Top Dollar | |
Gender | Male |
---|---|
Hair | Brown |
Eyes | Brown |
Status | Deceased |
Relatives | Myca (Half-sister) |
Quote | “Ya know, my daddy always used to say ‘Every man has a devil, and you can’t rest till you find him’.” |
Fate | Deceased |
Actor | Michael Wincott |
Top Dollar is a criminal that T-Bird's gang works for, as well as the main antagonist in the 1994 film The Crow.
His criminal empire consists of drugs, serial arson and an anarchist view on Devil’s Night. He also has an incestuous sexual relationship with his half-sister, Myca. Because of his sister’s interest in the supernatural, he is no stranger to it, even participating in rituals such as collecting eyes. He is also a cocaine addict. He is portrayed by Michael Wincott.
Original Comic[]
On a cold October night, Top Dollar is in a car riding with T-Bird, Tin Tin, Funboy, and Tom Tom when they come upon a young couple (Eric and Shelly) whose car broke down. They all get out of the car as T-Bird tries to offer their assistance, despite Eric’s repeated refusals. When T-Bird suggests that maybe Shelly needs help, Top Dollar and the others surround the car and Top Dollar tells her to open the door. Top Dollar watches as T-Bird shoots Eric. On T-Bird’s instruction, Shelly is removed from the car and the gang takes turns raping her. At some point, Top Dollar tells Tom Tom to shut Shelly up as she wouldn’t stop screaming. After T-Bird kills Shelly, the group leaves as it starts to rain.
One year after the murders, Top Dollar is sitting in a room with other men in a meeting. Top Dollar gets annoyed when he feels that Sanchez is telling him what to do after Tin Tin’s death. The other men tell Top Dollar that with Tin Tin‘s death it’s going to start making it look as if Top Dollar doesn’t have control. Top Dollar then tells the men that his word is the law in their neighborhood. Just then Eric storms into the room and kills everyone except Top Dollar. Eric asks Top Dollar if he remembers him. As Eric tries to explain to Top Dollar his role in Shelly’s murder, Top Dollar tries to offer Eric $10,000 worth of drugs. Eric ignores him and asks him if he remembers meeting an young couple on a dirt road a year earlier. Top Dollar says that he remembers and asks, “So what?”, and Eric replies with, “So this” and shoots Top Dollar in the eye. Top Dollar tells Eric to go to hell before Eric shoots Top Dollar in the head, killing him.
The Crow (film)[]
Not much is known about Top Dollar, who was a character created for the film and not present in the comic. He accepts responsibility for the modern version of Devil’s Night, converting it from a night of egging houses and petty vandalism to that of throwing a huge party, causing as many fires as he could and making a profit. He claimed to personally start the first Devil's Night fires in Detroit.
However, between 1992 and 1993, he became disillusioned of the holiday. This was because of his idea being imitated by other crooks and, recently, Devil's Night Greeting Cards being sold all over.
It was Top Dollar that ordered the loft resided in by Shelly Webster and Eric Draven to be cleared, causing T-Bird, Funboy, Tin Tin and Skank to rape Shelly and murder Eric (which, in turn, made him the sole reason for Eric's resurrection).
He didn't count on Shelly protesting their tenant eviction (which was actually a ruse so that he could burn down their apartment building). So he sent the gang to intimidate her into leaving her home; when Eric walks in on them, an assault turns into murder.
Top Dollar was first officially seen in the movie after Eric murders Tin Tin. T-Bird is waiting outside his room to report on an assignment he ordered, that led to the destruction of a local arcade.
However, Top Dollar was preoccupied with finishing a three-way between himself, Myca and another woman — the result of which killed her. While Myca was showering, Top Dollar was looking at a cemetery snow globe given to him by his father, on his 5th birthday — mentioning specifically “childhood's over the moment you know you're gonna die.”
After Myca asks if the woman is asleep, Top Dollar checks the woman's corpse, and says he thinks they “broke her.” Myca then heads over to the woman with a knife in her hand and says she loves the woman’s eyes, calling them “pretty.” Finally, Top Dollar watches as Myca cuts the woman’s eyes out (although the act is shown off-screen).
