With the arrival of the Uncharted movie trailer in October 2021, we got to see the villain of the film in action for the first time, but you might be wondering who he is and how he fits into the story from the games. If you’re also wondering who the actor is that plays the bad guy, that’s a much easier question to answer.
It’s Antonio Banderas, who returns to the big screen following his efforts in Spanish film, Official Competition. His most recent Hollywood big screen movie was The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, and he was also in Dolittle in 2020, where he looked pretty cool as the pirate Rassouli.
AdvertisementHowever, the name of the character hadn’t been revealed by the production at the time, and we weren’t sure if he’d be the ultimate bad guys, so we started by digging into the history of the games to discuss the villains and how they might relate to the movie. If you want to skip ahead to the truth about the more dastardly side of the equation you can jump to the section at the bottom of the page where you can find out more about the real baddie, and the link to the House of Moncada.
Uncharted games villain list
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune – the opening game in the series introduced us to Gabriel Roman, who is the leader of a group of criminals, mercenaries and pirates that join forces to plunder lost treasure. While he was presented as the main villain in the story to begin with, it turned out that his South American lieutenant, Atoq Navarra, was secretly conspiring in the background and turns out to be the main antagonist. His plan was to sell the lost city of El Dorado treasure as a weapon, but obviously Nate and Sully put a stop to that.
AdvertisementUncharted 2: Among Thieves – again there are two villains in the second game with the first being Nathan’s former associate Harry Flynn, who works for Serbian maniac Zoran Lazarević. They’re all trying to get their hands on the wish granting Cintamani Stone.
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception – Katherine Marlowe is the main villain here with a little help from Talbot as they go up against the series’ duo to find the lost city of Iram of the Pillars.
AdvertisementUncharted 4: A Thief’s End – the last outing for Nate and Sully sees them up against a trio of villains that includes rich and ruthless treasure hunter Rafe Adler, his partner Nadine Ross and narcotics baron Alcazar on a hunt to find the missing treasure of pirate Henry Avery.
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Who is the real movie villain (spoiler alert)
If you look at the games, the question is whether or not any of these could possibly line up with the villain Antonio Banderas plays in the film. His role is of a wealthy business man and treasure hunter called Moncado, who is seeking a lost treasure that could be worth upwards of $5 billion. There were clues in the trailer that hint at a Spanish ancestry with the reference to the the House of Moncada, along with the mention of Ferdinand Magellan’s historic fleet that circumnavigated the world.
The target for the treasure doesn’t match up with any of the stories for the main series games, so this is clearly something new. However, you could say that there are similarities to Gabriel Roman from the first game and Rafe Adler from the 4th game, but the reality is that they’re slightly tenuous and mainly linked to the general rich treasure hunter with unscrupulous tactics.
Moncado’s ambitions are mostly to do with getting his hands on the riches, but he’s also trying to claim back the treasure that he believes is his birthright due to his family’s funding of Magellan’s fleet. However, Braddock, the mercenary treasure hunter that he’s hired to lead his forces double crosses him just as they’re drawing close to the prize.
She goes on to be the ultimate villain of the film with a back story that she’s a former lover of Sully with the two working together in the past. She’s also the person that Sully believes shot and killed Nate’s brother Sam, but the closing scene shows that he survived and is currently in a jail cell somewhere.
It looks like Braddock got squashed by a falling ship, but with cinema there’s always the possibility to be written back into things. Tati Gabrielle is pretty cool, so it wouldn’t be terrible for her to be back with a vengeance in future films for the franchise.
You can also check out our movie news section to see the latest on other film releases, or visit the official Uncharted website at https://www.unchartedthegame.com/.
