The work of Jules Verne continues to entertain movie and TV fans even if his books are less popular than they once were. So if you don’t know anything about Captain Nemo other than vague pop cultural references or having only seen the Disney adaptation of 20,000 Leagues Under the sea, I’ve put together a cheat list all about Captain Nemo in the form of this handy downloadable pdf.

The first half bullet points Nemo’s publishing history, appearance and backstory, while the second half highlights the most significant of Nemo’s big and small screen adaptations.

And I’ve included the text underneath if you don’t wish to download the pdf.

I hope you enjoy and feel free to share!

Your cut-out-and-keep guide to Captain Nemo

Created by the French novelist Jules Verne, Captain Nemo appears in two of Verne’s adventure books, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870) and The Mysterious Island (1875).

Nemo is described as “a tall, self-contained man with a straight nose, broad brow, and wide-set eyes [and] the most wonderful physical specimen”.

A billionaire, genius and philanthropist, Nemo wishes to live in isolation, hence his name, Nemo is Latin for ‘no one’ or ‘nobody’. 

In early drafts of 20,00 Leagues, Nemo is as a Polish noble, bent on avenging the murder of his family by Russian forces.

Verne’s editor Pierre-Jules Hetzel feared this might offend Verne’s many Russian readers, so 20,000 Leagues conceals Nemo’s background and political motivations.

In The Mysterious Island we learn Nemo is really Prince Dakkar, son of the Hindu raja of Bundelkhand. Sent to Europe at the age of ten to be educated, the prince developed a hatred of England and vowed never to set foot on “the cursed soil of the nation to which India owed her subjugation”. 

The young prince sought “revenge and redress against the British oppressors” and returned to India in 1849, where he married a noble woman and had two children. Then he fought in “the first rank” of the 1857 First War of Independence against the British during which the British put a price on his head and the prince’s family were murdered.

Disgusted by “everything that bore the name man, and consumed by hatred and horror of the civilised world”,  the prince gathered twenty loyal followers and “quit the society of humankind”, and renamed himself Nemo. 

Devoting himself to scientific research, Nemo builds his technologically advanced submarine, the Nautilus, and sails the oceans with his all-male crew.

The Nautilus has electric propulsion units, navigational systems and electric defence systems and was inspired by a model of the Plongeur, a French Navy submarine, which Verne had seen in Paris at the International Exposition of 1867.

The motto of the Nautilus was Mobilis in mobili, a Latin phrase which translates as “Moving within a moving element”.

The captain has an exhaustive knowledge of marine biology and visits the ruins of Atlantis, as well as navigating a fictitious tunnel under the Isthmus of Suez. 

Despite cursing empires and tyrants, Nemo claims Antartica as his own domain by erecting a banner on it.

Fluent in French, English, Latin, Greek, German, and Hindi, Nemo has also invented a new language that he and his crew use to communicate with each other.

Nemo claims to have no interest in terrestrial affairs but similar to Humphrey Bogart’s character in the movie Casablanca, Rick Blaine, Nemo’s aloof pose is not supported by his actions.

Nemo gathers bullion from various shipwrecks in the ocean and gives the treasure to Cretan revolutionaries to aid their fight against the island’s Turkish rulers.

In 20,000 Leagues, Nemo rescues three men accidentally cast overboard from a ship he has attacked and takes them on a seven month trip around the globe. They are Professor Arronax, his servant Conseil, and a harpooner called Ned Land, who all survive the journey.

In The Mysterious Island, Nemo covertly protects and assists a set of US Civil War castaways who crash in a hot balloon on his remote Pacific island home.

20,000 Leagues portrays Nemo as an all-action villain and mastermind, whereas in The Mysterious Island, a story that draws on Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Nemo is older and more reflective, and achieves redemption by saving the lives of the castaways.

Similar to those other oft-filmed literary characters, James Bond and Sherlock Holmes, Nemo is killed by his creator at the end of 20,000 Leagues.

Nemo and the Nautilus are swallowed by the Maelstrom, a giant whirlpool in the North Atlantic.

However his death occurs off-stage, allowing Nemo, like Bond and Holmes, to return at the insistence of his fans.

But this return causes problems in continuity. In 20,000 Leagues Nemo’s age is between “thirty-five or fifty years of age,” and it takes place from 1866 to 1868.

But by the time of The Mysterious Island, the captain is in his late sixties and sports a long white beard. Yet the book begins in1865 and ends in 1869. Nemo claims to have been at sea for thirty years and claims the Nautilus was swallowed by the Maelstrom “sixteen years ago”.

