Buddy Pine

Buddy Pine (also known as Syndrome and Incrediboy) is the main antagonist in The Incredibles.

The Incredibles
Syndrome is an evil genius with buckteeth, a long chin and big hair.

He used to be a huge fan of Mr. Incredible as a young boy, and wanted to be Mr. Incredible's sidekick, "IncrediBoy". However, Mr. Incredible kept telling Buddy that he doesn't need his help. Eventually, Buddy went as far as to interrupt Mr. Incredible and Bomb Voyage's showdown and introduced his new rocket boots to Mr. Incredible. However, Mr. Incredible still told Buddy to leave and says that he works alone. Then, Bomb Voyage placed a bomb on Buddy's cape, forcing Mr. Incredible to release Bomb Voyage in order to save the ignorant boy. However, he and the bomb fell on a train track that got blown up (due to the bomb exploding), and a train was coming, but Mr. Incredible managed to make it stop. Having had enough of Buddy's carelessness, he handed Buddy over to the police and tells them to make sure that his mom knows what he's been doing. Since Mr. Incredible never wanted Buddy to help him, it caused Buddy to turn on his former idol, and eventually get his revenge.

Now, an adult Buddy used his skill with inventions to become a highly successful and wealthy weapons designer and arms dealer, abandoning his conscience in the process. Although not stated in the film, it was implied that he made much money and became rich selling his weaponry to terrorist groups, foreign dictators, and organized crime families.

No matter how rich and powerful Buddy became, he never forgot about Mr. Incredible, and formulated his plans for revenge on Mr. Incredible and other supers for shunning him.

Using his best inventions to simulate super powers, he took on the costumed identity of "Syndrome" and set up Operation Kronos, aimed at eliminating other supers, and then portraying himself as their successor. He also explains that he also plans to sell his inventions in the future, reasoning that "when everyone's super, no one will be".

Operating through his agent Mirage, Syndrome contacted various retired superheroes, tasking them with the destruction of various prototypes of the enormous Omnidroid battle robots, leading to the demise of many of the old supers. Deciding that the robot was now good enough to fight Mr. Incredible, he had Mirage recruit Mr. Incredible, who was able to defeat the Omnidroid.

After repairing and improving the machine, Syndrome was sent to fight Mr. Incredible. When Mr. Incredible was outmatched, Syndrome revealed himself and declared that he would be his nemesis. Using his zero-point technology to throw Mr. Incredible over a waterfall, he tried to kill him with an explosive device. Even though this failed, Syndrome was able to capture Mr. Incredible when he tried to infiltrate his base.

When the rest of the Incredible family followed, Syndrome assumed his prisoner had sent for reinforcements and ordered the plane to by shot down with missiles, taking cruel pleasure in the knowledge that he had killed his enemy's family, taunting, "You'll get over it. I seem to recall you prefer to work alone?". Mr. Incredible retaliated by threatening to crush Mirage; Syndrome was unimpressed and called his bluff, knowing that even with nothing to lose, Mr. Incredible would not kill an enemy. This callous disregard for life eventually turns Mirage against Syndrome, leading her to free Mr. Incredible from captivity, inform him of his family's survival, and help him to escape and reunite with them.

Syndrome managed to recapture the super family and re-imprison them, taking the opportunity to elaborate on his plan. He intends to set the Omnidroid v.10 on Metroville and then stop it himself, taking the credit and setting himself up as the city's new hero. Syndrome also revealed that after many years of being hailed as a super, he would then make money by selling his inventions (such as his rocket boots) to any paying customer in order to enjoy powers similar to his, and gradually become superheroes. Syndrome echoes an earlier comment of Dash's that "when everyone is super, nobody will be", hinting that he planned to continue Operation Kronos on future superheroes for his own benefit and glory. However, this plan failed, as the Omnidroid's ability to learn allowed it to identify Syndrome as a threat, disabling his remote control wristband and sending him flying into a building. He remained unconscious during the Incredibles' and Frozone's battle with his Omnidroid, and was thus robbed of his victory.

After his plans to fraudulently become a superhero and replace the supers that he had killed off were foiled by the Incredibles and Frozone, Syndrome planned to abduct Jack-Jack and raise him as a sidekick, but failed due to the baby's recently emerged powers. Finally realizing that he lost, Syndrome leaned from the side door of his plane, promising to return and get revenge again. However, Mr. Incredible threw his car at Syndrome's plane, knocking Syndrome off balance. Echoing an earlier scene regarding the dangers of wearing a cape told by Edna, Syndrome's cape gets caught in the jet engine. As Syndrome tries to climb back up, the engine pulls him in, killing Syndrome (similar to what happened to Stratogale), and then Syndrome's plane explodes.

