Anthony Brewer is a main character in Goosebumps: The Vanishing. He is portrayed by David Schwimmer. A younger version of the character is portrayed by Patrick Scott McDermott.
Anthony is a world-class former botanist who has immersed himself in science following the mysterious loss of his teenage brother. As a divorced parent of teenage twins, Devin and Cece, Anthony’s world takes a tumultuous turn as he juggles the responsibilities of overseeing an aging parent while having his kids for the summer.
History[]
In 1994, Anthony's father bought him a camera to record his botany experiments. His brother, Matty asked to borrow it for a school project. When Anthony found out that Matty was planning to go to Fort Jerome, he tried to stop him. Matty decided to go anywhere, so Anthony followed them there. When Matty discovered Anthony, he forced him to leave, saying their mom would blame him for Anthony being there. That night, Matty and his friends went missing and were never seen again.[3]
In 2024, a now-grown Anthony was excited because his children were coming to stay with him for the summer because their aunt was having brain surgery. He picked them up from the subway station, despite it being only a short distance from his home, which had been his mother's house until he had to put her in a nursing home due to progressive dementia. When they got there, he honked because Trey had parked in his driveway again, something Anthony's mother, Naomi, had allowed him to do. They argued about it and Anthony said he didn't want to have to talk to Trey's dad about it. Then they went inside, where Anthony gave his kids informational packets with a list of rules and said he had only one rule aside from those: stay out of the basement. He took them down there to show them it was full of plants, then decided to take them out to dinner to celebrate. They went to Gwendolyn's and Anthony asked Devin about getting suspended for fighting. Devin said it wasn't a big deal because the other guy started it.
As they were leaving Gwendolyn's, they ran into C.J. Lewis, the child of the owners who also worked as a delivery driver. After Anthony introduced them, C.J. invited Cece and Devin to come to the park the next day to hang out with some friends.
When they got home, Anthony saw Jen Diaz parked out front and went to see her. She told him that Joe Jr., Trey's dad, had filed a harassment complaint against him on Trey's behalf because of the disagreement over the parking space because Trey was previously allowed to park there. She promised him she'd talk to Joe Jr. and smooth things over. Then she told him she pulled some strings and got his brother's belongings released and she gave him a bag, which he told his kids held his brother's clothes from the night he died.
Anthony took the bag down to the basement and put it on his desk.
The next morning, Anthony made waffled, but he burned them and his kids refused to eat them.
The morning after that, Anthony told Devin and Cece that their grandmother had had a rough night, so he needed to go over to the nursing home to see her. He asked the kids to go with him, but Cece couldn't because of her debate camp, so he took Devin. Naomi was agitated and saying that Matty couldn't have drowned because he was a strong swimmer. Anthony was able to calm her down with some deep breathing. Then he stepped away to talk to the doctor, who explained that it was normal for people with dementia to get agitated more as the disease progressed. He said he wanted to run more tests and asked Anthony to stick around.
By the time Devin and Anthony got home, Devin said he was starving, so Anthony told him to order whatever he wanted while he went down to the basement.
In the basement, Anthony opened the bag of Matty's clothes. He found a Beastie Boys hoody with a mysteries substance on it. He scrapped some into a petri dish and looked at it under the microscope. He was startled when it formed fibers, which then broke apart. A plant on a nearby shelf then grew toward the petri dish. When Anthony grabbed the dish, it wrapped around his hands and dragged him around the floor. When he heard Devin knocking, he told him not to come into the basement. Finally, the plant released Anthony's hands and he saw that the petri dish was empty. Anthony looked at his arm and hand and saw that he had marks all over them.[1]
Anthony fell asleep on his desk and woke to a stem growing out of his arm through the bandage. When he removed the bandage, he saw several more. He turned on his camera and started to document it. Then his arm bulged and he used scissors to cut into it. He used a gardening fork to remove the bulb that had emerged and put it under a dome. He sent a sample to Patti for analysis.
He later talked to Patti, who told him it wasn't a plant, but a carnivorous animal. He told her about the night his brother was alleged to have died and explained his doubts about it then said the matter on his brother's hoodie had grown the bulb.
Anthony went to the pet store and bought some mice. When he came home, he was irritated to find Trey again parked in his driveway. When Trey didn't immediately move it, Anthony took a shovel and broke one of his windows. Trey then said he'd move it to prevent Anthony from breaking another. Then Anthony went inside and fed one of the mice he'd purchased to the creature, which immediately grew. He knew he'd need more meat, so he put the creature into the chest freezer and went to the butcher, where he bought a goat.
When Anthony came home with the goat, he saw that the basement door was open, so he dropped it in the living room and raced downstairs. He went to the freezer, where he found the creature gone and Trey's clothes in its place. He talked to Patti, who said the creature might be a new species and she wanted him to bring it in to confirm. When Anthony heard Cece coming down the stairs, he warned her not to come into the basement.[4]
The next morning, Anthony cleaned up the mess around and in the basement and asked his kids if they'd seen Trey. When Cece told him that Devin believed he'd been dragged into the sewer, but only had spotty memories of it, Anthony asked if Devin had been in the basement. Anthony called Jen and reported the break-in. He told her Trey had stolen something, but refused to tell her what it was. They went to Trey's dad's garage, but Joe Jr. hadn't seen Trey and learned that Frankie hadn't either, which worried him. Jen then took Anthony back to the station so he could make a formal report. Anthony told her that Trey had disappeared, leaving only his clothes behind, and suggested it was connected to Matty's disappearance. Jen didn't believe they were connected, upsetting Anthony, who left.
