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Boulder

Abagail Freemantle

Abagail is God's prophet on Earth and the guide to the main characters. She is a 108-year-old black woman who lives in Nebraska. Almost every main character dreams of her sitting on her porch, playing her guitar, usually directly after they have a disturbing dream about the Big Bad.

• 108: She's 108 years old when the story sets.
• Big Good
• Cool Old Lady
• Dream Weaver
• Final Speech / Prescience Is Predictable
• I Sense a Disturbance In The Force: Ruby Dee (in the miniseries) even looks like Yoda, and she's a prophet so it's justified.
• Magical Negro: Played with. Abagail most certainly has supernatural insight and ends up being the emotional and moral center of the BFZ, so much so that the council - which is all white - make sure to give her absolute veto power over any of their decisions, lest it look like they were trying to wrest power from her.
• Meaningful Name: Abagail Freemantle
• Sacrificial Lion
• Waif Prophet: Mother Abagail is so old she verges on a Blind Seer.
• Wasteland Elder

Stuart Redman

Stu Redman grew up in Arnette, Texas, and was stuck working in a calculator factory to support his brother when his parents died. When the Superflu's Patient Zero crashed into the gas station in his town, Stu was transplanted to a plauge control center in Vermont. A redneck with a heart of gold, Stu quickly became a leader among survivers.

• Action Survivor
• Cincinnatus: Stu is reluctant to be Marshal of the Free Zone, and ultimately leaves for New England.
• The Everyman
• Fist of Rage: When he's talking to Franny after the explosion, and showing his anger toward Harold.
• Good Ol' Boy
• The Gunslinger: First marshal of Boulder.
• The Hero
• Hidden Depths
• I Sense a Disturbance In The Force: Stu (rather unjustifiably) does this in the miniseries.
• Meaningful Name: Stu Redman
• Opt Out: Stu Redman is forced to do this at one point due to injury.
• Perma-Stubble
• The Quiet One
• Supporting Leader: In addition to being appointed First Marshall of Boulder, he leads the final mission to overthrow the Dark Man. It turns out he was only sent in order to Bring News Back about the others' subsequent sacrifice and destruction of Flagg's kingdom. See Passing the Torch on the main page.

Frannie Goldsmith

A college girl, Frannie discovered at the beginning of the book that she had become pregnant with her boyfriend, Jess. She had traveled home to Ogonquit, Maine, to tell her parents when the Superflu hit. Frannie cares most about keeping those she loves, especially her unborn child, safe.

• Audience Surrogate
• Daddy's Girl: Frannie.
• The Chick
• The Ditz: Miniseries only. She's merely hormonal in the book.
• Girl Next Door
• Good Girls Avoid Abortion: She has an unwanted pregnancy, but decides against abortion.
• Team Mom
• Mommy Issues
• The Scrappy (miniseries)
• The Unfavourite

Nick Andros

Nicholas Andros was born deaf-mute, or physically unable to hear or speak. To communicate, he reads lips and writes on a pad of paper. Orphaned at a young age, Nick grew up in an orphanage. He left at age 16 and hitchhiked from town to town, taking odd jobs. Nick was in Shoyo, Arkansas when the Superflu hit. He cannot understand why people look to him as a leader.

• Adorkable
• And I Must Scream: Nick, who is already deaf-mute, nearly has both eyes gouged out by the last surviving human plague victim within a 50-mile radius.
• Badass: instead of running from the bomb, he tries to defuse it.
• Dead Ex Machina
• Decoy Protagonist
• Dream Weaver
• The Drifter
• Dropped a Bridge on Him
• Eye Scream
• The Fettered
• Field Promotion
• Flat Earth Atheist
• Handicapped Badass
• Heroic Sacrifice
• Ideal Hero: Especially after his death.
• I Sense a Disturbance In The Force: Nick uses this to sense the bomb in the book.
• Mayor of a Ghost Town: in Shoyo.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Nick receives one of these in his first scene in the book.
• Sacrificial Lion
• The Smart Guy
• The Speechless:
• The Stoic
• Technical Pacifist / Reluctant Warrior: You wouldn't like Nick when he's angry.

Larry Underwood

Larry started off a career as a singer/songwriter but was unsuccessful until his single, Baby, Can You Dig Your Man? hit it big. He was taken in by people taking advantage of his fame and fortune and traveled to his childhood home in New York City for refuge. Larry is haunted by the words of a woman he slept with, "You ain't no nice guy!" and of his mother, "You're a taker, Larry." He is determined to prove them wrong and terrified that they are right.

