History Characters / ApocalypseNow

* ElitesAreMoreGlamorous: A veteran special operations officer serving in the Army's elite 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team.

* DecapitationPresentation: [[spoiler: Kurtz drops his severed head into Willard's cage.]]

* NoNameGiven: He's only known as 'the Photojournalist'.

-->'''Kurtz''': They train young men to drop fire on people. But their commanders won't allow them to write "fuck" on their airplanes...[[SkewedPriorities because it's obscene]].
* DeathSeeker: [[spoiler: It becomes pretty clear that he wants Willard to kill him, but not before telling him to tell his family the truth after his death.]]

* BreakThemByTalking: When Willard is captured by Kurtz, the Colonel asks a simple question, "Are you an assassin?" Willard's response is that he is a soldier. Kurtz mocks Willard by saying the following, "You're neither. You're an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks to to collect the bill."

* BreakThemByTalking: When Willard is captured by Kurtz, the Colonel asks a simple question, "Are you an assassin?" Willard's response is that he is a soldier. Kurtz mocks Willard by saying the following, "You're neither. You're an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks to pick up the check."

* ColonelBadass: Not as overstated as Kilgore, but it should be noted his rate of success in battle with the enemy was high and the enemy feared him.

* FrontlineGeneral: Except he's a colonel, but the same principle applies. He not only personally flies the lead helicopter into the attack, it's shown he's a pretty darn good pilot and an excellent shot.

* BadassMustache: Subverted; Chef might sport a magnificent set of handlebars, but he's ''hopelessly'' out of his depth.

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: [[NamesToRunAwayFrom/KNames K]]ill-gore.

* BreakThemByTalking: When Willard is captured by Kurtz, the Colonel asks a simple question, "Are you an assassin?" Willard's response is that he is a soldier. Kurtz mocks Willard by saying the following, "You're neither. You're an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks."

-->'''Kurtz''': They train young men to drop fire on people. But their commanders won't allow them to write "fuck" on their airplanes...[[SkewedPriorites because it's obscene]].

-->'''Kurtz''': They train young men to drop fire on people. But their commanders won't allow them to write "fuck" on their airplanes...because it's obscene.

* AboveGoodAndEvil: In a deleted scene Kurtz visits Willard while he is in captivity, bringing up the subject of how he thinks the Vietnam War could be won. A lecture ensues about how Americans care too much about their public image and how the rest of the world views them, it is a mistake to let public opinion prevent victory in a war. If war wasn't a popularity contest then America could do [[TheUnfettered whatever was necessary to win.]] Willard calls Kurtz cruel and that his methods destroy all moral standards of right and wrong in appropriate conduct of warfare. Kurtz responds simply, "[[TheSocialDarwinist It is 'right' to win. And it is 'wrong' to lose.]]"

* BaldOfEvil: Back when Kurtz was still with the Army he had a full head of hair. He's shown as a handsome, professional looking officer in his dossier photos. To contrast the professional look he had during his military service the Kurtz who has transformed himself into a jungle king is bald. The shaved head evokes a vibe of regression, that Kurtz has reverted to a more primal state of mind.

* BreakThemByTalking: When Willard is captured by Kurtz the Colonel asks a simple question, "Are you an assassin?" Willard's response is that he is a soldier. Kurtz mocks Willard by saying the following, "You're neither. You're an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks."

* ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules: He was earmarked for a big promotion, possibly even to the Pentagon, but hit a wall when he slammed the U.S. Military's inefficient and counter-productive tactics in Southeast Asia. In protest, he transferred to the Green Berets and, later, launched a wildly successful counter-insurgency op without letting his superiors in on his plans. They were forced to make him a full Colonel [[SlaveToPR out of embarrassment]], but the White House was beginning to tire of him even then.
* SecretlyDying: The photojournalist hints that this may be Kurtz's case. A nod to the the original source left ambiguous in the film and discussed by Coppola during interviews.
* WarriorPoet: Or so his followers think he is (the Photojournalist calls him "a poet warrior in the classic sense"). The reality is that while he does have some poetic flair to his words and he is a good soldier, he has gone insane and has lost all decent sense of restraint.
* WeHaveBecomeComplacent: He can be viewed as a rational, if brutal, character; he realizes how the war can be won but his commanders refuse to see things the way he does. His job as a soldier is winning the war, not being nice. Naturally the film leaves plenty of room for other interpretations such as TheUnfettered and KnightTemplar.

A highly decorated U.S. Army Special Forces with the 5th Special Forces Group who goes rogue. He runs his own operations out of Cambodia and is feared by the US military as much as the North Vietnamese and Vietcong.

* DawsonCasting: Subverted: Fishburne was ''fourteen'' when the film began production[[note]]he lied about his age[[/note]], but it works to underscore how horrifying it was a ''seventeen'' year old was in the middle of a war zone.

