Governor Ratcliffe

Governor Ratcliffe is the main antagonist of Disney's 1995 animated feature film, Pocahontas and its 1998 sequel.

Pocahontas
Virginia to find gold and other riches (which he wants to keep for himself). He fails to tell any of the other crew of his real reason of going to Virginia and recites the "adventure of our lives" and "freedom" speech to cover it up. When they see land, Ratcliffe meets with John Smith, whom the crew admire, about his plan on dealing with the "savages" and "filthy little heathens" (what he calls the Native Americans) and Smith assures his success and the meeting's through. Ratcliffe arrives on the Shore of Virginia shortly after Smith, Thomas, and Ben and Lon do, then claims the land (and any and all riches it has) in the name of King James and names the settlement Jamestown.

After Smith leaves to search for the Native Americans, Ratcliffe orders some men to build the fort and clear the ship while the rest dig for gold. In build-up to the song Mine, Mine, Mine, he reminds the men that the Spanish found "mountains" of gold when they came to the New World and it was now their turn to make a name for England and themselves. Unfortunately, the men's search turns up nothing, and moreover, several Native America warriors spy on the settlers, which Ratcliffe soon notices. Believing that they are about to launch an ambush, Ratcliffe panics, and a battle ensues between the settlers and the warriors, during which Thomas nearly shoots Ratcliffe by accident and the governor himself wounds one of the warriors, forcing them to retreat. The men celebrate, but Ratcliffe, knowing the Native Americans will return in bigger numbers, orders his men to return to camp, bring the rest of the ship's cannons ashore, and finish the fort's construction. He then chastises Thomas' ineptitude on the battlefield and warns him that unless he learns how to shoot properly, he'll never be considered a man; this leaves Thomas with diminished self-esteem.

A few days later, as the men finish the fort, Ratcliffe begins to panic over the fact that after so much digging, he and his men still have not found any gold at all. He struggles to figure out what he's overlooking, when Wiggins, his servant, stumbles into his tent, having apparently been shot through the head with an arrow. Ratcliffe is shocked, but Wiggins happily notes it to be a joke, having made the contraption himself using a broken arrow. Irate, Ratcliffe snatches it from him and derides the thing as silly, but then, it gives him an idea about why they haven't found any gold. Ratcliffe asks Wiggins why the Native Americans attacked them earlier. Wiggins correctly points out that they invaded the Native Americans' land and began stealing their resources, but Ratcliffe dismisses this, explaining his belief that the Native Americans are hiding the gold, and begins forming a plan to take it from them. He then goes out to find John Smith, only to find that he has gone off and sends Ben and Lon, who were napping near the wall of the fort, out to find him.

Later that evening, after John Smith returns from supposedly "scouting the terrain", Ratcliffe orders him to prepare the men for battle so they can destroy the Native Americans and take the gold. But Smith tells Ratcliffe that there is no gold and that they don't have to fight the Native Americans because he already met one of them. Instead, he suggests the Native Americans can help them by showing them their land. Ratcliffe, however, refuses to believe this. He declares, "This is 'my land! I make the laws here! And I say anyone who so much as looks at an Indian without killing him on sight, will be tried for treason and hanged!"

Later, when he sees John Smith running off somewhere that night, Ratcliffe finds Thomas, who also saw John leave. Ratcliffe orders him to follow John and figure out where he was going. He tosses Thomas a musket and tells him to shoot any Native American he sees. Before Thomas leaves, he tells him that he's "a slipshod sailor and a poor excuse for a soldier" and leaves him with a warning not to disappoint him again. He later overhears the men talking about Smith's capture (Smith had been attacked by a warrior named Kocoum, whom Thomas had promptly shot dead during the fight, but had been ordered to flee the scene for Smith to take the blame) and decides to wage war against the Native Americans to rescue Smith, exterminate the "savages" and take their gold for himself (although he merely tells his men it is solely a rescue mission to ensure their support). After the two sides march their way to one another, they are stopped abruptly by Pocahontas, who tells everyone that they were led onto the path of hatred. All the men on both sides are deeply touched by the woman's love and wisdom, and lower their weapons. The would-be combatants now make it clear that there will be no battle.

Ratcliffe is the only one not moved by this, however, and orders his men to open fire anyway, thinking it is a trick, but they refuse. Outraged, Ratcliffe grabs a gun from one of his men and prepares to shoot Powhatan himself. John Smith sees this, jumps in the way and takes the bullet (though not fatally). Finally seeing Ratcliffe for the corrupt, greedy monster he really is, and realizing that Smith was right all along and they should never have listened to him in the first place (even when he tries to defend himself by saying it was Smith's own fault for stepping in the path of the blast), Thomas, Ben, Lon, and the other settlers rebel, disarming, chaining, and gagging the governor and sending him back to England in disgrace to face punishment for his crimes. All the while, he angrily denounces them as the traitors and swears to see them all executed for their rebellion against him.

Journey to a New World
Ratcliffe returns in the sequel Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World, where his personality changes from just mere greed to pure menace. Apparently, upon being questioned by King James in the time between the two films, he had fabricated his own version of the events in Jamestown to implicate John Smith as the traitor, and despite the impossibility of his honesty, he is easily believed by the King (mostly due to their close, personal friendship) and sent to capture Smith for questioning along with some soldiers. In the ensuing fray, Ratcliffe tells Smith "Pity. I so would have preferred to see you hanged", knocks Smith off a building to his apparent death in a canal, and tells King James that Smith had died in an accident while being apprehended, despite Ratcliffe's attempts to save him; unbeknownst to anyone, this is part of Ratcliffe's plot to go to war against the Powhatan Nation and find the gold he still believes they possess, all while getting revenge on his enemies and avoiding punishment for his own crimes.

When John Rolfe, who had been sent to Jamestown to bring back Powhatan for negotiations to prevent the war, returns with Pocahontas instead, Ratcliffe immediately plots to get rid of her, convincing James to invite Pocahontas to the Hunt Ball, where he has planned a bear baiting with a jester, believing that her "savage" instincts would lead her to protest it. Pocahontas, at first, impresses the King with her manners taught by Rolfe, but naturally becomes outraged at the bear baiting, especially when the snobbish aristocrats in attendance do nothing but laugh at the creature's torture, and openly insults Ratcliffe and King James, calling them savages. Ratcliffe convinces King James to imprison her and sentence her to death for this, and is allowed to take his armada to Jamestown for war with the Powhatans. However, unbeknownst to Ratcliffe, his lies are finally exposed when John Smith, who survived his ordeal with Ratcliffe, aids Rolfe in breaking Pocahontas out of prison and later presents himself in the King's court alongside them. Realizing that he has been fooled, King James orders Ratcliffe to be stopped.

In the subsequent battle, after the armada is successfully halted, Ratcliffe attempts to end Pocahontas's life until Smith intervenes. The two duel, with Smith ultimately disarming Ratcliffe. However, in a sneak move, Ratcliffe pulls a pistol on Smith and almost kills him for real, but is subdued by Rolfe and then thrown overboard by Smith. Before he falls into the river, Smith ironically quips to Ratcliffe the latter's earlier remark: "Pity. I so would have preferred to see you hanged." Ratcliffe makes it to shore where King James and his soldiers are waiting. He makes a last and feeble attempt to lie to King James, telling the king that the "fugitives are getting away", and of them sabotaging the armada. However, King James, who has already learned the truth of Ratcliffe's treachery by this point, coldly tells his now-former friend, "No more lies", and orders his men to arrest him while walking away to his carriage in disgust. Ratcliffe's sentence for high treason is unknown, though realistically, he would have been put in prison for life and/or executed.