Philip J. Fry

Philip J. Fry is the main protagonist and character of Futurama. In the future, Fry (as he is referred to in the show) is the first class delivery boy of Planet Express, which his nephew owns. Before being employed by Planet Express in the year 3000 he had worked for Panucci's Pizza during the late 20th century. On New Year's Eve 1999 he was cryogenically frozen by accident while on delivery. The cryochamber timer was set at 1000 years; hence Fry woke to the last moments of the year 2999.

Description
Philip J. Fry shares the same curse of Matt Groening's other main character,, of being stupid. That, and the mysterious middle "J"-initial. But this is also where the similarities stops. The character of Fry is largely an attempt from the show to make the connection between the 20th century and the 31st century a lot easier for the viewers. Often, Fry will be queried with differences in the future, which he often relates to things in his time. As a result, he often has to defend the actions of the 20th and 21st century.

While stupid, Fry does at times have brilliant schemes to secure the day. Much of this scheming ability possibly comes from his vivid fandom of Star Trek. Fry, only challenged by the energy being of Melllvar, has the largest encyclopaedic knowledge of Star Trek in the future.

Despite being lazy, Fry has the heart in the right place, and when the situation calls for it, he will rise up to formulate a plan to save his friends, even if the plan itself is fairly unpractical and/or stupid. Fry cares about his friends, even despite Bender's awful treatment of him at times, he is still willing at risking his life to save him.

Fry has a soft spot for his co-worker and friend, Turanga Leela, who he often has an eye for, and tries fruitlessly to impress her, selflessly. But unfortunately for the well intentions of Fry, the relationship progresses slowly.

Early years
Philip J. Fry was born in 1974, somewhere in Old New York; the second son of honest hard working Americans. During his formative years, Fry endured a great sibling rivalry with his older brother, Yancy. Yancy constantly stole his ideas and, shortly after Fry was born, even wanted his younger brother's name. Fry also spent of a lot of time playing video games and watching Star Trek. He was never admitted to public school because his parents felt it would be a waste of taxpayer's money.

Fry never made a success of himself, and during his twenties (or late teenage years) he gets a job at Panucci's Pizza as a pizza delivery boy. While working for Mr. Panucci, he meets up with Michelle and they begin a relationship. On a delivery to a prank call in 1997, he meets up with Seymour Asses, a dog he names after the addressee of the prank call delivery. Seymour becomes his best friend.

Cryogenically Frozen - for a Thousand Years
On the fateful night of New Year's Eve, 1999, he was sent on another prank delivery to I. C. Wiener. When he arrived at the destination, Applied Cryogenics, he realized that it was a prank, but since he could not make it back to Panucci's before the new year, he decided to celebrate it where he was. Then, while leaning his chair too far backwards, he fell into a tube, which closed and he is frozen for a thousand years.

On New Year's Eve, 2999, the tube's timer finished and he woke up again. But Fry is not at all afraid about his entire life so far being gone. He is introduced to Leela who is working to assign unfrozen people to jobs, she informs him that he only has one living relative; Professor Farnsworth. But faced with becoming a delivery boy again, Fry flees. While running around New New York, he spots a suicide booth, which he mistakes for a regular phone booth, where he decides to call his nephew.

Inside the suicide booth, Bender gets impatient with Fry's lack of understanding of how the booth works. So he helps him along, at which point Fry realizes what sort of booth he has stepped into. After avoiding getting killed by the booth, he decides to hang out with Bender. After a couple of drinks, Bender suggests he better leave to go kill himself again, but Fry wants him to stay, because he had always wanted a robot for a friend (or at least ever since he was six). But Leela is still on his trail, after being forced by her boss, Ipgee, to continue the pursuit of him.

While escaping her through the Head Museum and running into the ruins of Old New York, Leela finally catches up with them. But to Fry's surprise, she decides to quit her job instead of forcing the job upon to him. Fry suggests they go to his nephew and see if he can help them. And after confirming his and Fry's relation, he wishes to hire them as a replacement for his old crew.

Planet Express Delivery Boy, First Class
Fry is hired on his nephew's company as a delivery boy. Being faced with the ability to travel around space, Fry is pleased with his new position. At first Fry lives at the Planet Express, but after an apartment hunt he ends up living in Bender's closet. But Fry immediately gets an interest in Leela. But to his dismay, the feelings are not mutual.

