Henry Bowers is a supporting antagonist of the Stephen King multiverse.
Serving as the secondary antagonist of Stephen King's 1986 horror novel IT, its miniseries adaptation, and a minor villain in the two film adaptations, IT and IT: Chapter Two and a mentioned antagonist in 11/22/63 (novel).
He is the local bully, the leader of The Bowers Gang and the puppet of the bloodthirsty trans-dimensional fiend known as IT. He is the Losers Club's arch-rival.
Physical Appearance[]
Henry bowers
Henry Bowers
Novel[]
Henry is described in the novel as being very big and strong for a 12-year-old boy with his hair cut in a flattop spiked with a lot of Butch Wax that he keeps in his jeans. He always wears a pink motorcycle jacket with an eagle on the back and worn-out engineer boots. At only 12, his teeth are already rotting and it is very noticeable whenever he smiles. In the book he is also said to constantly smell like a mixture of sweat and Juicy Fruit chewing gum.
1990[]
Henry is portrayed by 17-year-old Jarred Blancard. In the miniseries, Henry is 14 years old instead of 12. He had dark auburn hair that he styled into a jelly roll ducktail. He sported a brown leather jacket that he paired with jeans and worn-out engineer boots.
2017[]
Henry is portrayed by 16-year-old Nicholas Hamilton. In this adaption, Henry has a dirty blonde mullet and wears sleeveless T-shirts and torn jeans.
Personality[]
Henry Bowers is portrayed as sociopathic and sadistic, traits that together make him the perfect human puppet for the entity known as It. As a student, Henry is academically deficient in middle school, not very intelligent but very cunning and crafty. He spends much of his time working on his father's farm on the outskirts of Derry, performing most of the manual labor involved. He has grown up without a mother, who left the family because of her husband's alcoholism and untreated post-traumatic stress disorder as a veteran of World War II. Henry himself is often abused by his drunken father.
Henry and his small gang of bullies often terrorize and physically abuse the members of The Losers Club. Eventually, the group's members learn to fight back, often defeating Henry by outwitting him. Though Henry is often hurt, even severely, his will, manipulated by It, seems to make him unstoppable. He is often kicked or hit in the crotch, an injury that would halt most boys his age and size. However, as the Losers often note, he is back on his feet in very little time and it takes a tremendous effort to stop him even for a short period.
At the age of 10, Henry kills Mike Hanlon's dog, Mr Chips, when he feeds the animal ground beef he'd laced with rat poison, sitting back serenely watching the dog die. For years before this deed, Henry had been subjected to Butch Bower's racist opinion of Mike's father, whose own farm down the road was more successful than the Bowers'. Butch simply blames Hanlon for every misfortune he has and claims that the rest of the community had lied in their support of Hanlon. Killing Mr Chips was Henry's way of winning his father's affection; his reward was joy from Butch and being treated to a beer.
Sometime during the summer of 1958, Henry receives a package from It that contains a switchblade with a six-inch blade. He uses it to murder his father and it becomes his primary weapon to threaten the Losers, on whom he's vowed revenge.
Henry openly attacks the Losers whenever he spots them in Derry. Though several adults try to stop him, their own fear, and perhaps the collective community fear of It, keeps them from stopping him outright. When he breaks Eddie Kaspbrak's arm outside a local store, the store's proprietor tries to intervene, only to be halted when Henry shoves the man to the ground. While attacking Beverly Marsh, a woman driving a car pulls up to the curb, shouting for him to let Beverly go, only to be scared off when Henry brandishes his switchblade.
It Part One & It Part Two[]
1960[]
Henry Bowers Is first seen bullying Ben Hanscom in class when the former introduces himself to Derry elementary school. Mrs. Douglas Sends Henry to detention for bullying and he threatens Hanscom in response. He skips detention and attacks Ben, though only manages poking him prior to Ben kicking him and escaping. Henry, Belch And Victor chase Ben and find Eddie Kaspbrak and Bill Denbrough, destroying the dam they built and bullying Eddie. Once they say they haven't seen Ben, the bullies leave. They're next seen in the paramount theatre where Richie Tozier pours his pop to provoke them. They confront him and Stan Uris over the incident and Richie's troublemaking nature leads him to retaliate to Henry's bullying in a way leading him and the bullies to trouble. They confront Mike Hanlon, stripping him of his picture book and Henry plans to light a cherry bomb in his pocket, though an adult stops him and they chase him with fellow bullies Peter Gordon and Moose Sadler. They end up in a rock fight where Henry loses the fight and his sanity, vowing revenge on the heroes. He goes with Belch and Vic into the sewers, kidnapping Stan with Belch and threatening his life. While preparing to slay Stan, IT bursts out of the pipe and devours Belch, turning Henry's hair white upon chasing Stan. Henry's then sent to Juniper Hill Asylum.
