- "Pig is here. Says it's about Jed!"
- ― Nubbins Sawyer[src]
- ""I was at the slaughterhouse. My brother worked there, my grandfather too. My family's always been in meat .. I was the killer!""
- ― Nubbins Sawyer
Nubbins Sawyer is the older brother of Leatherface and Loretta Sawyer, the son of Drayton Sawyer and the nephew of Verna Sawyer-Carson.
Biography[]
Leatherface[]
As a child, Nubbins is seen celebrating Jed’s birthday. He and the rest of the family pressure Jed to kill a man accused of stealing their pigs. Nubbins claps in joy but is disappointed when Jed refuses.
When Jed lures Betty Hartman into the Sawyer barn, she falls into a trap and her body is severely broken. Drayton and Nubbins appear and Drayton has Nubbins drop an engine which crushes and instantly kills her.
A decade later, Nubbins is seen as a young man at the Sawyer Residence when the corrupt Deputy Sorells arrives with information on Jed. Nubbins informs Verna of his presence. After Sorells tells them that Hal Hartman has Jed at the old barn, Verna betrays him and has Drayton and Nubbins feed him to the pigs before going after Jed. The family arrives at the barn and retrieves Jed, taking Hartman and Lizzy the nurse captive. After stitching the remnants of Jedidiah's face, Verna tells Nubbins to make him something to eat. When Hartman and Lizzy try to escape, Nubbins and Drayton, respectively, capture them. Nubbins throws Hartman down and watches as Jed kills him with a chainsaw. As Lizzy flees into the woods, Verna sends Nubbins, Drayton, and Jed after her. Nubbins searches for her, wielding a knife, but Jed ultimately gets her. The next morning Nubbins and Drayton feed the victims’ remains to the pigs while laughing.
The Massacre[]
The Hitchhiker first appears in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre walking along the road, where he is picked up by a group of friends traveling through the area, who feel sorry for him having to walk in the heat.
The group asks him what he was doing out there and he tells them that he was "over at the slaughterhouse" where he and his brother and his grandfather used to work. He shows them pictures of him and his family killing the cattle while telling them a story about how head cheese comes from the cows when their heads are melted, all while attempting to get them to drop him off at his home and even inviting them to dinner. He soon begins acting erratically after the disgusted travelers return the photographs. The Hitchhiker suddenly pulls Franklin Hardesty's (Paul A. Partain) pocketknife out of his grasp after he sees the teen picking his fingernails with it. The group is shocked and appalled when the hitchhiker uses Franklin's knife to cut open the palm of his own hand. Shortly after, the hitchhiker shows off the straight razor he keeps in his boot and then takes a picture of Franklin using a camera he pulls out of his satchel. Nubbins takes a picture of Franklin, and tells him it's a good picture. He offers to let him keep it for $2. After Franklin refuses to buy the picture, the Hitchhiker sets the photo on fire and slashes Franklin's arm with the straight razor before being kicked out of the van. The Hitchhiker briefly chases after the van, kicking and yelling as he smears a bloody handprint onto the side of the vehicle, but soon relinquishes his attack on it. The smeared blood on the van is a symbol to help assess which vehicle Drayton should go after as a target for murder.
The film later identifies the Hitchhiker as the brother of Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) and the son of Drayton Sawyer (Jim Siedow), as well as a member of a mentally unstable family of murderous cannibals. It's also revealed that he was the one responsible for the grave robberies, which are mentioned at the beginning of the film. He was taking photographs of decomposed corpses and making horrific art and statues out of them at the cemetery. Together, they torment Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns), Franklin's sister, whom Drayton had captured. Eventually deciding to kill Sally, the Hitchhiker, Drayton and Leatherface are at first content to allow their highly-regarded Grandpa (John Dugan) to do so, but when Grandpa proves unable to kill Sally with a hammer, the Hitchhiker and his family become impatient and over-eager with trying to help him. The Hitchhiker forgets to keep a hold on Sally when he tries to take the hammer from Grandpa, allowing her break free of their grasp and jump out a nearby window. As Sally flees, the Hitchhiker and Leatherface chase her, with the Hitchhiker catching up to her on a road. While slashing Sally with a knife, the Hitchhiker meets his demise when he is run over by an 18-wheeler.
Post-Mortem[]
Once Sally escaped, the Hitchhiker's corpse was taken back to the Sawyer house and was wrapped in blanket. Leatherface was upset about his death but was reassured by Drayton that he will be buried later. When the Sawyer house burned down, his corpse was burned along with it.
Appearances[]
- Leatherface
- The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
- Texas Chainsaw 3D (Corpse wrapped in blanket)
Trivia[]
- In the deleted opening to Texas Chainsaw 3D, the Hitchhiker's body is seen wrapped in a blanket. Drayton tells Leatherface they'll bury him later.
- In the script for the first film, he was described as having a bony face, short carrot-colored curly hair, jeans tucked into old combat boots, a pouch and a large discolored mark on his face, his face and arms were also covered with scabs and sores. He was also said to be around 25 years old.
- His death in the original script was much gorier than the film. His jaw was nearly ripped off from his head and his eyes were wide open. This was never seen in the film however.
- His name was never mentioned in the 1974 film. In Texas Chainsaw 3D, the Sawyer files mention a person of the family named Dunkin, considering this name was next to Drayton and Jed's, this may have originally been the Hitchhiker's intended name. However, Leatherface confirms his name as Nubbins.
Gallery[]
