#timothy calloway

Thomas Ian Griffith as Jack Blaylock (Timothy Calloway) in Ulterior Motives circa 1992

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Timothy Calloway is a military brat.

Born to American parents stationed in Japan (either one or both working as military personnel to some degree) and I genuinely don’t ever think he set foot on American soil (at least not well into his adulthood when his later profession took him there, but it would be deeply ironic if he never did at all), which led to this strange disconnect where he was both raised with the type of ingrained mega-patriotism one can only acquire from parents — you guessed it — employed with the army abroad and a family in the same profession multiple generations back, but all while actually being physically, culturally and geographically detached enough from his supposed home cradle to not actually know or having personally experienced anything tangible about The States except some idealized, hybrid version that maybe doesn’t even necessarily exists outside of a nationalist pamphlet or a Norman Rockwell painting. It doesn’t help when your basic and most elementary education took place on foreign soil school dedicated especially to the children of on stand army employees either. It would’ve been like growing up in an insular bubble.

Which is exactly what it was.

Thing is, Timothy is technically more Japanese than American all while not being ethnically Japanese at all (A cause for bitterness and complicated feelings where identity is concerned, perhaps?) He learned to speak Japanese back to back with English from his earliest years, he learned to write the same way, he observed customs, knows the nuances, knows the cuisine, knows the history, the mentality, the ‘what to do’s’ and ‘what not to do’s’ but he still sticks out like a sore thumb and is more often than not deemed a tourist by natives and actual tourists on sight alike, even though he was born in Japan (and is a legal citizen with no dual citizenship to anywhere else), his parents spent their whole lives in Japan, great great grandparents very much the same and he possibly has familial roots in the country going back at least as far back as WWII, with his whole relation having been raised around military bases since the very start.

As such, ironically, his pastoral fantasy ‘All American’ white picket fence idyllic dream home is actually located in the countryside of Japan (Where he grew up), where, according to him ‘eight generations have previously lived’ — possibly a household built by his ancestors who might’ve, at one point, been wealthy and extravagant enough to simply be able to afford to have a summer vacation home as far as the other side of the globe (Perhaps, ambassadors of some sort? Missionaries? Someone with enough disposable income to be able to pull off such an endeavor?); naturally, which ended up being an unsustainable revenue and somewhere down the line as the decades passed. This is an estate Timothy’s family lost for any number of reasons. War. Debt. Crime. Gambling. Lack of funds. The presence of wealthy foreigners on Japanese soil (validly) being a bit of a sore spot for many an enemy who wanted to be rid of them. Run-ins with unsavory syndicats. Banks. You name it. Basically, once Timothy lost this piece of property ‘from a better and more simpler time’, he lost his very own piece of pocket Americana outside of America as the only tangible representation of roots he ever had, and he became some guy with and without a country who didn’t exactly belong anywhere anymore.

I think once Timothy couldn’t belong anywhere anymore, he became Jack Blaylock.

Basically, what I mean to say by this is that I can genuinely imagine Timothy turned homeless very early on, perhaps as an older teenager (16-17 years of age, give or take). I do imagine his parents died. Or were killed. Any such combination is very much believable. I imagine he was orphaned, I think his childhood home was lost and foreclosed because there was no adult left to manage it and Timothy hit the streets — too young to be left to his own devices and too old for the system or for anyone to want to adopt (He was this six foot tall white kid who already looked like an adult and came with a whole world of baggage — not exactly anyone’s model child for adoption).

He couldn’t go back to the States because he was not a citizen (and had nobody to speak of there to Sponsor him), and he didn’t exactly feel like a part of the very country he was born to, left to fend for himself entirely forsaken in a place that was as known as it was foreign, resorting to petty crime, scams, pickpocketing, theft, the occasional jail time, juvenile detention and being tossed back to the streets again until he reached legal age and he was entirely alone; Eighteen and with already enough lived experience to put most grown people to shame. I think falling down the rabbit hole of being groomed and scouted to start roughing up people for money as a pipeline leading to begin killing as well was only so easy. He was big, he was tall, he had the way of the streets about him and had nothing and nobody to lose. Most importantly, he was foreign enough where he could be used to do dirty jobs no local wanted traced back to them, preserving their reputations intact. It was one crook hiring him, then another and another — handling petty vendettas, retaliations, spying, gangster disputes, money extortion, transporting packages, the work of a loan shark, roughing someone up — you name it — until word spread on the street that this kid is good and he started getting serious contractors and began making buck. I think this is how he got embroidered with that corrupt politician we see in the movie. Malcolm Carter?

