Stuart Redman

Stuart Richard Redman
Biographical information
Status	Alive
Also known as	Stu
Family information
Relatives	Peter Goldsmith-Redman (adoptive son) George Redman (biological daughter via Fran)
Affiliation
Occupation	Calculator Factory & Gas Station Attendant
Home	Arnette, Texas
Loyalty	Frances Goldsmith (girlfriend)
Movie info
Portrayed by	Gary Sinise (1994) James Marsden (2020)

Stuart Richard Redman is a major protagonist of the Stephen King multiverse.

Serving as one of the three main protagonists (alongside Larry Underwood and Nick Andros) of the novel The Stand, and it's two miniseries of the same name.

He was an employee at the calculator plant of Arnette, Texas. He was one of the handful of survivors of the super flu known as "Captain Trips".

Personality

A quiet man from the fictitious town of Arnette, Texas. He is there at the beginning of the plague and survives not only the Flu, but the government's attempt to eliminate him. Later he emerges as one of the leaders of the Boulder Free Zone. He proves to be a natural leader and resilient under great stress.

Relationships

Stu and Frannie Goldsmith become lovers, and a couple, during their journey across the United States to Boulder, Colorado.

Biography

Stu was born and raised in the (fictional) town of Arnette, Texas. Stu went to work in a meatpacking plant at 14, lying about his age because his family desperately needed money. Stu had two brothers, one who died as a child. 

Stu often felt a bit looked down on and overshadowed by his brother's success. It is mentioned in the novel that "Stu had been in the war," most likely the Vietnam War given the year the first edition of the book was published, but no further mention of his military service is ever made in any version of the story.

Stu is shown to have had a slight wild streak as a young man, often sneaking across the border to Mexico with his friends to visit brothels. He did mature later on, though, and married a woman named, Norma. Sadly, Norma developed cancer (implied to be uterine cancer) and died after only about 18 months of marriage.

Plot

The Plague

Four years after Norma's death, Stu is working at a calculator factory, and earning extra income working at the gas station of his friend Bill "Hap" Hapscomb. It is there, while Stu is sitting with Hap and several other friends, that Charles Campion (a military guard at the base where Captain Trips was developed) arrives in Arnette and crashes his car into Hap's pumps. Stu's action of quickly turning off the pumps averts an explosion; however, Campion and his wife and daughter are already dying of the superflu. All of the men at the gas station are exposed, as is the ambulance crew that comes to retrieve Campion.

Arnette becomes ground zero of the superflu epidemic and is placed under quarantine. With the rest of the populace Stu is taken to Atlanta, Georgia and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention via Braintree, Texas and later to Stovington, Vermont (in the miniseries he is taken directly to Vermont). 

Stu soon realizes that he is the last survivor of Arnette, and that he's seen too much for the Army to let him live.  He escapes the Stovington facility by killing the man sent to assassinate him, and heads eastward, initially with no clear goal but finding the Atlantic Ocean. He is haunted by dreams of both Mother Abagail in Hemingford Home, Nebraska and Randall Flagg in Las Vegas, Nevada.

In Woodsville, New Hampshire Stu encounters fellow plague survivor Glen Bateman, and a bit later, Fran Goldsmith and Harold Lauder. Infatuated with Fran, Harold feels instantly threatened by Stu, who promises not to steal her; but within a short time, Stu and Fran do become a couple. Harold becomes angry and begins plotting revenge.

Plague-survivors throughout the country are experiencing prophetic dreams of both Flagg and Abagail. Prompted by the dreams, Stu and his growing party decides to join Abagail's group, which has begun gathering in Boulder, Colorado.

Boulder Free Zone

In the Boulder Free Zone, Stu is elected first to the ad hoc, and then the permanent version of the Boulder Free Zone Committee, later becoming its chairman and chief law officer. Harold puts on an air of friendless toward Stu and Fran, but secretly still intends to kill both of them. Stu is nearly shot by Harold one night, only spared when Harold freezes and can't pull the trigger.

Acting on a tip by Leo Rockway that Harold is up to no good, Fran and fellow committee member Larry Underwood break into Harold's house; they locate his diary and bring it to Stu, who reads it cover to cover.  Harold's writing lays bare many of his motivations and intentions, and processing it all gives Stu "a damn headache." 

Stu deduces that Harold and Nadine Cross intend to defect to Flagg's territory, and are "planning to do something so they'll be made to feel welcome" upon arrival in the west. But none of them are able to tease from its contents the fact that Harold has constructed a dynamite bomb, which eventually blows up the home shared by Nick Andros and Ralph Brentner, killing seven people and injuring a number of others.

The Stand

Stu and the other surviving men of the committee — Larry, Ralph, and Glen — are told by Mother Abagail to go west to Las Vegas and confront Flagg. She tells them that "one will fall by the way", but she does not know which one. Ultimately, it is Stu; in the Utah badlands he falls down a washed-out embankment and breaks his leg.

Reluctantly, but at Stu's insistence, the other three men leave him by a broken-down car in the washout and continue west. Kojak remains with him: hunting small game, fetching firewood, comforting and guarding him. Despite the dog's assistance Stu begins to suffer from exposure and falls gravely ill. Knowing that he can't stay in the washout, Stu tries to climb the side and nearly fails when Kojak, showing immense strength, is able to help him escape.

While atop the bank of the washed-out road, Stu witnesses the mushroom-cloud from the nuclear blast which destroys Las Vegas, putting a stop to the Zone's threat from Randall Flagg. Shortly afterward Stu is found and rescued by Tom Cullen, who is returning from his short stint as a spy in Vegas. By this time Stu is suffering from pneumonia in both lungs. They find a car to hot wire and make it to shelter in Green River, Utah, taking refuge in a hunting lodge; there Tom treats Stu's pneumonia with advice from Nick's ghost, who can speak and helps him find antibiotics and tells him how to nurse Stu back to health. Stu's recovery is slow and difficult but Tom's care is excellent and Stu slowly regains his strength. To show his gratitude, on Christmas Day while on the trail, Stu gives Tom several gifts he'd squirreled away in their luggage.

After another significant delay snowed in at Grand Junction, Colorado, the two men make their way back to Boulder, arriving a few days after Fran gives birth to her son (fathered by ex-boyfriend Jesse Rider; a few weeks before Captain Trips is released from Project Blue).

That spring Fran expresses homesickness and a desire to return to New England. Stu concurs that things are becoming uneasy in the Free Zone; the increasing size of the population has led to the resurrection of old social ills like politics, an armed police force, and people feeling the need to lock their doors at night. He and Fran take Peter and head back east — with Fran again pregnant, this time carrying Stu's child.

Stu wonders whether humanity has learned anything from the plague and whether they can impress on their children the importance of not messing with "dangerous toys" (nuclear weapons, biological weapons etc.).

Appearances

• The Stand
• The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition
• The Stand: American Nightmares
• The Stand: Captain Trips
• The Stand: Soul Survivors
• The Stand: Hardcases
• The Stand: No Man's Land
• The Stand: The Night Has Come
• The Stand (miniseries)
• The Stand (2020 Miniseries)

Trivia

• Out of all the three protagonists of The Stand, Stuart is the only one to have survived, while for both Larry and Nick are both killed.
• Stu wasn't seen again or mentioned in any other novel, by Stephen King, leaving his fate currently unknown. Despite surviving though.

Gallery

2020 Series

Turn off the pumps Hap!

Stu makes his way out of the governmental facility

Stu Redman makes his escape

1994 Series