Connection
Ahab
- Infos
- Photos
- Best films
If you like this character, let us know!
Real name Vieux Tonnerre
Captain Ahab is a fictional character in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851), the monomaniacal captain of the whaling ship Pequod. On a previous voyage, the white whale Moby Dick bit off Ahab's leg, leaving him with a prosthesis made out of whalebone. Instead of leading the Pequod on a whaling voyage for profit, Ahab seeks revenge on the whale and casts his spell over the crew-members to enlist them in his fanatical mission. When Moby Dick is finally sighted and hunted down, Ahab's hate robs him of all caution and denies him revenge. Moby Dick drags Ahab to his death.
Melville biographer Andrew Delbanco calls Ahab "a brilliant personification of the very essence of fanaticism". F. O. Matthiessen calls attention to the fact that Ahab is called an "ungodly god-like man". Ahab's "tragedy is that of an unregenerate will" whose "burning mind is barred out from the exuberance of love" and argues that he "remains damned". D. H. Lawrence felt little sympathy for Ahab and found that the whale should have "torn off both his legs, and a bit more besides".
The character of Ahab was created under the influence of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's lecture on Hamlet and figures in biblical and classical literature such as Shakespeare and Milton. His prosthesis, for instance, has been taken for an allusion to the Oedipus myth.
Ahab is firmly established in popular culture by cartoons, comic books, films and plays. Most famously, he provided J. M. Barrie with the model for his Captain Hook character, who is obsessed not with a whale but a crocodile.
Biography
Ahab was named by his insane, widowed mother, who died when he was twelve months old. At 18 years old, Ahab first took to sea as a boy-harpooner. Less than three voyages ago, Ahab married a sweet, resigned girl, with whom he has a young son. He has been in colleges and among the cannibals, and has seen deeper wonders than the waves. He has fixed his lance, the keenest and surest on the isle of Nantucket, in stranger foes than whales.Years ago, Peleg, now the co-owner of the Pequod, sailed as mate under Ahab. During that voyage, a typhoon near Japan swung her three masts overboard. Every moment the crew thought the ship would sink, the sea breaking over the slip. Yet instead of thinking of death, Captain Ahab and Peleg thought of how to save all hands, and how to rig jury-masts in order to get into the nearest port.
According to Elijah's mysterious words, Ahab long ago lay for dead for three days and three nights off Cape Horn, was involved in a deadly skrimmage with the Spaniard afore the altar in Santa, and spat into the silver calabash. Last voyage, a whale, the monstrousest parmacetty that ever chipped a boat, bit off Ahab's leg, and the pains in his stump made him, never jolly, desperate moody. Adding insult to injury, Ahab is dependent upon a whalebone for a prosthesis. Neither sick nor well, Ahab keeps close inside the house.
Ahab is 58 years old at the time of the Pequod 's last voyage. Peleg and Bildad pilot the ship out of the harbor, and Ahab first appears on deck when the ship is already at sea. Instead of embarking on a regular whaling voyage, Ahab declares he is out for revenge and attaches a doubloon on the mast by way of reward for the crewmember who first sights Moby Dick, the white whale. When Moby Dick is eventually sighted, a disastrous three-day chase begins. Entangled by the line of his own harpoon, Ahab falls overboard and drowns as the whale dives and takes him along.
Peleg refers to Ahab respectfully as a "grand, ungodly, god-like man" but he is also nicknamed "Old Thunder".
Played by the actors
Filmography of Ahab (7 films)
Add to a movie list
2010: Moby Dick (2010)
, 1h27Directed by Trey Stokes
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Science fiction, Thriller, Action, Adventure, Horror
Themes Films about animals, Seafaring films, Transport films, Cétacé, Submarine films, Films about disabilities, Mise en scène d'un cétacé
Actors Barry Bostwick, Renée O'Connor, Adam Grimes, Aisha Tyler, Andrea Roth, Jay Beyers
Rating24%
The film begins in November 20, 1969, 50 miles off Soviet waters. When the USS Acushnet dives under the ice, a young Ahab listens for enemy subs when suddenly he detects an unknown target. When the captain listens, he hears nothing, but Ahab insists in the presence of an emptiness. The target dives into a trench, but the captain abandons his search in favor of photographing the target. The target attacks the submarine as Ahab hears a roar. The sub is brought to the icy surface, and the target identifies itself as a gigantic, white, whale-like creature. Ahab survives, but loses his leg to the beast when it hauls the other half of the sub back underwater.
