| “ | You say genocide, I say preemptive strike. | „ |
| ~ Leonard Dekkom |
Leonard Dekkom is the main antagonist of the 2017 sci-fi film Geostorm. He is responsible for the catastrophes generated by the Dutch Boy, since he successfully planned to decimate all countries that were possible rivals to the United States, for being against globalization and wanting the USA to have the hegemony that it had in the 1940s.
He was portrayed by Ed Harris, who also played Wilford in Snowpiercer.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- In order to decimate a large part of the population of the countries he considers enemies of the USA, Dekkom hired corrupt software engineer Duncan Taylor to put a virus on the Dutch Boy and make it work out of the ordinary, triggering disasters and catastrophes around the world, which in turn killed millions of people.
- Attempted to kill Max, when he stumbled upon his plan to kill the President. While his care for Max may have been genuine in the past, he definitely subverted it once he became disillusioned in his own political agenda.
- There is no proof, that had he succeeded in his plan, and Duncan had lived, that Dekkom would have actually paid him his promised money for causing all the millions of deaths in the first place. Though it’s just as likely, that if this was the case that he would’ve had Duncan killed, or silenced in some other way to hide his role in the disasters. Though, it’s not like Duncan wouldn’t have deserved it however, for his equally callous, greedy, and sadistic attitude towards his crimes. Even if he did paid him, it would only to make himself look professional.
- While he does have some comedic moments, such as when he is referred to as a “Yahoo” by Jake, only to reply back: “I guess that makes me the lead Yahoo?”, and his humiliating defeat of getting punched in the face and knocked out by Max while comically falling to the ground, it doesn’t detract from how heinous his crimes are, and that he’s still a serious threat who is arguably better off dead for all of his atrocities.
- Although his goal seems nationalistic, it is all a matter of greed, power and hegemony, since he also intended to become president of the country that, according to his plans, would take over the world. He didn't even care about American lives. The greatest proof of this was the lightning storm that he unleashed and caused destruction in Florida. Furthermore, when Jake confronts Duncan Taylor, he claims that his daughter (who is American) was among the lives that would be lost in these catastrophes. On the panel of geostorms, some regions of the United States map, especially the Southeast and the West were among the regions marked for geostorms, indicating that Dekkom also wanted to decimate the population of his own country, further showing his hypocrisy.
- This could also be an indicator that once he became president, he would continue to use Dutch Boy to take the world hostage and force it to serve him as a god. During his arrest, he even asks what Dutch Boy is "if not playing God", claiming that "science is all about playing God."
