Terry Silver

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Born into a wealthy family, Terry Silver joined the US Army sometime before 1968 and was deployed to Vietnam. During this time, he met John Kreese and the duo became best friends. Silver was given the nickname 'Twig' by fellow squadmate Ponytail, because of his skinny stature. Kreese, Ponytail, and Silver were handpicked by Special Forces Captain Turner to take part in covert missions and are trained in the art of Tang Soo Do karate. During one such mission to attack a North Vietnamese Army base, the unit is captured when Silver's radio crackles, leading to Ponytail being executed by their captors. While in captivity, an NVA officer chose Silver to participate in a forced hand-to-hand fight to the death with Turner, only for Kreese to volunteer himself instead. After being saved by an airstrike by the US Air Force, Kreese kills Turner and frees the remaining prisoners. Grateful to Kreese for saving his life, Silver pledged a lifetime debt to him. Silver's experiences in Vietnam left him struggling with posttraumatic stress disorder, and he found his return to civilian life difficult. In honor of Ponytail, Silver grows a ponytail after leaving the military. In 1975 Kreese and Silver return to the Valley after the war. However they were met by hippies who berated them for fighting in the war. Kreese and Silver decided that they needed to teach people to learn some respect and decided to do this by teaching karate. Silver helps Kreese establish the Cobra Kai dojo. However, Silver was forced to help run his family's business at the insistence of his father, who threatened to cut him out of the family inheritance. Though he left Cobra Kai to Kreese, Silver continued to provide financial support and promised to help run the dojo one day. In 1980, Silver was able to fully purchase Cobra Kai and proposed the dojo compete in a global tournament known as the Sekai Taikai, so that it would get worldwide recognition. Kreese declined the offer, hoping to focus on his students, specifically Johnny Lawrence.

In Their Own Story

By 1985, Silver with his wealth founded a toxic waste disposal company called Dynatox Industries where he is the head of the company. The company illegally dumps waste in the environment. He has become a master of karate, even surpassing Kreese in skill. He has also become extremely erratic, owing to a cocaine addiction and now wants to conquer the world. By this time, the future of Cobra Kai is in doubt when all of Kreese's students leave after he attacked his star student Johnny Lawrence in retaliation for losing to Daniel LaRusso. When Kreese tells Silver he wants to shut down Cobra Kai, Silver vows to help him get revenge on Daniel and Mr. Miyagi and make Cobra Kai successful again. Silver sends Kreese to Tahiti to rest while he hires karate fighter Mike Barnes to defeat Daniel in the next All Valley Under-18 Karate Championships. Silver breaks into Mr. Miyagi's house to gather information on him and Daniel. He's nearly discovered but he hides inside the fireplace. He introduces himself to Daniel and Mr. Miyagi on a later day, claiming that he was sent to help Kreese regain balance. He lies to them saying that Kreese died of a cardiac arrest brought on by a broken heart and sadness at losing all of his karate students. He also blames Kreese's erratic behavior as a result of his years fighting in the Vietnam War. Silver 'apologizes' to both Daniel and Mr. Miyagi on behalf of Kreese. When Silver finds out that Daniel will not fight at the tournament this year, he orders Barnes and his two thugs, Snake and Dennis, to harass Daniel and coerce him into entering the tournament. After Daniel signs up for the tournament, he turns to Silver for guidance after Mr. Miyagi refuses to train him. Silver, acting on a request from Kreese to make Daniel's knuckles bleed, forces Daniel to destroy a wooden dummy using a self developed method he refers to as the Quicksilver Method which is intended both to inflict physical pain on Daniel but also give him an inflated sense of his abilities and progression. After Daniel finally destroys the dummy and injures himself at the same time, Silver tells him that he is ready for the tournament. When Daniel and his friend Jessica Andrews are at a nightclub, Silver bribes a man into provoking a fight with Daniel, who punches the man and breaks his nose.

Reader's Guide

In Cobra Kai, Silver is shown to have reformed, only for Kreese's return to cause him to mentally devolve into his old state and later usurp him as the main sensei of the dojo, making him the biggest threat in the series. The series creators thought of Silver as a 'really scary Bond villain'. They took aspects of the character from the film and wrote him into a modern story. In the series, Silver is enjoying his wealthy lifestyle and shows little interest in getting involved in Cobra Kai with Kreese. He tells Kreese that in the 1980s he was addicted to cocaine and thinks it insane that he was fixated on torturing a teenager. The creators added the cocaine to his character's backstory to explain Silver's maniacal behavior and said he had a 'Charlie Sheen kind of Wall Street-like lifestyle'. The creators insisted that Griffith keep his hair long so that he could wear the character's signature ponytail in the same style as his appearance in The Karate Kid Part III. Despite being uncertain about returning to the character, Griffith was swayed by the detailed backstory that the creators had devised for Silver, which explained much of the character's personality. Griffith described Silver as a 'super-smart guy' who attempts to distract himself from his inner demons by his wealthy lifestyle but Kreese brings his demons back and it consumes him. The Cobra Kai creators were keen to reinvent Silver as a more three-dimensional character rather than the archetypal villain of the 1980s. Griffith said that he was not interested in repeating the same performance, but wanted to stay true to the essence of the character. His fighting style was designed to express the character of Silver in the way that he moves, which Griffith likened to a 'coiled snake'. He said that much of Silver's character is affected by his time in Vietnam, explaining that he clearly suffers from addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder. He described Silver's journey as a 'path of survival' but thought that he is unable to change his path for the better having lived it all his life.

Did You Know?

• The Karate Kid Part III was Thomas Ian Griffith's first film role.
• Griffith was aged 26 when he played Silver, who was a Vietnam War veteran about two decades his senior.
• Silver's signature ponytail is worn in honor of his fellow squadmate Ponytail, who was executed in Vietnam.
• In Cobra Kai, Silver tells Kreese that in the 1980s he was addicted to cocaine, which the creators added to explain his maniacal behavior.
• Griffith likened Silver's fighting style to a 'coiled snake'.