The Pagemaster (1994)
, 1h15Directed by Joe Johnston, Pixote Hunt
Origin USA
Genres Science fiction, Fantasy, Adventure, Animation
Themes L'adolescence, Films about education, Films about children, Films about magic and magicians, Seafaring films, Transport films, Pirate films, Films about dragons, L'enfance marginalisée, Children's films, Films about school violence
Actors Macaulay Culkin, Christopher Lloyd, Ed Begley Jr., Mel Harris, Patrick Stewart, Whoopi Goldberg
Rating61%
Pessimistic Richard Tyler (Macaulay Culkin) lives life based on statistics and fears everything. His exasperated parents (Ed Begley, Jr. and Mel Harris) have tried multiple ways to build up the courage of their son, but to little success. Richard is sent to buy a bag of nails for building a treehouse. However, Richard gets caught in a harsh thunderstorm and takes shelter in a library. He meets Mr. Dewey (Christopher Lloyd), an eccentric librarian who gives him a library card, despite Richard's protests he doesn't want a book, since he's only there to escape the storm. Searching for a phone, Richard finds a large rotunda painted with famous literary characters. He slips on some water dripping from his coat and falls down, knocking himself out. Richard awakens to find the rotunda art melting, which washes over him and the library, turning them into illustrations.
Hustle (1975)
, 1h55Directed by Robert Aldrich
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Comedy, Action, Crime
Themes Films about sexuality, Films about prostitution
Actors Burt Reynolds, Catherine Deneuve, Ben Johnson, Paul Winfield, Eileen Brennan, Eddie Albert
Rating61%
When the body of a young woman is found on an isolated beach, Lieutenant Phil Gaines and his partner, Sergeant Louis Belgrave, are the weary and bitter LAPD detectives assigned to the homicide investigation. They conclude, with the support of the coroner's report, that the victim, a hooker and known drug user named Gloria Hollinger, committed suicide using pills.
Moby Dick (1956)
, 1h55Directed by John Huston
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Action, Adventure
Themes Films about animals, Seafaring films, Transport films, Films about the labor movement, Cétacé, Films about disabilities, Mise en scène d'un cétacé
Actors Gregory Peck, Richard Basehart, Leo Genn, Orson Welles, Ronald Lacey, James Robertson Justice
Rating72%
Set in 19th-century New England, the story follows the whaling ship Pequod and its crew. Leading them is Captain Ahab, who was almost killed in an encounter with the "great white whale", Moby Dick. Now he is out for revenge. With the crew that has joined him, Ahab is out to destroy the huge sea mammal, but his obsession with vengeance is so great that he cannot turn back, eventually leading to the death of Ahab and all of his crew, save his newest able seaman, Ishmael.
Demon of the Sea (1931)
, 1h21Directed by William Dieterle, Michael Curtiz
Origin USA
Genres Drama
Themes Films about animals, Seafaring films, Transport films, Films about disabilities
Actors William Dieterle, Lissy Arna, Anton Pointner, Karl Etlinger, Philipp Lothar Mayring, Bert Sprotte
Rating42%
Moby Dick (1930)
, 1h20Directed by Lloyd Bacon
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Adventure, Romance
Themes Films about animals, Seafaring films, Transport films, Cétacé, Films about disabilities, Mise en scène d'un cétacé
Actors John Barrymore, Joan Bennett, Walter Long, Lloyd Hughes, Noble Johnson, Nigel De Brulier
Rating56%
The film tells of a sea captain's maniacal quest for revenge on a great white whale who has bitten off his leg. Ahab meets and falls in love with the daughter of the local minister, after disembarking in New Bedford. She falls in love with Barrymore and is heartbroken when he leaves on another voyage. During his next voyage, Ahab loses his leg to a large white whale. When he returns to New Bedford, he mistakenly believes that the woman he loves no longer wants to see him due to his disfigurement. He vows revenge against the whale, and to kill it or be killed in the process, and returns to sea.
The Sea Beast (1926)
, 2h16Directed by Millard Webb
Origin USA
Genres Fantasy, Action, Adventure, Romance
Themes Films about animals, Seafaring films, Transport films, Films about disabilities
Actors John Barrymore, Dolores Costello, George O'Hara, Sōjin Kamiyama, George Berrell, Mathilde Comont
Rating61%
At the beginning of the story, Ahab (John Barrymore) and his half brother Derek (George O'Hara) compete for the affections of a winsome minister's daughter, Esther Wiscasset (Dolores Costello). Meanwhile, an albino whale has been eluding harpooners, and bears the scars of many failed attacks against him. The animal's fame has reached epic proportions. One day, Ahab and Derek are on the same whaler as the whale heaves into view. Ahab raises his harpoon to kill the beast, but at that moment, Derek pushes him overboard and Ahab loses a right leg to the whale. Not long after this incident, the shallow Esther rebuffs Ahab as her suitor once she catches sight of his peg leg. Heartbroken at this turn of events, Ahab blames neither Esther nor his brother; instead he transfers blame and an undying hatred onto the whale. The following saga of Ahab's pursuit of the whale takes on the aura of a super-human quest, far beyond the proportions of its first motivation.