Captain Nemo

He said that when he was somewhere in about the seventh grade, there was a reissue of the Disney film, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

And sitting there watching that total fantasy of science fiction, he walked out saying, when I grow up, I'm going to be Captain Nemo.

So you fall in love with it for other reasons.

I have it.

that he'd like to keep himself in a way a mysterious character, someone about whom you have to infer things, guess things and so on.

I mean, for one of his most famous films, Captain Nemo in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, What do we know about Nemo? Nothing.

Nothing about why he's so vengeful.

Nothing about how the Nautilus was built.

Kirk Douglas

and Gregory Peck as Captain Nemo.

Brilliant set design, special effects and everything.

It was pretty state of the art for that time up until I think James Cameron's The Abyss had the longest underwater action sequences.

There's a lot of, at that time, sci-fi stuff that's happening.

But his characters are interesting.

So we've got Captain Nemo, Professor Aranax.

Ned Land, Konsei, we've got these characters, and especially Nemo is a fascinating character in literature.

In the Jules Verne classic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, who is the skipper of the submarine? Pierre Cousteau.

Captain Nemo.

Menace.

Back in 1989, what tanker spilled over 10 million gallons of crude oil off the coast of Alaska?

But who are you, sir?

My name, Captain Harding, it is and will never be other than Captain Nemo.

Nemo? The famous, the famous Captain Nemo of the Nautilus?

You under 20,000 leagues under the sea, the same.

But, but I thought, well, uh, well, most people believe that you and your fabulous undersea craft were destroyed.

We left the island as we came, leaving every possession with weight behind.

Oh, we sailed bravely away on the Bonaventure, wallowing in the sea.

We had been forced there by the prophecy of Captain Nemo when the center of the island started to spout fire and later brimstone, and the whole earth had rolled in a terrifying warning that the island was about to blow up.

Actually, that's a good example of something that surprised everyone.

And Captain Nemo, of course.

And so the father figure, the devouring father who might as well be holding a trident, you know, he's that sort of figure.

And then the other thing I recognised, and this again shows my appalling taste in film possibly, is the body horror aspect of it, the Cronenberg.

10 out of 10.

Captain Nemo.

Yes.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

You know, when I was 10 years old, I was sitting on the dock in eastern Canada on the end of a pier reading Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

And when I was 10 years old, I said to myself, that's who I want to be, Captain Nemo.

And that's what I followed through on all this time.

So I've never had any regrets or doubts about doing that.