Template:It Character William Nolan also know as Billy Nolan is one of the characters and the secondary antagonist in the novel Carrie who, alongside his girlfriend Chris Hargensen, did hurt and humilate Carrie White and later, together with Chris, tried to murder Carrie and therefore became later another victim of her telekinetic powers, when she killed him and Chris in self-defence.
Novel
Billy Nolan was Chris Hargensen's boyfriend and the leader of a dangerous gang in Chamberlain, Maine. He did not seem to really care anything about Chris and acted more as though she were his enemy rather than his girlfriend. Like Henry Bowers, Buddy Repperton and Ace Merrill, he is the leader of a gang of bullies, though unlike the latter three, it is not confirmed how many friends total number Billy's gang, with only two being identified by name.
Billy was one of the conspirators, who helped in setting up the prom night prank against fellow classmate Carrie White, with whom Chris had harbored a bitter grudge after losing her prom privileges. Chris had approached Billy and "convinced" him to help her get even with Carrie, so he and several other friends (perhaps fellow gang members) raided a pig farm one night and mercilessly butchered two pigs.
Billy then broke into the Ewan High School gymnasium and poured the pigs' blood into two buckets, which he then placed high upon a rafter and tied with a rope.
When prom night arrived, Chris and Billy waited for Carrie and her date Tommy Ross to arrive onstage and be crowned, then pull the rope, drenching the pair with the blood.
For a while this scheme worked without a hitch with the addition, that one of the buckets fell onto Tommy´s head, probably even killing him a few minutes later. After a while, however, Carrie ran from inside the gym, crying. The next moment, faculty and students were dying left and right, and no one could figure out what was going on. Of course, Billy and Chris weren't bothering themselves with figuring out the mystery, for right after Chris pulled the rope, both made their way back to a local bar to an upstairs room, where Billy was rearing to have sex in celebration of submitting Carrie to the "ultimate humiliation." But he got no farther than undoing Chris' blouse.
Later, Billy's fellow classmate Jackie Talbot banged on the door to the room where Chris and Billy were sleeping and told them, that most of the town was set on fire and that Carrie caused it all.
Billy and Chris hurriedly put their clothes on and left the roadhouse, not before Billy saying that if the police found out about what happened at school, he was going to California.
Although he guessed, that he would take Chris, if he went, it was revealed that he honestly would not. So, as he and Chris left the bar he said, "This place sucks anyway."
The pair got into Billy's car, engine stared, high beam blaring, Chris let out a scream, that seemed to send mental signals to Billy, and that's when they saw the battered Carrie right in front of the car. Wasting no time,
Billy put the car into full throttle towards Carrie. Before the car could make contact, Carrie mentally took control of it away from Billy and sent it hurdling right into the roadhouse, killing them both.
1976 Film
John Travolta began his motion picture career by playing as the apathetic Billy Nolan in this movie. No mention was made of him having a gang.
Unlike the novel where Billy saw and treated Chris more like an archnemesis, this Billy was dismissive.
During the scene where he and Chris were driving around, he made jokes about Chris being scared & that he was going to cause an accident, however Chris had a way for calling Billy stupid or "dumb shit." Billy did not take well to being called either.
Chris manages to "convince" Billy to help her exact revenge on someone named "Carrie White." Billy had no idea what Chris was talking about, but he decides to help her anyway. He (along with Chris, Freddie DeLois and Kenny Garson) raid a pig farm to butcher a pig.
Then Billy and Chris hurry over to the Bates High gymnasium and pour the blood into a bucket, which is then hoisted up to one of the overhead rafters. When the time comes, someone would pull a rope attached to the bucket and drench Carrie with the blood, when she comes onto the stage to be crowned prom queen.
This Billy only played along with Chris´s scheme and the plan they had developed, worked. However, something happened after the execution of the plan, that neither Billy or Chris expected in the slightest.
Carrie snapped and used her hidden telekinetic powers to dish out some revenge of her own killing their friends, shocking them both. Carrie's revenge did not end until later.
As she was walking home. Billy and Chris drove up behind Carrie in Billy's car (with Chris at the wheel here and Billy drunk because of what he had seen), intending to run her over and cap their scheme, feeling it hadn´t worked as planned.
Carrie felt the car coming up behind her at high speed and she mentally veered the car into a clearing, tossing Billy and Chris with it. It then explodes moments later, killing both of them.
2002 Remake
Actor Jesse Cadotte portrayed Billy Nolan in this version.
In this version Billy is Chris Hargensen's boyfriend. However he is portrayed to be a mentally unstable, malicious deliquent with a very dark sense of humor and he shows more signs of malevolence than Chris as he slaughtered a pig without a second thought and even pressured Chris to go along with the plot drench Carrie with pig's blood as she was thinking of redeeming herself when she saw how happy Carrie was.
Billy's insanity and malice ultimately proved to be his downfall when he attempted to run over the now telekinetic-crazed Carrie with his truck as Chris pleads for him to stop
However, Carrie sends the truck crashing to a tree, crushing both Billy and Chris to death.
2013 Remake
Billy Nolan is portrayed by Alex Russell. In this newer adaption of Carrie, Billy is first seen making out with his girlfriend Chris and watching the video she posted later online.
Billy is very similar to the 2002 version because he has a more darker and evil side. He is seen to be very aggressive.
When Chris wants revenge on Carrie, they go to a farm and and there he slams the pig to death with a sledgehammer. He then lets Chris slit the pig´s throat and seems proud of her when she did it.
Billy's dark image is also shown when he is forcing Chris to pull the rope much like the 2002 version of Billy. He then pulls the rope with Chris causing the blood to fall out. He then grabs Chris as they run downstairs silently, but when Chris sees Tommy Ross' death, Billy quickly runs with her to the nearest exit.
Billy's death in this version of the movie was instant. He attempts to kill Carrie by running her over at the insistance of Chris, who tells him, "Kill her, Billy! Kill her!" He tells her, "Shut up, I got this."
After Carrie makes their car crash, Billy goes head-first into the steering wheel which breaks his nose, killing him instantly. His corpse was burned along with the corpse of Chris after Carrie explodes the gas station.
Trivia
- In the 2002 and 2013 version Billy was much darker than in Travolta's portrayal.
- Billy in the novel is very evil and dark.
- He seemed to love Chris, but later on showed his darker side near her, saying that he will kill her if she tells anyone they are doing the prank because of the legal consequences of committing criminal assault.
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