Herman Cromwell | ||
---|---|---|
Biographical information | ||
Gender | Male | |
Species | Human | |
Age | Unknown | |
Status | Alive | |
Cause of Death | N/A | |
Killed by | N/A | |
Family | Unknown | |
Abilities | Unknown | |
Played by | Peter Boyle | |
Appearances | Species II |
Herman Cromwell (also known as Dr. Herman Cromwell) is a character from the second film in the series, Species II.
Species II[]
He is a former scientist and professor at Stanford where he taught Dr. Orinsky. Herman now is an inmate in Garberville Psychiatric Institute, being the only person who reacts violently to the return of the three astronauts: Patrick Ross, Anne Sampas and Dennis Gamble who all have accomplished a successful mission to Mars. Press and Laura made contact with Cromwell. He then told them that he warned the government against going to Mars due to his discovery that an alien species had once colonized the planet when it had been more like Earth in the past and feared that any remaining alien DNA might infect any humans that landed there, but he was consigned to a mental institution so that he would no longer protest against any missions to Mars. When asking about why Orinsky tried to call him on the night he died, he states that Orinsky wanted to tell him that he was right all along.
Quotes[]
- (Cromwell, explaining what he found out about Mars and why it got him locked up): "I was doing research on a Mars meteorite.”
- Laura Baker: “The one found in the Antarctic in '96?”
- Cromwell: “Fossils in the meteorite convinced us there might have been life on Mars. But these fossils weren't anything organic to the planet. Oh, no, no, no.”
- Laura: “And what was the basis for that determination?”
- Cromwell: “Carbon-based elements in the fossils...exist only in the Magellanic galaxy. That's 100 million light years away.”
- Press: “Well, how did they get to Mars?”
- Cromwell: “By my reckoning, Mars was visited by an alien species approximately one billion years ago. The species was like a plague, a cancer! It turned a thriving planet with rivers and oceans and rudimentary plant life into a useless hunk of rock. When I heard they were going to send a mission to Mars, I strongly urged the government to reconsider.”
- Laura: “On what grounds?”
- Cromwell: “On grounds that alien DNA might remain on the planet, that any human attempt to violate the planet would result in biological contamination."
- Press: "So, let me guess, they told you to shove it up your ass?"
- Cromwell: "They got me fired from Stanford. It seems the military had strategic reasons for wanting to go to Mars. Outpost of the future, or some crap like that... Anyway, they harassed the shit out of me. I got into a fistfight with a Pentagon general and broke his goddamn jaw!"
- Press: "Well, that's why they stuck you in here, right?"
- Laura: "Why do you think that Dr. Orinsky called you the night that he died?”
- Cromwell: “To tell me I was right. Whatever species destroyed Mars, those poor astronauts brought down to Earth, may God have pity on our souls."