John Abruzzi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Prison Break character | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| John Abruzzi | |
| Role(s): | Prisoner; Fugitive |
| Current status: | Deceased |
| Sentence at Fox River Prison: |
120 years for 2 counts of murder, 2 counts of conspiracy to commit murder |
| Appearances | |
| First appearance: | S1E01 |
| Last appearance: | S2E04 |
| Season: | 1, 2 |
| Portrayed by: | Peter Stormare |
John Abruzzi, played by Peter Stormare, is a fictional character from the American television series Prison Break. He was a principal character of the series, introduced in the pilot as a privileged prisoner at Fox River State Penitentiary.
Prior to his incarceration, Abruzzi was the head of the Chicago Mafia. He was convicted and sentenced based on the witness testimony of Otto Fibonacci, who saw Abruzzi order another mobster to shoot and kill two men. After he was imprisoned, Abruzzi planned to exact his revenge on Fibonacci, who was entered into the witness protection program by the government, while Abruzzi was sentenced to 120 years without parole.
Contents |
[edit] Appearances
Peter Stormare, Abruzzi's portrayer, was a member of the regular cast and was featured in every episode before his character's injury in the thirteenth episode of the first season, "End of the Tunnel". After his return to the series six episodes later in "The Key", Stormare became a recurring guest star. The character was later killed off in the fourth episode of the second season, "First Down". He later appeared in a brief flashback in the episode "Fin Del Camino."
[edit] Season 1
As a former Chicago mob boss, Abruzzi enjoyed celebrity status amongst the prisoner population at Fox River. He ran Prison Industry, an internal work program for the convicts, and was both highly respected and feared by the rest of the cons inside Fox River's walls. His mobster status also allowed him to enjoy a certain extent of autonomy and freedom inside the prison's walls, especially from the head of the internal correctional officers Captain Brad Bellick, who was on the payroll of Abruzzi's associates. Abruzzi proved that he would go to great lengths to find Fibonacci, even cutting two of Michael Scofield's toes off trying to extract Fibonacci's location from him. Eventually, Abruzzi realized that Michael was not going to be easy to crack, so he decided to keep his enemy close and teamed up with Michael to break out of prison.
When T-Bag told his cousin James about the break out plan, Abruzzi ordered one of his men on the outside to make James disappear for a week. The kidnapping went bad, resulting in the death of both James and his 5 year old son, who was being used as a human shield. Abruzzi, despite being deeply saddened, had his men inside of the prison rough T-Bag up. Badly injured and fearing for his life, T-Bag finally agreed to back out of the escape plan. Abruzzi, recently finding religion as an outlet for his pain, decided not to kill him -- this proved to be a big mistake, as T-Bag immediately took the opportunity to slash Abruzzi's throat.
Abruzzi was evacuated from Fox River by helicopter to receive treatment for his injuries. This complicates Michael's escape plan, as a plane Abruzzi owned was the planned getaway vehicle. Abruzzi however survived and rejoined the escape attempt about a week later, apparently a changed man (returned six episodes later). Upon his return he appeared to have become extremely religious, after having seen what he perceived as the image of the face of Jesus in a water stain on his cell wall. Although his religious faith was surely not fake, his overly friendly demanor was. Abruzzi was in fact every bit as ruthless as before, going as far as to set up the kidnapping of Veronica Donovan as a means of forcing Fibonacci's location out of Michael. Michael never came to learn of this, since Veronica escaped from Abruzzi's clutches. Nevertheless, Abruzzi continued to act benign while still inside the prison walls.
He later escaped with Michael, Lincoln Burrows and other inmates. Abruzzi planned to kill T-Bag during the escape, but T-Bag handcuffed himself to Michael to ensure his safety, knowing that Abruzzi needed Michael. However, Abruzzi used an axe to cut off T-Bag's hand, simultaneously taking his vengeance and ridding the group of T-Bag. Abruzzi was one of the group of five who was forced to run on foot after the plane left them behind.
[edit] Season 2
On the morning after the escape, John Abruzzi found himself with his fugitive comrades, continuing to evade the authorities on foot. After narrowly passing a freight train to create more distance between themselves and the authorities, the group of five escapees were trapped by an armed hunter who was aware of their fugitive status. Abruzzi quickly took matters into his hands by taking the hunter's daughter hostage. As the hunter lowered his weapon, the fugitives hijacked his SUV and continued on to Oswego to find Michael's hidden cache in the cemetery where they all found a change of clothing. The fugitives went their separate ways soon after this.
Abruzzi met up with his family and together they planned to catch a cargo ship to Sardinia. Before he and his family could leave, however, Abruzzi was informed of Otto Fibonacci's residence at a motel outside of Washington D.C.. Abruzzi at first questioned the validity of the claim, but proceeded on to track down Fibonacci when the source was confirmed -- ignoring his wife's pleas. However, it turned out to be a trap set up by Agent Mahone and the FBI in an attempt to recapture Abruzzi. Before walking out of the motel room he was trapped in, Abruzzi stated, "I deserve to know who turned on me." Brazenly, Abruzzi walked out of the motel room with a gun in hand. Mahone asked Abruzzi to put down his gun, place his hands behind his head and kneel. Abruzzi scoffed at this and remarked, "I kneel only to God. I don't see him here." Just as Abruzzi raised his gun in an aggressive manner, Mahone took cover and watched on as the FBI team riddled Abruzzi with bullets, killing him with a cross in his hand. He was the first of the "Fox River Eight" to be taken down.
[edit] External links
- John Abruzzi's biography at Fox.com
|
Prison Break characters
|
|---|
| Main characters |
| John Abruzzi | Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell | Brad Bellick | Lincoln Burrows | L. J. Burrows | Veronica Donovan Benjamin Miles "C-Note" Franklin | Paul Kellerman | Alexander Mahone | Michael Scofield | Fernando Sucre | Sara Tancredi |
| Secondary characters |
| David "Tweener" Apolskis | Hector Avila | Aldo Burrows | Maricruz Delgado | Roy Geary | Daniel Hale | William Kim | Charles "Haywire" Patoshik | Henry Pope Caroline Reynolds | Manche Sanchez | Nick Savrinn | Terrence Steadman | Frank Tancredi | Nika Volek | Charles Westmoreland |
| List of Prison Break characters | List of Prison Break minor characters |
