Dorian Tyrell is the main antagonist in 1994 film The Mask. He was a mobster and one of America's professional killers, who worked for Niko, the Mafia chieftain of Edge City.
He is portrayed by Peter Greene.
History[]
The Mask (1994 film)[]
Tyrell's job was to oversee the management of Niko's club, the Coco Bongo. However, Tyrell grew weary of taking orders from Niko, and with a number of henchmen loyal to him, planned to eliminate Niko in order to ascend to Don of Edge City.
Carrying out his sinister plot step-by-step, Dorian had his mole, Tina Carlyle, go to the local bank and use her handbag as a camera so that Tyrell, who was on the top floor of the Coco Bongo, could get a view of the bank's security system. Tyrell then organized for his right-hand man and best friend, Freeze, to rob the bank in order to obtain the cash necessary for their plot against Niko.
However, Niko's henchmen eventually discovered Tyrell's schemes. His criminal activities attracted unwanted attention from the police and the Coco Bongo was almost closed down by them due to their investigations. Unable to tolerate Tyrell's behavior, Niko ordered his thugs to take Tyrell to meet with him. Niko threatened Tyrell via his thugs forcing him down at gunpoint, placing a golf tee in his mouth with a golf ball on top. Niko swung his tee and hit the ball, giving Tyrell a bloody lip and narrowly avoiding his skull. After explaining that he would not tolerate Tyrell's plans, Niko informed Tyrell that he would not kill him if he left Edge City within a week.
Refusing to obey Niko's demand, Tyrell sent his most trusted henchmen (Freeze, Sweet Eddy, Murray, and one nameless henchman) to rob the local bank they had previously examined. Tyrell remained at the Coco Bongo to attend to his necessary duties along with his other trusted henchman, Orlando. But later that night, Tyrell's men returned with a mortally wounded Freeze, shot several times in the stomach, much to Tyrell's regret. Freeze informed Tyrell that someone robbed the bank before them and set off the burglar alarm, luring the police to the bank and resulting in a gunfight. Tyrell offered Freeze a cigarette, but when he was in the process of lighting it, Freeze died.
Enraged that the robbery attempt was a disaster and at losing one of his most trusted henchmen, Tyrell violently questioned Eddy as to who was the one responsible, and the terrified Eddy pointed to a green-faced, smartly dressed man below on the dancefloor. The man was Stanley Ipkiss under the influence of the Mask, who was performing an intense dance with Tina. Tyrell and Orlando confronted Ipkiss and Orlando fired a single shot at him, which narrowly missed. Tyrell's henchmen threatened all the guests, who were ordered to leave. Tyrell and Orlando interrogated Ipkiss,demamded to know where the money was, which the mask responded by pulling out an adding machine going over his financial status(As Stanley was actual banker) and funeral bouquets(referring to the death of Freeze). Unable to tolerate his wacky behavior, talking about his personal status and for mocking the loss of his friend,Tyrell ordered Orlando to open fire, but Ipkiss managed to flee. Shortly after, the police entered. Lt. Mitch Kellaway intervened and accused Tyrell of having his men rob the bank, as Tyrell's men were found on the scene. Tyrell and his men were then cuffed by Kellaway and taken to the police station, for fingerprinting and further questioning.
However, due to the fingerprints at the crime scene not matching those of Tyrell's men, Tyrell and his men were released. In an effort to exact revenge on Ipkiss, Tyrell placed a $50,000 bounty on his head. Eventually, Tyrell and his men were led by Peggy Brandt to Ipkiss, who betrayed Ipkiss despite offering to help him hide from the police when he fled from them while under the influence of the powers from the mask. Tyrell gave the money to Peggy and took possession of the mask. He ordered his men to dangle Ipkiss over a Newspaper Printing Machine, despite Peggy's cries not to harm him. Tyrell demanded to know how the wooden mask worked. After being told by Ipkiss that he simply should wear it, Tyrell put on the mask, and dramatically transformed. His appearance differed significantly from the appearance of Ipkiss under the control of the mask. Rather than the thin and comical variant similar to Ipkiss, a bulkier and more intimidating version of himself was created, possessing an extremely deep voice, burning red eyes and purple, chapped lips, but still retaining the trademark green face. His hair was also the same even under the influence of the mask, contradicting Ipkiss, as his head under the influence of the mask was bald.
Tyrell then made a fake green mask and handed Ipkiss over to the police with it. The police drew the conclusion that Ipkiss was the culprit they had been looking for due to the presence of the mask with him. Ipkiss was then thrown into prison.
The next day, Tyrell heard that Tina had visited Ipkiss at the police station, and he and his men cornered her in the streets by gunpoint as she attempted to flee. As Tyrell threatened Tina not to betray him earlier, Tyrell then changed his rebellion plans, planning to kill Tina in the process.