I think this is around the time Timothy Calloway legally had to ‘die’.

And Jack Blaylock was invented as a false identity.

(Possibly even one of many identities)

Malcolm Carter sponsored Jack, introduced him to important and powerful people, made sure he earns himself a more cultured sleek, polishing away some of his rougher street manners, endowed him with anything from exclusive weapons, the ability to learn how to use them, an indefinite amount of cash, an apartment to utilize as a base of operations, the ability to travel anywhere when necessary, a job as a Detective and a Private Investigator he could use as a ‘front’, he gave him connections, expensive suits, nice shades, nice shoes, the perks of being in close ties with some who possesses diplomatic immunity — but the price was that Jack  started doing high profile, high stake hit jobs for him exclusively and this mentorship extended to Carter being Jack’s maker in the figurative and literal sense, forming something of a relationship with him that stood on the foundation of lies and gaslighting, promising Jack anything from the ability to ensure he gets his familiar home back and the understanding that ‘Americans should stick together out in the great big World’ and that one day, ‘the gilded ancestral manor of his family will be rightfully restored to him’. Of course, these promises from a supposed father figure turned handler to a supposed son figure turned terminator extended from plans that should’ve taken place somewhere in the near future to a full two decade working contract between Blaylock and Carter, during which, not only did their relationship become highly codependent, festering, bitter and mutually jilted, landing Jack in jail several times due to Carter’s machinations (even though Carter was always there to pull him out) they couldn’t break apart from each other because they mutually knew too much compromising information about one another to go their separate ways. That is, how, in essence, Jack Blaylock ended up trapped being an assassin for people of importance all while living a fake civilian life to cover up his more obscure dalliances. He began this trade before he even turned twenty, and well nearing his forties, he was in his prime and very much at it, having spent his whole life up until that point killing and knowing nothing else but killing, subterfuge, extortion, seduction, executions and murder for hire. Except, Jack doesn’t even believe himself stuck anymore. He’s far too gone for that.

𝑰𝒕'𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒂 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒆, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝑰'𝒎 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒚 𝒇𝒂𝒊𝒕𝒉.."❤️‍🔥

Thomas Ian Griffith as Jack Blaylock in Ulterior Motives

🎶: Beautiful Things - Benson Boone

This one will remain as my top 3rd favorite tig character!!

His style in this movie is just everything, and that is paired with a perfectly complex character -✨️cherry on top✨️

―  𝐓 𝐈 𝐆   /   𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐬 𝐈𝐚𝐧 𝐆𝐫𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐀𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬, 𝖕𝖙. 3 ― JACK BLAYLOCK / TIMOTHY CALLOWAY ―   ►►► Ulterior Motives (1992)

I think Jack believes in destined soulmates recognizing each other.

Lovers from past lives ---- he even says so himself, to Erika.

Considering how gruesome he is, he is something of a spiritualist and a romantic.

He supposes it is no accident beloved has stumbled upon his crime scene. It was meant to be, in a way. The reason why things failed with Erika make sense now in ways they perhaps haven't to him before --- because the thing with Erica wasn't the thing and the failure of that connection could've only made Jack more jaded --- darker somehow. He knows beloved, he feels, even though this the first time they've ever met under the worst of circumstances, no less. As such, he rationalizes the reason for sparing her instead of immediately killing her and getting rid of a witness to tie all lose ends is not without reason either, even though he knows it would have been prudent. He hesitated. He hesitates because this is his person. He holds her captive because this is no accident. Beloved belongs to him. He would be very clear about that and he would vocalize it to beloved. Beloved's life is his and he wants something in return and that's beloved's heart --- either figuratively or literally and that's up to beloved to decide. And make no mistake, Jack would be entirely willing to have beloved alive by his side, kill her and have her in eternity and await another life to be reunited with her in a better situation (and live as a man and woman should live), he's willing to maintain keeping her prisoner (and hopefully Stockholm Syndrome her into loving him back), start a new life with her under his changed identity (something he does frequently) --- basically, no outcome is something he would fret over because he's morbid, he's bloodthirsty, he has an innate belief system, he has an inherent fascination with death (that verges on fetishization) he's dark, and unhinged, and he's the type to have beloved dead or alive and beloved can be with him dead or alive too. Beloved can stay with him, with new aliases and travel the world while he takes and completes his killing contracts or beloved can be an immaculately maintained and preserved corpse he tends to and treats like one treats the living.