Hector Barbossa

"Too long my fate has not been in me own hands...No longer."

- Barbossa

Captain Hector Barbossa (simply known as Hector Barbossa) is one of the three main characters of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie series. He is the main antagonist of the first film, The Curse of the Black Pearl, a cameo character in the second film, Dead Man's Chest, the supporting tritagonist in the third and fourth films, At World's End, and On Stranger Tides. He will return in the fifth film, Dead Men Tell No Tales.

He was portrayed by Geoffrey Rush.

The Curse of the Black Pearl
"For too long I've been parched of thirst and unable to quench it. Too long I've been starving to death and haven't died. I feel nothing. Not the wind on my face nor the spray of the sea. Nor the warmth of a woman's flesh. You best start believing in ghost stories, Miss Turner... you're in one!"

- Barbossa to Elizabeth Swann when revealing his and his crew's undead nature.

Hector Barbossa is at first the Chief mate of Captain Jack Sparrow. But then one day when Jack and Barbossa found a map to Isla de Muerta where the Aztec Treasure of Cortes was hidden. The crew and Jack agreed to equal shares of the treasure but Barbossa greedily wanted the treasure for himself and the crew and tricked Jack into revealing the Treasure's location saying that equal shares included knowing the treasure's location, while planning a mutiny. Jack agreed to say the location but then Barbossa and the crew mutinied and marooned Jack on a deserted Island much to Jack's anger. Then when they found the treasure Barbossa found out about a curse placed on the Aztec treasure by the heathen Gods but believed it to be a "Ghost Story" with the crew and then took the treasure but found after spending it that the curse was real and they were under the curse, which made them unable to taste, feel, smell, or their drinks would not satisfy and living the undead as immortals. The only way to lift the curse is to give back the coins and offer their blood. Bootstrap Bill Turner a crewmate then was infuriated at the crew's betrayal against Jack and sent a coin to his son Will so the crew would remain cursed. In response Barbossa tied a cannon to Bootstrap and threw him overboard the Pearl but only discovers later that Bootstrap's blood is needed to lift the curse.

Then ten years later, Barbossa and the crew sunk many ships and found most of the coins of the treasure and needed to find the last one sent to Will by Bootstrap. Meanwhile Elizabeth Swann from Port Royal Jamaica had found Will and took possession of the medallion so that James Norrington would not hang Will for Piracy. Barbossa sensed the last coin and then invaded Port Royal and his crew found Elizabeth who invoked Parley. Barbossa tricked Elizabeth into giving him the medallion in exchange for stopping the invasion after she identified herself as "Elizabeth Turner" believing now her blood can lift the curse. Elizabeth when Barbossa ordered them to set sail demanded to be taken to shore but Barbossa refused saying that the part with her being taken to shore was not part of their agreement.

Barbossa offered Elizabeth the next night to dine with him but she refused but agreed when Barbossa threatened her with being dined with the crew and being stripped nude. Elizabeth then became suspicious of why Barbossa was not eating but was encouraging her to eat instead. He finally realized she never heard of the curse and told her the story and how he wants to use her blood to lift the curse. Elizabeth ran from him but got cornered by Barbossa and stabbed him in the chest but Barbossa did not die and Elizabeth ran outside and went face-to-face with the crew which were now skeletons. Elizabeth was shocked that the curse was real and Barbossa walked outside in the moonlight which revealed him under the curse. Elizabeth now in deep shock ran into the room and was locked in for the rest of the night.

The next day, Barbossa then took Elizabeth to Isla de Muerta to lift the curse. After a short speech Barbossa then told his crew that they were able to lift the curse and used Elizabeth's blood on the coin. But after a moment after the crew said they did not feel different Barbossa shot one of his crewmates and they saw he was not dead. Now enraged Barbossa confronted Elizabeth asking her if Bootstrap was her father. She admitted that he was not but refused to tell Barbossa who Bootstrap's child was. Barbossa slapped her and she fell onto the hill of the pirate's treasure. Barbossa's crew began to blame him for Bootstrap's 'death' by saying every decision he made lead them from bad to worse. Barbossa angrily took out his sword and challenged the crew to fight him causing the crew to stop blaming him. After Jack, Barbossa's pet monkey, screeched in alarm and Barbossa looked where Elizabeth fell and saw she was no longer there along with the medallion. He ordered the crew to find her but the crew brought instead, Captain Jack Sparrow.

Amazed Barbossa asked Jack how he got off the island but Jack says it was because he (Jack) was Captain Jack Sparrow. Annoyed, Barbossa sarcastically said he would not make the mistake again and ordered his crew to kill Jack. But Jack however said cooly if Elizabeth's blood did not work. Barbossa ordered his crew to hold fire after realizing Jack knew whose blood they needed. On the Black Pearl Barbossa and Jack had a meeting for negotiations and Jack almost convinces Barbossa to give him (Jack) his ship but Barbossa is angered when Jack gives an offer to negotiate with the crew of the Interceptor for Barbossa's coin return. Barbossa instead orders Jack locked in the brig because that was the same attitude that lost Sparrow the Pearl in the first place.

