Tommy Jarvis

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Tommy Jarvis first appears in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter as a young boy (played by Corey Feldman), residing with his divorced mother Mrs. Jarvis (Joan Freeman) and sister Trish (Kimberly Beck), with an affinity for making his own masks and make-up effects. When Jason Voorhees (Ted White) appears and kills both Mrs. Jarvis and a group of teenagers partying in the house next door, Tommy is forced to fight for his life along with Trish. In an attempt to trick Jason, Tommy shaves his head to look like a photograph of young Jason as a child, which works for a time, confusing the killer. Ultimately, Tommy kills Jason by slamming a machete into the side of his head, then Jason falls, and Tommy subsequently hacks at his body. When he and Trish embrace, he notices Jason's fingers slowly move and he begins to hack away at his body. By the events of Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, Tommy's encounter with Jason has seriously affected his psyche, and he was put in several mental institutions, none of which were able to help him overcome his fear of Jason. He is eventually put in a halfway house, but unfortunately, at this time, a series of murders begin nearby with a copycat killer (Roy Burns, played by Dick Wieand) being tied to the killings; Tom Morga performed stunts for the killer, but the character is not Jason. Tommy's mind continues to slip again, seeing images of Jason haunting him. Tommy (played by John Shepherd) manages to confront the hockey-masked murderer, believing him to be another hallucination. But he is real and attacks Tommy, finally forcing him to take his life - only for it to turn out that the killer was a copycat named Roy Burns. But it's too late for Tommy, as the last wall of sanity has fallen with the ghost of Jason fading before his eyes. Keeping the killer's hockey mask, he puts it on and attempts to assume Jason's mantle, but he is thankfully caught and treated before things go too far. In Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, a more stable adult Tommy (played by Thom Mathews), with Allen Hawes (Ron Palillo) a friend from the institution, is ready to confront his demons - or rather the demon that is Jason (C. J. Graham). Wanting to see Jason's decayed body himself, he also wants to make sure that Jason will never rise again and attempts to cremate him. But his memories of his encounter with Jason still linger heavily and he madly att

In Their Own Story

The fog rolled off Lake Crystal, thick and heavy with the scent of pine and decay. Tommy gripped the cold steel of his machete, his knuckles white against the dark wood of the cabin door. He knew what was out there; he had felt it before, a presence that defied logic and death itself. The silence was broken only by the crunch of twigs under heavy boots. 'It's over this time,' he whispered to the empty room, his voice trembling not with fear, but with exhaustion. As the shadow loomed in the doorway, Tommy didn't run. He stepped forward, ready to face the monster one last time.

