William Boone

"So, you've returned to seal your fate, have you?"

- Boone planning to kill Mowgli. "Good. I like to bag me a tiger."

- Boone planning to kill Shere Khan.

William Boone is the main antagonist of the 1994 live action Disney film, Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, based on the 1967 animated film, The Jungle Book. He is a corrupt British captain and hunter bent on enriching himself, even willing to resort to treason against his commanding officers.

He was portrayed by Cary Elwes, who also played Lawrence Gordon in the Saw film franchise, and Sir Edgar in Ella Enchanted.

Personality
When he first appears, Boone is shown to be a more sophisticated and intelligent soldier who is in genuinely in love with Kitty. However, when Mowgli enters into the picture, he is shown to be cruel, scheming, manipulative, deceitful, and insane, as he plots to have Mowgli lead him into the lost city inside the jungle to seek out its treasure through torturing and persuasion. He is also a very treacherous, murderous, greedy, and violent poacher who enjoys hunting down animals as trophies for his own pleasure rather than doing so to eat; he even planned to hunt down Shere Khan for his own skin, much to the objections of his fellow bandits.

These traits are what led Kitty to dump him in disgust, but despite this, Boone remains focused on finding the treasure, even conspiring with his fellow bandits to commit treachery and murder on his commanding and authoritative officers. Boone even couldn't care less of his fellow conspirators, as shown when one of his men Sergeant Harley drowned in quicksand (despite Wilkins' attempts to save Harley), he replied, "Well... let's not get discouraged by every little thing.".

History
Boone was one of Colonel Geoffrey Brydon's most loyal soldiers in the British Army and a skilled hunter who was doing an expedition with the rest of the troops in India. He is first seen talking to Kitty (Colonel Brydon's daughter), trying to advance himself on her and giving a tiger growl. Suddenly Mowgli (a missing boy who was raised by wolves) appears, thinking that he is attacking Kitty and knocks him aside. Boone is furious and challenges him to a fist fight, but is amazed by the jungle man's agility and ends up being pushed into the river.

He calls his three fellow soldiers that has Lieutenant Wilkins amongst them, only for the first two to get tossed into the river as well. Boone orders Wilkins to shoot him, but the soldier hesitates with Kitty assuring him that Mowgli is harmless. Suddenly, Baloo the bear and Bagheera the panther appear while roaring and all the other soldiers flee for their lives with Wilkins accidentally shooting Mowgli on the right arm and Boone still in the river looking with hatred at his new enemy.

Later, he bursts in with Wilkins after seeing Mowgli in the Indian village speaking to Kitty. He refuses to listen to Kitty that Mowgli is harmless and goes with his men to capture him. Mowgli tries to elude the soldiers by having a merchant drop beads for them to slip on, making them walk on hot coals, and finally, climbs up a rope through an Indian rope trick to safety but ends up being knocked out by another one of Boone's cronies named Buldeo, (Colonel Brydon's former companion and a hunter) who gives Boone a jeweled dagger that he found on Mowgli's person.

Boone has Mowgli arrested for "attempting to kill" Kitty plus (as Boone believes) stealing a dagger from "some rich Maharaja", and with Wilkins and Sergeant Harley, they deduce that the dagger may be the key to more riches, so they torture Mowgli, but the jungle man fights back, so they place him in the palace dungeon.

Colonel Brydon suddenly appears and demands to know what is going on. Boone explains that they have caught the trespasser, but his Colonel strongly disagrees with his brutality. After Brydon tries to talk to him in English and Hindi, Boone says that he hasn't said a word since he was brought in here, but intends to deal with this situation himself so Brydon leaves his captive in Boone's charge, who inconspicuously allows Harley to torture him again.

Later, Kitty comes down to the dungeon and tells him that they will try to make Mowgli speak and understand the ways of man again, Boone disagrees stating that he is a vicious and uncivilized savage. Kitty shows her disapproval to the way he treated Mowgli, but the rogue tells her that he did it to himself. He watches Kitty hold onto Mowgli's hand as sign of telling him that she is here to help him. Wilkins tells Boone that if he can learn to talk, then he can be forced to give them the information they need. As Kitty spends more time with Mowgli, Boone becomes more jealous and impatient to ask Mowgli about his dagger's location.

Later during an Indian celebration, he and Wilkins approach Buldeo and his friend Tabaqui, who tell him that the dagger comes from a lost mythical city called Hanuman filled with piles of treasure and says that many have found the city and never returned. Boone is convinced that if Mowgli is there to show them the way, the riches would be theirs for the taking.

Next morning, Boone goes to see Kitty who is looking over a portrait of King Louis of France with Mowgli. He asks how the lessons are going and is annoyed by the way Mowgli keeps copying the way he crosses his legs.

After going for a stroll outside with Kitty, Boone proposes to her and she accepts. He then tells her that he will give Mowgli a tour of the palace. He shows Mowgli his weapons for killing animals and asks him where he got the dagger. Mowgli tells him that he retrieved it from Monkey City where there are mountains of treasure. Boone's greedy eyes light up and asks the jungle boy to take him to this city, but Mowgli refuses after seeing the heads and stuffed corpses of animals Boone had previously killed and says that he doesn't keep the jungle law by killing animals for enjoyment and hatred. Boone mocks this lecture and swears one day that he will hunt down Mowgli for his refusal.

