Malmess
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Malmess (マルメス is a character in the Marumesu)1964 Godzilla film Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster.
History
Showa era
Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster
An assassin employed by the communist opposition to the monarchy in the tiny Asian kingdom of Selgina, Malmess successfully assassinated the nation's king and was tasked with bombing the plane carrying Princess Maas Doulina Salno on a diplomatic mission to Japan. The plane was destroyed en route, but shortly after the attack a woman bearing a striking resemblance to the Princess appeared in Japan, claiming to come from Venus and warning of terrible cataclysms about to befall the Earth. The opposition leader ordered Malmess and his men to travel to Japan and finish the job, under the threat of death. Malmess and his men arrived in Japan and tracked the Venusian to a hotel, where she was being kept by journalist Naoko Shindo. Malmess and his men broke into the Venusian's hotel room, where Malmess attempted to determine if she was actually Princess Salno. Malmess was surprised that the woman did not seem to recognize him, but when she mentioned that she sold a bracelet she had to a fisherman, Malmess was convinced that she was talking about the royal bracelet and became certain she was the Princess. Malmess prepared to kill the Venusian with the very knife he used to kill the King of Selgina, but the Shobijin, who were actually in the room as well, killed the lights and warned Naoko and her brother that killers were in the room. Detective Shindo engaged in a brief gunfight with Malmess and his men, who retreated out the window.
When Malmess later learned that the Venusian was undergoing treatment in the laboratory of Dr. Tsukamoto, he and his men traveled there and rigged the voltage on the machine being used to give electroshock treatment to the Venusian, setting it to deliver a lethal dose of electricity to her. In Malmess' words, they would let Shindo and Dr. Tsukamoto do their work for them. Fortunately, before Tsukamoto could activate the machine, Rodan dropped Godzilla onto a nearby power line, knocking out the electricity. Shindo found Malmess and his men in the clinic and engaged in another brief gunfight with them before they fled. Shindo, Tsukamoto, the Venusian, Naoko, and Professor Murai all fled the laboratory as the various kaiju converged on the area, while Malmess and his men followed them in a car. A stray blast from one of King Ghidorah's gravity beams struck a hillside and caused a landslide which buried Malmess' car in rubble, killing his men and leaving Malmess injured. Undeterred, Malmess grabbed his sniper rifle and chased Shindo and the Venusian to a cliff overlooking a gorge, and managed to graze the Venusian in the head with his rifle. The shock caused the Princess to snap out of her trance, and she immediately recognized Malmess, screaming at him and calling him a "traitor." Malmess shot Shindo in the arm and prepared to finish his target off once and for all, but another stray blast from King Ghidorah struck the hill above him, triggering an avalanche that struck Malmess and sent him plummeting to his death in the gorge below.
Trivia
- Malmess' name is misspelled Malness (マルネス in both the Japanese subtitles on Marunesu)Toho's DVD for Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster and in the English subtitles for Classic Media's DVD release of the film.
- Malmess may have inspired the character SSS9 from Godzilla vs. Biollante, another sniper rifle-wielding foreign assassin that stalks the protagonists throughout the film and distinctively wears a suit and sunglasses.
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