Top Dollar is later shown sampling cocaine while he and Myca participate in a ritual that involves cooking the harvested eyes and inhaling the smoke. Grange comes in, with T-Bird in tow, both reporting separate grievances, with Grange first mentioning Gideon’s pawnshop burning down; Top Dollar jokingly accuses T-Bird of such, to which T-Bird denies, explaining his own grievance regarding Tin Tin’s death. In a crude way Top Dollar offers a moment of silence for Tin Tin before snorting a line of Cocaine and assigning T-Bird for a Devil's Night-related job. He also tells Grange to investigate the circumstances of Gideon’s destroyed shop, seeing how he did not order it.
Top Dollar is later seen interrogating Gideon, who explains to him that the person that did it regenerated from a gunshot wound he inflicted on him. He also told Top Dollar the man's warning to T-Bird, that death is coming for him and that his name is Eric Draven. Top Dollar initially does not believe it, but Grange confirms his story when he reveals seeing the same man jumping out of a dying Funboy's window. Nevertheless, Top Dollar kills Gideon, stabbing him in the neck with his rapier and shooting him so he could die faster.
Skank is later brought in the next morning describing the same man as well as his murder of T-Bird. Top Dollar uses a publicity picture of Eric's band, The Hangman's Joke, to help Skank point out who the killer looked like; his panicked explanation causes Top Dollar to remark that they should just videotape him and play it back in slow motion. Grange confirms Eric's resurrection by informing Top Dollar that Eric's grave is empty. They both realize that Eric is working his way to Skank's direction, causing Skank to panic more. Top Dollar slaps Skank hard enough to calm him down and assigns Grange to look after him while he sets up his annual Devil's Night meeting.
Later that night, Top Dollar addresses the gang about whether or not they should quit due to his disillusion. Instead he vows to set a bigger fire than the ones he has before. In the midst of his speech ,he asks Skank how he feels about it. To which Skank responds, "I feel like a little worm on a big fucking hook." Which causes the gang to laugh some more. Before he could finish his speech, Eric's Crow flies in and Eric comes in to, causing Top Dollar to meet him for the first time. Eric demands Top Dollar to hand over Skank, to which he refuses ordering his men to shoot him. At first he thought he solved the problem, but Eric ends up surprising him, slaughtering his gang left and right while looking for Skank. Only Top Dollar, Myca and Grange make it out alive.
Top Dollar is later seen riding along with Myca and Grange talking about the situation. When Myca reveals that the crow is Eric's weakness, they set up an ambush.
When Sarah leaves the cemetery, Grange steps out of the shadows and abducts Sarah, taking her to a church while making sure she is seen by Eric's crow. This would cause Eric to go after them in order to rescue her and cause Grange to shoot the crow. To test Myca's theory, Top Dollar shoots Eric in the shoulder. When he sees that the wound is permanent, he beats up Eric. When Grange finds out the shot did not kill the crow, Top Dollar orders him to shoot it again. Luckily for Eric, however, Albrecht comes in and shoots Grange dead, causing Top Dollar and Myca to flee with Sarah and the crow. They make their way to the roof through the bell tower, and Top Dollar hands Myca his gun and kisses her one last time before he takes Sarah with him up to the roof of the church.
After his crow kills Myca, Eric confronts Top Dollar, demanding he let Sarah go in exchange for giving himself up without a fight. Top Dollar agrees, but throws Sarah off the roof, causing her to cling to the eaves. He draws his katana and tries to fight Eric who, in turn, uses the church's weather vane to fight on equal terms. When Eric gets distracted by Sarah’s cries for help, Top Dollar sees what he views to be an opportunity of sorts, and stabs him through the back, disabling him.
When Top Dollar has Eric cornered, he reveals to be the one responsible for clearing Eric's apartment building, resulting in Eric and Shelly's deaths. He apologizes for spoiling his wedding plans and admits that Eric has a lot of fighting spirit. Top Dollar also admits that Eric's fight against him made him happy and that he is going to miss him.
Before he could finish Eric off, though, Eric grabs him by the head, giving him the memory of Shelly’s 30-hour agony in the hospital all at once. This causes Top Dollar’s mind to cave in, his eyes to cry blood and himself to fall off the church before finally being impaled on a gargoyle-shaped eaves drop.