When Anthony got home, he saw that the manhole cover in the road was slightly off, so he went down into the sewer and looked around. He collected a vine and took it back to the basement. He recorded himself cutting into it, revealing there was black goo inside. He put some in a petri dish and noticed that it seemed to be moving in a particular direction. Believing it was moving toward the bulb, he followed it and it took him to Fort Jerome, where he found Trey. He wrapped Trey in a blanket and led him back to the car and then he called Jen to tell him he'd found Trey and he was right about it happening again.[5]
Anthony went to the hospital to see Trey. When Jen saw him there, she told him to leave because Joe Jr. would kill him if he saw him there. Anthony insisted on going with Jen to question Trey, but Trey was not responding to anyone or anything. Ramona Pamani, pretending to be Trey's doctor, told them it might even be years before he could talk to them. Anthony pretended to leave with Jen, but stayed and pulled out the petri dish. It wasn't drawn to Trey, so Anthony went outside, where it started to move toward something. He looked in that direct and saw Ramona getting into a car.
Later that night, Anthony put on a protective suit and went back to Fort Jerome.[6] He found a panel that wasn't there in 1994 and found a switch that opened a hole in the floor. When he looked down, a gust came up from it. Anthony quickly closed it and left. The next morning, Anthony woke very late and saw he had a text message from Devin saying he and Cece were spending the night at Frankie's. He also had a cold. He called Gwendolyn's and ordered a large bowl of chicken soup. When C.J. delivered it, Anthony invited him inside and horrified C.J. when his eyeball popped out. Anthony quickly learned he could pop the eye back in and it was good as new. C.J. returned soon after with his mother and he acted as if nothing had happened. But when C.J. returned to the restaurant, Anthony called and promised to explain if C.J. would come over. When C.J. arrived, Anthony pulled him inside and tied him up in the basement. He tried to get C.J. to drink some black goo. They were interrupted when Jen came over. She had a tape from the night Matty and the others went missing that she'd been keeping for years. Anthony was angry with her for keeping it from him and ordered her to leave. Then he went back to the basement to try to get C.J. to drink the goo. C.J. tackled him and tried to escape, but Anthony was able to grab him. However, before he could get the black goo in C.J.'s mouth, Trey, Cece, and Frankie arrived and Trey hit him with a bat, knocking his head off. He told them they could still join him, but they all ran upstairs in horror. Anthony's head remained on the floor until Ramona Pamani came and put it in a bag. He told her she could stop what was coming, but she said she could stop him.[2]
Anthony woke up on a table next to some limbs. He watched as Ramona used a device on them that melted them into black goo. Then she used the same device on his head.[3] Anthony next woke up in a room that looked like his lab, but when he tried to leave, he found an invisible barrier keeping him from leaving. When goo started coming up through a drain, Anthony tried to get away from it.[7]
Anthony woke up when his kids injected his pod with the serum from Ramona. When he was finally aware of their surroundings, they explained that they were trapped. He wanted to take Matty back with him, but they didn't have enough serum, as they'd used their only dose on him. Anthony thought about it and decided to disable the ship to allow the teens to get through the main room unscathed. To open the hatch, they needed Trey to cut the power. Anthony put on a protective suit and injected the ship with the serum, allowing the kids to get out. He had to stay until they were through as the connection broke. After they were gone, he freed Matty and his friends and brought them to the hatch, where they got out just before a backup generator powered up and closed the hatch. Then Jen came in and screamed when she saw Matty.
They took everyone back to Anthony's, where Jen struggled to accept that she'd seen. She wanted to go to the authorities, but Anthony worried they'd take Matty away. Anthony said Ramona was the only person who would know what to do, so they went to her place. They found her working on her father, who had been in a pod like Matty and the others. He told Ramona he'd made a mistake and she needed to let it go. Then he coughed up a pod that encased him and turned him into a critter that attacked Jen and Anthony until Jen shot it with the serum gun. Jen took the gun with her and they went back to Anthony's place, as they realize the 1994 teens would do the same thing, putting their kids in danger. They arrived to find the kids already gone. Anthony realized they needed to release the ship to neutralize the threat. They went back to Fort Jerome and opened the floor, allowing the ship to leave. As it did, the critters all dissolved into it. The 1994 teens and the scientists all went with the aliens back to space while the 2024 teens were left unharmed.
At the end of summer, Anthony prepared to take the kids to meet their mom. He was in a hurry because he wanted to take them to his favorite ice cream shop first, but didn't want to be late.[8]
General Information[]
Personality[]
Physical appearance[]
Trivia[]
Anthony is based on Dr. Michael Brewer from Stay Out of the Basement.
