Richard Dressler
- "Each day we lose a little bit more of our separate, sovereign ability to determine our own futures... and each day the world comes a little bit closer to that terrible moment when the beating of a butterfly's wings unleashes a hurricane God himself cannot stop."
— Richard Dressler
Richard Dressler is the main antagonist in the The Sum of All Fears film and the video game of the same name. He is the leader of the First People's Investment Firm.
Biography
A self-made billionaire, he was born in the Danube city of Linz in 1930. His family benefited tremendously from Anschluss, and they emerged from World War II with their fortunes unscathed. In 1957, he took over the family investment business and, with steady infusions of capital from various backers - many of whom were later discovered to have connections to escaped war criminals from the Second World War - amassed a fortune.
Beginning in the late 1970s, Dressler began to spend some of his hard-earned wealth through dummy corporations, trusts and anonymous donations to charities and academic institutions that supported his political views. Much of the money from these donations went to supporting neo-fascist militias across the globe, bankrolling one side or another in various small wars and establishing funding for groups fond of firebombing immigrant neighbors.
In the wake of the cold war, Dressler turned his attentions to re-igniting tensions between the United States and the former Soviet Union. Believing that a war between the two old rivals would enable a united Europe - under his guidance, of course - to emerge as the dominant world power. In 2002, Dressler bought an unexploded nuclear bomb lost in the Yom Kippur War from a black market arms trafficker named Derek Olson with the intention of using it to instigate a war between the U.S. and Russia (which would destroy them both), allowing a united fascist Europe to rule the world. Dressler mainly pulls strings from behind the scenes in order to avoid detection, although he is seen making a speech on camera about how he will succeed where Adolf Hitler ultimately failed.
Dressler later uses the bomb he bought to destroy a football stadium in Baltimore (killing many civilians, including CIA Director William Cabot), and also pays a corrupt Russian Air Force general to send warplanes to attack a U.S. aircraft carrier, severely damaging it and leading the U.S. to believe Russia initiated the attacks. However, CIA analyst Jack Ryan learns from a radiation assessment team that the nuclear blast shows signs of the bomb being manufactured in the U.S., not Russia, while another team tracks down information on Olson. They manage to infiltrate Olson’s computer and learn that Dressler was the man responsible for the bombings. Ryan manages to get a message from the Pentagon through to Russian President Alexander Nemerov, convincing and U.S. President J. Robert Fowler that Russia was not behind the attacks and that they are not enemies. Both agree to stand down, foiling Dressler's scheme.
Having failed to instigate his war, Dressler attempted to go into hiding while his fellow co-conspirators (including Olson) were assassinated by Nemerov’s men. On February 13, 2002, he forced his bodyguard to check his car for a potential car bomb. Afterwards, Dressler got into the vehicle and took out a cigarette, unaware that the cigarette lighter installed in the car has been rigged by Nemerov’s senior adviser Anatoly Grushkov. As a result, the car immediately explodes as soon as Dressler activates it, killing him instantly.
Gallery
Dressler giving a speech to his followers
Dressler buying an unexploded nuclear bomb from an arms trafficker named Olson
Dressler conversing with his co-conspirators, before having one of them killed
Dressler making a speech on camera about his plans to wipe out the U.S. and Russia
Dressler about to make his escape after his plan is foiled by Jack Ryan
Dressler unwittingly activates a rigged cigarette lighter inside his car
Dressler is killed instantly when his car explodes
Trivia
- Dressler does not appear in the The Sum of All Fears novel.
| ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||