That night, Tyrell, wearing the mask, barged into the Coco Bongo with his men. They confronted Niko and his gang, who were celebrating under the belief that Tyrell had left town. After a verbal confrontation, a gunfight took place. Two of Tyrell's henchmen were shot but his thugs succeeded in eliminating everyone except Niko himself. Tyrell challenged Niko to a shoot-out, prompting Niko to fire several shots at Tyrell, hitting him with all of the bullets but Tyrell was seemingly unharmed. He then proceeded to suck the bullets from his body and fire them back. Niko was hit several times and killed. Tyrell ordered his men to ransack the club, taking as much cash as they could. He then proceeded to use a bomb to destroy the Coco Bongo, taking Tina and many other innocent lives with it, unaware that Ipkiss had escaped from the police station and, aided by a reluctant Kellaway, was coming to find him for a final confrontation.
Ipkiss was captured by Orlando when attempting to sneak closer to Tyrell, after knocking out Bobby the Bouncer (who Dorian had used to block the back exit) and handing his gun to Charlie. Tina, tied to an artificial tree next to the bomb, tricked Tyrell into removing the mask for one last kiss. As Tyrell kissed her, Tina kicked the mask out of his hands, and a fight began, which involved Stanley's dog, Milo, managing to put the mask on. He then proceeded to attack Tyrell's men. Meanwhile, as the timer of the bomb continued to count down, Tyrell and Ipkiss fought until Ipkiss succeeded in knocking out Tyrell with solid punches.
Ipkiss retrieved the mask off Milo and put it on. He then managed to dispose of the bomb by swallowing it whole and muffling before freeing Tina and also defeated Tyrell's thugs including Eddy, Orlando, Doc, and several nameless henchmen. Tyrell attempted to kill Ipkiss from behind with a hidden penknife. Ipkiss notices this coming assault due to Milo barking once at him and, using his powers, painted a flush handle on the nearby tree, pulling it just as Tyrell entered the fountain next to them. The flush worked like a real one and Tyrell, screaming, was flushed away into the sewers; followed by his penknife. It is assumed that he drowned.
The Mask (SNES game)[]
Dorian Tyrell and his gang of rogues are secretly planning to take over Edge City, a small and prosperous city where the nightlife revolves around the wealthy patrons who attend the nightclub that Dorian owns and operates for the benefit of himself and his henchmen.
Dorian is fought as the final boss in the game while in his Mask form.
Powers and Abilities[]
Originally Tyrell was a non-superhuman criminal who relied on armed thugs and his own brutal sociopathy to gain power and authority - when he gained possession of The Mask however he was granted the near-omnipotent powers that other users of The Mask displayed, though he was more subtle in the use of his powers due to his dark and murderous nature: he showed a glimpse of how powerful he was when he literally absorbed a rain of bullets into himself and spat them out with enough force to kill those who got in his way.
Trivia[]
- Jack Nicholson, Willem Dafoe, the late Dennis Hopper, Robert De Niro, and Rupert Everett were considered for the role of Dorian Tyrell before Peter Greene was cast.
- Dorian's transformation while under the influence of the mask may be because unlike Stanley, who only wore the mask to be more confident, Dorian wanted the mask solely for its power.
- Dorian's Mask form in the movie is considered the closest thing to have a faithfully-adapted titular character from the original comics. Coincidentally, Dorian Tyrell shares many similarities between comic Stanley: 1.) Both have the same hair style and color; 2.) Both are abused by people who view themselves above them; 3.) Both are neglectful and verbally abusive to their girlfriends (Kathy and Tina); 4.) Both are bent on revenge against others over the smallest offense and often fantasize about it; 5.) Both become more unstable after donning the Mask; 5.) Both kill their main tormentors; 6.) Both run afoul of the police; 7.) Both their ex-girlfriends manage to get the mask away from them which results in their deaths (one wears it herself to kill him with while the other gets it to her true lover to vanquish him with).
- Dorian's story also seems to hold some similarities to Nunzio from the comics in which both were lower level members of the mafia who were looked down upon and abused for their position and hold ambitions of taking over which the mask grants them when they come into possession of it.
- In the Super Nintendo adaptation of The Mask, Dorian fights The Mask (Stanley) in his Mask form, despite the fact that Stanley is in possession of the Mask (though Milo also possesses the Mask to fight as well).
- Originally, Dorian was intended to to appear in an episode of the 1995 animated series. In the planned episode, his ghost (along with Niko's) was going to rise from the grave and bust their former henchman out of jail and start a turf war for the city, but they would put their war on hold so they can exact revenge against Stanley. The episode was later scrapped for unknown reasons, though the most likely reason was that it might have been considered too dark for the series.
- In a deleted scene, Peggy Brandt was killed by Dorian while Stanley witnessed it. However, this scene was cut from the film so that Peggy would return alive and well in the animated series after The Mask 2 was scrapped.
- He looks similar to Aldrich Killian from Iron Man 3