Saving Private Ryan/Characters

Captain John H. Miller

Played by Tom Hanks
"Keep the sand out of your weapons. Keep those actions clear. I'll see you on the beach."

The Captain and leader of the eight man band sent to find Private Ryan. Captain Miller leads 'Charlie' Company of the 2nd Ranger Battalion during the D-Day landings. He is a Shell-Shocked Veteran, his hand often shaking when in the presence of danger. It is revealed he is a school teacher, due to the squad's Multiple Choice Past bets.

• A Father to His Men
• Badass
  • Badass Teacher
• The Captain
• Captain Smooth and Sergeant Rough: The smooth to Horvath's rough.
• Disconnected by Death: Captain Miller tries to get a communications tech to contact reinforcements via telephone, only to find the tech has been shot the third time he talks to him, and then finds the telephone doesn't work anyway.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Miller asks Ryan to make something good of his life at the end of the final battle.
• Famous Last Words: "Earn it!"
• The Hero
• Heroic BSOD: Occurs twice in similar fashions at the beginning and end of the film, where close explosions render him in a soundless daze.
• Killed Off for Real
• Manly Tears: Captain Miller sobs to himself after Wade's death.
• Multiple Choice Past: Guessed at by his troops. Revealed that he's a schoolteacher after Wade dies and Reiben threatens to leave.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran

Sergeant Mike Horvath

Played by Tom Sizemore
"This time the mission is the man."

Captain Miller's Lancer, Sergeant Horvath is loyal to his captain and has battled alongside him in numerous countries.

• Badass
• Captain Smooth and Sergeant Rough: The rough to Miller's smooth.
• Implacable Man: Seemingly appears this way when he is shot multiple times and keeps on running. He dies shortly after though.
• The Lancer
• Major Injury Underreaction: To his fatal bullet wounds.
• Only a Flesh Wound: Sadly averted.
• Sergeant Rock

Private Richard Reiben

Played by Edward Burns
"My ma, she would've come home, shook me awake, chatted me up 'til dawn. I swear that woman was never too tired to talk."

A big mouthed and opinionated soldier from Brookyln, Reiben seems quite close to his friends and openly calls out Captain Miller's orders, particularly when Wade dies and Miller allows Steamboat Willie to leave unharmed, threatening to go AWOL.

• Badass
• Brooklyn Rage
• Deadpan Snarker
• Really Gets Around: He claims to have saw the wife of his apartment's superintendent in her underwear.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Comes close to pulling this off.
• To Absent Friends: Reiben takes the deaths of his teammates very hard, threatening to go AWOL at one point.

Private Daniel Jackson

Played by Barry Pepper
"Blessed be the Lord my strength, which teaches my hands to war, and my fingers to fight."

A religious Cold Sniper and the best marksman in the team. At times he seems to have Bottomless Magazines.

• Badass: Oh God, yes.
• Bottomless Magazines: Seemingly at times, although this is minor since the gun he uses in the final battle has a limited number of rounds.
• Cold Sniper: Only when on duty, Jackson is coldly emotionless and murmurs Bible verses to himself. He is friendly when in casual talk with his friends.
• Fake American: Jackson's actor is Canadian.
• Friendly Sniper: Mostly. Put him in a battle, though, and he changes...
• Instant Death Bullet: Everyone who Jackson shoots dies instantly.
  • Subverted when Jackson is blown up and killed by a tank.
• Real Men Love Jesus
• Oh Crap: Upon realising he's a dead man.
• Scope Snipe: Jackson scores a bullseye on a German sniper.
• The Scourge of God: Considers himself this, but every man he kills is in the name of good.
• Southern-Fried Private
• Tank Goodness: Jackson is killed by a tank firing on his hiding place in a church tower.

Private Stanley Mellish

Played by Adam Goldberg
"Your father was circumcised by my rabbi, you prick!"

A Jewish soldier who is good friend with Caparzo. He is nicknamed "Fish" by his friends.

• Ambiguously Jewish
• And I Must Scream: Mellish is slowly and painfully stabbed through the chest by a Nazi wielding a Hitler Youth knife he picked up as a collectible. And the worst part is that he is Jewish.
• Badass
  • Badass Israeli: Not Israeli, but Ambiguously Jewish and certainly Badass, so he loosely counts.
  • Badass Mustache
• Chekhov's Gun: Mellish is stabbed with the Hitler Youth knife he collected during the Omaha Landings of D-Day.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice
• Knife Fight: Gets into a tense one with a German soldier. It doesn't end well.
• Those Two Guys: Mellish and Caparzo.

Private Adrian Caparzo

Played by Vin Diesel
"You gotta pay attention to detail, I know exactly where he's from and I know exactly what he did 'cuz I pay attention to detail."

A soldier in Captain Miller's group, played by Vin Diesel. He is assassinated by a sniper and dies a slow death, leaving a letter to his father in the hands of his friends.

• Badass and Child Duo: Averted since the badass is shot and dies.
• Genre Blind: And it costs him dearly.
• The Heart
• Instant Death Bullet: Painfully averted.

Technician Irwin Wade

Played by Giovanni Ribisi
"...the trick to falling asleep is trying to stay awake."

The Medic of the team. Wade has a hard time saving the lives of fellow soldiers, but is willing to help anybody out, even wounded Nazis.

• Bulletproof Human Shield: Forced to use a dead soldier's body as a shield.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Given with good reason. After Wade and other medics seemingly stop a fellow soldier from bleeding to death, a bullet puts a hole through his helmet. This ticks Wade right off.
• Driven to Suicide: Wade is fatally wounded when the squad attack a Nazi guard house, and tricks his friends into giving him an overdose of morphine.
• The Medic
• Mercy Kill
• Shoot the Medic First: Horribly Exploited.

Corporal Timothy E. Upham

Played by Jeremy Davies
"I looked up "fubar" in the German dictionary and there's no fubar in here."

A translator who speaks French and German, Upham is brought into the squad after Captain Miller's translator was killed.

• Cunning Linguist
• Dirty Coward
• Heroic BSOD: When his fear prevents him from rescuing Mellish.
• Manly Tears
• Naive Newcomer
• New Meat
• Took a Level In Badass: Upham kills Steamboat Willie to avenge Captain Miller.

Private James Francis Ryan

The Private Ryan in question which Captain Miller's squad go to find. After three of his brothers died, Ryan is demanded to be found and brought home to his greiving mother. The squad find him, but Ryan refuses to leave his duty.

• Death Notification: Ryan's mother receives all three death letters of her dead son's on the same day.
• Decoy Protagonist: Shared with Captain Miller. An elderly Ryan visits Miller's gravestone in Normandy, and recalls the tale of the squad's journey through the eyes of Captain Miller.
• Earn Your Happy Ending
• Last of His Kind
• Matt Damon

Steamboat Willie

A German soldier who is taken prisoner by Captain Miller's squad after Wade is killed. He is eventually allowed to walk free by Miller. Unfortunately, he reappears with diastrous consequences.

• Bald of Evil
• Chekhov's Gunman
• Kill'Em All
• Shout-Out: His name a nod to Steamboat Willie, the first cartoon to feature sound. He was apparently a fan of it.
• Those Wacky Nazis