View source for Commander Rourke

{{Pure Evil Infobox
|image = <gallery>
Rourke Human.webp|Human
Rourke Crystalized.webp|Crystalized
</gallery>
|fullname = Lyle Tiberius Rourke
|alias = Commander Lyle Tiberius Rourke<br>
Rourke<br>
Commander<br>
Commander Rourke<br>
Lyle T. Rourke<br>
Lyle Rourke
|origin = ''{{w|Atlantis: The Lost Empire}}''
|allies = [[w:c:pure-good-heroes:Milo James Thatch|Milo Thatch]] <small>(pawn)</small><br>
Helga Sinclair <small>(both formerly)</small><br>
Preston B. Whitmore<br>
His Mercenaries<br>
|skills = Peak Human Condition<br>
Master Hand to hand combat<br>
High non-academic intelligence<br>
Weapons expertise<br>
Impressive manipulation
|goals = {{Scroll box|Discover Atlantis <small>(succeeded)</small>.<br>
Harness the heart of Atlantis to become rich and sell it potentially to the highest bidder.<br>
Kill the Atlantians so that it would become more valuable and prove the existence of Atlantis..}}
|moral event horizon = Fatally wounding the King of Atlantis.<br> 
Stealing the Heart of Atlantis despite knowing it would cause the civilization's downfall.<br>
Betraying Helga by throwing her off their blimp just to light the load and escape quickly.
|killcount = 2 <small>(at least)</small><br>
Millions <small>(indirectly attempted)</small>
|worstcrimes = Murder<br>
Regicide<br>
Torture<br>
Treason<br>
Kidnapping<br>
Unlawful imprisonment<br>
Sabotage<br>
Attempted populicide
|type of villain = Greedy Mercenary}}
{{Quote|Academics - you never want to get your hands dirty. Think about it; if you gave back every stolen artifact from a museum, you'd be left with a empty building. We're just providing a necessary service to the archaeological community.|Rourke on his methods of thievery.}}
{{Quote|Nothing personal!|Rourke after immediately betraying Helga.}}
{{Quote|Tired, Mr. Thatch? Aw, that a darn shame, 'CAUSE I'M JUST GETTING WARMED UP!|Rourke attempting to kill Milo, also his last words before getting crystsiled.}}
'''Commander Lyle Tiberius Rourke''' is the main antagonist of Disney's 41st full-length animated feature film ''{{w|Atlantis: The Lost Empire}}''. 

He initially appears as a very reliable and praiseworthy commander able to lead his men through perils, but as the film progresses, he turns out to be a highly greedy, manipulative, ruthless and sadistic mercenary who is out to capture the Heart of Atlantis and make money off of it. He is [[w:c:pure-good-heroes:Milo James Thatch|Milo Thatch]]'s arch-nemesis.

He was voiced by the late {{w|James Garner}}.

==What Makes Him Pure Evil?==
*Though he does have comedic moments, they don’t detract from his seriousness and his actions are still played seriously.
*He was likely already a bad person since his youth, as according to his official backstory, he was repeatedly expelled from boarding schools due to fighting and married a woman who merely stayed with him for four months before leaving him him. While his backstory mentions he lost his father during the Civil War, there's no mention he cared for or loved him.
*Upon helping the team discover the Shepherd's Journal in Iceland and learning about the existence of the Heart of Atlantis detailed inside the journal, he secretly becomes greedy in nature, intend to have the Heart to himself.
*He deliberately hid the missing page of the Heart of Atlantis before the expedition. When Rourke reveals his true colors to Milo, he reveals the page himself to confirm Milo's suspicions. When Milo furiously points out that Rourke's plot will condemn thousands of Atlanteans to die, Rourke merely jocosely suggested this might boost the worth of the artifact on the market.
*After revealing his true nature to Milo, he gets several of his mercenaries to hold Kida, the Princess of Atlantis, as a hostage in order to get Milo to cooperate and reveal the location of the Heart.
*He got his men to vandalize the King's throne room while punching the King of Atlantis hard in the gut for his refusal to tell him where the Heart is. Rourke even threatens to kill the King with his gun, though this was avoided when Rourke actually finds out the location by himself. The King later dies from the injury Rourke gave him.
*Upon entering the crystal chamber, he got Kida infused with the Heart of Atlantis before having his men lock her up in a storage container. He even got his men to prevent Milo and the Atlanteans from interfering.
*After having Kida and the Heart secured for transport, he punched Milo in the face and then stepped on his picture of his grandfather to spite him before leaving him behind in Atlantis. This ultimately drove the specialized expedition crew to develop a change of heart and side with Milo.
*Upon seeing that the crew has changed their minds, Rourke was simply frustrated with the fact that they'd grown a conscience and left them behind with Milo, along with keeping all the money for himself (also showing that while we would have to sparing some of it to them, he would doing it out of pragmatism and nothing else), condemning them to share a surely deadly fate with the rest of Atlantis's population. He also blew up the bridge to Atlantis to prevent them from escaping the city or stopping him.
*He got his men to fire a missile at the bowels of the volcano so that they can activate a blimp to transport Kida and the Heart into the surface, even gloating of how much he likes to do things his way.
*He didn't show any care for any of his mercenaries that were killed in the final battle; he even threw Helga off their blimp to her death just to light the load and escape quickly, though this backfired when Helga used the flare gun to destroy Rourke's zeppelin in retaliation before she died.
*Upon watching his zeppelin burn and descending down, Rourke lost his sanity as he gleefully tried to murder Milo with an axe in revenge for foiling his plot.
**While being crystallized by Milo, he tried to finish what he started by lunging at Milo until the propeller kills him.
*Despite Rourke's brutal yet well-deserved death, his actions caused the volcano to erupt thanks to the battle, which would've destroyed Atlantis if Milo and the crew hadn't returned Kida and the Heart back to Atlantis.
*While he sadly honored the deceased members of the Ulysses after its destruction by the Leviathan, it was out of pragmatism, most likely to sway his surviving crewmembers to stay on his side by making it look he cared for them. He even seemingly got over it quickly.

==Trivia==
* Despite his status as Pure Evil, ''Atlantis: The Lost Empire'' directors Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale stated that in terms of his characterization and portrayal as a villain, they wanted Commander Rourke to be a complex antagonist by making him greedy, yet not inherently evil, unlike past Disney villains to make Rourke a three-dimensional villain instead of a two-dimensional one. Thus, it's possible that Wise and Trousdale do think Rourke has some redeeming qualities and his immense greed is just his worst.

==External Links==
*{{Wiki|Commander Rourke|Lyle Tiberius Rourke|villains|Villains}}
*{{Wiki|Lyle Tiberius Rourke|Lyle Tiberius Rourke|disney|Disney}}

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