- "I'm Tommy Jarvis and I'm here to kill Jason Voorhees."
- ―Tommy Jarvis
Tommy Jarvis is the main protagonist in the films Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, Friday the 13th: A New Beginning and Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, and has been portrayed by Corey Feldman, John Shepherd and Thom Matthews. A resident of Crystal Lake with an affinity for masks, Tommy lives with his mother and sister. Since he was the first one to truly defeat him, Jason developed a deep hatred of Tommy
Biography
Killing in self-defense
Tommy Jarvis lives with his sister and mother. His parents are apparently divorced. In 1984, a few days after the bloodshed on Higgins Haven, the Jarvis family is caught in the middle of a new bloodshed, in which a new group of teenagers is swept by Jason Voorhees. When the siblings (Tommy & Trish) are the only two left alive, Tommy shaves his head of hair to be similar with Jason as a child, and so lures the murderer into a trap. Trish manages to tear off Jason's hockey mask with his machete, which makes him turn away from Tommy to face her. While Trish is unable to do anything, Tommy picks up the machete and sends the killing blow on Voorhees. When the boy realizes only a moment later that the monster is still alive, he attacks Jason with random machete blows. Later we learn he was sent to a clinic.[1]
Pinehurst
Tommy is transported from the Unger Institute of Mental Health to the Pinehurst Halfway House.
Giving in to his psychosis the hockey mask-clad Tommy attacks Pam Roberts with a knife.
Six years later, Tommy, now an 18-year-old teenager, is sent to Pinehurst Youth Development Center center or "half-way house" (as locals call it) for teenagers with mental disabilities. Pinehurst's mission is to try to train its residents to re-enter society. On the same day that Tommy is sent there, Joey, one of the residents, is killed by a fellow patient. Shortly after, a maniac starts to kill people using Jason's M.O., which makes Sheriff Tucker believe it's really Jason Voorhees. After Pam, Reggie, and Tommy are left as the sole survivors, there is a confrontation with whom is believed to be the real Jason Voorhees, and then, after defeating the murderer, they find out he was actually Roy Burns, and that Joey was his son, whose murder was the reason for the new killing spree.[2]
Jason lives
- "Come on, maggot head!"
- ―Tommy daring Jason to chase him into the lake.
Tommy heads off to dig up and destroy Jason's corpse, believing that doing so will cure his delusions.
A year later, Tommy, now a 19-year-old and mentally rehabilitated for the most part, goes with his friend Allen Hawes to Crystal Lake graveyard to dig up Jason's corpse, as Tommy believed that only destroying the corpse would finally cause his hallucinations to cease haunting him once and for all. As he sees the corpse of the murderer who killed his mother and his friends, he is driven mad and, using a fence pole, stabs the dead murderer, leaving the pole interred on him. In that exact moment when he was going to pick up gasoline to cremate his old nemesis, a lightning bolt was attracted by the pole. After striking the metal pole and absorbing into Jason's body, it causes Jason to resurrect, even more powerful than ever. Crystal Lake's mass murderer kills Hawes, and Tommy runs for his life. When he goes to warn Sheriff Garris, Tommy ends up imprisoned, for the Sheriff was aware of the fact that Tommy spent time at the clinic. As a new killing spree begins, the only person who believes Tommy was the Sheriff's daughter Megan. After almost everyone is dead, Tommy sets up a trap, and lures Jason to the very lake in which he drowned in 1957. Both monster and survivor fight, and Tommy finally binds Jason on the bottom of the lake, but he almost dies in the process. As Megan goes to rescue a drowned Tommy, to whom she was attracted, Jason tries to drown her, too, but Megan cuts his face with the boat's propeller and saves Tommy.[3]
Sometime after chaining Jason to the bottom of Crystal Lake, Tommy would go on to write at least six books about his life and Jason, one of the books being titled My Life of Hell: One Man's Fight Against Jason Voorhees. All the books were reviewed poorly, with Tommy being seen as little more than conscious-less cash-in.[4]
The Nightmare Warriors
Becoming increasingly obsessed with Jason, who would eventually escape his confinement at the bottom of the lake, also having studied Jason's various resurrections since then, Tommy acquired a military-style Hummer and a variety of weaponry, determined to finally stop him once and for all. Trying to track down Jason to finish him once and for all, Tommy, on July 2, 2009, arrives late to the scene of Jason's latest victim - a girl named Caroline who was beheaded in her Franklin, Michigan home. Witnessing Caroline's boyfriend Ash Williams fleeing the scene as the police arrive Tommy follows him to Baltimore, Maryland under the belief that Jason will do the same. Tommy's assumption proves correct, with Jason attacking the home of Maggie Burroughs when Ash arrives. As Jason prepares to kill everyone in the house Tommy crashes through the wall and rams Jason with his Hummer, ordering everyone present to get in. When everyone gets inside Tommy reveals his identity and speeds away from the scene as Jason recovers.[5]
Taking his new companions to a nearby motel Tommy makes the claim that only he can kill Jason and advises everyone to stay out of his way, prompting him and Ash to butt heads. After his argument with Ash is broken up Tommy, unimpressed by Maggie's plan to use the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis to destroy Jason and Freddy Krueger, abandons the group, telling everyone to leave Jason to him. In the end, Tommy decapitates Jason with the help of Jason's grand-niece, Stephanie Kimble.[5]
Appearances
Films
- Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
- Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985)
- Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)
- Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988) (flashback;how he appeared in the 4th and 6th film, but not the 5th)
Novels
Comics
Trivia
Tommy in his dream of killing Pam Roberts
- Tommy is the only main character who appears in three movies and stays alive.
- Tommy is the first known male to survive Jason's rampage.
- Corey Feldman (the actor who portrayed young Tommy Jarvis) is known for his other films, including The Goonies, Pete in Gremlins, Edgar Frog in the Lost Boys trilogy and as the voice of Donatello in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III.