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| “ | What's with your sour f**king puss? I could've just killed you now, couldn't I? Yeah, you've had your friend killed, and you're just about to have your other friend killed, but that still only makes two friends killed. I've had four of my guys killed, and also my girlfriend killed, who I didn't like much, but that's still five friends killed. That's three more friends killed than you've had friends killed, so don't give me that moany f**king face, okay? | „ |
| ~ Charlie to Marty. |
Charles "Charlie" Costello is the main antagonist of the 2012 film Seven Psychopaths.
He is the violent boss of a gang that operates in Los Angeles. Despite being a violent, unpredictable psychopath and being cruel to his friends, girlfriend and subordinates, he displays unconditional love for his pet Shih Tzu named Bonnie, and is willing to murder anyone who keeps him from his dog.
He was portrayed by Woody Harrelson, who also played Mickey Knox in Natural Born Killers, Harlan DeGroat in Out of the Furnace, Colonel McCullough in War for the Planet of the Apes, Tobias Beckett in Solo: A Star Wars Story and Cletus Kasady/Carnage in Sony's Spider-Man Universe.
Personality[]
Charles Costello is a violent psychopath who shows little concern for his actions or the well-being of his subordinates. He has a cool appearance while relaxed, but he displays violent fits of anger regularly. He is also shown to be considerably cruel, where he terrifies an innocent girl and murders an old woman showing no apparent emotion. He displays no sadness when having his subordinates and girlfriend killed, and is even willing to sacrifice them for his own sake. He is shown to be more psychopathic than intelligent, since he rarely thinks of a strategy to approach his enemies, relying instead on his guns alone. He does, however, decide to show up apparently alone and unarmed to the final meeting with Billy, only to signal his subordinates afterwards with a flare gun, which shows that he has at least a little bit of resourcefulness. He is also quite unpredictable.
However, despite his cruelty, violence and coldness, Costello is greatly concerned for his Shih Tzu Bonnie, and goes on a murdering quest through Los Angeles just to get him back from a dog kidnapper. Whenever he feels his dog is threatened, he gets extremely worried and even cries when he can't find him in Billy's house or when Billy threats to shoot him with a flare gun in the head. He is also offended and angered when Billy insults Bonnie.
Biography[]
Charlie is the boss of an unspecified criminal organization in Los Angeles. When he learns his girlfriend Angela is cheating on him, he sends two of his hitmen to murder her in a gruesome manner. Before they can do so, however, they are both shot in the head by the Jack O' Diamonds, a psychopathic masked serial killer who hunts members of the Mafia.
At some point, an unemployed actor called Billy Bickle, who kidnaps dogs and has his partner Hans return them in exchange for the reward, snatches Charlie's pet Shih Tzu Bonnie, believing it actually belonged to his dog walker Sharice. Terrified by Charlie's possible violent reaction, Sharice tries to run away from him upon realizing the dog is missing, but is caught twelve hours later. Charles tries to kill her, but his gun jams. As he tries to fix it, he is told by one of his underlings that there's a dog kidnapper near the place where Bonnie was lost. Upon learning this, he decides to spare Sharice after firing next to her head.
Two of Charlie's thugs snatch Hans and force him to take them to the warehouse where him and Billy keep the kidnapped dogs. There, they find Marty, Billy's best friend, and lots of cages with dogs but not Bonnie, who is in Billy's house. Just as a terrified Marty is about to tell them where the Shih Tzu is, Jack O' Diamonds appears again and kills them both. Charlie arrives to the scene after Hans and Marty have fled to Billy's. After calling the ASPCA to take care of the dogs, Charles heads to the hospital after finding out Hans' wife just had a surgery there. When he meets her in her room, she pretends not to be Myra Kieslowski, but he ends up figuring her out. After briefly and unsuccessfully interrogating her for either Bonnie or Hans' location, he bids her farewell and shoots her in the back of the head. When Hans arrives and sees him, he walks by his wife's room to avoid recognition. After finding Myra's corpse, Hans offers to a disgusted Charlie his krawatte, revealing the razor slice in his neck.
After Hans leaves the hospital, Charles is contacted by a desperate Angela, who is cheating on him with Billy, to tell him Billy is the one who kidnapped Bonnie and to urge him to take things easy. However, upon being told by Hans that Myra's been murdered, Billy shoots Angela in the stomach in retaliation and gives her a jack of diamonds card (thus revealing his identity as the serial killer). Infuriated, Charlie rushes to Billy's house, but arrives just after he's taken both Marty and Hans to the desert in order to protect them. When he can't find Bonnie, Charles begins crying with concern. While trying to calm him down, his right-hand man Paulo notices Billy has about a hundred card decks, all missing the jack of diamonds.
The following night, Charlie is contacted by Billy (after he found his phone number in Bonnie's collar), who tells him their location and instructs him to come unarmed and alone, hoping for a climatic shootout. However, against Billy's expectations, Charlie does show up alone and unarmed, except for a flare gun he had in his car. Billy shoots him in the back and takes his flare gun, while Marty drives him to a hospital. However, while Marty is driving, Billy finds out the true purpose of the flare gun and fires it in the air. When Paulo and three other henchmen waiting for that signal see it, Hans (who had just run into them after leaving Billy and Marty in the desert) pretends to draw a gun. Paulo shoots him dead, accidentally attracting the police to them. He then drives towards Charlie's location.
On his way down the hill, Marty and Charlie run into Paulo, who is in a hurry since the police are chasing them. Charlie reveals the gunshot just gave him a flesh wound. Paulo reveals he killed Hans, and Charlie taunts Marty. They all drive back to Billy, who is waiting for them with three guns. In the shootout, Billy kills every henchman except for Paulo and Charlie, who forces him to drop his guns using Marty as a hostage. Billy comes out of his hiding spot pointing the flare gun toward Bonnie's head, threatening to shoot him unless Charlie lets Marty go. Fed up with Charlie's idiocies, Paulo refuses to shoot Billy and instead waits for the police to come. Charlie drops Marty and lets him escape, while Billy places a jack of diamonds in Bonnie's collar. After Marty is gone Charlie tries to shoot Billy, but his gun jams again. By the time he fixes it, the police have already arrived. Charlie approaches Billy and shoots him in the head. When he calls Bonnie, however, the dog stays by the smiling Billy and finally gives him his paw. Billy dies, after having his much desired climatic ending, while Charlie is arrested by the police.