them with his zero-point energy ray with his finger and reassured them that he'll be a good mentor to Jack-Jack, and probably even raised him as his sidekick in time. He then threw the Incredibles out of the home and crashed through the ceiling and up to his jet plane while holding a crying Jack-Jack.

But unfortunately for Syndrome, this plan also failed when Jack-Jack's transforming superpower manifested and allowed him to beat Syndrome up. Elastigirl was then thrown into the air by Mr. Incredible to rescue her baby (who fell out of Syndrome's arms when he hit the wing of his plane) and then she used her body as a parachute to glide back down to safety. Finally realizing that he lost, Syndrome leaned from the side door of his jet plane, vowing revenge on the Incredible family and yells at them that he will get Jack-Jack one day before proceeding to cackle evilly.

Not wanting to let Syndrome get away and finally pushed to his limit, Mr. Incredible started looking around for something to throw at Syndrome, spotting the car that he had bought with the money he had given him earlier. Mr. Incredible threw the car at him, knocking Syndrome off-balance inches away from the plane's air turbine. Syndrome attempted to escape, but was killed for good when his cape snagged him in the turbine (echoing an earlier scene in the movie regarding the dangers of wearing a cape by Edna) causing the aircraft to explode, putting an end to Syndrome's menace and finally avenging Gazerbeam and all those supers he killed.

### Incredibles 2

Due to his death, Syndrome obviously doesn't appear in the film in person, but he is briefly indirectly mentioned by Bob when he references that the jet blew up and took his suits and their old house with it, which was caused by Syndrome's death in the jet turbine. Therefore, Buddy's actions left a major impact considering that he ended up indirectly forcing the family to move which serves as a huge source of tension throughout the film.

Syndrome also appears in the end storyboard that shows Gazerbeam being killed by one of the Omnidroids.

## Trivia

* Syndrome will become Thomas and Twilight Sparkle's enemy in *Thomas and Twilight Sparkle Meets The Incredibles.*
* Syndrome is one of the four Pixar villains to be considered Pure Evil, along with Miles Axlerod, Professor Zundapp, and Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear. He is also the first of these villains to be a human.

## Gallery

Buddy Pine as a boy before he became Syndrome.Syndrome's death