Terry Silver
Terrance "Terry" Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith; Nick Marini in season 3 flashbacks in "Cobra Kai"), is a fictional character who appears in "The Karate Kid" franchise created by Robert Mark Kamen. He serves as the main antagonist in "The Karate Kid Part III" and in the fourth season of "Cobra Kai". He is played by Thomas Ian Griffith. Nick Marini plays a younger version of him in flashbacks in Cobra Kai. Fictional biography. Born to a wealthy family, Silver joined the US Army and was deployed to Vietnam sometime before 1968, where he met John Kreese. Silver was  given the nickname "Twig" by fellow squadmate Ponytail, because of his skinny arms. Kreese, Ponytail, and Silver are handpicked by Special Forces Captain Turner (Terry Serpico) to take part in covert missions. During one such mission to attack a North Vietnamese Army base, the unit is captured when Silver's radio crackles, leading to Ponytail being executed by their captors. While in captivity, an NVA officer chose Silver to participate in a forced hand-to-hand fight to the death with Turner, only for Kreese to volunteer himself instead. After being saved by an airstrike by the US Air Force , Kreese kills Turner and Silver offers his undying loyalty to him as his personal thanks. Silver's experiences in Vietnam left him struggling with posttraumatic stress disorder and would resort to using cocaine to deal with his trauma. In honor of Ponytail, Silver grows a ponytail after leaving the military. Indebted to Kreese for saving his life, Silver helped Kreese establish the Cobra Kai dojo as a gift of gratitude and friendship in 1975. However, Silver was forced to help run his family's business at the insistence of his father, who threatened to cut him out of the family  inheritance. Though he left Cobra Kai to Kreese, Silver promised him that he would help run the dojo one day. Silver would relentlessly practice karate, eventually turning into an expert in the sport. Over time, Silver also developed psychopathic tendencies and would manipulate his enemies by exploiting their weaknesses against them. Section::::"The Karate Kid Part III". By 1985, Silver is the head of a toxic waste disposal company called Dynatox Industries, which illegally dumps waste in the environment. By this time, the future of Cobra Kai is in doubt when all of Kreese's students leave after he attacked his  star student Johnny Lawrence in retaliation for losing to Daniel LaRusso. When Kreese tells Silver he wants to shut down Cobra Kai, Silver vows to help him get revenge on Daniel and Mr. Miyagi and make Cobra Kai successful again. Silver sends Kreese to Tahiti to rest while he hires karate expert Mike Barnes to defeat Daniel in the next All Valley Under-18 Karate Championships. Silver breaks into Mr. Miyagi's house to gather information on him and Daniel. He's nearly discovered but he hides inside the fireplace. He introduces himself to Daniel and Mr. Miyagi on a later  day, claiming that he was sent to help Kreese regain balance. He lies to them saying that Kreese died of a cardiac arrest brought on by a broken heart and sadness at losing all of his karate students. He also blames Kreese's erratic behavior as a result of his years fighting in the Vietnam War. Silver "apologizes" to both Daniel and Mr. Miyagi on behalf of Kreese. When Silver finds out that Daniel will not fight at the tournament this year, he orders Barnes and his two thugs, Snake and Dennis, to harass Daniel and coerce him into entering  the tournament. After Daniel signs up for the tournament, he turns to Silver for guidance after Mr. Miyagi refuses to train him. Silver, acting on a request from Kreese to make Daniel's knuckles bleed, forces Daniel to destroy a wooden dummy. After Daniel finally destroys the dummy and injures himself at the same time, Silver tells him that he is ready for the tournament. When Daniel and his friend, Jessica Andrews, are at a nightclub, Silver bribes a man into provoking a fight with Daniel. Daniel punches the man and breaks his nose. Realizing that he has become a  different man and has alienated himself from his friends, Daniel informs Silver that he will not fight at the tournament. Silver reveals his true agenda and alliance with Barnes. As Daniel attempts to flee the dojo, Kreese reveals himself and Barnes attacks him. Mr. Miyagi then appears at the dojo to rescue Daniel, engaging Barnes, Kreese, and Silver in one-on-one fights. Though he puts up the strongest fight of the three, Silver is defeated by Miyagi, but continues to taunt him afterwards. At the tournament, the committee organizers allow Silver to give a speech before the final match . Silver tells the audience that he will open a chain of Cobra Kai dojos where young people can learn "honesty, compassion, and fair play." When the fight begins, Silver and Kreese instruct Barnes to inflict pain on Daniel, by winning a point and subsequently losing a point to keep the score tied, leading to a sudden death round. The plan appears to work until Daniel unleashes his kata on Barnes during the sudden death round, defeating Barnes. After the final point is scored, Silver walks away in disgust as Cobra Kai shirts are discarded around him. Section::::"Cobra Kai". Season 1 . Silver's, Kreese's, and Barnes's ruthless and unethical actions during the 1985 All-Valley Tournament led to the tournament committee issuing a lifetime ban on Cobra Kai from participating in the All-Valley. As he never met Silver or Barnes during his time as a student under Kreese, Johnny appeals the ban by acknowledging the problems of the previous Cobra Kai, promising that his new version of Cobra Kai is nothing like it and is dedicated to helping change kids' lives for the better. The committee agrees to reverse the ban much to Daniel's