Charlie McFadden
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Charles "Charlie" McFadden is a fictional character featured in the Critters series of science fiction films, distributed by New Line Cinema. In all his appearances to date, he has been portrayed by actor Don Keith Opper.
Charlie is similar to Burt Gummer of the Tremors series, in that he starts off as a supporting character, but gradually becomes the series' main character by the third entry.
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[edit] Critters
The Critters of the title are referred to as Krites - killer alien furballs with a huge and voracious appetite and a witty attitude. They escape from intergalactic death row by stealing a ship and head for earth to feed.
In the original Critters, Charlie lives in the town of Grovers Bend (Kansas, USA) where he is the town drunk. His only friend is a kid named Bradley Brown, who is always fighting with his older sister, April. Charlie earns his payment by working for Bradley's parents, Jay and Helen on their farm.
Because of his alcoholism, Charlie thinks the earth is under attack from aliens. Even the slightest sound of a radio broadcast is enough to make Charlie become frantic and worried. One night, he really does see a UFO in the sky and attempts to alert the town sheriff Harv, who is off duty for the night.
Meanwhile, the Krites have already made their way to the Brown residence, where they kill April's boyfriend Steve and succeed in immobolising Jay with their aggressive bite attacks and poisonous quills.
The Browns do their best to hold out and wait for the Krites to leave, but they return for another relentless attack, at which point Ug and Li arrive.
Unable to reach Harv, Charlie goes to the Bowl 'O' Rama, which then comes under attack from Ug and Li - two intergalactic shape shifting bounty hunters, sent to eliminate the Krites. Ug takes on the form of fictional rock star Johnny Steele, whilst Li simply remains a constant "nothing face", randomly morphing into a different persona.
After hooking up with Charlie at the bowling alley, the Krites are eventually destroyed at the farm. However, a few of them escape with April. One of the Krites has grown to an epic size and is about to leave with April on their ship. But thanks to Charlie's quick thinking, the Krites are destroyed by a molotov cocktail made from his whisky bottle. But not before they destroy the Brown's home with a single malicious blast from their ship.
Following the ordeal, Ug leaves Bradley with a special calling card, which he can use to alert him if he ever needs his help again. Charlie decides to go to space with his friends Ug and Li, without even saying goodbye to Bradley. They do rebuild the Brown's house (albeit through space magic), but the biggest problem is that several Krites have left their eggs in a nearby barn, and they are about to hatch.
[edit] Critters 2: The Main Course
2 years after the events of the first film, the tale of what happened in Grovers Bend becomes something of a town myth, that most people would rather forget, especially the ex-sheriff, Harv.
Charlie works in outer space with Ug and Li as a bounty hunter, but is not very good at it, having never been truly tested. After doing a successful sweep of a distant planet, Ug, Li and Charlie receive a distress call, ordering them back to earth since many Krites still remain. If they don't kill all the Krites, their payment will be revoked.
On earth, Grovers Bend is about to celebrate Easter. Bradley has returned to Grovers Bend to visit his nanna, but no-one in town is pleased to see him, because of his crazy ramblings about the Krites.
Eventually, a bunch of their Easter Eggs turn out to be Krite eggs, which eventually hatch and produce dozens of man eating Krites. Their first victims include a greedy salesman, his dog and a local sheriff dressed in a bunny costume.
After Charlie, Ug and Li arrive on earth, Li transforms into a semi-naked model from a Playboy magazine, complete with a staple. They then head for the town, but by this stage the Krite problem is well underway. After reuniting with Bradley Brown and his new love interest Meagan, Charlie, Ug, Li and what's left of the townsfolk decide to hide out in the local church. Sheriff Harv (who had previously hitailed it out of town) returns to help battle the Krites.
While searching for the Krites later that night, Li strays from the others and ends up being eaten by the Krites in an alley. Ug finds him dead and becomes a "nothing face" again, out of sadness for the loss of his partner and friend.
While arguing in the church, Bradley comes up with a brilliant idea, and one that may prove successful if they can pull it off. Bradley luring the Krites into a polar burger factory to blow them up with explosives, since the Krites prefer to eat as a group. Ug lures them there, disguised as one of the Krites. They are then locked inside and seemingly blown up.
Despite the explosion, the Krites survive and escape death by forming a huge ball and head back towards the church, devouring some people along the way. Bradley and Meagan attempt to ram the Krites off the road in a truck, but come up short.
With only seconds remaining until they reach the church, Charlie flies the bounty hunter's ship into the Krites, seemingly sacrificing himself as well. Following this, Ug transforms into Charlie out of respect for his friend.
While everybody is getting ready to return to their normal lives, Charlie makes a surprise appearance, having survived thanks to his parachute. Not long after, Bradley and Harv get on a bus to roll out of town, and Ug returns to space where he has other duties. The movie ends with Harv tossing his badge to Charlie, promoting him as the new sheriff of Grovers Bend.
[edit] Critters 3
While passing through Grovers Bend, a holidaying family inadvently bring along a batch of Krites and their eggs back to their low-rent accommodation in Los Angeles.
