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You're a bully! You were then, and you still are now!
~ Robyn confronting Simon.

Simon Callum is the protagonist/main antagonist of the 2015 horror-thriller The Gift.

He is portrayed by Jason Bateman, who also played Guy Trilby in Bad Words.

Early life

Simon was born in 1973 and raised in Los Angeles, California; he has a younger sister who was born when he was about five. His mother and sister are both still alive as of 2015, yet it is unknown what happened to Simon's father, who was implied to have been abusive to his son, possibly contributing to Simon becoming a bully in the first place.

An arrogant, mean-spirited bully, Simon takes pleasure in manipulating and mocking anyone he deems weak or inferior, and is not above hurting innocent people to get what he wants. In high school, he and his best friend Greg Pierson spread a rumor that underclassman Gordon "Gordo" Mosley was gay; upon hearing this rumor, Gordo's father tried to kill him. Gordo eventually switched schools, while Simon graduated in 1991, not staying in contact with anyone from school, not even Greg. In the meantime, Simon had told his family that he saved Gordo from being molested so that he did not get in trouble.

Simon went to college and soon became employed at the security company Orthus in Chicago, where he met his future wife Robyn.

The Gift

In 2014, Simon and Robyn move back to Los Angeles where Simon's life soon begins to unravel, as if karma begins to haunt him for being a bully, beginning with his former victim Gordo coming into his life again. By the end of the film, Gordo gets Simon fired by revealing that Simon broke the law in order to get a lucrative account. He also alienates Robyn from Simon by helping her see what kind of person her husband really is. When Robyn gives birth to their child, she bans Simon from the delivery room, and it is implied that she is going to leave him. Simon then gets a call from Gordon, who suggests that he may have raped Robyn, and is thus the baby's father. Simon demands the truth, but Gordon refuses to say whether he touched Robyn, leaving Simon forever in doubt as to whether the baby is his.

Role as the Main Villain

Starting out as the promising hero in the beginning of the movie, it soon turns out that Simon's actions throughout the movie make him the main villain, while Gordo, who was promoted as the villain, possibly never did a villainous act in the movie beyond stalking, breaking into houses, and poisoning and knocking out Robyn, as there are other theories on how bad things have began happening to Simon and Robyn.


  • Simon is similar to Macbeth in the sense that while trying to defeat the antagonist, they themselves become the main villain through their own actions.
    • He also shares this similarity with William Foster from Falling Down.
  • He is also similar to Blaire Lily from Unfriended; despite being the main character, they are also bullies and in fact turn out to be the main antagonist. The Gift and Unfriended both came out in 2015.
  • He is also similar to Ben Hawkins from Ma