An authoritarian officer who fears Kurtz and wants him removed.

[[caption-width-right:350: "The horror..."]]

* AdiposeRex: This was absolutely not the original plan. Kurtz was supposed to be a robust and fit middle aged man, but Brando showed up for the role at least a hundred pounds overweight. Coppola compromised by keeping him in the shadows as much as possible in order to mask his obesity as being LargeAndInCharge, but it's often obvious how fat the man is. It actually works well as it highlights Kurtz has completely let himself go and his pretensions to being a proud soldier are so much wind -- akin to the original novel's Kurtz, but physically inverted, as that Kurtz was visibly unhealthy because of how [[LeanAndMean gaunt]] he'd become.

* PleaseWakeUp: [[spoiler: After Mr Clean is killed during the surprise attack on the boat, Chef frantically shakes his body as if trying to wake him up, and quickly descends into hysterical tears as the full extent of his injuries become apparent.]]
* VitriolicBestBuds: With Mr Clean; given the state of the mission, the two don't always have the most harmonious relationship, and occasionally get into fights. In particular, Chef is absolutely ''[[{{Troll}} merciless]]'' when he discovers that Clean's a virgin, and spends most of the following scene gleefully chanting "Cherry Boy!" However, when [[spoiler: Clean is killed, Chef can only sob over his body.]]

--> ''"I wanted a mission, and for my sins they gave me one."''

--> '''Kurtz:''' Are my methods unsound?
--> '''Willard:''' I don't see any method at all, sir.

-->''"Crawling, slithering, along the edge of a straight razor...and surviving."''

-->'''Kurtz:''' Are my methods unsound?
-->'''Willard:''' I don't see any "method" at all, Sir.

-->''"I love the smell of napalm in the morning."''

* JurisdictionFriction: A military variant with Capt. Willard. Willard is an officer and in charge of the mission (technically, the boat's mission is just to transport Willard upriver; what he does when he gets there is his own affair for which they don’t Need To Know). Phillips is an enlisted sailor, but he commands the boat, something the US Navy's written and unwritten rules hold sacrosanct. Willard, an Army officer, is both ignorant and apathetic about how the Navy does things, and has orders from on high anyway. They don’t like each other to say the least.

* DawsonCasting: Subverted: Fishburne was ''fourteen'' when he began production[[note]]he lied about his age[[/note]], but it works to underscore how horrifying it was a ''seventeen'' year old was in the middle of a war zone.

* InUniverseNickname: On top of "Mr Clean," he's also playfully nicknamed "Bubba" by Chef, and can often be heard using it in his attempts to get on Clean's nerve. [[spoiler: He can also be heard sobbing it over his body.]]

* VirginShaming: Chef gives Mr Clean no end of grief when it's discovered that he's still a virgin; he spends most of the following scene mocking Clean's failed attempt to get a turn with one of the Playboy Bunnies, cheekily offering to take him on a tour of New Orleans' brothels, or just signing "cherry boy!" just so he can watch his audience completely losing it.

-->''"This is the way the fucking world ends. Look at this fucking shit we're in man. Not with a bang, but with a whimper. And with a whimper, I'm fucking splitting, Jack."''

--> ''"Sell the house, sell the car, sell the kids, I am NEVER coming back!"''

* GeneralRipper: A DeconstructedCharacterArchetype. He's a highly decorated officer (one scene has Captain Willard going over his dossier and marvelling at Kurtz's accomplishments) who one day just snapped and went native, becoming as much a cult leader as a soldier, taking his orders from only the jungle as Willard says. However, Kurtz is a unique example, being quite aware that he is in fact a General Ripper. He thinks that if America wants to win the Vietnam War, it cannot afford to "play fair" - it needs "Rippers" to do the dirty work and is acting hypocritically by pretending that the war can be won "cleanly" with nothing but a technological advantage over the enemy (and history tells us he was right, too). He basically gives his superiors two choices: either get the hell out of 'Nam, or to embrace their savagery like he has. His final actions indicate that he prefers they choose the first option, or at least doesn't believe they can afford to choose the second.

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: [[NamesToRunAwayFrom/KNames K]]il-gore.

* KillEmAll: He believed the North Vietnamese and the VC would never surrender, and if the US was to win the war, they would have to kill every last one of them:

* MilitaryMaverick: He planned and organized a major counterinsurgency operation codenamed Archangel, which ended up being a major success. Willard notes that he never told his superiors his plan or asked for clearance, he simply thought it up and rolled out. As his career continued, he only became more vocal and outspoken to his superiors about their flawed conduct of the Vietnam War, culminating in the unauthorized execution of four North Vietnamese spies in his command.