Randall "Rand" Ridley is the main antagonist of Inside Job. He is a genius inventor, alcoholic, eugenicist, former CEO of Cognito Inc., the ex-husband of Tamiko Ridley and the father of Reagan Ridley. He is voiced by Christian Slater.
Appearance[]
Physical appearance[]
Rand is a middle-aged Caucasian man, with a slim build. He has grey hair, grey eyebrows, a long-pointed nose, and a large chin. He has a small tuft of grey hair in the middle of his chest, and stubble on his face.
Attire[]
Rand's most frequent attire consists of a red beanie, a brown and orange robe with a pink flower pattern, dark green pants with yellow streaks on both sides, and brown pajama boots.
Personality[]
Rand, like his daughter Reagan, is a genius of nearly unrivaled intelligence. He can invent basically whatever he wants on a whim, has a complete knowledge of all things scientific and mechanical, and knows how to get exactly what he wants. He also is an incredibly manipulative individual, which is shown when he blackmails J.R. by threatening to reveal embarrassing facts about the latter and later forcing him to strike a deal even though J.R. seemed to have the upper hand in that situation, and how he manipulated Reagan throughout the entire series.
He is also quite paranoid and thought that J.R. wanted to remove him from his position in Cognito Inc., though there was no real evidence of J.R. attempting to do something of this sort. J.R., at one point, described Rand as an "abrasive asshole".
He also is shown to be incredibly egotistical and narcissistic, believing that he was a good father for over half the series and believing that super geniuses like him and Reagan are made to run the world while everyone else are just "normies" made to do their dirty work.
His sexuality is up for debate as he has given STDs to an entire moon colony, which may include other than just the female moon residents, and bonded with J.R. over both having 'weird' genitals, implying they've both been close enough to see them in the first place. However, he has been married (and divorced) to Tamiko so may be unlabeled or straight and formerly experimenting.
History[]
Little is known of Rand’s earlier background, but it is known that, before founding Cognito, Inc., he attended Harvard University in the late 1970's alongside his college roommate (and future business partner) J.R. Scheimpough. Due to their conflicting personalities (such as Rand’s obnoxious tendencies using his machines to his advantage and J.R.’s own perfectionist habits), neither Rand or J.R. enjoyed their time together, eventually growing to be rivals. However, after spying on the sorority above their dorm and stealing beer from the college rep, Rand and J.R. decided to becomes business partners and put their respective talents to use, with Rand serving as the duo’s primary inventor and J.R. seeing to it that Rand (and, by extension, J.R.) doesn’t get incarcerated for his creations. Unfortunately, many of their creations (specifically Rand’s) often went haywire and ended up either killing or destroying people and locations during their test drives, prompting the two of them to bury the evidence lest it led back and sent the two of them to jail.
Finally, Rand invented Project Reboot, a machine he mistakenly believed would allow time travel, but soon found out it instead altered different timeline branches of reality. Both Rand and J.R. deemed this a success, but before they could go public with their invention, they were kidnapped by the Shadow Board, the ultimate heads of the world, who admitted they were impressed with the two men’s innovation and wanted to offer them a job running a secret society under the allegiance of the Robes. However, they gave the only condition that J.R. and Rand had to dismantle Project Reboot, on account of not wanting the dangerous machine to be tampering with mankind. But, unknown to the Robes, Rand instead buried Project Reboot against J.R.’s better judgement, stating that he did not trust the Robes and wanted an insurance policy just in case they got axed.
After this event, J.R. and Rand officially went into business, starting the secret shadow agency Cognito Inc, at least 25 years before the present. During this time, he married a woman named Tamiko and had their daughter Reagan with her. Due to Reagan’s equal intelligence to her father, Rand planned to use Reagan as an insurance policy in case he was removed from his position at Cognito Inc., something which would ultimately happen as a result of his attempt to permanently cure skin cancer by destroying the sun. Not long after that, he and his wife got divorced. However, due to an agreement prior to his discharge and Reagan's employment, and his large amount of shares in the company's stocks, he still had a considerable amount of influence in the company, which eventually got him reinstated as head of the company.
Relationships[]
Reagan Ridley[]
Rand and Reagan's relationship is estranged, though he frequently attempts to find ways to spend time with her, which is never reciprocated, for obvious reasons.
Rand's relationship with his daughter is heavily estranged. During her childhood, he and his wife, Tamiko, were almost entirely absent from Reagan's life, while Rand would frequently invent something to tend to one of his daughter's needs, instead of actually being a father and spending time with her. This resulted in Reagan being unable, for the most part, to establish any proper or healthy connections with other people, something that would follow her well into adulthood. During elementary school, Reagan's noteworthy intelligence and ingenuity is noticed by her school principal, who brings this to the attention of Rand and Tamiko, stating that it's entirely possible for her to skip the rest of elementary and middle school. However, at the time, Reagan had also finally made a friend, and the principal makes it a point that she would likely be better off remaining at her current grade level. Rand, however, not wanting Reagan to be deterred from her studies, and planning on her using her as a means to get back inside Cognito, should he be terminated for any reason, had later erased any at all memories of her friend Orrin, to ensure his plans for her remained on course.
