Jimmy Martinez, also known by the codename Mr. Scrooge, was the main antagonist of the 2022 anti-holiday film Violent Night. He was a vicious mercenary who plotted to steal $300 million in cash from the wealthy Lightstone family on Christmas Eve 2022. Due to his childhood being ruined one fateful Christmas night, he grew to utterly despise the holiday and hoped to one day bring it to an end forever.
History[]
Past[]
When Jimmy was a child, his father loved Christmas and always bought him presents. When his father lost his job, they could not afford to celebrate Christmas anymore. Jimmy grew jealous of his next door neighbours who had enough money to celebrate Christmas, so Jimmy broke into their house one night to steal their presents. While in their house, Jimmy accidentally frightened the grandfather who fell down the stairs and broke his neck, later dying in the hospital. Jimmy was arrested and began to hate Christmas for ruining his life. Following his possible release or break out, he began his life of crime, vowing to ruin Christmas for everyone.
Christmas 2022[]
Putting together a team of highly-skilled mercenaries, Martinez spent months plotting an elaborate heist that was to take place on Christmas Eve 2022. He intended to steal $300 million in cash from the wealthy Lightstone family and his team infiltrated the family compound by getting themselves hired as staff on the estate. When the time of the heist came, the mercenaries - all going by Christmas-themed codenames - put the plan into action by killing off the security guards and catering staff. Martinez, who went by the codename "Mr. Scrooge" after Ebenezer Scrooge from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, drove up to the front gate of the compound claiming to be a lost motorist. When the security guard Al attempted to call for a pickup truck, Mr. Scrooge shot him dead and took his keys, gaining access to the compound.
Arriving in the mansion, Mr. Scrooge had all of the Lightstone family members gathered in the main sitting room. While he and Sugarplum attempted to crack the code to the vault, one of the other mercenaries - Tinsel - was killed after supposedly falling from a window and becoming impaled on a decorative icicle. When Tinsel's body was discovered, Mr. Scrooge suspected that they had a "gopher" and told the rest of his team to be on alert. After checking the security camera footage, Scrooge was surprised to find that Tinsel had been killed by a man dressed as Santa Claus.
Following the death of Frosty, Mr. Scrooge and his crew managed to capture Santa, tying him up and interrogating him. When Scrooge asked who he really was, Santa insisted that he really was the true Santa Claus, even going through many of the names he has gone by around the world. Scrooge, Gingerbread and Candy Cane continued to question him and even mock him for sticking to his claim, but were soon shaken when their captive referred to each of them by their real names, which they hadn't used at all throughout the heist. Santa revealed that he knew how Gingerbread had repeatedly asked for a bike every Christmas, though Scrooge dismissed this since most children want bikes for Christmas. Santa also revealed how Candy Cane had forced her brother to eat worms when they were children and so Candy Cane also began to suspect the truth. Mr. Scrooge still wasn't convinced, even when Santa referred to him by his real name, launching into a tirade over how he hated Christmas and telling the story of how he first turned to crime as a child. He then asked once again for Santa's true identity before he threw Claus' sack into the fireplace, which rapidly disintegrated in the flames. As Mr. Scrooge prepared to kill Santa, the room began to fill up with what appeared to be snow. Gingerbread and Candy Cane began to think that the snow was caused by Santa's magic, but Scrooge quickly deduced that it wasn't snow at all, but styrofoam that had been poured into the air vents from the attic. With Scrooge and his goons distracted, Santa was able to escape by magically teleporting through the chimney.
Later on, Gertrude Lightstone's own group of mercenaries - the Kill Squad - arrived at the compound. As it turned out, however, the team weren't coming to rescue the Lightstones as they had fallen in with Mr. Scrooge and his team. Commander Thorp met with Scrooge and they went downstairs to see to the opening of the vault. When the safe was finally opened, the mercenaries were shocked to find that the money had been removed, with only empty crates and some loose bills left behind. Mr. Scrooge went back upstairs to the lounge where the Lightstones were still being held, demanding to know what had happened to the money. After Scrooge started threatening to shoot people, Jason Lightstone admitted that he had moved the money as part of a plan to abandon his mother's toxic family and take a share of her fortune so he and his estranged wife Linda could start a new life elsewhere. After some painful coersion, he agreed to show the mercenaries where the cash was hidden.
Jason led Mr. Scrooge and his remaining men outside to the front lawn where a Nativity sculpture was on display, stating that the money was hidden beneath it. After breaking the sculpture, Scrooge found that Jason was telling the truth and he and Thorp began loading the bags of money onto snowmobiles. He told the others to kill the Lightstones inside the house, but suddenly the group was attacked by Santa, who killed several of the remaining mercenaries with the help of Linda. Scrooge, Thorp and a few remaining mercs escaped on snowmobiles and Santa went after them.
Death[]
With Santa catching up to him, Martinez stopped outside an old shed. Standing in the snow, he beckoned Santa to come at him and Claus drove his commandeered snowmobile directly at him. Martinez then stepped out of the snowmobile's path to reveal a tree stump, which the snowmobile crashed into, flipping Santa off and sending him flying through the shed. He then raised his assault rifle and opened fire on the shed, but when he didn't hear Santa cry out from the shots, he approached the shed with his pistol at the ready. Seeing that Santa was still alive, he shot at Father Christmas repeatedly, exhausting his ammo. As Santa had dodged the shots, he had dropped a scroll and Martinez walked over to pick it up. Opening the scroll, Martinez discovered that it was Santa's Naughty List, which revealed Martinez's name in glowing red letters upon the translucent material. Accompanying the name were the various crimes that Martinez had committed over the course of his life. Only then did Martinez truly believe that he was fighting against the real Santa Claus.
Instead of surrendering, Martinez reiterated just how much he hated Christmas, blaming it for his life's woes and expressing how he was going to destroy the holiday once and for all by killing Santa. The two continued to fight, but in the midst of their brawl, Martinez's electric prod produced a spark that ignited a trail of gasoline leaking from the crashed snowmobile. The pair ran from the snowmobile when it exploded and continued to fight, but as Santa took a swing at Martinez, he slipped on an icy patch and fell over. Martinez tried to gore Santa with an ice axe, but Santa blocked the strike with his sledgehammer, beating Martinez back and allowing himself to get up off the ground.
The two continued fighting for some time, but Santa was essentially disarmed after Martinez managed to sever the head of his sledgehammer. Martinez backed Santa up against a chimney, the only remaining part of an old, demolished structure on the Lightstone compound grounds. He gleefully exclaimed that that night would be the last Christmas, but Santa retorted "Not if you still believe". Santa then tapped his nose, activating his teleportation magic just as he grabbed Martinez with his other hand. As Santa teleported with Martinez in his grip, he pulled the killer up the chimney with him. Unlike Santa, however, Martinez wasn't teleported through the chimney; his body was forced through the narrow shaft, being horribly mangled and crushed in the process. When Santa reappeared at the top of the chimney, he was holding Martinez's brutalized, headless carcass in his hand, which he then tossed to the ground.