Magnificent Baddie Wiki

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The last time you saw me I was bald, with a beard and no moustache... and I had a different nose. So if you don't recognize me, I won't be offended.
~ Kaplan meeting Eddie for the first time after his parole
Communist politician. God, I miss Communism! The "Red Threat," people were scared, the agency had some respect, and I got laid every night.
~ Kaplan reminiscing his first barehanded kill

George Kaplan is the secondary antagonist of the 1990 action-comedy film, Hudson Hawk. He was a corrupt CIA operative that serves as the far more dangerous right-hand to Darwin and Minerva Mayflower, doing the heavy-lifting over their plans on assembling Leonardo Da Vinci's Macchina dell'Oro so that he can be rich through it and retire. He was the previous employer of the film's protagonist, Eddie Hawkins aka the Hudson Hawk, having set him up and imprisoned him before the story, and kidnaps him again to blackmail him into stealing for the Mayflowers. He is also the boss for the Candy Bar Brigade.

He was portrayed by the late James Coburn.

What Makes Him Magnificent?[]

  • Is always cheery and genuinely jovial whenever interacting with everybody, even Eddie, helped by James Coburn hamming it up for his performance.
  • Manages to make the infamously excellent cat burglar, the Hudson Hawk, his own disposable pawn as he sends him on an intentionally doomed heist just as a mere distraction for his actual plot.
    • Even when Eddie becomes far more cautious around Kaplan now that he learns on how deceptive he is, he always finds special ways to outwit Eddie, and Eddie was never able to outsmart him back.
    • To make himself undetectable upon Eddie's capture, he only meets Eddie with a disguise of his own, a disguise that was lifelike and very convincing.
  • Sets up cameras all across the museum where Eddie was forced to rob to secretly take photos and increase the Mayflower's blackmailing power over Eddie.
  • Tracks Eddie down, and lowers his guard to be drugged and transported to Rome.
  • Is the straight man to the Mayflowers' zany and psychotic antics, in which he is always present to give them useful advice which would've given the Mayflowers an advantage had they actually listened. This was best demonstrated when he advised against Tommy and Eddie being on a room together and be left alone as he knows how close they are friends and they would be scheming toe scape, which they did.
  • Upon noticing the plate of the van carrying them away, within just a manner of seconds he sees through Eddie and Tommy's ruse of faking the latter's death and escaping through a false ambulance.
  • To lower Eddie and team's guards, he first leads a successful heist on the Louvre Museum in Paris to steal Leonardo Da Vinci's helicopter design.
  • Tracks down Eddie and team's location to kidnap Anna Baragii for her knowledge over the Louvre, before paralyzing Tommy and Eddie to chuck a bomb at them. They only survived out of sheer luck.
  • Even for a man of his old age, he is incredibly fit and skilled in combat, beating Eddie in a fair fight and is so strong, his spinning kick alone broke a wooden block.
  • Kaplan is so big a threat, it only took the most comical of coincidences to defeat him, to which even when in the windshield of a car that is speeding through a cliff edge and about to explode, essentially seeing death straight at the face, he was only concerned about not getting his pension.

What Makes Him a Baddie?[]

  • Is a corrupt CIA operative that is fond of killing.
  • Betrays Eddie and sets him up for imprisonment for what he admits, was for a personal sidegoal.
  • Aligns himself to be the Mayflowers' right-hand on their plot to crash the world economy so that he too can be rich.
  • He and the Mayflowers blackmail Eddie into stealing for them.
  • Kills his way through the Louvre's security guards to steal Da Vinci's helicopter design.
  • Paralyzes Eddie and Tommy before trying to kill them with a bomb.

External Links[]

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