In writing the screenplay, Hensleigh expanded on the comic’s seminal theme of revenge, creating new characters and a storyline that would allow the film to approach the subject from multiple perspectives. In the original comic, Frank Castle becomes a vigilante after his family is killed in a random act of violence in Central Park. Hensleigh adapted the original story, crafting a darker scenario in which Castle’s entire family is the target of a criminal’s merciless vendetta – a vendetta that has its roots in Castle’s work for the FBI. Castle’s rage is thus compounded with a sense of guilt, and the wrenching knowledge that the governmental structures he trusted to protect him and his family failed. Comments Hurd, “Frank Castle has always believed that there is a good reason to follow orders. He has always believed that, to uphold the values that were instilled in him in the military, violence is sometimes justified. That whole philosophy comes home to roost when his family is killed. When he realizes that justice is not forthcoming for the perpetrators of that crime, he finds himself in a position to take on that mantle, to become a vigilante in order to, in his mind, serve justice.”
Hensleigh structured the script to juxtapose two stories of reprisal – Castle’s and his adversary’s. “It’s a movie about revenge, and I wanted to look at the different facets of revenge,” he explains. “I meant to show that there’s sort of a righteous revenge, and a corrupt revenge.”
Saint is a thoroughly modern criminal, who has used his illicitly acquired wealth to further his standing in the community. While laundering the profits of drug and prostitution rings, he has also launched legitimate businesses, including a car dealership and a gentleman’s club called Saints and Sinners. In some ways, Saint is Castle’s double, refracted through a cracked mirror: a hardworking, highly intelligent man at the top of his field, a man who is devoted to his family. When his son Bobby is killed while making an arms smuggling deal, Saint is willing to risk everything to avenge that death.
In fleshing out Saint’s character, Hensleigh drew upon extensive research into criminals and their psychology. “Howard Saint believes that his revenge is righteous,” the filmmaker comments. “But like a lot of syndicate players, Howard Saint is disassociated from morality and disassociated from the world that the rest of us live in. He believes he’s above the law, and he disregards the fact that his son was killed by law enforcement agents while in the process of breaking the law.” Saint also disregards the fact that his own criminal disposition provided an example for his ill-fated son.
Avi Arad sees Howard Saint as a villain who fits squarely in the Marvel tradition. “At Marvel, we want our villains to have a human dimension. To understand a villain you have to see the man behind the villain, the person that comes home at the end of the day,” he reflects. “Howard Saint has a life that he loves, a wife he adores, kids that are the apples of his eye. But in the back of his mind he knows that he’s in a business that has a downside. He lives a life of paranoia.”
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