• All Take and No Give: His mom calls him a "taker", which comes back to haunt him many times.
  • To put it in the words of his friend Wayne Stukey, there's "something in [Larry] that's like biting on tinfoil."
• The Apocalypse Brings Out the Best In People
• Betty and Veronica: With Lucy and Nadine.
• Celebrity Survivor: Sort of; his first single had become a hit right before the plague wiped out everyone, and soon after everyone has forgotten that he was kind of famous. It's lampshaded late in the book, when Fran is talking to Larry trying to remember who sang Baby Can You Dig Your Man and says the name's on the tip of her tongue. Larry lies that he can't remember either.
• Childhood Friends: One of Larry's bigger regrets is how his selfish attitude ruined his relationship with a childhood friend. He goes into some detail not only about how trivial the argument was, but what a good friend he had had.
• Heroic Sacrifice
• Ignorant of the Call
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He ain't no Nice Guy.
• The Lancer
• Mr. Vice Guy
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Word of God says Larry Underwood is an expy for Bruce Springsteen, and he looks the part in the Miniseries.
• Passing the Torch
• What the Hell, Hero?: He asked Nadine to leave Joe/Leo behind because he was dangerous and unpredictable. He was also a traumatized kid.

Ralph Brentner

• Cool Hat: Ralph's hat becomes a Memento MacGuffin in the miniseries.
• Good Ol' Boy
• Heroic Sacrifice
• Older Sidekick
• Sixth Ranger
• Undying Loyalty

Glen Bateman

Glen was a sociologist and novice painter before the Superflu. When he meets Stu, he is living on his own with an adopted dog, Kojak. He loves to speculate on the post-flu future, and gives Stu and others good advice about the new Boulder government.

• Author On Board
• Big Brother Mentor: To Stu.
• Cool Old Guy
• Defiant to the End: His Crowning Moment of Awesome.
• Eccentric Mentor
• Ludd Was Right
• Mondegreen: In the miniseries,when we first meet him, Glen mondegreens "Baby, Can You Dig Your Man?".
• Only Sane Man
• The Philosopher
• The Professor: "Not anymore, Larry. In case you haven't noticed, school is out."
• Shut UP, Hannibal: To Flagg. He laughs him out of the room!

Kojak

Formerly known as Big Steve, Kojak is one of the few dogs to survive the Superflu. He is very smart and fiercely loyal to his new owners, to the point of fighting wolves and running across half the country to be with them.

• Badass
• Canine Companion
• A Day in the Limelight: Kojak's journey across the United States to Boulder told from the dog's perspective.
• DeterminatorDue to Undying Loyalty
• Heroic Dog
• Undying Loyalty

Tom Cullen

Tom was born lightly mentally retarded, only able to make certain connections normal people find easy by putting himself in a state of near-hypnosis. He never had any friends until Nick found him lying in the road in his deserted hometown. Despite acting like a child, Tom is braver and smarter than people think.

• Adult Child: Tom is middle-aged but still enjoys playing with toys (he's mentally retarded). On a different level, Harold is quite immature even for his age.
• Disability Immunity: Flagg is unable to sense him, because of his retardation.
• Disability Superpower: Tom is especially susceptible to suggestion and is able to hypnotize himself to solve problems.
• Dumb Is Good
• The Fool
• Gentle Giant: Tom is described as being both big and strong, but he wouldn't hurt a fly.
• Hidden Depths: He manages to creep the others out with them, under hypnosis.
  • "I am God's Tom."
• The Infiltration
• Mayor of a Ghost Town: He is the only surviving person in the town where Nick finds him.
• Older Than They Look: He is said to look no more than twenty-three; actually he's at least forty-five. It probably doesn't help that he acts like a kid.
• Phrase Catcher: "M-O-O-N"
• Verbal Tic: Laws, yes.

Harold Emery Lauder

Harold Lauder grew up in Ogonquit, Maine as the fat kid whom nobody liked. He always had a crush on Frannie Goldsmith but never told her. Harold is extremely bitter and sees his new situation as a chance to get Frannie once and for all.

