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"Mature Content Warning!" |
Don Cody is the main antagonist of the 2021 film Girl in the Basement.
He is a controlling and cruel father who believes he is right all the time and throws temper tantrums whenever his ego is bruised or when someone does something he doesn't like. Eventually, Cody is arrested for his crimes of imprisoning his family against their will for two decades.
He was portrayed by Judd Nelson.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
- Even before he was revealed to be a villain, he was very controlling towards his own family, constantly seeing them and other people below him since they lived under his roof and therefore, should live by his own rules.
- He constantly abuses his wife Irene into doing whatever he wants, as he knows she is too weak willed to do anything against him and it's stated one time that he beat her so badly that she was hospitalized from it.
- Upon hearing that his daughter, Sara, was going to move away when she had turned 18, Don proceeded to spend the next few months building an inescapable shelter that he could imprison her inside, with him later successfully trapping her in there after tricking her into helping him carry supplies into it.
- When Sara attempted to escape, Don threw her back into the shelter and decided to taunt her, saying that there is no point in trying to escape because he changes the keypad's unlock code every day and three failed attempts will shut down the power and the oxygen system. He then proceeded to pin her up against the door and anally rapes her, causing her to throw up from the disgust of it afterwards.
- After Sara comes up with a different way to try and escape by creating a makeshift weapon, Don disarms her, throws her against a concrete pillar and then curb stomps her arm before raping her again to "teach her a lesson", causing the birth of her first child, Marie.
- He lied to Sara's boyfriend, Chris, about her running off with a different childhood friend named Steve, in order to drive him away from wanting to find her, with him feigning sympathy for Chris as he drives away.
- Raped Sara again off screen, causing the birth of her second child, Michael.
- Before Michaels birth, Don was scared of having a second child, so Sara asked for him to let her and Marie out of the basement, but Don just reacted aggressively towards the comment and stormed off.
- He attempts to manipulate his wife, Irene, into not looking into Sara's disappearance, telling her that she has another daughter to think about with Amy, but it doesn't work anyway.
- When he notices that Marie is sick during a trip to the basement, Don gives Sara medicine meant for adults, which Sara points out could poison her but Don tells her he doesn't care, telling her that she and Amy got sick all the time, but Irene had no trouble dealing with it. Sara then tells Don that Marie needs a doctor, but Don just walks off ignoring her.
- After he is confronted by his family for lying about Steve's existence, Don believed he was in the right and told them it didn't matter if he lied to a "lowlife like Chris who sneaks around with his daughter" and attempts to gaslight his family into believing that everything he has ever done was for their sake, but Irene is fed up with him and decides to try and hire a private investigator, causing Don to chase after her and accidentally leave his keys to the basement behind.
- After he noticed his keys were missing, he went down into the basement, where he spotted Amy trying to open the secret door and demands his keys back, before ordering Amy to go back upstairs.
- When he notices a note that Sara tried to get to Irene to inform her she is stuck in the basement, Don took it downstairs to taunt her over it, before preparing to rape her again off screen, leading to her getting pregnant with her 4th child.
- He lustfully admired Marie on her 14th birthday, very likely wanting to rape her, before Sara intervenes and tells him to stay away from her, causing Don to shut down the oxygen in an attempt to get back at her, causing her and Marie to have to sit next to an air vent to not suffocate.
- After being informed by a stranger that he sees someone underground trying to signal for help near Don's house, Don goes downstairs and beats Sara up in front of her two children, causing her to bleed and go into labour, resulting in her unborn child dying, leaving Don to bury their body outside with no remorse.
- When Michael and Marie get impatient and start to want to get out of the basement, Don manipulates them into believing Sara is responsible, telling them "she needs to learn to behave herself", causing Sarah to pass out with exhaustion after she tried to reassure them that she is trying to protect them.
- This later led Michael to believe that he and Marie are indeed responsible for everything bad that has happened to them, with Sara having to reassure him, telling him that Don is the one who has always been at fault.
- After Michael stands up for Sara when Don insults her for not valuing the food supplies she is giving him as much as he wants her to, Don mocks him, telling him "there is nothing he can do about it", prompting Michael to try and attack him. Sara then calms Don down, but he still turns off the oxygen regardless before leaving.
- He attaches a tube from his cars exhaust pipe into the basement in order to torture and kill Sara, Marie and Michael with carbon monoxide, only stopping because Thomas came into the garage, causing Sara and her children to pass out from the gas.
- When Sara attempts to get help from a nurse and a police officer after she and Don have to take Marie to a hospital, Don attempts to stop her, before getting apprehended and taken into police custody.
- He has proven himself to be a hypocrite, as he claims that Sara needs to learn to behave herself and that she is at fault and that the family should care about each other more, yet the only person who doesn't care about the family and is at fault is Don himself.
- He is very manipulative, as almost any acts of goodness were either self serving to keep Sara and her children on his good side, or purely to hide his tracks of Sara and her children's imprisonment in the basement. Even if Don giving the TV as a Christmas present and giving Sara a clock as a birthday present could be seen as Pet the Dog moments, Don subverts this regardless when he blatantly shows he doesn't care about what she wants for her family's health and that she wants out of the basement, yet continuously denies because she hasn't earnt it yet, despite 20 years having taken place since her imprisonment.
What Prevents Him from Being Pure Evil?[]
- He seems to care about his youngest grandson, Thomas, as he praises how great he is at sports to Sara and her children and took Marie to the hospital after an asthma attack after Sara told him that if he truly loves Thomas, he won't let his sister die, which makes Don decide to go through with it after initially refusing.
External Links[]
- Don Cody on the Villains Wiki