This puts the events of 20,000 Leagues sometime around the year 1853, before the First War of Independence which claimed the lives of his family.

Nemo dies a second time in The Mysterious Island, this time  of unspecified natural causes, and is given the last rites on board the Nautilus. Then the submarine is destroyed in a volcanic explosion which also destroys Nemo’s Mysterious Island home.

Significant portrayals of Nemo in cinema

Under the Seas (1907)

Sadly most of this delightful silent short film parody of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by French cinematic pioneer, Georges Méliès is now lost. Nemo appears briefly alongside fantastical fish, dancing underwater nymphs, slapstick and spectacle.

The addition of women to Nemo’s adventures is a welcome correction as women are almost entirely excluded from Verne’s stories of Nemo.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916)

Despite the name, this broadly faithful adaptation combines both Nemo novels and is a globetrotting epic full of action, adventure, romance and comedy that’s breathtaking in its pioneering use of underwater photography. 

Typical of the racism of era, Nemo is played in brownface, however at least the film foregoes whitewashing and adheres to Verne’s vision of Nemo as a wronged Indian Prince seeking revenge.

Read the full review here

The Mysterious Island (1929)

This epic sci-fi melodrama feature is absolutely terrific fun and though there’s an absence of Verne in terms of character or story, the author’s spirit is in every frame for his spirit of adventure, love of exploration, sublime imagination and a moving, respectful finale which reveals the filmmakers were more than familiar with the author’s work.

And fans of TV’s Dr Who may appreciate the concept of an irascible older scientist accompanied on his futuristic vessel by two younger, attractive and two-fisted companions, one of whom is his daughter.

Although the name of Nemo is never mentioned, Lionel Barrymore – grandfather of actress Drew – plays Count Andre Dakkar, a white European aristocrat, rather than an Indian Prince. 

Read the full review here

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)

The definitive big screen and big budget adaptation is a handsomely-staged family adventure, mostly remembered for Kirk Douglas star performance and the fabulously designed Nautilus. 

Yet there’s also a surprising number of Cold War concerns bubbling beneath the surface, making this hugely entertaining version far more interesting than most subsequent adaptations.

Nemo is played by white British actor, James Mason, and the his backstory nods to the Holocaust rather than the Indian War of Independence.

Read the full review here

Mysterious Island (1961)

An unofficial sequel to Disney’s 1954 adaptation of 20,000 Leagues, this sci-fi fantasy family adventure is a showcase for the sublime talent of stop-motion maestro Ray Harryhausen who introduces into Verne’s world giant bees, which also appear in Dwayne Johnson’s 2012 adaptation, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island.

Best remembered for his role as an agitated police inspector in Peter Sellers’ Pink Panther franchise, Herbert Lom appears as Nemo, and though the Czech-born actor’s accent gives Nemo a sense of being ‘other’, he doesn’t claim to be a deposed Indian prince.

And far from having a grudge against the British Empire, Nemo is trying to solve the world’s food crisis. Lom’s late entrance in the film as Nemo is echoed by Nicole Kidman in 2018’s superhero movie, Aquaman.

Read the full review here

The Stolen Airship (1967)

A delirious fusion of live-action and animation very loosely based on The Mysterious Island, this glorious fantasy is a heady kaleidoscope of boys’ own adventure, wild invention, political satire and knockabout action, with occasional moments of whimsy and a huge amount of humour.

With it’s love of steampunk tech, a fairground rumpus, zeppelin, an incompetent bowler-hatted spy, and with a corrupt official and his glamorous wife bearing more than passing resemblance to Baron Bomburst and his wife, it seems to have been a considerable influence on the Cubby Broccoli’s 1968 family musical fantasy, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

There’s only a brief meeting with Captain Nemo, who’s portrayed as a tech-loving Methuselah, while his submarine, the Nautilus, is handily labelled ‘Nautilus’. Both Nemo and his submarine bear a passing resemblance to the pilot of the Yellow Submarine, from The Beatles animated film of the following year.

Read the full review here

La isla misteriosa y el capitán Nemo (1973)

Co-directed by Juan Antonio Bardem, the uncle of actor Oscar-winner and James Bond 007 villain, Javier Bardem, this Spanish production swaps the action packed thrills and larger than life monsters for the undimmed star wattage of Egyptian superstar Omar Sharif as Nemo and plenty of political commentary.