That night, at a dinner party, Boone continues to show his dislike of Mowgli by making fun of him and after Brydon announces his engagement to Kitty, his men cruelly push him and knock him into one of the food tables. After this display of ill treatment and Boone calling Mowgli a "savage" and a "puerile Jungle Boy", Kitty breaks off her engagement to him and decides to return to England.

Boone decides to take matters into his own hands and use force to get to the treasure. He decides to capture Mowgli so they can get to the treasure but this fails after they are intervened by Baloo, whom Boone and Wilkins wound with gunshots. Boone then sends some Indian bandits to ambush Kitty and her father, resulting the deaths of many officers who were escorting the two.

Boone is waiting with Wilkins and Harley near another area of the jungle and is annoyed that they have captured the Colonel as well. Mowgli comes to rescue them and Boone tells him that unless he takes them to the treasure, Kitty and her father will be killed. Mowgli agrees to take them to Monkey City, but warns them that they will not survive.

After Mowgli is captured by the evil British soldiers and the remaining Indian bandits, Boone and everyone else are being watched by Bagheera and the wolf pack as they begin their treasure quest while Bagheera stares at Boone and Wilkins mostly. When Wilkins asks himself why Bagheera is staring at them, Mowgli replies, "Because to him, you are food." A reply is hinted afterwards when Bagheera sticks out his tongue to show his hunger for them.

That night, Boone asks Mowgli for directions to the city, ignoring the fact that Brydon is dying from his injuries and that the deadly tiger Shere Khan is on the loose, since Khan distrusts humans for their killing of sport rather than food. Despite Boone stating that he would just kill Shere Khan for his skin (much to the objections of Buldeo, who is aware of Shere Khan's power over the jungle), Mowgli tells Boone to follow the mountains and if he is still alive, he will tell him more.

Next morning, Mowgli escapes with the aid of Bagheera, Harley is the first to wake up and chase after him, but ends up drowning in quicksand. Showing no concern over the loss of Harley, Boone orders his men continue, ignoring Kitty's pleas not to leave her father. But as they go through the jungle, they see a sign on the ground left by Mowgli that the Colonel is safe and that he's heading back to the village for help, much to Kitty's relief. Tabaqui goes on ahead of them and finds Mowgli on top of a huge cliff, Boone and his men watch the two fight ending with Tabaqui trying to use a huge boulder to crush him, but Mowgli kicks him and he falls over the edge of the cliff to his death.

Now there is only Boone, Wilkins, Buldeo, and Kitty left, Boone spots Mowgli and orders his remaining men to shoot him, but Mowgli leaps off the cliff and lands safely in the water. They finally reach Monkey City and suddenly hear Shere Khan. Wilkins gets separated from the group and ends up being chased and mauled to death by the dangerous tiger after having accidentally shot Buldeo on the leg when frightened by Shere Khan's growls. Boone hears Wilkins' screams and calls to him, but there is no answer. He hears a silent chuckle from Kitty and tells her that she could die too, but she assures him that Mowgli won't let her die. Now there is only him, her, and Buldeo left.

Taking Kitty roughly by the hand, he goes on and spots Mowgli telling him to follow King Louie, the orangutan king of the Bandar Log. He angrily shoots at him and goes into a corridor that lights up when he lights a match to the liquid candles in the room. Buldeo tries to kill Mowgli while Boone is still holding Kitty, but while chasing him inside a crypt, he accidentally sets off a booby trap that fills it with sand and buries him alive, while Mowgli escapes.

Boone, after receiving no answer from Buldeo, spots Mowgli and proceeds to shoot him again, but Kitty stops him; sending them plummeting down into the treasure cavern. Boone picks himself up and is amazed by all the mountains of treasure shown, realizing that Mowgli was right. He laughs greedily to himself and suddenly hears Mowgli and aims his sword at him, deciding that he has no further use for him. They engage in a fierce sword fight, but Mowgli wins and severely injures the evil soldier on the right arm with a dagger.

Kitty suddenly wakes up from her fall. Boone tries to make up with her by offering the wealthy life they would live together, but after seeing his greed and insanity, she refuses and escapes with Mowgli. Boone shouts after her that he doesn't need her anymore and starts gathering the treasure himself, only to notice the primates have become silent. Kaa, the deadly python and King Louie's treasure guardian, suddenly appears and scares Boone into falling into the water below them. While Boone is dragged underwater by the weight of the treasure in his backpack, he notices a few skeletons of people whom Kaa had killed in the past. Boone joins them while screaming in terror when Kaa unexpectedly appears and strikes the evil man, killing him for good (much to the amusement of the primates).

Trivia

 * Although Shere Khan is the main antagonist throughout the Jungle Book franchise, Boone takes the role of the main antagonist in this film because he had bigger plans than anyone else. Plus, when he says that he "likes to bag himself a tiger," this means he intended to hunt down and kill Khan as well.