Henry J. Waternoose III



Henry J. Waternoose III is the hidden secondary antagonist of the 2001 film Monsters, Inc. He was voiced by the late James Coburn.

Monsters, Inc.
He is first shown at the very beginning of the film, informing Thaddeus Bile and the trainees about the dangers of a human child after Thaddeus has unsuccessfully attempted to frighten a simulation child in bed.

Later, when James P. "Sulley" Sullivan and Mike Wazowski, were carrying Boo, they attempt to alert Waternoose, while he is attending a training session for new monsters. However, Waternoose asks Sulley to demonstrate his scare tactics, and when Sulley growls loudly, Boo reveals herself as a human child. Waternoose, taking Boo, promises to set things right, but instead reveals he is on Randall Bogg's scheme, worried for the future of the company. He brings a door from the vault and pushes Sulley and Mike into it and the door takes them to the Himalayas in Nepal. Sulley and Mike have a falling out. Sulley, only concerned about getting to Boo quickly scavenges parts from stockpiles from the Yeti, another exiled monster, and returns to the nearest village to use a door and return to Monsters, Inc.

Inside the secret lair, Waternoose accepts Randall's evil plan and watches as Randall and Fungus begin to test the scream extractor from Boo. Sulley intervenes at the last moment before the Scream Extractor gets to her mouth, dismantles the device, throws it at Waternoose and Randall, and rescues Boo. Waternoose then orders Randall to stop Sulley and finish him off, but Mike, who has followed Sulley back into the Monster world, accidentally gives away Randall's cloaking abilities, allowing Sulley to knock Randall off him by punching him in the face. After Sulley, Mike and Boo escape, Waternoose tells Randall that they can't let any witnesses be exposed (with Randall replying in a way that indicated that he'll backstab Waternoose later).

While Sulley and Mike lead Randall on a wild chase through a large chamber where thousands of doors to the human world are kept, Waternoose rallies the CDA to capture Sulley, Mike and Boo under the pretense that they are the criminals responsible for the entire incident.

After the trio defeat Randall and return to Scare Floor F which is packed with CDA agents, Mike distracts the CDA by driving them away while Waternoose catches sight of Boo with Sulley and gives them chase to a simulation room.

Waternoose breaks into a room where Sulley has went into and confronts him, declaring that he'll kidnap a thousand children before he lets the company die. Knocking Sulley out of his way, he tries to grab Boo from the bed, but he instead grabs the simulation child. Just then, the wall goes up to reveal that Mike is behind the controls. Mike, who has recorded the confrontation between Waternoose and Sulley, plays back his favourite part to reveal Waternoose's nefarious scheme to the CDA as Waternoose watches in bewilderment. With this incriminating evidence, the CDA turns on Waternoose and arrests him. As he is being dragged away, Waternoose angrily blames Sulley for "destroying" Monsters, Inc. and making the energy crisis worse. It seems to be a lose-lose scenario when Sulley realises how true it is, until Mike leads him to realise that laughter can put the company back in business, which it does, as laughter is proven to be ten times more powerful than scream. With this, Sulley is made the new CEO of Monsters, Inc. and it can be assumed that Waternoose regrets his actions when he hears about the company's rebound in prison.

Monsters University
After Mike and Sulley begin their new jobs at Monsters, Inc., they eventually work their way up to the position of the scaring team job that they have in the first film. This is revealed to the viewer when Mike's Monsters, Inc. locker shows photos of them beginning this job and shaking hands with Mr. Waternoose. In the photo, he sports an afro and a chinless beard which he lost sometime before Monsters, Inc.

Trivia

 * Waternoose is often thought to be the main antagonist of the first film, and Randall's (former) boss. This is not true as there are hints proving that Randall is the mastermind, and Waternoose just being an henchmen/minion (despite Waternoose ordering Randall a few times).