Although initially dressed in Flash Gordon’s wedding outfit, Nemo later appears in a turban and Nehru jacket, reflecting Nemo’s Indian heritage.
Nemo employs electronic weaponised surveillance devices to spy on the shipwrecked POW’s, and as well as drawing on Shakespeare’s The Tempest, this is reminiscent of 1967’s British avant-garde sci-fi TV series, The Prisoner, an idea also used later in the 1995’s Canadian adaption of The Mysterious Island.

Read the full review here

Mysterious Island (1995)

This lengthy and largely location-set Canadian & New Zealand TV adaptation is built on the intriguing premise of Captain Nemo being the bad guy; a psychopath enjoys playing mind games with people instead of helping them.

In a knowing riff on how Shakespeare’s, The Tempest, Nemo is played with theatrical relish by John Bach, who shoots down the castaways hot air balloon to use them as lab rats in a series of experiments to explore the limits of human psychological endurance.

Read the full review here

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1997)

A two-part mini-series which is built around the star power of Oscar winner Michael Caine. Sadly a more than game Michael Caine is too old to play the action adventurer version of Nemo this adaptation wants him to be and he’s too young to play the elderly nearly departed Nemo of The Mysterious Island.

Having played Nemo in 1995’s Mysterious Island (above), John Bach plays the kidnapped Professor Arronax, but neither he nor Caine can do much with the uninspired script but it’s much superior to the same-titled movie staring Ben Cross of the same year.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)

Not an adaptation of Verne but a Sean Connery vehicle based on Alan Moore’s typically dense graphic novel.

Notable for the first casting of an Indian actor in the role of Nemo in a major Hollywood production and Naseeruddin Shah brings a dignity to his supporting role. 

The design of the Nautilus is magnificent, though both Nemo and the Nautilus are used mainly as a way of ferrying the League around the globe.

Mysterious Island (2005)

Giant bees feature again in this Hallmark TV movie which seems injured into existence on the basis of being a convenient and vaguely swashbuckling intellectual property to be exploited in the wake of the blockbuster box office success of 2003’s Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.
It’s mostly notable for Patrick Stewart bringing some Shakespearean gravitas to the role of Captain Nemo, with this version of Nemo being Englishman raised in India who committed acts of war against the British Empire after it killed his wife and child.

Read the full review here

Journey 2 Mysterious Island (2012)

A light-hearted romp given some oomph by game cast, not least Dwayne Johnson for whom this serves as the point his position as the go-to lead in Hollywood family-friendly action adventure films began to strengthen. 

Nemo ‘appears’ as the non-animate skeleton of a pirate captain and there’s return of giant bees, this time rendered in not-great CGI.
Having a lot more fun than when he actually played Nemo (see above), a safari-suited Michael Caine is the only castaway on the island and is Nemo in all but name. 

But without the name or the Nautilus, Caine’s not much more than the equivalent of a video game NPC, providing advice, information and equipment for our heroes.

Dwayne Johnson later starred in 2017’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, in many ways a beat for beat remake of this, with Caine being replaced by Rhys Darby in a near-identical role.

And watching them back to back you see how Verne’s work and sense of adventure continues to influence Hollywood.

Nautilus (TBA, slated late 2023, accurate time of publishing)

It’s reported on IMDB the Disney+ series will portray Nemo as an Indian prince who’s a prisoner of the East India Company and has been robbed of his birthright and family.

Bent on revenge Nemo set sail with his ragtag crew on board the awe-inspiring Nautilus, battling foes and discovering magical underwater worlds.

Known for his role as Ash Tyler on Star Trek: Discovery, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in Penny Dreadful, Shazad Latif is a British actor of mixed Pakistani, English and Scottish descent, and the first actor leading a major production to accurately represent Nemo’s heritage.

ENDS

This was brought to you by Nemo’s Fury, a digital gamebook based on the novels of Jules Verne. Nemo’s Fury, which is available to download now to your smartphone or tablet from your app store. Or buy as a paperback from Amazon.

What will you do when you’re abducted by a machiavellian aristocrat armed with an extraordinary submarine, the Nautilus?

Direct your own adventure with the legendary Captain Nemo and his incredible crew. Explore the globe! Battle giant squid, sharks and cyborgs! And try to unravel the mystery of Nemo’s masterplan.

Nemo’s Fury is available on your smartphone or tablet, just open your app store and download. Check out Nemosfury.com for more info!

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