Commander Rourke

"Mercenary? I prefer the term 'adventure capitalist'. Besides, you're the one who brought us here. You're the one who led us to the treasure chest."

- Rourke upon revealing his true intentions to Milo "You're an idealist, just like your grandfather. Do yourself a favor, Milo; don't be like him. For once, do the smart thing."

- Lyle Tiberius Rourke to Milo Thatch Commander Lyle Tiberius Rourke is the hidden main antagonist of the 2001 animated Disney film Atlantis: The Lost Empire. He is one of the very few Disney villains who does not initially appear to be evil, but gradually shows his villainy over the course of the film. He initially appears as a respectable commander, but as the movie progresses, he turns out to be a ruthless and crazed mercenary out to capture the Heart of Atlantis and make money off of it.

He was voiced by the late legendary James Garner.

History
Lyle T. Rourke was born in 1860 and learned the ways of military life at an early age when his father, a cavalry officer named Lt. Col. Jackson, was killed in battle in 1864 during the Civil War. After repeated expulsions from boarding school for fighting, Rourke resolved to follow in his father's footsteps and joined the military in 1875 at age fifteen. There, he exhibited a remarkable talent for leadership, owing to his analytic mind, charisma, and refusal to acknowledge the white flag surrender. He married in June of 1887, but his wife left him after only four months.

He held numerous expeditions during his career, most notably leading the Whitmore Expedition to Atlantis.

Film Role
In 1914, Milo James Thatch, an aspiring young linguist working in the boiler room at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., believes that a manuscript known as the Shepherd's Journal will lead to the location of Atlantis. When his proposal to lead an expedition is denied by the Institution's board (since they don't believe in the existence of Atlantis), he angrily resigns but then finds himself contacted by millionaire Preston B. Whitmore, a friend of Milo's grandfather, Thadeus Thatch. The elder Thadeus Thatch had already located the Journal, and asked Whitmore to give it to Milo when he was ready.

Whitmore asks Milo to become part of a team to search for Atlantis on a high-tech submarine. Milo joins Commander Rourke, his second-in-command Helga Sinclair, demolitions expert Vincenzo "Vinny" Santorini, geologist Gaetan "Mole" Molière, medical officer Dr. Joshua Sweet, tomboy mechanic Audrey Ramirez, cook Jebidiah Allerdyce "Cookie" Farnsworth, and cynical communications expert Wilhelmina Packard.

The sub is sunk by an underwater Leviathan and his mercenaries suffer numerous casualties, but the team escapes. After fateful misadventures, they are able to find the underwater entrance to Atlantis. To their amazement, the city still survives in a bubble beneath the earth. They are met by Kida, daughter of the Atlantean King. Kida discovers that Milo can read the Atlantean language, long forgotten by her own people. They dive to read ancient underwater murals, and learn about the Heart of Atlantis, which is the source of the power that saved Atlantis from the tidal wave and of the strange blue gems that each Atlanean wears. As they leave the ruins, they are caught by Rourke and the rest of the team, who have turned mercenary and are after the Heart Of Atlantis. They find the crystal in a chamber below the King's quarters. Kida is drawn to the crystal and infused with its power.

Rourke plans to take Kida to the surface, but Milo protests, stating that without the Heart, Atlantis will be wiped out of existence. Rourke, taking no regard of this, orders his crew to move on, but not after personally punching Milo in the face and mocking him of his discovery by breaking the frame for his picture of his grandfather. Outraged, the other team members turn against him and give in support for Milo and the Atlanteans, and Rourke, unmoved by this, leaves them all behind with Helga and the rest of his men.

The King, mortally wounded by Rourke, gives Milo his crystal and begs him to rescue his daughter and save Atlantis. Milo and the Atlanteans discover how to use the crystals to activate ancient flying machines and they give chase as an air force. Rourke plans to escape through an ancient volcano with the crystal on tow, but Milo and his team arrive, engaging into a fight against Rourke's troops.

During the lengthy battle, Milo's friends and the Atlanteans gained the upper hand against Rourke's forces and annihilated them, while Milo rammed his machine into Rourke's blimp, causing it lose altitude slowly. Determined to 'lighten the load', the greedy Rourke betrays Helga by throwing her off to the volcano base, saying that it's nothing personal.

He then engages into a fight with Milo, and during their scuffle, the fatally wounded Helga pops out her flare gun and shoots at the blimp as retribution for Rourke's betrayal, causing the blimp to set on fire and descend in a faster rate, much to Rourke's anger. Losing what's left of his sanity, Rourke grabs an axe to kill Milo, but the latter takes a piece of glass containing the crystal's essence and uses it to make a scratch on Rourke's arm, turning Rourke into a crystallized monster.

Milo would then push the crystallized Rourke into the blimp's propellers, destroying him for good. As the remaining pieces scatter, they break the chains of the cargo hold, allowing Milo and his friends to take the crystal back to the city to save the whole civilization from an imminent volcanic eruption caused by their battle.



Personality
Rourke is greedy, ruthless, and almost crazed. And he is also a pragmatic, tough, mercenary and makes his own rules. Rourke, a pragmatist both personally and professionally, tends to take what he needs and discards anything he considers "useless baggage."

It was later revealed that he was planning to take the Heart Of Atlantis for himself, and that he did not care if the Atlanteans died out in the process.

Trivia

 * Rourke has some similarities to Gaston from Beauty and the Beast, Clayton from Tarzan, King Candy from Wreck-It Ralph and Prince Hans from Frozen: In the sense that they don't appear to be evil at first, but as the films progress, their true, twisted natures are revealed. However unlike Gaston and Hans, Rourke wasn't obsessed with marrying a woman. Another difference between Rourke and Hans is that Rourke created a queen (Kida), while Hans tried to kill one (Elsa). And in the case of defeats, Gaston simply falls into the moat below, Clayton hangs himself in some vines, King Candy gets sucked into the volcano, and Rourke gets cut by Milo and turned to crystal, and then the balloon swing blades kill him dead.
 * Rourke is similar to General Shepherd from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, as they are high-ranking military officers who initially appear to be upstanding, but turn out to be corrupt and betray their subordinates for their own selfish goals. Unlike Shepherd however, who comes across as a knight templar and was trying to help his country's military, Rourke is regarded as a complete monster who wants to sell the heart of Atlantis even if it meant wiping out an ancient civilization and all of its people.
 * A foreshadowing of Rourke's treachery and eventual betrayal is when Whitmore places all the expeditionists photos. Rourke's photo is the only photo that's partially obscured. Another foreshadowing happens when they are about to board the sub and Rourke proclaims the trip "will be enriching for all of us."