1990[]
While having dinner, the Losers Club mention Henry Bowers and his sentence to Juniper Hills for confessing to IT's crimes. He's seen there and Pennywise tricks him into escaping and tells him to "kill them all". He breaks Henry out while disguising as Belch and mauls the guard of the hospital to death in the form of a doberman pinscher. Henry attacks Mike in the hotel and severely hurts him. In the last few possible seconds, Eddie and Ben rush in to save Mike, leading Henry to accidentally stab himself and die.
Quotes[]
Novel[]
- "I know you, kid. I know you, too. Where’s your glasses, four-eyes? Well, son of a bitch! The Jew and the fatboy are here too! That your girlfriend, fatboy? I got bones to pick with a lot of you, but I can let that go for today. I want that n***er. So you little s***s buzz off."
- ―Henry confronting the Losers.
Miniseries[]
- "Well, whaddaya know? The fat boy, the Jew, and the sissy. Four eyes and the patch girl, too. N***er, you know how to pick them: the Losers' Club."
- ―Henry to Mike Hanlon with the Losers
- "And given me and my daddy grief for a long, long time! You like fireworks, boy, huh? What do you say to "Rocket in your pocket"?"
- ―Henry to Mike Hanlon
- "Belch."
- ―Henry's last word thinking Belch is alive
- "My father will tan my hide."
- ―Henry trying to dodge detention implying his father whipped him twice minimum for school punishments in the past
It 2017[]
”STAY THE FUCK OUTTA MY TOWN!”
-Henry to Mike, warning him to stay out of Derry
- "You s-s-say something, B-B-B-B-Billy? "
- ―Henry to Bill, mimicking his stutter
- "This summer's gonna be a hurt train. For you and your f***** friends."
- ―Henry to Bill before he licks his hand and slaps Bill's face
- "Where you off to, Tits?"
- ―Henry to Ben
- "Shut up! I'm gonna carve my whole name out of this cottage cheese!"
- ―Henry to Belch before Ben escapes from him
- "My knife! My old man will kill me!"
- ―Henry to his friends about Butch after losing his knife
- "You didn't listen to what I told you, did you? You should have stayed out of Derry. Your parents didn't, and look what happened to them. I still get sad everytime I pass by that pile of ashes, sad that I couldn't have done it myself."
- ―Henry's last words to Mike before he fell into a well
- "You got a free ride this year cuz of your little brother. Ride's over, Denbrough."
- ―Henry explaining to Bill why he didn’t bully him during the school year before he attempts to bully him
- "Did I fucking stutter?"
- ―To Vic, telling him to move seats[src]
- "Who cares?!"
- ―To Belch, about Patrick still being missing[src]
- "Like lambs to a slaughter. Wouldn't you say fellas? Yeah, sure you would."
- ―Henry to a dead Belch Huggins and Victor Criss, watching the Losers enter Neibolt[src]
IT (2019)[]
- "Hockstetter? My knife."
- ―Bowers sees zombified Patrick
- "Hey, Hockstetter. Let's go!"
- ―Henry to Patrick after escaping from the asylum
- "It's your time, Eddie."
- ―Henry to Eddie before stabbing his cheek
- "You should've burned, Mike. Just like your druggie parents. Can you see them yet? Crisping? Like fried fucking chi—"
- ―Henry's last words as he tries to kill Mike, but before his demise.
Trivia[]
- Henry is mentioned in the novel 11/22/63 (novel) by Beverly and Richie while talking to Jake Epping about the whereabouts of the Dunning family.
- The Haven (TV Series) Character Kirk Bowers is intended to be somehow related to him.
- Despite being the secondary antagonist, Henry's role in the film is only slight compared to the novel and miniseries. This earned criticism toward the film, as he does not have much characterization or impact on the plot in the 2017 films, with him being swiftly defeated in both parts before he can cause major harm.
- Henry dies three different ways between the novel and movie.
- Henry is possibly bisexual as he wanted to have sex with Beverly, and he seemed to like it when Patrick Hockstetter gave him a handjob though he denied it.
- Had two pigs, named Bip and Bop.[1]
- Uses a nightlight of "Donald Duck doffing his little sailor hat" while staying at Juniper Hill, which was likely his last link to sanity and the outside world. He also keeps a record of how many bulbs he burned out in his use of the nightlight, which was four.
References[]
- ↑ PG1867, Chapter 17, Section 3
Images[]
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| IT | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Medium |
Novel • Miniseries • Chapter One • Chapter Two • | |||
|
Main characters |
Bill Denbrough • Mike Hanlon • Ben Hanscom • Eddie Kaspbrak • Beverly Marsh • Richie Tozier • Stan Uris | |||
|
Villains |
Pennywise • Henry Bowers • Patrick Hockstetter • Reginald "Belch" Huggins • Victor "Vic" Criss • Tom Rogan | |||
|
Minor characters |
Georgie Denbrough • Audra Phillips • Tom Rogan • Alvin Marsh | |||