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Jonathan "Jon" Forster is the main antagonist in the 2007 thriller film 88 Minutes.

He was portrayed by Neal McDonough, who also portrayed Damien Darhk in the Arrowverse, Jay Hamilton in Walking Tall, Jack Horton in Red 2, Vincent Sofel in Paul Blart Mall Cop 2, M. Bison in Street Fighter: Legend of Chun-Li, Deadshot in Batman: Assault on Arkham and Damian Wayne in the first Injustice game.

Biography[]

Forster was born on September 11, 1960. When he was a boy, he was an Eagle Scout, with which he had experience with ropes. In his adult years, he was a veterinary assistant which gave him experience with halothane, an animal tranquilizer.

Behind the scenes, the original screenplay of 88 Minutes, written in 2001 by Gary Scott Thompson, detailed more of Forster’s (spelled originally as John Forrester) backstory: he was born in 1959, apparently having been raised in the Chesapeake/mid region of the East Coast, and became an Evangelical Christian, being able to quote numerous verses of Biblical scripture and on a darker note attributed his crimes as symbolic sacrifices in this aspect. His first victim would be his own stepsister, Sarah Abel, when he was only 15 years old; he would later use this to choose the number of minutes (88) that Jack Gramm would have left to live, since the 88th verse of the entire Bible, Genesis 4:8, detailed Cain killing his brother Abel. John would be put in a psychiatric hospital for three years until his 18th birthday in 1977, and as soon as he was released, he kidnapped his next victim, Kate Gramm, while she and her brother Jack were kids (Dr. Gramm was written to be in his 30’s during the original script); her body would never be found, and John wouldn’t let Dr. Gramm hear the audio cassette of Kate’s final screams until well over 20 years later, but by then it was distorted by how many times John replayed it for himself and his twisted perversion/amusement. As a result of this, Jack’s mother committed suicide, after blaming Jack for what happened, and his father became an alcoholic who mooched off of some of his now successful son’s money to buy more alcohol; what happened to Kate was the reason that Jack meanwhile became a noted forensic psychiatrist in New York City, and attributed John Forrester, who also by coincidence moved there, to be a calculating, manipulative psychopath who may have killed as many as 30-40 people, not knowing however that one of them was his sister.

Some of the original story was retconned by the final draft of the movie, notably the spelling of his name, the switch of setting from the East Coast to Seattle, and how someone else was responsible for Kate Gramm’s murder, and the fact that her killing took 88 minutes is the new reason why Dr. Gramm has that long to live. Some aspects were likely kept, however; he is implied to be religious, and also implied that he had a sister who died too (saying to Gramm he feels his pain when it came to Kate).

Murder Spree[]

Before 1997, Forster was presumed to have murdered at least five women (not counting his stepsister, which was likely retconned), three of whom being named Terri Hines, Alicia Smith, & Samantha Green, though it was not proven, most likely because he disposed of the bodies elsewhere, and therefore he could not be charged due to insufficient evidence. It was written on his criminal profile that he was charged with aggravated kidnapping in 1995, potentially for a 6th (or higher number) victim, but ended up being caught yet acquitted, a walk which Dr. Gramm would later blame on procedural error. It’s possibly for this reason that he switched to murdering victims inside their homes as a means of changing modus operandi.

On September 1, 1997, Forster broke into the apartment of Janie and Joanie Cates. He knocked Joanie out with halothane, suspended her upside down, and raped and tortured her to death. Janie walked in and was knocked out as well. When she woke up, she saw a glimpse of Forster's face. He escaped after Janie screamed.

Forster was arrested and charged with Joanie Cates' murder. There was no physical evidence or murder weapon. The only thing pointing Forster to be the killer was Janie Cates' testimony, though it was dark and she was beaten and drugged. But forensic psychologist and former FBI agent, Dr. Jack Gramm, managed to convince the jury that Forster was the murderer, and he was found guilty and sentenced to death. Before the trial ended, Forster whispered to Gramm "tick tock, doc".

Final Days[]

On October 18, 2006, the day of his execution, he was being interviewed by MSNBC, still continuing to plead his innocence. However, more murders in Forster's M.O. were occurring, the third and latest victim being Dale Morris, a student of Gramm's. However, Forster put his three lawyers into committing a new series of murders and to frame Jack Gramm for it before killing him, so that Forster can get a stay of execution, a new trial, and be set free. One of his lawyers, Lydia Doherty, disguised herself as Lauren Douglas, and became one of Gramm's students. Using a voice changer, she placed a call to Gramm saying he has 88 minutes to live. Gramm eventually finds out that she was behind it all, and with the help of FBI agent Frank Parks, Gramm saved his friends Kim Whitman and Carol Johnson, killing Lydia in the process.

Moments later, Forster placed a call to Lydia, asking if his plan worked. But to his horror, Gramm answers the phone and says that Lydia is dead. He then says "you got 12 hours to live" before throwing the cell phone into the atrium where it strikes the ground and shatters.

In a deleted portion of the ending, that night, Forster is executed. Before dying, he laughed hysterically.