Hector Barbossa

"Apple?"

Captain Hector Barbossa, usually shortened to Captain Barbossa, is a fictional character in the Pirates of the Caribbean movie trilogy played by actor Geoffrey Rush. He was the captain of the cursed undead pirates, and as such transformed into a rotting skeleton under moonlight. Also, he and his crew could not be killed so long as they were cursed, nor could they take pleasure from women, drink, food, or possibly any number of things. It is said that he was so evil that hell itself spat him out. He has a pet monkey, named Jack after Captain Jack Sparrow. Captain Barbossa's first name was revealed in a director's commentary on the DVD.

His name is based on Barbarossa.

Similarities have been drawn between Barbossa and LeChuck, a character from the Monkey Island video game series, also inspired from the Pirates of the Caribbean theme ride.

Background

Template:Spoiler Nothing is known about Barbossa before he joins the Black Pearl. His name can indicate a possible Portuguese and/or Spanish ancestry, though he speaks with an Irish accent.

Barbossa was the First Mate on the Black Pearl, a Pirate Ship commanded by Captain Jack Sparrow. Barbossa asked Captain Sparrow to tell him the bearings of Isla de Muerte, believed to be a stronghold of Aztec gold; trusting Barbossa, Sparrow told him the location. That night, Barbossa led a mutiny against Sparrow and took over the Black Pearl, leaving Sparrow marooned on an island with a single-shot pistol (presumably with which to commit suicide rather than to die from starvation or dehydration). The remaining crew found the Aztec treasure to which Jack had been leading them, and shared it among themselves — calling down an ancient Aztec curse in the process. To lift the curse, the crew realized that they must return all the Aztec gold to Isla de Muerta; at the time the film begins, they have recovered 881 of the 882 gold coins. Barbossa and the crew then spend the course of the film searching for the last coin, which is in the possession of Will Turner and then Elizabeth Swann.

Barbossa is shot by Jack Sparrow (with the same pistol Barbossa had left him when he marooned Sparrow on the island) just before the two final coins and necessary blood are returned to the chest. Barbossa looks at the blood pouring from the wound, and says that he feels cold, his first feeling since the curse was put upon him. After he falls down, a close up of his face shows he is eerily content with his fate.

Barbossa has a strange passion for apples which appears several times in the film; he asks Elizabeth whether she wants one and also tells her that after the curse is lifted he'd eat a whole bushel of apples; also there are apples on his cabin table and at the end of the film when "he dies" an apple falls from his hand. This representation of the apple could be linked to a number of things; the deadly fruit that Eve partook from the Devil disguised as a snake; a reference in the film "a man so evil that hell himself spat him back out"; or perhaps from Disney itself, being the apple that is so infamous from the Disney cartoon classic, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in which the Evil Queen attempted to kill Snow White with a poisoned apple. Indeed Elizabeth comments when she is offered an apple, "It's poisoned". Of course this later proves to be wrong as Barbossa tells her and also as Jack eats one himself later on in the film. Most obviously it is a Vanitas style reference, particularly apt for a character incapable of dying. Apart from symbolism, it may be that one of Barbossa's simple (that is, not homicidal) pleasures in life was an apple and that several years of being unable to feel, smell, or taste turned a pleasure into a constant craving.

In the movie Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Everyone in the ending agrees to find Jack, even if it goes to the ends of the earth to find him. Tia states that they still need a captain, that is brave enough and that knowns the seas. A sound of boots is heard. Everyone's attention is drawn to the stairs. And to very much surprise to everyone(referring to people watching the movie who probably didn't guess), Captain Barbossa is still alive. He says only one line before fade to black, "Now tell me, what's become of my ship?" and then he laughs out loud while eating a green apple, which was what he always had a passion for in the first movie.

Kingdom Hearts II

Barbossa appears as a villain in the Pirates of the Caribbean world of Kingdom Hearts II. In that game, he recreates his role in the first movie with the exception of his crew's alliance with Pete. His crew members that were involved in the game (and making the three general types of Undead pirates) were Bo'sun (Undead Pirate A), Jacoby (Undead Pirate B), & Twigg (Undead Pirate C). In the final confrontation with Jack Sparrow and Sora's group, Barbossa makes use of a Heartless named Illuminator which Pete summons for him, one which can hide him in darkness. During the battle, Jack drops his sword and shoots Barbossa with the pistol the renegade captain left him upon his exile. Barbossa laughs it off at first, but Will calls his attention and drops the last two Aztec coins back into the chest, both smeared with his and Jack's blood. Barbossa, his curse broken, feels the pain of his gunshot wound, which struck him directly in the heart. His last words are, "I feel... cold." (the same lines from the film) He then falls backwards, dead. Due to the filming of the two sequels back-to-back which resulted in the cast being unavailable, Barbossa was voiced by Brian George in the English version (George was also the voice of Barbossa in the video game Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow). Template:Endspoiler