Bringing a high-ranking villain bad news is a pretty dangerous line of work, probably one of the most dangerous. It never ends well for the henchman bearing the information…but then, being a henchman to a villain hardly ever ends well in B-movies. But the non-bad-news-bearing henchman often get away with a they-might-have-survived-the-inexplicable-explosion-of-the-hideout-after-the-villain’s-death exit. Bad-news-bearing henchman usually get a less ambivalent exit(us), usually right in front of the camera.
Keeping that in mind, our henchman here was extremely fortunate! The high fatality rate of bad-news-bearing underlings is mostly caused by a villain’s need to polish his bad-guy-with-short-temper credit. A kind of living – and then no longer living – proof of a villain’s ruthlessness and disregard for justice. But Comrade Uranin has no need to prove himself that way, since his stunning similarity to a historically infamous uber-villain gives him all the villainous credit he needs and more. He could therefore afford to restrict his henchman’s punishment to life-long banishment to a camp in the Uranian equivalent of Siberia. That’s much more emblematic for the villain Comrade Uranin anspires to being, and bad enough. And it also means that this henchman will certainly escape a potential iexplicable explosion of the hideout after the villain’s death, so he’s twice lucky!
More on Thursday.