Delbert McClintock

“*I will hunt down the alleged arachnid and spritz him to kingdom come.*”
—Delbert McClintock[src]
**Delbert McClintock** is an exterminator who worked for Bugs-B-Gone, a company he founded in Canaima, California in 1988. In 1990, he was part of a group that helped investigate and exterminate a deadly infestation of spiders in Canaima that had caused the deaths of multiple residents.

## Biography

### Early life

“*No room for amateurs in this game.*”
—Delbert McClintock[src]
Some time before 1990, Delbert acquired his licensure in pest control. In 1988, he established his solo pest control business, Bugs-B-Gone, in Canaima, California, which was also called “McClintock Infestation Management.” In that capacity, he served the Greater Canaima Area. He also developed a potent insecticide he called Toxi-Max, which was patented and held in private stock at his company.

After opening his business, Delbert engaged in pest control throughout the town of Canaima. However, at some point he mishandled pesticide and accidentally intoxicated some of his customers, temporarily hospitalizing some of them. The whole incident was reported in the *Canaima Times*, which Delbert believed was greatly exaggerated.

### Servicing Canaima residents

“*Take out bad wood. Put in good wood.*”
—Delbert[src]

In 1990, Delbert was hired to inspect the Jennings residence for termites, the recently relocated family having discovered rotting wood in their wine cellar. Delbert was unable to locate the presumed termite infestation, blaming the poor condition of the wine cellar on "bad wood." He then advised Molly Jennings, who was present for the inspection, to replace the bad wood with good wood. The two then briefly discussed Dr. Jennings' collection of vintage wine, Delbert revealing his affinity for collecting rare cans of beer.

Later, Delbert was hired by another Canaima household, the Beechwoods, when a spider was discovered in their shower. Although he was again unable to locate the arachnid in the bathroom, he encountered a specimen outside the residence as he returned to his truck. When he spritzed the pest with his insecticide, the resilient spider recovered and attempted to flee. Delbert then elected to flatten the spider with his heavy duty boot specially crafted to compress the exoskeletons of such pests. Delbert then continued to his truck, proclaiming to be bad.

### Eradicating the spider infestation

“*Actually, he's probably still at the bottom of my shoe.*”
—Delbert[src]
Following this encounter, Delbert made contact with Sheriff Lloyd Parsons of the Canaima Police Department, who was aware of a dangerous arachnid presence in the town. Lloyd brought Delbert to a gathering of the individuals involved in the investigation—specifically, Dr. Ross Jennings, Dr. James Atherton, and Chris Collins. When he arrived, Delbert greeted Atherton, a renowned Professor of Entomology and leading expert on spider biology, with a handshake and a pleasantry regarding the two as colleagues.

The group soon discovered that the spiders possessed a short life expectancy due to being a mixed breed, having been hatched from the mating of a domestic house spider with a highly venomous, novel species of spider discovered by Atherton in Venezuela. Dr. Atherton informed the group that the species was hierarchical; the spiders theretofore encountered were infertile drones deployed by a fertile male General to eliminate potential threats or competition. One such General of the species had been accidentally imported to Canaima, which had initiated the infestation. Dr. Atherton also explained that the General had produced a Queen, with whom he had likely mated to form a second nest someplace, guarded by the Queen, which would hatch fertile offspring. Atherton elaborated that the transplanted spiders progressively expand their territory, possibly culminating in their worldwide dispersal. Now fully aware of the catastrophic threat, the group then set out to destroy both nests and kill the Queen and General.

Deducing that the nest was in his barn by the presence of enormous webs, Ross sent Delbert to destroy it. When he arrived at the barn, Delbert did not notice as the General crept by his feet, advancing towards the residence. He did, however, find the cocooned carcass of Dr. Atherton, who had succumbed to the pests, before destroying the barn nest in toto.

At the residence, Collins managed to escort the Jennings family out of their infested house. During the chaos, Ross fell through the floor and into his wine cellar, which he quickly discovered was the second nest. Delbert, meanwhile, retrieved his potent Toxi-Max insecticide, which was held in private stock at his company. He then arrived at the Jennings residence donning his full extermination suit and accompanying equipment. The infestation was completely eliminated in the ensuing encounter, both by Delbert's efforts within the Jennings residence and Ross's contemporaneous victory over the General and Queen.

### Later Extermination Efforts

“*The only good spider is a dead spider.*”
—Delbert[src]
Shortly after his successful extermination of the spider threat in Canaima, Delbert found his services in high demand, particularly due to the proven success of his Toxi-Max insecticide. To meet the high demand and counter the increased threat, Delbert expanded his operations by forming a Spider Infestation Control team and hiring a number of Arachnid Abatement Technicians for that purpose. He proceeded to clear the towns of Webster, Dudley, Elias, Buggley, Infes Station, and Arachton, which had also become infested.

For this reason he was honored on the front page of the *Canaima Howler* with the headline "Del's Our Hero!" and received official commendation from the President of the United States. Delbert then offered his services to the United Nations, which was developing a plan to dispatch a competent exterminator to the spiders’ native habitat for total eradication of the species.