• Adult Child: Harold is very intelligent, but quite immature for his age.
• Alas, Poor Villain
• Antiquated Linguistics: Harold affects a bit of this early on. It is specifically noted as being kinda pretentious, and something he's doing because he's scared.
• Ate His Gun
• Author Avatar: Harold is an unpopular, bespectacled teen from southern Maine who is a literary geek, lusts after the girl next door, and wants to write the next great American novel. Wouldn't be the first time King turned his own expy into the villain...
• Big Bad Wannabe
• Best Served Cold
• Covert Pervert
• Crazy Jealous Guy
• Embarrassing Nickname: Harold "Whack-Off" Lauder.
• Evil Feels Good: After Harold's heel turn, everyone comments on his newfound charisma and self-esteem.
• Face Heel Turn
• Geek: Possibly inspired by King's own awkward youth.
• Ignored Epiphany: Harold has a moment when the camaraderie he shares with his coworkers makes him see that all the Wangsty bullshit he's been carrying around since high school is just that: bullshit. He resolves to give up his plan to betray the Free Zone and settle down. Then Nadine seduces him on orders from Flagg, and things go downhill from there...
• Inferiority Superiority Complex
• In-Series Nickname: He recieves the nickname "Hawk" in Boulder. He first thinks it's a bad joke, the he realites it's serious and people actually respect him. He signs his suicide note as Hawk.
• Insufferable Genius
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: "My name is Harold Emery Lauder. I do this of my own free will."
• Meaningful Name: Harold E. Lauder
• Most Writers Are Writers
• Nietzsche Wannabe
• Not Good with Rejection: Harold, once Frannie picks Stu, despite the fact he'd been deluding himself into believing he had a chance with her.
• Put Them All Out of My Misery: See Alas, Poor Villain and Wangst.
• Redemption Rejection: Harold, who realizes he can make a new and better life for himself in Boulder, chooses to settle all of his childish grudges instead.
• Say My Name: "My name is Harold Emery Lauder."
• The Smart Guy
• Smug Snake
• Stalker with a Crush
• Stepford Smiler: Harold becomes one when he reads Frannie's diary. When he starts up the practice, many characters start to comment on how cheery he's become. Oh, if only they knew...
  • It doesn't fool everybody. Nick refuses to give him a place on the council in Boulder because he thinks there's something unsettling and fake in his constant grinning and glad-handing.
• The Mole
• The Unfavourite
• Wangst: Harold's bitterness over being picked on throughout his school years and his inability to just get over it ends up with him falling to The Dark Side. After realizing how accepted he's become in Boulder, he realizes that holding on to his old grudges is stupid and pathetic and resolves to change... but then, along comes Nadine.
• Yandere: At the beginning, to Frannie. Then It Got Worse.

Nadine Cross

Nadine has had dreams of the Big Bad, Randall Flagg, since college. She is his promised wife and mother of his child. By the time Larry finds Nadine, she is desperate to find someone to tear her away from Flagg's spell over her, whether it is Larry or Joe.

• All Girls Want Bad Boys
• Betty and Veronica: The Veronica.
• Composite Character: Rita Blakemoor is rolled into Nadine's character in the miniseries.
• Disney Villain Death/Driven to Suicide/Dying Moment of Awesome: She doesn't save anyone, and she doesn't take anyone with her (well, one person), but she does something still profound; she rattles Randall Flagg.
• Locked Into Strangeness
• Face Heel Turn
• Deadly Change-of-Heart: Nadine Cross spent her life believing she had to save her virginity for Dream Weaver Flagg, who is revealed to be an expy for The Antichrist. When she falls in love with Larry instead, she initially rebuffs his advances, then desperately asks him to sleep with her (after he has fallen in love with someone else) to break her commitment to Flagg. When Larry refuses, Nadine falls in with Flagg. (see Ignored Epiphany below.)
• Kirk Summation: Deliberately done to anger Flagg. Of course, Redemption Equals Death.
• Meaningful Name: Nadine Cross
• The Mole
• Parental Substitute: To Leo/Joe.
• Rape as Drama
• Redemption Equals Death
• Virgin Sacrifice
• White-Haired Pretty Girl

Joe/Leo Rockway

Leo was still a kid when the Superflu hit. When Nadine found him, he was sick from an infected rat bite. When she nursed him back to health, he was unable to speak, dressed only in his underpants and carried around a knife the way most kids carry around teddy bears. She named him Joe for lack of a better name.

• Child Prodigy: He's able to play the guitar after hearing Larry once.
• Creepy Child: He has some psychic powers which allow him to "know things".
• Knife Nut
• Morality Chain: For Nadine.
• Orphan's Ordeal: After his family's death he nearly died of infection, and was so traumatized he stopped talking and carried a knife all the time. Nadine becames his Parental Substitute but it doesn't end well. In the end, he's adopted by Larry and Lucy.
• Psychic Powers: He seems to have a little telepathy, and he instantly knows there's something wrong with Harold.
• Trauma-Induced Amnesia
• Troubled Child
• The Voiceless: When we first meet him. He gets his voice back when he meets Mother Abagail.
• Wild Child (in the "feral child" sense)

Dayna Jurgens

Dayna was traveling with other survivors when they were attacked by a group of rapists. Her friends were killed and she was the group's plaything until the day she and the other girls, along with Stu and Frannie's group, were able to overthrow them. Dayna is fiercely loyal and independent.