His work at Planet Express gets him thrown into a lot of absurd adventures, he is briefly in a relationship with Amy Wong, and while the company's bureaucrat, Hermes Conrad, is away, he had an affair with the company's replacement bureaucrat, Morgan Proctor. Neither lasting very long, but when he almost destroys the Planet Express building, Hermes fire him, Bender and Leela, he gets Leela's former job by accident he founds his girlfriend Michelle unfrozen. But when she does not feel comfortable in the future, she asks him to come with him to year 4000. After they wake up and realising that they were actually just in Los Angeles two days later, she dumps him in favour of Pauly Shore.

On a truck stop he eats a bad egg sandwich, so he gets infected with parasites. The worms gives him a complete tune up, and he both becomes stronger, smarter, and he is capable of impressing Leela with the Holophonor, but Fry fears that Leela has falling in love with the worms rather than him, so he decides to get rid of them. And he appears to be right, she immediately asks him to leave.

The most important person in the universe
At some point the Brain Spawn attack Earth, and in its progress it makes all humans stupid or stupider. Fry however is immune to this as he lacks a certain Delta brain wave. The Nibblonians inform Leela of how to save him, but just as she convince him that the brains are evil, he runs to the library where he meets and battles the Big Brain. Fry beats the Big Brain, and when everyone is back to normal, no one has any memory of his actions and just thinks he is crazy.

While the Planet Express crew are watching a supernova about to explode, Fry puts some metal into a microwave in the ship, which causes them to be thrown back in time to 1947 and they manage to crash land in Roswell, New Mexico. During this trip he kills his (supposed) grandfather and meets his grandmother, but after a night with her it becomes obvious that himself is his grandfather.

But the Nibblonians call for his help again and the Brain Spawn have begun collecting all information in the universe, and would then destroy it. The Nibblonians explain that due to his "past-nastification" he lacks the Delta brain wave. It is revealed to him inside the Infosphere that it was Nibbler who made him fall into the tube and original come to the future. But Fry's love for Leela makes him accept it. And in a second attempt, he destroys the Infosphere and the universe is saved.

A deal with the devil
During more events with his crew members, he wound up in a parallel universe where he and Leela is married, he gets his nose cut off, he writes a love note to Leela by moving the stars themselves, he gets in a relationship with Lucy Liu-bot, he becomes the vice chairman of the company during a takeover, the emperor of Trisol and much more.

But his passion and number one thing he always wanted still remains unexplored. He thinks back to when had the worms, and when he could play the Holophonor to impress Leela. Bender suggests that he should make a deal with the Robot Devil, and in an (to the Robot Devil at least) appalling ironic outcome, he gets the Robot Devil's hands. He can play the Holophonor now, and he becomes a famous musician, performing many classical numbers.

Hedonism Bot hires him to write an opera, Fry decides to write it about Leela. And after the first act of the opera, it is already deemed best opera of all time. But meanwhile the Robot Devil is plotting against Fry to get his hands back, because the Robot Devil is getting tired of Fry's hands. And so in the final act, the Robot Devil interrupts the opera and demands his hands back. Fry refuses, and the Robot Devil explains that if so, he will marry Leela for which she has signed (unknowingly for her though). Fry realises that this ultimatum only has one solution, to let Leela go and give up the Robot Devil's hands. And since he cannot play any more, the opera is credited as sucking.

Years of absences
Planet Express' delivery license is revoked by the Box Network, forcing the Professor to terminate his employees. But by the time the Professor gets around to telling them (two years later), their license is restored after a change in management at the Box Network&mdash;they are back in business. Fry becomes a centre of attention as a tattoo on his rear contains the secret to time travel; when Alien Scammers (led by Nudar) take over the business, they find the machine language time code on his butt. Bender is ordered back in time to steal all of Earth's valuables from the past. But Fry is more upset that Lars Fillmore is getting a chance with Leela.

The scammers feel it best to be rid of the time code once they finally become anxious that the universe will be destroyed. Utilising a mirror, Fry manages to read the code off his butt and escapes back to January 1st, 2000. Here he attempts to get some food from Mr. Panucci, but since he has no money from that era he cannot, except the pizza he delivered to I. C. Wiener, it is here he decides to travel back an hour when the pizza was warm. His time paradox duplicate refuses to do the same thing and walks off. But Fry himself manages to end up inside the same tube he was originally frozen in. When his frozen self wakes up, he closes the tube after him and leaves the timer for 7.95 years to wake up again appropriate to when he had left.

