"Chop Top" (Real Name: Robert Sawyer) was a member of the cannibalistic SawyerFamily and one of Leatherface's brothers. He appears in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 as the secondary antagonist.
He is portrayed by Bill Moseley.
Biography
Early life
Born and raised in Texas, Chop Top was the twin brother of Nubbins Sawyer. Not much else is known, but it is likely that he worked in the family’s the slaughter house prior to it’s closure.
Vietnam War
According to director Tobe Hooper, Chop Top was on his tour of duty in Vietnam at the time of the first film in 1973. It is there where he received a grisly head injury, owing to a "lucky gook with a machete". The hole on his head was mended with a metal plate that's been grafted into his scalp, leaving him mostly bald, safe for a few scattered strands of hair. To hide this, Chop Top has taken to wearing wigs. Despite his military service, Chop Top seems to endorse his eccentric behavior and the hippie lifestyle as evident by his attire and the music he listens to.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
In The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, Chop Top first appears alongside Leatherface (Bill Johnson) in a pickup truck. Together they attack a pair of drunk motorists on a bridge, after they had previously forced them off the road for kicks. Chop Top and Leatherface kill the two men, not realizing that their attack on the drivers was being recorded at a radio station the two drunken men had called using a car phone prior to the attack. When DJ Vanita "Stretch" Brock (Caroline Williams) plays the recording of Chop Top and Leatherface's attack on the drivers over the radio, the two brothers break into the radio station with the intention of killing Vanita. Chop Top pretends to be a fan of the radio show and distracts her by asking for a tour, the frightened host reluctantly complying. She attempts to usher him out, but Chop Top insists on receiving a souvenir and presses for the tape Stretch had played yesterday. Leatherface then comes rushing out of a nearby room, ruining the improvised ploy, as well as Chop Top's favorite "Sonny Bono wig. He angrily demands Leatherface chase after and finish her off. Leatherface, however, having become infatuated with Vanita, lies to Chop Top about killing her and the pair leave the station, taking an injured co-worker of Vanita's with them.
When Chop Top and his brother Drayton discover that Vanita is still alive after finding her in the Sawyer family's home in an abandoned amusement park called the Texas Battle Land, which Chop Top bought using government checks, the brothers hold her captive and decide to let the decrepit patriarch of the Sawyer family, Grandpa (Ken Evert), kill her with Chop Top's help. Vanita is saved when protagonist Lieutenant "Lefty" Enright (Dennis Hopper) arrives and engages Leatherface in a chainsaw duel. The battle between the Sawyers and Lefty reaches a climax when a hand grenade, accidentally set off by Drayton, explodes and kills Grandpa, Lefty, Drayton and possibly Leatherface, as well as presumably destroying the puppet-like corpse of Nubbins Sawyer.
Chop Top's apparent death
Narrowly escaping the grenade explosion, Chop Top follows Vanita to the top of the Matterhorn attraction in the Texas Battle Land, which the Sawyers converted into a shrine known as "Chainsaw Heaven". Slashing Vanita and himself several times with a straight razor, Chop Top is finally subdued when Vanita stumbles upon the mummified corpse of Great-Grandma Sawyer and tears a chainsaw out of the corpse's hands. In the ensuing struggle, Vanita slashes Chop Top across the abdomen with the chainsaw and sends him plummeting into the ruins of Texas Battle Land. He is presumed dead.
All American Massacre
All American Massacre is an unreleased film directed by William Hooper, son of Tobe Hooper. The film was to serve as both as a sequel to Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and a prequel to the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The film was to feature Chop Top as the main character who had been captured and placed into a psychiatric prison. Memories of how his family became killers and cannibals were to feature in the film, as he was interviewed by a tabloid television journalist. Bill Moseley portrayed Chop Top in the film's trailer.
Other Appearances
Though Chop Top does not appear in the 1991 Leatherface by Northstar Comics, a reference to him is made through the use of his catchphrase "Lick my plate!", seen spray-painted on the side of Alfredo Sawyer's Last Chance Gas Station.
In this film he also has another brother named Tech/Tinker, who is a fellow hippy and music lover (as seen in the comics based on the film). Tech has an unnatural metallic body piece like his brother, though in his case it is a hook hand instead of a head plate & he also drives a large pickup truck, which is similar to the truck owned by Chop Top in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, although Tech seems to have souped his truck up, basically making it into a monster truck.
Appearance & Personality
Chop Top is a deranged and sadistic individual who gleefully murders people when given the chance. He possesses a "hippie"-like mentality and view on life, stating that "music is his life" and revealing that he is a fan of the bands Iron Butterfly and Humble Pie. Chop Top often remarks about Ho Chi Minh and napalm, as he is a Vietnam veteran, and he also talks about having flashbacks from the war. Chop Top adorns himself in a variety of tattered, multi-color clothing. Just like Nubbins, he has a large "wine stain" birth mark, on the opposite cheek, but unlike him, Chop Top has also noticeably chalkish pale skin tone, much like that of an albino.
Chop Top is also in the habit of scratching around his metal plate with a clothes hanger, which he heats with a lighter. He then eats the dead skin and scabs he has picked off. Both director Tobe Hooper and actor Bill Moseley state that if he scratches in the right spot, Chop Top will instantly "get off".
Trivia
- In Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3, the original script had the character of Alfredo as his brother Chop Top, but due to copyrights he evolved into the character of Alfredo. This was revealed on the film's audio commentary.
- The name "Paul" is misheard, as Drayton said "hog", and Tobe Hooper's son Tony has stated that his name is in fact, Robert/Bobby Sawyer, not Paul.
- In the unreleased prequel, All American Massacre, Chop Top is referred to as "Bobby" by police officers, doctors, and his family.
- Bill Moseley portrayed Chop Top in the alternative rock/ metal band "Cornbugs" along with guitarist Buckethead and drummer Pinchface. (his songs aren’t canon to the films)
- Bill Moseley plays in a parody of the first film as the Hitchhiker.
- Tobe Hooper stated on the audio commentary for Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, that Chop Top's character was originally that of The Hitchhiker, who had a metal plate grafted onto his skull after the events of the 1974 The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and was referred to as "Plate-Head", but the character later evolved into his twin, Chop Top.
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