Captain Rochefort (The Three Musketeers)

"You know what your problem is, boy? You read to many books and then you believed them. Courage, Honor, "All for one"... But history isn't written by heroes, it's written by victors!"

- Rochefort to D'Artagnan

"D'Artagnan: "Are you scared to take me in a fair fight?" Rochefort: "Hardly! I just don't fight fair!""

- Rochefort and D'Artagnan before their last fight

Rochefort is the secondary antagonist in the 2011 adaptation of The Three Musketeers, alongside Milady de Winter. He is the captain of Cardinal Richelieu's guard and an enemy of the musketeers.

He is portrayed by Mads Mikkelsen who also portrayed Le Chiffre and Hannibal Lector

Antagonizing D'Artagnan
After Milady de Winter has betrayed the musketeers in Venice and stolen blueprints of Da Vinci's war machine from them, Cardinal Richelieu sends Rochefort,Jussac and guards to escort her safely back to Paris.

D'Artagnan first meets Ro

chefort at a tavern at the countryside outside of Paris, where Rochefort drinks with his soldiers. When D'Artagnan climbs off his horse, Rochefort tells his men that he almost thought D' Artagnan were a girl and insults his horse Buttercup. D'Artagnan arrogantly walks up to Rochefort and asks him to apologize to the horse. Rochefort asks D'Artagnan what would happen if he refused, to which D'Artagnan replies that he'd kill him. D'Artagnan challenges Rochefort to a duel and walks to a free place a few feet away, but when he turns Rochefort shoots him in the shoulder with a pistol. On the ground, D'Artagnan is held by two of Rochefort's men while Rochefort observes the flesh wound and wonder's why D'Artagnan is not dead. He deduces that the sight of the pistol is off and knocks down the soldier responsible for taking care of his pistols. As he doesn't want to dirty his blade with peasant blood, Rochefort plans to cut out an eye of D'Artagnan as a lesson but is stopped when Milady de Winter passes them in a carriage and stops Rochefort because D'Artagnan is too pretty. De Winter tells Rochefort to come along as they are awaited in Paris and the captain and his men leave with de Winter.

Against the musketeers
D'Artagnan follows Rochefort to Paris but on his way encounter Arthos, Aramis and Porthos seperately, all of whom he crosses and challenges to a duel. After these disturbances he loses Rochefort.

While meeting with the musketeers for their duel, they are disturbed by the arrival of the Cardinal's guards as well as Rochefort and his men. After the four of them defeat many of the cardinals men, Rochefort tells the guards to finish them off and leaves with his men.

When the musketeers and D'Artagnan are visited by the Queen's handmaiden Constance and asked to travel to England to return the Queen's jewels to her, they are interrupted by Rochefort, who has followed Constance and has arrived at the musketeer's house with the cardinal guard. Rochefort states that if they come out without weapons and turn themselves in, no harm will come to them but orders his men to kill the musketeers on sight. However, the musketeers escape, leaving their house on horseback and ride off while being shot by the guards. Rochefort then returns to Richelieu, who reprimands him for his failure. He then tells Rochefort to alert Milady and put a bounty on the musketeers heads. He also tells Rochefort to not fail him again.

Rochefort then sends soldiers to capture the musketeers once they arrive at England but they are fooled by the Queen's handmaiden Constance, who wears D'Artagnan's cloak and hat to lure the soldiers away. Constance is captured by Rochefort and brought before Richelieu, to use her as leverage on the musketeers.

Ambushing the musketeers
"You never learn, do you? FIRE!"

- Rochefort opens fire onto the musketeer ship after parlaying with D'Artagnan

While the musketeers return from London, they are attacked by a far larger airship, commandeered by Rochefort. After getting the attention of the musketeers, he calls for peace, telling them that no one needs to die as long as the diamonds are handed to him. Furthermore, the musketeers can't shoot at his ship because Constance is on board whereas he can shoot the smaller airship easily. D'Artagnan agrees to come over with the diamonds as soon as Constance has arrived on their ship safely. A gangbridge is pulled between the two ships and Rochefort lets Constance walk over it, but when D'Artagnan arrives at his ship, he has his men knock him out. Stating that D'Artagnan never learns he gives the order to destroy the musketeer's airship. The musketeers evade Rochefort by steering the ship into a thunderstorm, where they are able to hide in the stormclouds. Rochefort shoots his captain when the man refuses to follow the musketeers into the storm, then his vessel follows them. D'Artagnan, who has been brought on deck to see his friends die, has a chance to escape Rochefort when the ship is hit by lightning, temporarily dropping all aboard to the floor.

Final fight and death
Rochefort follows D'Artagnan inside the ship, grabbing two pistols on the way. He catches up to the boy, cornerrs him but instead of swiftly killing him, lectures him for his failures. When the musketeers, who have snuck behind Rochefort's ship in the storm, attack from above, Rochefort's ship crashes into the Cathedral Notre Dame, knocking the Captain off his feet as he is just about to shoot D'Artagnan. To keep the airship immobilized the musketeers steer their airship into Rochefort's, permanently impaling it onto the cathedral's tower. Rochefort gets back up after the crash and leaves the wreckage by jumping onto the cathedral's roof. He tries to leave the scene but D'Artagnan uses a rope to jump off the ship and swing into Rochefort's way. Rochefort tells him that he still has the diamonds and asks D'Artagnan what he plans to do against that. D'Artagnan answers that he'll kill Rochefort to which the captain replies by drawing his sword. Their long awaited duel begins when Rochefort and D'Artagnan fight on the rooftop of the cathedral. D'Artagnan is almost immediately cut and almost killed multiple times. During the fight, Rochefort draws a second sword, eventually overpowering D'Artagnan and showing him onto the lower part of the roof. Rochefort disarms D'Artagnan, lunging the musketeer's sword into the air, and holds his swort at D'Artagnan's throat. He tells the boy that he should have stayed in Gascogne, refering to their first meeting, but D'Artagnan catches his falling sword, states that Rochefort should have apologized to this horse before ramming his sword between the Captain's ribs. As Rochefort is dying, D'Artagnan grabs the necklace off his belt before the Captain's lifeless body falls off the side of the cathedral.