| “ | Curious. Your friends appear to be quite desperate, Jack. Perhaps they no longer believe that a gathering of squabbling pirates can defeat the Flying Dutchman. And so despair leads to betrayal. And you and I are no strangers to betrayal, are we? | „ |
| ~ Beckett to Jack Sparrow. |
| “ | It's nothing personal, Jack. It's just good business. | „ |
| ~ Beckett breaking his promise, also the final words of him. |
Lord Cutler Beckett, or Lord Beckett, is one of the main antagonists of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.
He is the ruthless head of the East India Trading Company who wants to rid the world of all pirates and control the seven seas. Despite technically being a member of the "good side" in some ways, Beckett stands up in comparison to many of his loyal soldiers due to his power-hungry and ruthless personality, ironically becoming even more dangerous than those he swore to destroy. He is one of the arch-enemies of Jack Sparrow and the archenemy of Elizabeth Swann.
He was portrayed by Tom Hollander.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
In General/Background[]
- While he does have a tragic backstory of being born sickly, bullied by other children due to his intelligence and was dismissed as "weak" by his father and his brothers, he overcame it with his cold-hardheartedness.
- The only ones who ever showed him any kind of love were his sister Jane and his mother. While he was affected by his mother's death, he didn't mourn his supportive sister's death as he had more important things to do despite that it was thanks to Jane's life savings that Beckett was able to settle in London, shredding his redeeming quality.
- Even if, in his youth, he was really tortured by pirates, it is not a valid excuse because he take it out on people who are not related to piracy at several times.
- 13 years before the events of Dead Man's Chest, he sent Jack Sparrow to take the Wicked Wench to New Avalon to transport a cargo of slaves.
- When Sparrow discovered the slaves and released them on the island of Kerma, Beckett ordered the Wicked Wench sunk and branded Sparrow as a pirate whereas he refused to take part to slavery.
- This also makes Beckett indirectly responsible for Jack selling his soul to Davy Jones to reclaim his sunken ship, effectively making Beckett at the origin for many of the events in the first film.
- Although he is in good terms with his men and Mercer, he doesn't care of them and before his death he didn't try to save them from the shooting of the Flying Dutchman to face the Black Pearl, even when they were waiting for his orders. He also didn't mention Mr. Mercer after he was killed.
- Although Armando Salazar is even more dangerous, Beckett is entirely devoid of supernatural ability. However, he compensates that by the fact he has an important fleet.
- If the majority of Pirates of the Caribbean villains are confronted to the protagonists only in one movie, Beckett is present in two films (Dead Man's Chest and At World's End), showing his actions are worrying, especially in the third movie.
- While one could argue his acts of eliminating Pirates are well-intended, his true motives of massacring Pirates are due to his desire to expand his business empire, not for the British Kingdom, this is further proven that he killed Swann, a member of the government, just to silence him for knowing too much.
- While not enjoying any of his horrendous acts, he has no remorse for any of it either.
Dead Man's Chest[]
- Ordered the arrests of Elizabeth Swann and Will Turner on their wedding day and blackmailed Will into retrieving Jack Sparrow's compass under the threat of hanging Elizabeth, despite that she is the daughter of his old friend Governor Weatherby Swann.
- He takes control of Port Royal without the authorization of the King.
- According to Weatherby Swann, he had the intention to execute Elizabeth and Will once he will have that he wants.
- After learning that Governor Weatherby Swann was going to help his daughter Elizabeth to escape from Port Royal while trying to blackmail Will Turner into finding the Dead Man's Chest, he had Mercer intercept the Governor's plans, which Mercer did by slitting the throat of Swann's associate Captain Hawkins so Hawkins couldn't help the Swanns to escape to London.
- Tried to have Captain Chevalle hanged at Port Royal.
At World's End[]
- Initiated a destructive campaign to eradicate piracy from the Seven Seas. While this could be seen as a noble goal given that pirates are criminals and the English just want to protect their nation, he goes far beyond that by ordering the hanging of many people, innocent or not, due to being pirates themselves or just suspected of being pirates or associated with them, including the hanging of a ten-year old boy whose only crime was just helping pirates.
- It's worth noting even Theodore Groves looks incredibly uncomfortable with the mass hangings as he reads out the decrees that suspend all legal rights and condemns anyone even remotely associated with piracy to death.
- Blackmailed Davy Jones with his own heart into following his commands, including:
- Ordering the death of the Kraken, despite the creature being the only of its kind, giving him full control of the Flying Dutchman.
- Sent the Flying Dutchman after many pirate vessels to obliterate them. While he becomes irritated due to Davy Jones' tendency of leaving no survivors, he just gets angry because he can't interrogate them, which leads him to appoint James Norrington to supervise Jones along with Mercer.
- When he appointed Norrington to supervise Jones, Beckett also proceeds to taunt him about the Kraken, clearly knowing Jones had an attachment to it.
- Had Governor Swann murdered as he no longer approved his orders and was close to discovering the significance of the Dead Man's Chest. He lied to Norrington by telling him that Swann had returned to England. It is because of it that Beckett is Elizabeth Swann's most personal foe.
- It's also worth mentioning that since he had Swann killed in order to keep the secret of Davy Jones' heart, Beckett is risking dooming whichever one of his own men shot said heart to a lifetime of servitude aboard the Flying Dutchman that they never asked for.
- He made a deal with Sao Fang that if he captured the Black Pearl, he would make him the captain of the ship. However, despite Sao Feng's successful mutiny against Jack Sparrow and Hector Barbossa and honoring their agreement, Beckett betrayed Sao Feng, resulting in him joining the Brethren Court's fight against Beckett.
- Offered Jack Sparrow to spare him in exchange for giving away the location of the Brethren Court, threatening to hang him if he refused. Although Jack authorizes him to shoot him, he hesitates only because he doesn't find the Brethen Court. It is not a redeeming fact because Jack knows that Beckett doesn't respect agreements; that why he delays Beckett by damaging his ship.
- Order Davy Jones and James Norrington in pursuing Sao Feng, resulting in the pirate lord's demise.
- Sent a small force of his soldiers to Shipwreck Island to delay the Pirate Lords as he organized his armada.
- He doesn't feel remorse for Governor Swann's death as when Elizabeth brings it up, he callously said "he chose his own fate" rather than stating any remorse or shame for it.
- Ordered the Flying Dutchman to face the Black Pearl during the Battle of Calypso's maelstrom while he and his armada stayed behind.
- Before his death, he ordered his soldiers to ready the cannons of the Endeavour to destroy the Black Pearl despite his early promise with Sparrow that he would be spared, dismissing his broken promise as nothing personal but good business.
Trivia[]
- In an early draft of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, it's specified that Beckett genuinely feels regretful when he orders Mercer to kill Governor Swann (perhaps due to their past friendship) to silence him about his knowledge of Davy Jones's heart. The scene in which this happened was filmed but deleted from the final cut. However, Beckett's cold tone in the cut scene doesn't seem to indicate that he doesn't want to have Swann killed. That said, as the scene was deleted, it's unknown if it's canon or not.
External Links[]
- Lord Cutler Beckett on the Villains Wiki
- Lord Cutler Beckett on the Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki
- Lord Cutler Beckett on the Disney Wiki
- Lord Cutler Beckett on the Ultimate Evil Wiki
[]
 Pure Evils
| ||
|
Movies Video Game See Also | ||