Early life
As an 8-year old boy, he was Mr. Incredible's #1 fan, and considered himself to be Mr. Incredible's self-appointed sidekick, "IncrediBoy". Mr. Incredible initially humored Buddy with autographs and similar considerations, but didn't approve of a child showing up uninvited to announce that they're partners to begin with, much less repeatedly. Even though Mr. Incredible eventually resorted to bluntly telling Buddy that he wouldn't tolerate such harassment, Buddy wasn't deterred. Buddy even went as far as to interrupt Mr. Incredible's impending showdown with Bomb Voyage (who apparently stole some money from the bank), placing himself in danger. When Bomb Voyage placed a bomb on Buddy's cape (unbeknownst to Buddy), Mr. Incredible was forced to relase Bomb Voyage in order to save Buddy. However, the rescue ended up causing one of the two lawsuits that Mr. Incredible faced and lost, thus opening a floodgate of other lawsuits against supers and thus, abolishing supers altogether. Fed up with Buddy's carelessness, Mr. Incredible handed him over to the police. However, the cops don't press criminal charges against Buddy, but act upon Mr. Incredible's recommendation that they let Buddy's mother know what her son's been doing, and it'll be up to the Pine family to determine the appropriate punishment for Buddy for interfering in Mr. Incredible's duties. Buddy's punishment at the hands of his family was not revealed, but a flashback of him angrily looking up at a Mr. Incredible poster and then tearing it down suggests that he was grounded and sent to his room.

"IncrediBoy" showed advanced mechanical skill by creating his own rocket boots, but they weren't nearly enough to convince Mr. Incredible, whose callous dismissals left Buddy's fantasies crushed. This blow and his skewed interpretation of the event, shown in a later distorted flashback where Bomb Voyage wasn't even present, drove Buddy to a venomous hatred, and then to revenge.

Current life
Buddy is now around his mid 20s and has turned into a supervillain. He wears his hair in a tall wavy "Jimmy Neutron"-esque do.

Death
After his assets are frozen by the United States Secret Service, Syndrome made one final attempt at revenge by breaking into the Incredibles' house and abducting their baby, Jack-Jack. Syndrome then flew up into the sky and headed for his jet plane. However, Syndrome failed once again due to Elastigirl saving Jack-Jack (and then using her body as a parachute). Then, Syndrome leaned from the side door of his plane, beginning to vow vengeance next time. But Mr. Incredible threw his car at Syndrome's plane, knocking Syndrome off balance. Syndrome's cape then gets caught in the jet engine. He was either killed by the engine's blades, or the explosion of the plane.

Jack-Jack Attack
Taking place in the same day Syndrome attempts to establish himself as a "Superhero" and his plans fail, right after he regains consciousness he rushes over to the Parr's residence to abduct Jack-Jack. But currently Kari was babysitting Jack-Jack, but due to her encounters with Jack-Jack's superpowers she was looking insane, as well as mistaking Syndrome for a replacement. The very next thing she noticed is Syndrome's "S" on the front of his costume, Syndrome tries to cover it up by saying it stands for "Sitter". Then trying to further that disguise by telling Kari that his original idea was "Initials for babysitter" but he'd be flying around with a big "B.S" claiming it would have been humiliating.

Appearance
Syndrome stands six feet and one inch tall (not including the height of his hair). He is barrel-chested and weighs 185 lb. His red hair extends straight up with a widow's peak in a manner reminiscent of flames or the hairstyle of Jimmy Neutron. Syndrome is supposedly "not a super", but he demonstrates exceptional ingenuity, technical knowledge and planning skill far beyond the science of his time. The animators had intended Syndrome to be a caricaturization of director Brad Bird, but it had been debated as to whether they should spoof Bird in their drawing of Mr. Incredible. Ultimately, both Syndrome and Mr. Incredible are a pastiche of Brad Bird.