• Action Girl
• Better to Die Than Be Killed: Dayna kills herself to prevent Flagg from torturing her for information. That he could not stop or predict this really rattles him.
• Bi the Way
• The Dog Bites Back: When Stu's group encounters the rapists, she leads the women in a revolt against them. She later reveals they were waiting for a group, preferably one with guns, to find them before they moved.
• The Infiltration
• Rape as Backstory
• Vasquez Always Dies

Lucy Swann

Lucy met and fell in love with Larry offscreen. She sees the best in him and tries to help him do the same.

• Betty and Veronica: The Betty.
• Girl Next Door
• Someone to Remember Him By

Rita Blakemoor

Rita was the wife of a rich man and never had to do anything herself until the Superflu hit. She met Larry in New York City and latched on to him. She can't deal with the horrors around her and depends on Larry heavily for support.

• Broken Bird
• Christmas Cake
• Driven to Suicide
• Escort Mission: The Lincoln Tunnel
• Functional Addict: In the miniseries this is given to Nadine.
• May-December Romance
• Mrs. Robinson: "lovely Rita"
  • Grandma, What Massive Hotness You Have!: "She's had lovers!"
• Stuffed Into the Fridge
• Widow Woman
  • College Widow

Richard Theodore Farris

Also known as Judge Farris. He is a wise old man with a thirst for adventure.

• As the Good Book Says...
• Badass Grandpa
• The Infiltration
• The Judge
• Reasonable Authority Figure
• Sacrificial Lion

Susan Stern

Susan was with Dayna in the group of girls gathered by rapists as playthings. She later was on the Free Zone Committee.

• The Artifact: Susan seems to belong to the Boulder Free Zone committee only so that Fran Goldsmith isn't the only female member. Her only roles in the story include sharing dialogue and scenes with Dayna Jergens to display their friendship and finding a bitch for Kojak to mate with. She was one of the characters King struggled with during the hiatus whilst he was writing the book which led to...
• Dropped a Bridge On Her
• Mauve Shirt / Sacrificial Lion

Las Vegas

Randall Flagg

Randall Flagg, called The Dark Man, Legion, The Walkin' Dude, is the ultimate evil. He is the servant of the Devil himself. He haunts Superflu survivors' dreams and gathers an army of insane or frightened people to him. His smile can drive a man insane and he crucifies those who oppose or fail him.

• The Antichrist or an archetype thereof
• Bad Boss
• Big Bad
• Canon Immigrant: into and out of various works.
• Complete Monster
• The Corrupter
• Dark Messiah
• Dream Weaver
• The Drifter: They don't call him "The Walkin' Dude" for nothing.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good
• Evil Counterpart: to Mother Abagail
• Evil Is Cool
• Evilly Affable
• Evil Overlord: of Las Vegas. He missed a couple items in the checklist.
• Evil Sorcerer
• Faux Affably Evil
• Flying Dutchman
• For the Evulz
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The ball of electricity.
• Hot as Hell
• I Have Many Names: And many of them begin with the initials R.F.
  • As Glen Bateman says to Flagg's men: "His name is Randall Flagg, also known as The Dark Man, also known as The Tall Man, also known as The Walkin' Dude. Don't some of you call him that? Call him Beelzebub, because that's his name, too. Call him Nyarlathotep and Ahaz and Astaroth. Call him R'lyeh and Seti and Anubis. His name is legion and he's an apostate of Hell and you men kiss his ass."
• Kneel Before Zod: Flagg is particularly prone to doing this.

"For a favor of this magnitude, I really think you ought to get down on your knees."

• Large Ham
• Louis Cypher: Arguably
• Manipulative Bastard
• Obviously Evil: It's interesting that half of the remaining population would want to live with Flagg.
  • It helped that he could pass for Affably Evil before he started to decompensate and, well, the Trains Run On Time.
• Power Floats
• Ravens and Crows: A crow is Flagg's preferred shapeshifted form.
• Shape Shifter
• Shut Up, Kirk: To Whitney Horgan. It comes back to bite him, though.
• Slasher Smile
• Smug Snake: Flagg spends a lot of time smirking and doesn't do much to prevent setbacks in his "plans".
• Unexplained Recovery
• Villainous Breakdown
• Villainous Demotivator
• Walking the Earth
• You Have Failed Me...: Poor, poor Bobby Terry.