Shortly thereafter, due to his great expertise in anti-pest operations, Delbert was selected for the assignment to Venezuela, South America. There, Delbert managed to destroy the remaining spider population in their native tepui. The exterminator proudly hoisted one final spider carcass and proclaimed that he preferred spiders dead to alive.

## Characters met

* James Atherton
* Molly Jennings
* Ross Jennings

## Behind the scenes

Delbert McClintock was portrayed by John Goodman in the 1990 film *Arachnophobia*. His character, an eccentric exterminator, was added to balance the horror and thriller elements of the film with some comedic elements, transforming the film into what Disney marketing called a “thrill-omedy” or black comedy.

During production of *Arachnophobia*, Spielberg suggested Goodman for the role. Goodman recalled in an interview with *Vanity Fair* that he was cast as Delbert, who would provide the film's comedy relief, after a conversation with Jeffrey Katzenberg. At the time, Goodman had experienced some success with the television series *Roseanne* and used his time off from the show to portray Delbert. Goodman had already worked with Daniels on a Butterball turkey commercial. After accepting the role, Goodman felt that he "got a little too comfortable" with Steven Spielberg's company Amblin Entertainment, which co-produced the film, and that it felt like "the most natural thing in the world" to rub elbows with them. Frequently, after finishing on set at *Roseanne*, he would spend time at Amblin, which he called "a very friendly place." He enjoyed working with director Frank Marshall, who he recalled was "very easygoing" and "welcomed collaboration." With respect to the spiders, he said, "We see each other eye to eye—well, two eyes to their sixteen."

Due to time constraints, Marshall was unable to rehearse Delbert's scenes with Goodman. The actor initially had some difficulty creating a character and personality for Delbert, but as shooting started, he based his performance on both an exterminator he knew and a high school biology teacher that amused him growing up.

While filming a scene in which Delbert exits his extermination truck, executive producer Steven Spielberg hid inside the vehicle and told Goodman, "We're the only two people who know I'm here." In the scene wherein Delbert sprays a spider with insecticide and squashes it underneath his shoe, a rubber spider was sprayed, and a hollowed-out boot was substituted so that the real spider remained unharmed. The whole scene took hours to film; Goodman recalled that the spider would curl inside the boot and linger there until the next filming. Spielberg was also present for this scene and located the "goo" which served as the spider's innards. Goodman has said that, after *Arachnophobia*, he "always tried not to kill spiders"—though he believes a spider bit him around 2010 and left him with a swollen foot.

Delbert is the only movie character to appear in the *Arachnophobia* video game, where he is the game’s playable protagonist. The game features pest control efforts not only in the film’s setting of Canaima, but also various other fictional towns with such tongue-in-cheek names as “Infes Station” and “Buggley.” The game also features an additional story which has Delbert traveling to the South American jungle on assignment from the United Nations and destroying the spiders at their source.

## Appearances

1. ARACHNOPHOBIA (first appearance)
2. ARACHNOPHOBIA novel
3. ARACHNOPHOBIA: Official Movie Adaptation
4. ARACHNOPHOBIA video game
5. *Know Your Eight-Legged Enemy: The Authoritative Guide on Spider Eradication* (mentioned only)

## References

1. ↑  Arachnophobia TV Spot #8 (1990) (low quality) on YouTube
2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 ARACHNOPHOBIA video game
3. ↑ *Know Your Eight-Legged Enemy: The Authoritative Guide on Spider Eradication*
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 *Know Your Eight-Legged Enemy: The Authoritative Guide on Spider Eradication* at p. 6
5. ↑ This storyline is contained in the *Arachnophobia* video game, but it is unclear how the spiders came to infest these other towns, given the film portrays Delbert and Jennings as extinguishing their presence entirely. However, the video game mentions that the General mated with a number of other “queens,” which is not depicted in the film, but not necessarily controverted by it, either.
6. ↑ *Know Your Eight-Legged Enemy: The Authoritative Guide on Spider Eradication* at p. 4
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Gregg Kilday, Charles Fleming, and Benjamin Svetkey. "*Arachnophobia.*" *Entertainment Weekly.* No. 24. July 27, 1990.
8. ↑ Interview: Wesley Strick. *We Are Cult.* January 10, 2018.
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Beresford, Jack. How Arachnophobia Became the Perfect Creepy Crawly Horror Comedy. *Den of Geek.* October 11, 2020.
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2  John Goodman Breaks Down His Career, From 'The Big Lebowski' to 'Monsters, Inc.'  on YouTube
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Awalt, Steven. Along Came a Director: Frank Marshall on the Making of 'Arachnophobia'. Amblin Entertainment. July 17, 2020.
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 12.5 de Samlyen, Nick. *Into the Spider-Verse.* Empire magazine. Dec. 2020.
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3  John Goodman Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters  on YouTube
14. ↑ *Thrills, Chills & Spiders: The Making of* Arachnophobia ( Available on YouTube on YouTube)
15. ↑ *Arachnophobia* (1990) at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films