Before leaving for LA, Annie, her brother Johnny and their new friend Josh meet Charlie McFadden while playing with a frisbee. Charlie tells them the story of how he first encountered the Krites one fateful night in 1984, and how he survived not one, but two ordeals. He then gives Johnny a crystal before they head off. If monsters are close by, the crystal will glow a bright green.
In LA, Josh's stepfather (a conniving landlord) uses a lazy dirtbag named Frank to evict the local tenants using rats. Unfortunately the Krites invade the apartment, devouring Frank and then focusing their attention to the other tenants.
Josh's stepfather goes to the apartment building with Josh to cut off their power supply, because he thought Frank was disrespeting him over the phone. It was actually the Krites laughing and breathing heavily.
Josh inadvently shuts his stepfather in a room full of Krites, because he kept ordering him around. His stepfather ended up getting killed.
Despite being uninvited, Josh and the others team up to barricade a room, but the Krites manage to get in just as they're ascending a ladder into a series of ventilation shafts. Their main goal is to reach the roof where they can shout for assistance. To make matters worse, a dead Krite begins a rapid fire in the basement, because it ingested a lit flare. Martha leaves to call for help, but ends up dangling helplessly from a cable, that had came loose. She does however manage to call for help.
Annie briefly leaves the others and uses the faulty elevator to go back downstairs to preview the severity of the blaze. However, she is attacked by a mob of Krites. Luckily for her, help soon arrives.
Charlie makes a grand entrance, complete with a new electric gun which he uses on a lone Krite, before the gun seems to jam. Annie and Charlie get back into the elevator and begin to climb out of it, only for Charlie to hit the up button with his foot, causing them to go up even quicker as they lay on top of it.
In the shafts, the surviving tenants are besieged by the Krites, but succeed in killing all but one of them. Although wounded, the final Krite also makes it on to the roof, where it dashes for Johnny. Charlie leaps and he too goes over the edge of the building. Although Johnny is rescued, Charlie has no choice but to fall. He does have a safe landing though, impaling the last of the Krites on an antenna.
Following the ordeal, everybody is very grateful to be alive. But Charlie cannot rest. He has to make sure all of the Krites are destroyed, or they will continue to breed. Charlie goes back inside the destroyed apartment and discovers two remaining eggs. Just as he is about to eliminate them once and for all, he gets an incoming call from the Terracorp Council, ordering him not to go through with the extermination, but rather await a special collection pod and place the eggs inside. The pod arrives soon there after.
[edit] Critters 4
Upon entering the pod, Charlie places the eggs inside as instructed by Ug in a reshot scene, which is almost the exact same as the ending to the third film. There are a few notable errors, including the replacement of a male voice giving a violation warning instead of a female.
Charlie is somehow also locked inside and sent into space, where he remains in hibernation until a salvage ship finds the pod in the year 2045.
The crew (which includes Captain Rick, Fran, Bernie, Al Bert and young Ethan) reluctantly report the discover to the Terracorp Council, upon discovering their old logo on the side of the pod. They then go to an abandoned Terracorp station to await the arrival of the council. The station is actually on its last legs and will blow up within a month or so. Furthermore, the station is controlled by a computer called Angela, which only takes orders if you give the opposite instructions.
A selfish Rick however decides to open the pod early, freeing Charlie but also letting loose two young Krites which kill Rick and escape, while the crew constantly bicker about where to go from there.
After a close call in a waste disposal unit, Charlie and Ethan are rescued by Bernie. Charlie learns from the others that he is no longer in 1993, and that everybody he knew on earth will now be dead.
Ethan found a lab coat containing a keycard. But just like Rick did earlier, Bernie strays further from the group, takes the keycard with him and is then killed by two Krites inside a pharmacy room.
Following an attack from a lone Krite, Charlie carelessly uses an antique gun to kill it, but ends up deactivating the ship with only one bullet remaining. From then on, the crew are sitting ducks. Ethan then dashes off to search for the remaining Krite, shouting at Al Bert (which sadly turns out to be the last spoken senteance he will ever say to him).
Terracorp arrives shortly there after, but they are not there to negotiate payment. They simply want the Krite eggs returned to them. Ug (now evil) kills an uncooperative Al Bert, and threatens to kill Fran next unless the eggs are returned.
Charlie is upset, barely accepting that his old friend has now become a traitorous villain. Ug sends his guards to find the Krites, but the nuclear reactor begins a 10 minute self-destruction sequence. Ethan lures the guards into a room full of genetically altered Krites, which battle the guards, but also die. You don't actually see any of this, as it takes place off camera.
After killing the last of the Krites, Ethan is threatened by Ug at gunpoint. Charlie re-appears and shoots his former friend without any hesitation when he turns his gun on Charlie.
With the last of the Krites now destroyed, Charlie, Ethan and Fran take Ug's ship and begin their delayed flight back to earth.
[edit] Critters 5: Christmas Attack
Due to a massive decline in popularity, a fifth Critters movie never went ahead. Although an early concept for the movie is rumoured to have involved a Christmas setting, with Charlie as the main hero once more.
Don Keith Opper even promoted the film with a photo of himself. Apparently, he was to be placed at #1 on the Krite's most wanted list, due to the fact that he had eliminated so many of their species during previous encounters.
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