Weaponry and gadgets

 * Utility Gauntlets - Using zero-point energy, Syndrome is able to create a field of quantum energy that inhibits the majority of a victim's body movement. If the victim's skin is exposed, the range of motion of the victim's face is also taken to the minimum (only their eyes can move), and the ability to speak is also inhibited. The field is moved by his fingers and can be fired in the forms of energy blasts and concentrated beams. Like the trigger for Spider-Man's web-shooters, the trigger for these weapons is located high on the palm of each hand to prevent most unwanted firings. The left-hand gauntlet also holds the remote control for the Omnidroid. A communicator is likely built into the right-hand gauntlet.
 * Aero Boots - In his short days as IncrediBoy, Buddy used makeshift rockets. As Syndrome, his rocket boots were modified to project flames of blue fire.
 * Bio-Probe - Used to locate temperature, atmosphere and life signals in various locations. Worn in the left-hand gauntlet.
 * Miniature "I"-bomb - Small, but exceedingly powerful water-bomb. Worn in the right-hand gauntlet.
 * Omnidroid - To date, there have been ten known versions of this battle robot. The first nine were prototypes designed to fight and kill supers. The tenth was used in the foiled Operation Kronos. All of them were artificially intelligent, enabling it to solve any problem that it encounters; Omnidroid v.10 figured out that Syndrome used a remote device to control it and knocked him unconscious. Another feature of the Omnidroids is that they have colored eyes (e.g., 08 has a blue/green eye, v.10 has a red eye). The Omnidroid's only weakness is itself: in the film, Mr. Incredible scrambles into Omnidroid 08's inner workings, making the machine pierce its own hull in a vain attempt to pry the hero free from inside, and later on, Mr. Incredible launches Omnidroid v.10's claw at it and tears right through it, ripping out its power core.
 * Viper - Helicopter-like, VTOL vehicles with ducted fans attached that twist and turn to control the vehicle's altitude and movement. The ducted fans tend to decrease lift when changing independent blade pitch.
 * Velocipod - Round open cars with four surrounding blades that spin at exceedlingly high speeds to keep them airborne.
 * Manta Jets - Specially designed transporters resembling manta rays that have a translucent holographic monitor inside, and are able to travel underwater.
 * Energy Prisons - Prisons in which the victim is obtained inside a powerful electric field and unable to escape due to hard metal mineballs.

Conception and creation
Syndrome was originally meant to be a throwaway character. In a deleted scene (the alternate opening), Syndrome, after learning from an agent of his that Mr. Incredible had recently moved into [the agent's] neighborhood (after an incident where Mr. Incredible accidentally cleaved his hand with a butcher knife and, due to his superhuman durability, dented it in the process without injury to himself, and was forced to fake injury and hide the incriminating knife.), broke into the Incredible Family's home (the Incredibles used the last name "Smith" instead of "Parr"), disguising himself as a burglar and making enough noise to lure Bob to him, and then used Bob as a battering ram to wreck the home. He also tried to capture Violet while she was still in her infancy, but she, in her invisible state, regurgitated saliva onto his eyes (apparently, the baby Violet had a problem with this, as earlier in the scene, she regurgitated saliva onto her mother's shirt, much to the disgust of one of their neighbors), making him drop the parents. In response, Syndrome immobilized both Helen and Violet, but became immobilized himself when Bob rolled a mirror between them and lodged him into the ceiling of Violet's room. Syndrome was ultimately killed when the family's home was totaled in a gas main explosion sparked by flame in the fireplace (the Incredibles, however, managed to escape in time). In the same scene, Syndrome, upon discovering Violet, also hinted that Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl essentially broke the law by marrying and having children, although this concept was cut in the final version, as when a similarly scripted revelation occurred, he does not mention the legality of whether Supers should breed or not.

The main villain was originally intended to be Xerek, a man who physically resembled the archetypal James Bond villain and had a much more conventional evil plot (whereas Syndrome would've been an old villain seeking revenge, and would've been killed in the first scene). However, in terms of popularity with the creators, he was bested and replaced by Syndrome.

Trivia

 * Syndrome is the fourth Pixar villain to be physically fought.
 * Syndrome is the second villain to have been killed in a Pixar film, the first occurring in A Bug's Life, when a bird fed Hopper to her chicks.
 * His hairdo is similar to that of Jimmy Neutron or Vegeta from Dragon ball-series.
 * In Jack-Jack Attack, his mask is not on, and he still has his cape.
 * As a young boy, his hair was blondish. However, as an adult, it's red. He could have dyed his hair red. Or it could have grown orange naturally.
 * When Buddy sneaks into Mr. Incredible's car, Mr. Incredible goes through several names trying to remember Buddy's name. One of the names he says is "Brodie", possibly a reference to Syndrome's voice actor Jason Lee's break out character from the movie "Mallrats".