Creighton Duke is a bounty hunter and a main character featured in the Friday the 13th film series. Played by actor Steven Williams, he appeared in the 1993 sequel film Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday.
Biography
Little is known about Duke's past except that (according to the original script) as a teenager, Creighton was out on Crystal Lake with his girlfriend. Jason capsized their small boat and pulled the girl down into the lake. Creighton tried to save her but could not. She was never seen again. Creighton vowed revenge and from that moment on he spent his life in the study and pursuit of Jason. He became a bounty hunter just to fund his work in taking down his nemesis.
Profile
Creighton Duke was a bounty hunter with a keen knowledge of the lore surrounding the notorious Voorhees family. An unpredictable and sadistic man, Duke operated out of a private training compound and was credited with personally capturing a total of six known serial killers.
At some point in his career, Duke had a personal encounter with Jason Voorhees and luckily managed to survive. The details surrounding this encounter remain unknown.
Duke was present during an FBI sting operation to take down psychotic mass murderer Jason Voorhees. He watched as Jason was taken down in a hail of gunfire and then blown up. Duke remained skeptical about Jason's seeming destruction, knowing that so long as the heart of the man lived, then Jason would eventually be reborn.
Jason's body was flown to Youngstown, Ohio for autopsy, but as Duke suspected, the killer did not remain dead for long. The essence of Jason Voorhees took possession of Coroner Phil, who killed his co-worker and two security guards before walking out of the facility. Reports of the murders led many to believe that Jason had somehow returned from the dead.
Robert Campbell, host of a television series called American Casefile, interviewed Duke at his compound and asked him about Jason Voorhees.
Duke revealed that nobody knew the "true" Jason Voorhees, and the being that they believed was Jason was just a flesh suit; a surrogate body that Jason's essence took possession of to fulfill his goal. American Casefile offered Duke $500,000 for irrefutable proof of the existence and destruction of Jason Voorhees.
Duke accepted the offer and traveled to Cunningham County to begin his investigation. He knew that Jason had a half-sister named Diana Kimble who lived in Cunningham County. Diana was the mother of Jessica Kimble and the grandmother of Stephanie Kimble. Creighton also knew that only a blood relative possessed the power to end Jason once and for all.
He arrived at the diner where Diana worked and tried to enlist her aid in stopping Jason. Diana, aware of her family legacy, was startled by the abrupt bounty hunter and wanted nothing to do with him. Diana's boyfriend, Sheriff Ed Landis, entered the diner and didn't care for Duke harassing Diana.
An incident occurred between the two men and Landis had Duke arrested. That night, Jason Voorhees, while possessing the body of Deputy Josh, murdered Diana Kimble in her home.
While in jail, Duke met Steven Freeman. Steven was the father of Jessica Kimble's daughter and was arrested on suspicion of murdering her mother. Duke offered to tell Steven what he needed to know to stop Jason, but such information came with a very high price.
In exchange for the information, Duke wanted Steven to willingly let him break his fingers. Steven reluctantly conceded and Duke told him, "Through a Voorhees was he born... through a Voorhees may he be reborn... and only by the hands of a Voorhees will he die."
With Diana now dead, Duke knew that only her daughter stood a chance at stopping Jason. Punching a guard, he lifted his key ring from him and broke out of jail. He went to Joey B's Diner where the staff were watching over Jessica's baby, Stephanie. Taking the child, he left behind a note for Jessica, telling her to meet him at the Voorhees House - alone.
Jessica arrived and Creighton tried to explain the situation to her. He provided her with a mystic dagger that could only be wielded by someone of the Voorhees bloodline. He explained that she had to stab Jason through the heart with it to destroy him.
Should she refuse, Jason will stop at nothing to kill her and her daughter he warned. As the two spoke, Sheriff Ed Landis and Officer Randy Parker (along with the now-free Steven Freeman) raided the house. The officers drew their guns on Duke, but it soon became apparent that Voorhees was now possessing Deputy Parker.
During the fracas, Duke fell through a trap door and impaled his leg on an upturned piece of metal. He managed to crawl his way back upstairs, but by this point, Jason had already been reborn in his true body.
Creighton and Jason fought with one another, but Jason overpowered Duke, snapping his spine in a bear hug and killing him. Moments afterwards, Jessica succeeded in stabbing Jason through the heart with the dagger, sending his soul to Hell.
In the final version of the movie, he tells Jason "son of a bitch, remember me?" which means that they met before and that Jason really did kill Creighton Duke's girlfriend.
Creighton Duke being bear hugged and incapacitated by Jason Voorhees.
Duke made a brief cameo in the Freddy vs. Jason novelization, where he appears as one of the many victims Jason sees during his dream.
He was ultimately able to help avenge the death of his girlfriend and send Jason to Hell.
Trivia
- The timeline of events for the Friday the 13th series are not always consistent with one another. Although the film was released in 1993 and the fashions and level of technology are indicative of the early 1990s, the chronology of the series as a whole actually places the events of Jason Goes to Hell some time in the early 2000s.
- No real information has ever been provided concerning Creighton Duke's first encounter with Jason Voorhees. Cut dialogue from the film was to reveal that Creighton's obsession with Jason stemmed from him witnessing Jason kill his girlfriend while the two were out boating on Crystal Lake.
- Creighton makes a cameo appearance in the 2003 novelization of Freddy vs. Jason. While in Hell, Jason, after impaling a girl to a tree with his machete, watches as she shifts into several former victims who mock him, including Creighton.
- During the American Casefile interview, Robert Campbell asks Duke what is the first thing that comes to his mind when he thinks of Jason Voorhees, to which Duke replies, "That makes me think of a little girl in a pink dress sticking a hot dog through a doughnut." The line is completely nonsensical in the context of both the film and the character. Even screenwriter Dean Lorey admits that the line makes no sense and only included it because he thought it was funny.
- Creighton is the only character in Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday to be killed directly by Jason without possessing another character.
- Director Adam Marcus mentioned that Duke apparently survived his fight with Jason, however it is extremely unlikely that he survived when his spine was snapped and having nobody to help him.
- In the Beta version of the movie, Creighton's death was more violent, with him coughing up blood.