Characters / The Mercury Men

Edward Borman

Played by: Creator/Mark Tierno

A wiry government office worker who spends his days trying to avoid helping even a single customer, Edward becomes caught in the nefarious plans of the Mercury Men and tries anything in his power to escape. His life of monotonous paperwork is quickly replaced by a grand intergalatic conflict when he is called on to help outwit the cunning creatures.

Mark's previous credits include The Road, George A. Romero's Day of the Dead (1985), Creepshow, and the Captain Blasto web series. He also appears in our own webshow, Echo Chamber as Zack's dad.

---

• Blind Without Them: Edward can't see without his glasses. Naturally, he loses them at the worst possible time, while Jack is trying to fight a Mercurian hand-to-hand and yelling for Edward to grab his gun.
• Cowardly Sidekick: Jack has to drag Edward (occasionally literally) around the building as they try to stop the Mercurians.
• Extreme Doormat: He offers little resistance to Jack dragging him around.
• Nervous Wreck: Being a regular office worker, Edward understandably has difficulty coping with his office being invaded by aliens and then being forced into helping save the world.
• White Collar Worker

Jack Yaeger

Played by: Creator/Curt Wootton

Daring League captain, aerospace engineer, and former US Air Force pilot, Jack travels the galaxy to explore unknown worlds, new alien races, and advanced technological wonders. Always at Jack's side is the Lumiére, his trusted revolver which fires bolts of condensed light. Jack is dispatched to Earth to investigate the glowing men of Mercury.

Curt's previous credits include the villainous Professor Fandango in the Captain Blasto web series, The Mercury Men concept short, and The Hidden Blade for IFC's Media Lab.

---

• Adventurer Outfit: Jack's outfit is reminiscent of a 1930's pulp hero, consisting of a flight cap and goggles, leather jacket over a turtleneck sweater, jodhpurs, and jackboots.
• The Captain
• Dressing as the Enemy: Jack dresses as one of the Mercurian engineers to get close enough to reverse the Gravity Engine in the film's climax.
• Expy: Jack is modelled after pulp heroes like Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, with a little Indiana Jones thrown in for good measure.
• Good Is Not Nice: Jack spends a good deal of the film dragging Edward around (occasionally quite literally) and tells him point-blank that if Edward's death meant everyone else would survive, Jack would kill him himself.
• Good with Numbers: When his pencil breaks during the climax, Jack does the complex gravity equations in his head.
• Gun Twirling: After dispatching one of the Mercurians, Jack spins the gun around his finger like Film/Robocop before holstering it.
• The Hero
• Made of Iron: Jack gets hit with lightning more than any other character, yet suffers nothing more serious than being knocked unconscious.
• Ray Gun: Jack's revolver, the Lumiére, fires "Mercury pin" bullets made of Hard Light.
• Revolvers Are Just Better: The Lumiére resembles a modified six-shot revolver, though it fires Hard Light bullets, each of which is good for 24 shots.
• Science Hero: His gunslinging notwithstanding, Jack's greatest assets are his skills in mathematics and engineering, which allows him to reverse the Gravity Engine and save Earth.
• The Smart Guy

Grace

Played by: Amy Staggs

While trying to get a simple government form stamped before the municipal offices close for the night, Grace is confronted by an immovable object: Edward Borman. The young raven-haired woman inadvertently becomes trapped by the Mercury Men with Edward as her only help to escape.

Amy's previous credits include Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof and Friday Night Lights the television series.

---

• Distressed Damsel
• Smurfette Principle: She's the only female character to appear in the series.

The Mercurians

The titular Mercury Men, the Mercurians are the film's primary antagonists. According to Jack, the Mercury Men took the Apollo moon landings as a threat, as it was a greater technological achievement than anything the Mercurians (who are millions of years older than humanity) had ever accomplished.

---

• Energy Beings: The Mercury Men are made of hard light, appearing as little more than glowing silhouettes.
• Extra Eyes: The Mercury engineers' suits have three eyeholes, implying the species naturally has an extra eye.
• Hard Light: Despite being comprised of light, the Mercurians are definitely solid.
• Humanoid Aliens: They are humanoid in shape, but are taller and thinner than average humans and have a stooped posture (supposedly due to Earth's greater gravity).
• Lean and Mean: The antagonistic Mercury Men are much taller and slimmer than humans.
• Light Is Not Good: They are composed of pure light, but are anything but good.
• Lightworlder: It never becomes relevant to the plot, but Mercury's gravity is about 38% that of Earth's. Jack's journal notes this is the reason for their hunched posture.
• Shock and Awe: The Mercurians can shoot lighning from their hand.
• Soviet Super Science: Most of their technology was given to them by the Chief Engineer, who may or may not have been the former head of the Soviet space program.