WARNING: SPOILERS ahead for The Madness.
Rodney Kraintz is one of the main antagonists and investors in the biotechnology company Revitalize in Colman Domingo's Netflix conspiracy thriller series. The Madness. Created by playwright Stephen Belber The Laramie Project and Tape acclaim, The Madness follows the quickly unraveled life of Muncie Daniels after discovering a dead body in a remote cabin next door to their rented tree-lined home. Although The Madness Pulls a lot of inspiration from reality, or at least from reality-based people and ideologies found in modern American social and political climates, the Netflix limited series is not based on a true story.
Colman Domingo leads the cast of The Madness alongside John Ortiz, Deon Cole, Marsha Stephanie Blake and Tamsin Topolski. All over The Madness, Muncie is a CNN contributor who believes he is being framed for murder. He must rely on the support of his family and some helpful sources to clear his name. At the end of The MadnessMuncie tries to get revenge on a mysterious shadowy figure named Rodney Kraintz. It connects a dark web between Kraintz, Revitalize, and The Forge, which is an armed extremist group led by the online thought leader known as Brother 14, aka Mark Simon.
Rodney Kraintz is a majority investor in Big-Tech Company Revitalise
He paid Brother 14 to spread propaganda to his extremist followers online
At the end of The MadnessMuncie discovers that Rodney Kraintz is a majority investor in the biotechnology company Revitalize, who ordered the murder of Mark Simon, or Brother 14. Rodney Kraintz became concerned about the growing online influence of Mark Simon, who has amassed over 5 million followers online, and growing interest in politics. Once Simon begins to rebel and becomes less cooperative with Revitalise's agenda, Kraintz begins to see him as a threat and a risk, which is why he kills him. Simon was the leader of an armed white supremacist militant group known as The Forge, which represented Brother 14's target audience.
The Forge doesn't do much in the series until the end, in which a rogue member kills Rodney Kraintz after Muncie misses his opportunity for revenge. Kraintz operates from a mass influence standpoint, which means he probably has several other “Mark Simons” around the world that he and Revitalzie pay to influence public opinion. In Kraintz's opinion, there will always be another Internet puppet to mask purchasable, propaganda-fueled information to satisfy a wealthy party's financial or political interests. Revitalise clearly profited from or benefited from Brother 14's followers and the influence of the far rightuntil Simon went from tool to weapon.
Revitalize is a corrupt environmental biotechnology company that buys political influence
Revitalize seems to be much bigger than any one person
Revitalize is an environmental biotechnology company that has bought political influence and paid online influencers like Brother 14 to spread misinformation and propaganda that would ultimately benefit them. Revitalise's main goal is to gain full control of environmental deregulation in the United Stateswhich is how people like Mark Simon and other online influencers and thought leaders can help sway political and social opinions to your benefit. Mark Simon was never identified on the internet and instead wrote a popular forum under the anonymous username Brother 14. He was not like the common influencers who make videos to sell products and ideas.
For Revitalize, which is likely a huge technology company with a high market capitalization, Mark Simon was just one of potentially thousands of online puppets who accepted his money to disseminate information and promote their political and financial agendas. Although Rodney Kraintz seems to be at the top of Revitalize, he may not be as all-powerful as he seems when Mucnie finally confronts him in the series finale. Like Mark, Rodney only plays a specific role in the dynamic ecosystem of the Revitalize network. Revitalize appears to be much bigger than any one person and is motivated by greed, control, wealth and power.
Revitalize was involved in mass election interference, coercion and murder
The biotechnology company had many more interests than its experience
Many of the details about Revitalize's motivations and strategies are not explored in detail in The Madness. They are essentially intended to be a stand-in for any of the multiple real-life biotech companies that have billions of dollars and enormous influence, especially in the United States. Some of the common goals of real-life environmental biotechnology companies include restoring species and ecosystems, remediating polluted land and water, and other goals centered on recyclable and efficient environmental products. The Madness never really explains how a seemingly good-natured biotech company would benefit to influence far-right policies.
Netflix explains: “Revitalize's assets could sell whatever talking points and policies the company wanted to its millions of followers through content that seemed popular and easier to digest. Revitalize was not just contributing millions to election campaigns, but controlling the entire narrative surrounding America's political dialogue.” This suggests that although Revitalize was superficially interested in the environment, it had hidden political motivations that had nothing to do with its field of expertise. The series also portrays Revitalize as having the immediate resources to hire assassins like Julia Jayne and the men who killed Mark Simon.
Why Rodney Kraintz Tells Muncie He's Just a “Cog in the Machine” at Revitalize
Kraintz is pretty desperate and cynical for a billionaire
When Muncie confronts Kraintz at the end of The MadnessThe silent billionaire investor says there are hundreds of other companies like him and many other companies besides Revitalize that influence elections, buy policies and engage in political corruption. Kraintz is surprisingly unhinged and fearless for someone with a net worth of more than $1 billion. He cynically calls himself a “cog in the machine” despite being in the top 1% of the top 1% as he illustrates to Muncie that his death would mean nothing and cause no change. Revitalise and other companies would continue to use their extreme wealth to subliminally influence the masses.
Fortunately, Muncie moves away from Rodney Kraintz and the dark political web hidden beneath Revitalize's public image. Kraintz's death at the hands of a rogue Forge member implies that they are both only products of the producer-consumer information sharing system that revitalizesand many other companies, get involved. Kraintz is dead and can no longer pay influencers to manipulate target demographics or pay assassins to kill dissidents. The Forge member faces decades, if not life in prison. If it weren't for Muncie still having her family, The Madness it would have a dark ending rooted in the hopelessness of misinformation and political corruption.