Luckily for him, Lars Fillmore calls off the wedding, and while he is unable to get Leela's attention, at least he and she won't be dating any more. And after having Hermes and Bender save the Earth, he decides on New Year's Eve of 3007, that Lars and Leela belong together. But here it is revealed that Lars is the exact same time paradox duplicated he left at Applied Cryogenics.

Pope of new religion
After a brief relationship with Colleen, he left through the anomaly and met Yivo, they developed a relationship and Yivo took control of everyone in Universe Gamma (this universe) through tentacles in their necks. The brainwashed people joined Yivo's religion, with Fry as their new pope. Eventually they found out that the tentacles in their necks were "genticles" and that Yivo was mating with them. The religion was immediately abandoned.

Saving the universe... again
In 3009, Fry was needed by the Mad people to help defeat the final Dark One and stop it from wiping out all life in the entire universe. Because he lacked the delta brain wave, his mind could not be read, and due to an accident he could temporarily read minds. With all of creation on his shoulders, he found the Dark One by chance after believing himself to be it. However the Dark One was only a small leach, the Violet Dwarf System became the final Encyclopod which gave the once extinct plants and animals to the universe and easily destroyed the last Dark One and Zoidberg then ate it. Fry and the whole Planet Express crew flew into a wormhole, after Fry and Leela expressed their true love for each other and kissed.

Name
Outside the show Fry was called Philip after Phil Hartman, who was to play Zapp Brannigan. Fry was originally named Curtis. Within the show Fry was named Philip by his father after Phillips screwdrivers. The J. is used in many of Matt Groening's characters including Homer J. Simpson, Bartholomew J. Simpson and Mona J. Simpson, and is a tribute to Jay Ward, the co-creator of Bullwinkle J. Moose. The trend is also followed by Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, and his clone, Cubert Farnsworth However it is never said what their middle names are.

Family
Fry's family tree is a bit convoluted, due in part to the reuse of common names, but mostly because Fry went back in time and became his own grandpa (3ACV19).
 * Professor Farnsworth, Fry's many-times-great-nephew and at the same time many-times-grandson.
 * Cubert Farnsworth, Hubert Farnsworth's clone.
 * Yancy Fry, Jr., Fry's older brother and grandson.
 * Philip J. Fry, Fry's Nephew (and great grandson), named in Fry's memory.
 * Yancy and Mrs. Fry, parents (Yancy is also technically Fry's son, and is also his own grandfather)
 * Enos Fry, assumed paternal grandfather, actually unrelated.
 * Seymour, his dog in the 20th century.
 * Turanga Leela, ex-wife.
 * Mildred Fry, paternal grandmother.
 * Mr and Mrs. Gleisner, maternal grandparents.
 * Igner, many-times great nephew.
 * Lars Fillmore, time paradox duplicate.
 * Yivo, ex-spouse.

Age
Fry was frozen at age 25 for 1000 years making him 1025. Then 4 years later at age 1029 chronologically, was youthisized to age 14, reverse-aged to near unbirth, then re-aged, supposedly to his correct biological age, 29, in the fountain of aging (4ACV09). 4 years later at age 33 he went back in time and was frozen yet again for 1007.95 years making him 2040 but still biologically only 33. Based on Leela's speculation there is a chance after the fountain of aging he is less than 30: the professor never scans them with his age detector. After the events of the fourth movie he is about 2041 years old.

Lars Fillmore
In Bender's Big Score, he has a duplicate that hangs out in Old New York with Leelu and everyone. He was thought to be killed by an explosion caused by an obedience virus controlled Bender, but it actually burns off his hair and damages his voice box, turning him into Lars Fillmore.

Production
The character of Fry was intended as the viewer's representation in the future, with the future being presented to the audience through Fry's eyes. Fry was originally intended to have a Pocket Pal with him to explain the future for him, though that idea was scrapped with the future being described through the events the occurred around him. Fry's jacket is based on 's outfit in .

