Corporate greed and a Hostile takeover | Dillinger, Sark and the MCP
Dillinger is a interesting case, they never make you feel bad for him in a ham fisted “my father never hugged me as a boy” sort of way. You feel sorry for him in the way in which he dug his own grave but he’s not exactly sympathetic, he’s quite open with what he is and that, is a greedy slimeball.
Re reading the novelization makes this all the more clear, he’s a horrible person but in a fun way.
Unlike Gibbs this is a man who is perfectly aware of how cutthroat and corrupt the boardroom side of business is and relishes in it. Throughout his portions of the book it talks about how much he likes the luxury and little privileges that come with being CEO. He’s equally paranoid by this as he knows exactly what shady dealings got him to where he is today- he took advantage of being slimy and is terrified of the idea someone might do the exact same thing as him.
Possibly my favorite part is that he is a victim of a monster of his own making. “It’s my fault, I’ve programmed you to want as much.” As I do.” Has to be one of my favorite lines in the novel. We watch ad the secret to his success basically holds him hostage in his position, he starts to realize just how deep water he has gotten himself… and possibly humanity, into. It ends in jail either way but he’ll be damned if he’s not going to enjoy the last extent of the power he has for the short time it will last.
“I programmed the machine to want and now it wants things!!!”
He has created something that not only has similar motivations and shady tactics but is 100 times better at it than Dillinger could ever dream of. The ambitions get bigger and he becomes a smaller and smaller man subservient to something that, at last, wants more than he does. It’s fascinating how he has two sides of himself reflected The MCP is his greed and want and tyrannical want for power while Sark is that frightened side of him who wanted the benefit and the comfortable living but has only begun to realize what exactly he sold himself to.
Sark is an addict for power, he wants more, he wants to be in charge and he doesn’t particularly mind how it happens (as seen by who he aligns with) or he thinks it doesn’t matter, anyway. He’s a command program he wants to be in charge, it’s understandable, but like Dillinger he’s a bit too ambitious for his own and others good. Also similarly, he realizes the error of his ways far too late. Both of them are too proud to admit said error and instead double down on the side of the MCP than admit fault or give up a sliver of the power and comfort given to them.