Lloyd Henreid

Lloyd was a small-scale criminal until he met a fellow jailbird, Poke. Together they went on a killing spree until they were eventually caught and Poke was killed. Lloyd is trapped in jail when the Superflu hits and becomes Flagg's right hand man when he is rescued.

• Amoral Attorney
• Anti-Villain: Though Your Mileage May Vary. While he can commit some very bad crimes, he's really nothing more than a child in a man's body. He follows Flagg only because the guy saved him from starvation, and even then he begins to doubt him when his plans start to crumble.
• Beleaguered Assistant
• Book Dumb
• Boxed Crook meets Deal with the Devil
• The Dragon
• I'm a Humanitarian: Lloyd is in prison during the Superflu, and when he doesn't get food any more because all of the guards have died, he resorts to eating from the leg of one of his fellow prisoners.
• I Owe You My Life
• Iron Woobie
• My Master, Right or Wrong
• No Party Like a Donner Party: In fairness, this was a survival-motivated event, since he was in jail when the plague hit.
• Pet the Dog: Lloyd's affection for Dinny, a four-year-old boy in the Las Vegas camp.
• Sealed Room in the Middle of Nowhere
• Smoking Hot Sex: Well, there's smoking.
• Too Dumb to Live: At first. He gets over it, for the most part.
• Undying Loyalty

Trashcan Man

Donald Merwin Elbert, nicknamed Trashcan Man because of his childhood habit of burning trash cans, is a pyromaniac of the first order. All he wants is a place where he can blow things up unmolested. He fits right in with Flagg's crowd and becomes undyingly loyal to Flagg.

• Berserk Button: "Hey Trash, what'd you do with old lady Semple's pension check?"
• Blessed with Suck: His pyromania and hallucinations made him an outcast in pre-Virus society, but it also gave him a sixth sense for finding weaponry post-Virus.
• Determinator: You might say he never flagged in his determination.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Originally, though the erstwhile Donald Merwin Elbert eventually comes to accept and even embrace that name as his true identity.
• Everything Is Better With Explosions
• Evil Counterpart: To Tom Cullen
• Freudian Excuse
• Goggles Do Nothing: They don't help with radiation induced blindness and hair loss.
• Gollum Made Me Do It
• Idiot Savant
• I Owe You My Life "My life for you!"
• Mad Bomber
• Madness Mantra: "Ciiiii-a-bola, bumpty-bumpty-BUMP!"
  • And possibly "MY LIFE FOR YOU!" in the miniseries.
• Man Child
• Minor Insult Meltdown
• Mr. Fixit: Too bad he's working for Flagg.
• Pyromaniac
• Rape as Drama: Involving a revolver, no less.
• Spanner in the Works: Trash's plans to redeem himself by seeking the Big Fire to destroy the people of Boulder.
• Undying Loyalty
• Verbal Tic
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Trashcan Man proves to be the ultimate instrument of destruction after he finally snaps. Even Flagg feels sorry for him and wants him painlessly executed...

The Kid

• The Alcoholic
• Ax Crazy
• Complete Monster
• Cool Car: He has a Deuce Coupe.
• Domestic Abuser
• Fan of the Past
• For the Evulz
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Word of God is that he's Charles Starkweather.
• No Name Given
• Psycho for Hire
• The Starscream
• Trademark Favorite Food: He is obsessed with Coors and Rebel Yell Whiskey. It's even plot-relevant, as he chooses to drive through Colorado just to pass the Coors brewery in Golden.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness

The Rat-Man

• Adaptation Expansion: Was given a little more to do in the miniseries, even appearing for a cameo before the plague hit.
• Names to Run Away From Really Fast
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: pirate gangster.
• Quirky Miniboss Squad
• A Pirate 400 Years Too Late
• Scary Black Man

Julie Lawry

• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing
• Chekhov's Gunman
• Jail Bait: It isn't made clear if she is legal but she is described as having acne and poorly thought out aspirations, much like a Bratty Teenage Daughter.
• Psychopathic Woman-Child
• Quirky Miniboss Squad
• Really Gets Around
• Sweater Girl
• Woman Scorned

Barry Dorgan

• Big Brother Is Your Friend
• Knight Templar
• Noble Bigot with a Badge
• Quirky Miniboss Squad
• Yank the Dog's Chain: He does this to Trash.

Whitney Horgan

• Deadly Change-of-Heart
• Only Sane Man: He is the only one to see what a monster Flagg is and tries to stop him.
• Punch Clock Villain
• Redemption Equals Death
• Sedgwick Speech
• Team Chef