Barbossa caught up with the Interceptor and during the battle Jack the Monkey, brought the medallion to Barbossa and Barbossa's crew won. When Barbossa captured the crew of the Interceptor including Elizabeth, and sunk the Interceptor, Barbossa was confronted by a man who claimed to be Will Turner. Will said he would shoot himself and fall overboard if the crew did not release Elizabeth. Ultimately though Barbossa tricks him and frees Elizabeth and Jack Sparrow by marooning them on the same island Jack was on ten years ago assuming that, that moment would the last of Sparrow. Will and the crew of the Interceptor are imprisoned and Pintel, a crewmate, tells Will the story of why Bootstrap sent the medallion to Will. They arrive at Isla de Muerta and Barbossa plans to kill Will in order to break the curse. When the crew are chanting for the curse to be lifted Jack Sparrow comes to the cave alive and well much to Barbossa's dismay. Barbossa is too wrong about Jack not escaping. Barbossa threatens Jack with death after Will but Jack convinces Barbossa that the Royal Navy came to an ambush on them. Jack convinces Barbossa to kill Will after he defeats the Dauntless the Royal Navy's best ship and Jack would give Barbossa 25% of Jack's plunder and a big hat. Barbossa agrees and waits in the cave for the battle to end with Jack and Will. He starts to trust Jack again but this trust ends when Jack takes one of the pirates's swords and tosses his to Will and Will duels the left of the pirates. Barbossa gets up and duels Jack. After a while of fighting Barbossa tosses his sword and claims that Jack cannot beat him as he (Barbossa) is immortal. Jack tries anyway, but Barbossa sighs to himself and takes the sword out and stabs Jack. But Sparrow however flies into the moonlight and it reveals him under the curse; He snuck a coin while talking to Barbossa. The duel continues until Elizabeth is proven alive too. Jack cuts his arm and tosses his bloody coin to Will while Will cuts his arm too. Now furious Barbossa pulls out his prized pistol and attempts to shoot Elizabeth. But before he can pull the trigger Jack shoots Barbossa with his own pistol that he saved on Barbossa for ten years. Barbossa sneers that Jack wasted his shot but Will says "He didn't waste it!" and returns the last two coins breaking the curse. Barbossa looks at Jack in deep shock and unbuttons his coat and sees blood gushing badly from his chest from Jack's bullet. He looks at Jack and shakes his head shockingly and dies.

Dead Man's Chest
At the very end of Dead Man's Chest, with Jack Sparrow supposedly dead, Barbossa makes a shocking reappearance, having been resurrected by the Voodoo witch "Tia Dalma", later revealed to be the goddess "Calypso".

At World's End
In the third film, he goes with Elizabeth, Will, and the crew to Davy Jones's Locker to rescue Jack from the locker in order to release her. At the end of the third film, it is revealed that Barbossa has betrayed Jack yet again, though this time they merely leave without him from a port in a city area.

On Stranger Tide
And in the fourth film, he has become a privateer in King George II's Royal Navy. He seeks to look for the Fountain of Youth. Near the end, he stabs Blackbeard with a poisoned sword and is now captain of the Queen Anne's Revenge, reverting back to being a pirate.

Dead Men Tell No Tales
In Dead Men Tell No Tales, it is revealed he had a daughter named Carina Smythe, who is mistaken as a witch, but is a scientist. It is possible that Smythe was the maiden name of his wife.

Personality
Hector Barbossa is extremely confident, equanimous, imperturbable, and persuasive, so he combines experience with almost reckless daring. Barbossa became a pirate because of his wish to raise his social status and his greed for wealth and power, but not because he wanted to live the adventurous life as a pirate in the way that Jack Sparrow did. He considered himself a gentleman of the seas and could act polite if he wished; he possessed a certain eloquence which he frequently used to his advantage. Like some pirates, Barbossa considered the Pirate Code to be "more guidelines than actual rules", but nevertheless he respected the right of parley and preferred interpreting the Code in his own favor instead of breaking it openly.

Barbossa's relationship with Jack Sparrow was complicated. He led the mutiny against Jack, resulting in becoming captain of the Black Pearl, but also helped rescue Jack from Davy Jones' Locker. Jack is also one of the few who called Barbossa by his first name "Hector", implying a good friendship prior to Barbossa's mutiny. Even after all they have been through, Barbossa was secretly an admirer of Jack's incredible escapes.

Some time after his first mutiny on the Black Pearl, Barbossa keeps a capuchin monkey, which he named "Jack Jack" after his old captain, Jack Sparrow. He seemed to genuinely care about the monkey, who occasionally accompanied his master everywhere and often sat on his shoulder.

Barbossa’s favorite delicacy was caviar, but he also had a notable appreciation for green apples. He offered an apple to Elizabeth during their dinner aboard the Pearl and he commented that after the curse was lifted, he would eat a whole bushel of apples. This seemed to be one of Barbossa's simple pleasures in life - unable to feel or taste due to the curse - for this reason he always kept a number of apples on the table in his cabin on the Pearl. At the moment of his death, Barbossa was holding an apple because he intended to eat it immediately after lifting the curse. However, Barbossa was able to take a bite of an apple when he revealed himself in Tia Dalma's shack.

He was a master seaman, who had excellent navigational abilities, a strategist who could plan ahead. These abilities not only gave him many advantages in his pirate life but also earned much respect both among his subordinates as well as among his enemies; these skills, combined with his exceptional fighting abilities, were in fact the reason why Barbossa managed to survive a life of piracy for several decades and contributed to his reputation and his high-ranked position during this time.

Barbossa is a skilled and manipulative swordsman, hinting at a lifetime of experience, and proved capable of holding his own against numerous enemies at once. Before challenging the legendary pirate, Blackbeard, Barbossa poisoned his sword, saying he wasn't foolish enough to fight Blackbeard without a "venomous advantage". During his duel with Blackbeard, Barbossa also used his crutch as a weapon in battle, wielding it along with his sword against Blackbeard. His fighting style was quite dirty, however he knew how to behead people.