Reader's Guide

Tommy Jarvis first appears in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984) as a child interested in special effects. He is portrayed by Corey Feldman. A teen version is portrayed by John Shepherd in Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985). An adult version is portrayed by Thom Mathews in Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986). He appears in three of the twelve Friday the 13th films. The original ending for Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985) had Tommy become the antagonist in subsequent sequels, but was dismissed as being too detracting. Outside of the films, Tommy is a main character in the comic book adaptations and novels. He is a playable character in the video game Friday the 13th: The Game, with Mathews reprising his role. Thom Mathews reprises his role as Tommy in the non-canonical Friday the 13th fan film Never Hike Alone, released in 2017. The short film takes place several decades after Jason Lives, and sees Tommy working as an ambulance driver. Near the end of the film, he picks up Jason (Vincente DiSanti)'s latest victim, Kyle McLeod (Andrew Leighty), who barely survived his encounter with the mass murderer. When Jason returns and kills Axel Macauley (Robert DuBois) and Deni Morgan (Katie Schwartz), the two other paramedics in the ambulance, he recognizes Tommy, who taunts him before driving off. In 2020, the character appeared in the prequel film, Never Hike in the Snow, which takes place 3 months before Never Hike Alone. Tommy also plays a major role in the sequel Never Hike Alone 2, which was released on October 13, 2023. Tommy features as an offscreen presence in the fan film Friday the 13th: Vengeance, when he disappears to investigate the possibility that Jason (Jason Brooks) has returned, prompting his older daughter Angelica (Kelly Tappan) to go out and search for him alongside the family members of some of Jason's other past victims/enemies, such as Ginny Fields (Amy Steel)'s niece Heather (Natalie Schnelle). This film also features the appearance of Jason's father, Elias (C. J. Graham), revealing that he used black magic to bring his son back to life. The sequel, Vengeance 2: Bloodlines, features Thom Matthews returning as Tommy when he must face off against Elias's plans for revenge. The final confrontation sees Elias attempt to use the same black magic that resurrected Jason to bring Pamela back to life, but this attempt ends with Elias being killed and Jason being apparently killed for good when they recreate the circumstances of Jason's original resurrection, to the extent of impaling him with the same metal pole that was originally struck by lightning to reanimate him. In the novelization of Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, it is revealed what happened between Tommy and Pam Roberts (Melanie Kinnaman) at the end of Friday the 13th: A New Beginning; the book explains that Pam had managed to return Tommy to his senses and, when Tommy was put back in a mental institution, she helped him recover. The novel Friday the 13th: Carnival of Maniacs references Tommy, revealing he has written at least six books about Jason and Crystal Lake, with the title of one of them being mentioned as My Life of Hell: One Man's Fight Against Jason Voorhees, which is described as a "whiny piece of garbage" by the character Alice Jane Witney. In the mockumentary called The Crystal Lake Massacres Revisited (included on the 2009 DVD extra) it is mentioned that Tommy was thought to be the killer in Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives by the local town folk. It also talks about Tommy's stay at the state mental hospital, and how due to overcrowding he was sent to Pinehurst. Tommy faces Jason again in the comic miniseries Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: Nightmare Warriors. When Jason attacks Dr. Maggie Burroughs' group for those who have survived Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger, Tommy intervenes and reveals his intent to finish Jason off, ultimately decapitating him with the help of Jason's great-niece, Stephanie. After both Freddy and Jason are defeated, Tommy is appointed leader of the Nightmare Warriors by Ash Williams. Tommy is a playable character in the video game Friday the 13th: The Game, making him one of five playable characters from the films, alongside Jason Voorhees, Roy Burns, Fox (Gloria Charles), and Sheldon "Shelly" Finkelstein (Larry Zerner). Thom Mathews, who portrayed Tommy Jarvis in Part VI, reprised his role. Tommy is a special character, and only one of the players who have either died or escaped can play as him, after contacting him from a randomly placed CB radio; he has the best stats out of all survivors, and when spawned, comes equipped with a shotgun, pocket knife, radio, map, and first aid spray. Tommy is also the only character who can kill Jason, although this only can be accomplished if Jason has lost his mask due to heavy damage, as well as a feminine character finding Jason's shack, taking the sweater, then "enchanting" Jason into thinking she is Pamela Voorhees whilst Tommy attacks. The game also features collectible cassette tapes known as the "Tommy Tapes" written by filmmaker Adam Green and starring voice actor and animator Chris Niosi as Tommy Jarvis. The tapes feature audio recordings of Tommy at various points in his life, from after the events of Part 4 and until shortly after Part 6, thus filling in most gaps between the films. They also provide an explanation for Part 5's ending where Tommy states that he only dreamed about killing Pam and had never actually done so. Tommy's claims of Jason Voorhees being the killer from the events of Parts 2 through 4 are dismissed due to the logical absurdity of Jason being alive in spite of him drowning as a child, and the murders are instead blamed on an unidentified copycat killer. His claims of Jason rising from the grave in Part 6 are f

Did You Know?

• Tommy Jarvis is portrayed by three different actors across three films: Corey Feldman (child), John Shepherd (teen), and Thom Mathews (adult).
• Tommy appears in three of the original eight Friday the 13th films (Parts IV, V, and VI), not three of the original ten.
• Tommy survives all three of his film appearances; he does not die in any of them.
• In The Final Chapter, Tommy shaves his head to mimic a photograph of young Jason as a child, not a younger version of the adult Jason.
• Tommy first hits Jason with the machete, then Jason falls, and Tommy subsequently hacks at his body; the blade is not already embedded when Jason falls.