chagrin, who is  a member. Season 2. Silver is seen in archival footage, when Daniel tells his students a brief synopsis of his time reluctantly training with Silver due to Mike Barnes forcing him to compete in the 1985 All-Valley Tournament to defend his championship title (from "The Karate Kid Part III"). After listening to Daniel's story of how his Cobra Kai membership and the Cobra Kai culture negatively affected his personality, Demetri and Robby reconcile with Chris, and Demetri and Chris work together to lift a rock back up. Season 3. A young Silver is seen in flashbacks during the  time when he and Kreese were soldiers in the Vietnam War. When they are both captured, Kreese offers to fight Turner instead of Silver (who would certainly lose the fight). After Kreese defeats Turner, Silver expresses his gratitude towards Kreese and pledges his undying loyalty to Kreese. At the end of season 3, Kreese is seen picking up a photograph of himself and Silver in Vietnam. Remembering the promise Silver made to him, he calls him up asking for his help in taking on Johnny and Daniel, who have teamed up to train their students for the next All-Valley . Season 4. Silver rejects Kreese's initial request for him to rejoin Cobra Kai and hangs up his phone call. When Kreese crashes a party at Silver's beach house, he tells him that Johnny and Daniel have joined forces. However, Silver still refuses to help and admits to being addicted to cocaine in the 1980s and realizes the absurdity of his plan to terrorize Daniel and Miyagi in 1985. He says that after the 1985 All-Valley Tournament, he hit rock bottom and went into rehab and therapy to turn his life around. He is now in a relationship  with Cheyenne Hamidi, whom he is helping to release a mindfulness app. He has also adopted a vegan diet and has surrounded himself with friends like Cheyenne. Silver has even gone so far as to remove his cobra tattoo on his ribcage to remove all traits of his association with Cobra Kai. However, Kreese's unexpected reappearance into Silver's life causes him to regress back to his old ways. Remembering his promise to Kreese and convinced that he cannot escape his past, Silver abandons Cheyenne and agrees to return to Cobra Kai. However, Silver states that he wants  to do things differently to avoid repeating their previous failure. Kreese and Silver visit Miyagi-do so that Silver can reintroduce himself to Daniel and establish rules before the tournament. Although Silver apologizes to Daniel for his past actions, Daniel forces the duo to leave as he remembers the ways in which Silver had deceived him. After a period of time training together at Cobra Kai, Kreese comes to believe that Silver is attempting to undermine him with conflicting lessons and by suggesting Kreese has a weakness during a lesson. When Kreese reprimands Silver, Silver attempts to prove his loyalty  by purchasing numerous properties for Cobra Kai dojos for expansion, including their original dojo. He also uses Johnny's son and Cobra Kai student Robby Keene to lure him into a trap to brutalize him and demoralize Johnny's students, particularly Miguel Diaz. However, Kreese orders Silver to stop beating Johnny, and a bewildered Silver gets drunk and furiously brutalizes Stingray, a former adult Cobra Kai student desperate to rejoin after Kreese rejected him. During the tournament, Silver and Kreese give conflicting instructions to their students, straining their relationship further, though they eventually win the tournament. He later announces that  Cobra Kai will be expanding as a franchise all across the Valley, while abandoning the original dojo, much to Kreese's dismay. Afterwards, Tory Nichols, winner of the female fighters division, discovers that Silver had paid off the referee into bribing the matches in Cobra Kai's favor. Later, while Silver and Kreese celebrate their victory at Silver's beach house, Silver proceeds to tell Kreese that his weakness is Johnny. A resentful Silver then admits his own weakness for Kreese by pledging a life debt to him and decides to do away with it by ending their friendship and  having Kreese arrested for attempted murder and aggravated assault, as Silver had coerced Stingray to frame Kreese for his beating in exchange for rejoining Cobra Kai. As Kreese is apprehended, he swears revenge on Silver, who tauntingly promises to recruit some "old friends" to teach at the new Cobra Kai dojos and to defeat Daniel and Johnny once and for all. With Kreese behind bars, Silver takes complete control of Cobra Kai for himself. Commentary. John Kreese was initially intended to have a larger role in "The Karate Kid III," but due to Martin Kove’s schedule conflicts with "Hard  Time on Planet Earth", the character of Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) was written into the script. "The Karate Kid III" was Griffith's first film. As a child, Griffith studied both acting and martial arts (Kenpo Karate and Tai Kwon Do), and prior to the film, he had performed on and off Broadway. Griffith states that when he was "cast for the Karate Kid role, my character wasn't supposed to do any martial arts at all...I just tortured Ralph, basically, and plotted his demise with Martin Kove." The narrative shifted after the fight choreographer learned of his  background in martial arts. At the time he was cast, Griffith "figured the Terry Silver role was out of reach because he was 28 at the time and the character was a Vietnam War veteran about two decades his senior. And since Macchio, then 27, had to somehow play a convincing teenager, casting someone younger than him as Daniel’s older antagonist seemed simply insane. Griffith presumed he had a better shot of being cast as “Bad Boy” Mike Barnes, a karate champion who fights La Russo in the climactic scene."