The story of his brother, Yancy Fry, was not an original idea from the beginning of the series, but at the same time, they avoided specifying Fry's siblings.

Trivia

 * Probably the greatest Star Trek fan still alive, with the possible exception of Melllvar.
 * Tried to make out with a radiator once. And succeeded.
 * Used to drink 100 cans of cola a week back in school, right until his third heart attack.
 * Probably sterilized by the F-Ray, if only temporarily. Speculation leads us to believe that when Fry was infected with worms, he was unsterilized. Also, later in the series, he managed to impregnate his grandmother, confirming his ability to have children.
 * Addicted to Slurm.
 * Usually is the first character to declare something as "dead", although he has no medical experience.
 * Once ate a big heaping bowl of salt.
 * Is a slob.
 * Briefly achieved a higher state of existence after consuming 100 cups of coffee.
 * Temporarily became convinced he was a robot as a survival mechanism after being admitted to a robot insane asylum.
 * Used to find "edible mushrooms" on his bathmat.
 * Tried to swap his lungs for gills, and would have succeeded were it not for Leela stopping him.
 * Great at video games, but bad at most other things.
 * Possesses creative musical talent, but lacks the ability to physically express it.
 * Once possessed a lucky seven leaf clover.
 * Very impulsive, he has been known to eat food off his head, dance the hustle for days on end, and place his head in craters, to name a few.
 * Dropout of Mars University and Coney Island Community College.
 * Loves anchovies.
 * The pin number for his Big Apple Bank account is 1077 (the price of a cheese pizza and a large of Soda at Panucci's Pizza)
 * Destroyed the Hubble Telescope in an epic space battle.
 * Cannot swim, or at least not in Slurm, or in Royal Jelly (as far as he knows).
 * Has no problems in dealing with robots and aliens, may even be a xenophile.
 * Was almost snu-snued to death.
 * Became his own grandfather after inadvertently getting his original one killed in a 1947 atomic bomb test.
 * Was once the Planet Express Ship Captain, but was extremely incompetent.
 * Has stupid fingers, which prevents him from playing the Holophonor properly without outside help.
 * Has had his right arm, leg, head, hands and nose removed (In his hands case, twice.)
 * Was briefly employed at Applied Cryogenics.
 * Very occasionally has flashes of profound insight, but instantly reverts to his usual self and forgets whatever it was he thought of.
 * His favorite song is "Walking on Sunshine" by, though he can only sing the first line of the chorus.
 * His cellphone/telephone's ringtone is also this tune.
 * He, along with Leela and Bender, appears in all episodes of the series.
 * Had nose stolen by gray, big headed, human poachers.
 * Almost had his "wing dang doodle" cut off.
 * Is the Most Important Person in the Universe. This may also be true of his parallel self in the Parallel Cowboy Universe.
 * According to the events of Sideshow Fry, Fry has an outie belly button, but in every other episode that his stomach is seen, he doesn't have this.
 * His stool type is P-negative. His social security number is 03280810.
 * Became Frydo in.
 * Along with Farnsworth, his facial hair is brown despite his hair being red.
 * Holds the title of "Universe's #4307697 Delivery Boy", according to his mug, as seen in "The Cryonic Woman".

Relationships

 * Leela (see Fry-Leela relationship for more info)
 * Colleen
 * 21st Century Girl
 * Morgan Proctor
 * Michelle
 * Ornik (snu-snued by)
 * Petunia
 * Amy (see Fry-Amy relationship for more info)
 * Radiator
 * Yivo

Quotes
Fry:Well I had more but, you go ahead.
 * Fry: No I'm... doesn't!
 * Fry: Bender! Have you seen my Sombrero?
 * Fry: People said I was dumb, but I proved them.
 * Fry: That's the saltiest thing I've ever tasted. And I once ate a big, heaping bowl of salt!
 * Fry: Leela, let's turn back. There is absolutely no shame in wussing out.
 * Fry: Did everything just taste purple for a second?
 * Fry: I did do the nasty in the past-y.
 * Fry: OW! My sperm!
 * Leela: Now, if you're all finished being stupid...
 * Fry: I'll be whatever I wanna do.
 * Fry: I'm literally angry with rage!

Appearances
While Fry appears in every episode/film/comic, these categories may be of interest:


 * A plots focusing on Fry
 * B plots focusing on Fry