In his later years, he would be fired from the company, but not for any reason he had previously theorized. J.R. would actually drive him out due to his attempts to blow up the sun to "cure skin cancer". Despite several years of absence, Rand would repeatedly fight for Reagan's attention and time in his retirement, to the point of harassment, though it would never truly be to bond or make up for lost time. In the final episode of Part 1, however, Rand tried to make a genuine effort to support his daughter when J.R. announced her CEO, giving Reagan a positive influence of her father, but when Rand was caught sneaking around in Cognito during the time of the mole crisis, all but Reagan immediately turned on Rand, accusing him to be the mole. However, Reagan, refusing to convict her father, escaped with him to a secret hideout in the Mayan Calendar, where she worked to clear his name.
While Rand was eventually revealed to not be the mole, Reagan’s friendship with he coworkers had already diminished on account of her choosing Rand over them, which Rand fueled even more by trying to convince Reagan she didn’t need them at all. Fortunately, Reagan started to become disillusioned with Rand after searching her memories with him for Bear-O’s password, noticing Rand was trying to hide something for her. However, their relationship finally changes from strained to an outright rivalry as Reagan found out he erased her memories of her only friend as a child, in which he revealed that the reason he did so was under the belief that Regan’s friendship would hold her back from becoming a genius as well as Rand’s future insurance policy back into Cognito should he ever be booted. After this revelation, Reagan finally became fed up with her father’s toxic tendencies and kicked him out of her life, but unfortunately, the incident with the mole had apparently convinced the Robes that Reagan was not yet ready to handle leadership, and Rand's scheme had come to fruition as he was made CEO of Cognito over Reagan.
In Part 2, while Rand’s relationship remained strained with Reagan (to the point where she tried to stage a coup after he regained control), Reagan eventually decided to put her hatred for Rand aside so she could focus on her own life as well as keeping the company afloat, whereas Rand basked in his power as CEO and continued to act as if his relationship with Reagan hadn’t changed. It is noted that Reagan continued to refer to him as “Rand” from that point on, symbolizing how she was finally growing out of her father’s hold over her. However, in the first part finale, Rand, after a date with Tamiko went badly and the Robes confronted him on his performance as CEO, finally realized his job and power was meaningless without his family. He became so desperate to win Regan back he was willing to use a dangerous reality alerting machine called Project Reboot, nearly destroying the universe in the process, but after Reagan found him in his depressing state and learned his actual motives, she was finally able to talk sense into Rand, stating that he did indeed mess up as a family man and he couldn’t change what he had done but he could try to move on, which Rand reluctantly accepted. As he was taken away to be charged for his crimes, Rand made a sincere apology to his daughter for all then pain he caused her, giving Reagan some closure.
Tamiko Ridley[]
Rand and Tamiko did not part on good terms, the few times they find themselves interacting with one-another being especially hostile.
Rand's relationship with his ex-wife is noticeably hostile, frequently arguing whenever they're in the same room together. Even early on in their marriage, they weren't particularly affectionate to one-another. Though it's implied they may still have feelings for one-another as they both entertain the idea of re-marrying in "My Big Flat Earth Wedding". He later uses his control of Congress to pass the N.E.E.D.Y. Act that would make it mandatory by law for women to go on a date with their ex-husbands once a month. Though, he managed to score a date with Tamiko in the holodeck with a Paris setting, he had Alpha-Beta fill in for him. When Rand noticed Alpha-Beta was genuinely falling for Tamiko, he exposed the charade and the two fought viciously. Realizing Rand has not changed at all, Tamiko finally throws him out of her life for good, emotionally destroying Rand and ultimately setting in motion the events of Project Reboot.
J.R. Scheimpough[]
Rand and J.R., for lack of better words, have hated each other from the very start. Rand disapproved of J.R.'s high-maintenance, by-the-book personality, while J.R. saw Rand as pompous and disagreeable. They only began to work together when they had recognized their mutual skills (and weird-shaped penises). From then on, Rand and J.R. appeared to have a fairly healthy working relationship with one another. Upon starting Cognito Inc., Rand and J.R. were practically best friends living their best lives, however, they still distrusted each other. J.R. was nervous over Rand's cavalier nature and willingness to go against the Shadow Board, and Rand came to believe that J.R. was planning to cut him from the company for his various antics. When Rand did get fired, however, it evolved into a burning hatred for each other and a bitter rivalry. Later on, when Rand was reinstated in J.R.'s position and learned of his peril, Rand brought J.R. back as an unpaid intern, freely abusing him in a sadistic personal revenge. When Rand goes drunk with power, J.R. is the first to notice and recognize their situation, though in the end it's revealed J.R. was still just as greedy for power and control as Rand. Ultimately, both are confined to the same cell in Shadow Prison X, in an ironic mirror of their time as college roommates.
Gallery[]
To visit the gallery for this page, click here.
Trivia[]
- He tweaked Reagan's DNA in the womb so she would be 60% him instead of 50%.
- According to Reagan his blood is 4% cigarette ash and 9% STDs, which makes it poisonous to vampires.
- He gave the entire moon colony syphilis.
- According to Rand, the inside of his mind resembles an alleyway full of homeless men who all look like his father.
- His desperate and nearly catastrophic attempt to get his family back by resetting the Universe is similar to the Kingpin in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and the Haggar Witch in Voltron: Legendary Defender.
- As per his severance from Cognito, he gets all the livers he desires from the company.
- Rand is similar to Rick Sanchez in the sense that: they are both geniuses, they invent things, they drink almost constantly, the deal with aliens/other worldly beings, have one daughter who they parent badly, and are pretty crappy people.
- He has only hugged Reagan once.
References
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