Milo Thatch & Helga Sinclair Parallels/Dynamic and Relationship with Lyle Rourke in Atlantis: The Lost Empire
The subtle narrative tissue linking Helga Sinclair and Milo Thatch in Atlantis: The Lost Empire isn't something that's been explored too much up till now. At first glance these are individuals who seem to be both extreme visual and internal opposites, characters that have very little in common. Peel back those initial layers however, and you get a very interesting set of parallels between them lasting for much of the film's runtime.
The first point of interest to analyze this is their very first scene together, when they meet in Milo's apartment. Heretofore the viewer has already spent a decent amount of time with Milo, seeing him stumble through what has likely not been his first attempt to sell his ideas/prove himself to Fenton Harcourt (and likely other board directors) at the Smithsonian. Once he enters his apartment we're introduced to the elegant, mysterious Helga Sinclair—a woman of supreme confidence who offers an incredibly stark contrast to the man she comes to offer a deal to. Even visually you get a nice disparity between them: Helga in her dark black dress, while Milo's outfit here consists of a lighter ensemble. Milo is visually more open and known to the audience, whereas Helga is an enigma at this point, potentially an ally or antagonist (or possibly something in between).
I think it's important here to introduce their respective backgrounds going into this meeting. If you refer to Helga's character file, it's discovered that she has a very unconventional past for a woman of this particular time period. Though she was encouraged at a young age to pursue dance by her mother, eventually her interests led her on the path towards learning skills suited for combat. This would have obviously been an extremely difficult field for her to break into, as the full scrutiny of Victorian era attitudes was no doubt brought to bear upon her by just about everyone who knew what she was up to. Misogynistic attitudes from men (and those perpetuated by women of the day) must especially have been extremely grueling. All of this was also no doubt exacerbated by Helga's father, Alexander Sinclair, utilizing his own pull within the military in an attempt to make things easier for her. Despite all of this, Helga nevertheless persisted in her studies, and eventually her aptitude for military service garnered her the attention of one Commander Lyle Tiberius Rourke while she was stationed in Maryland circa 1894.
This was an extremely important point in Helga's life. A man with no small amount of authority noticed her talent and provided her with an opportunity to put it to good use. At his behest she thereafter moved to Fort Dix to learn tactics and firearms training under his tutelage. This in turn led to her traveling with Commander Rourke on expeditions in the early 1900s, events which no doubt cemented her loyalty to him. This bond remained strong when they both eventually left the army and entered the services of Whitmore Industries, with Helga specifically being recommended personally by Rourke to Preston B. Whitmore. As we know, this led to her becoming Whitmore's personal bodyguard and chauffeur.
Bringing this back to Milo's first interaction with Whitmore's shadowy employee, there's an intriguing parallel trajectory that the film's protagonist has mirrored with Helga in his own life which leads him to that point. Though initially he does have an easier time breaking into his chosen field of study, propelled forward by his archaeological enthusiast grandfather (and father figure) Thaddeus Thatch, and even gaining entrance Oxford in 1896, once Milo entered the Smithsonian Institute as a linguist his career was brought to a screeching halt. This was due to his obsession with the discovery of Atlantis—due to his own childhood fascination with it, and his desire to pick up where his grandfather left off. HIs intention was to convince the board of directors that once the Shepherd's Journal (a book on Atlantis located in Iceland) was found, it would provide the means to locate the lost city. He was not taken seriously by the board of directors, and no funds or other resources were ever approved to allow him to get an expedition off the ground.
Like Helga, Milo was reduced to struggling for years in a system that looked down on him and his efforts. Through his own hard work he'd advanced quite far in his field, but as in Helga's case there was a certain point at which it simply became difficult to advance further. It was only when she, acting on the behalf of Lyle Rourke, who himself was using Preston Whitmore as a means to gain access to the potential wealth offered by Atlantis, extended an offer to accompany an expedition attempting to locate the city. This brought Milo out of the stagnation that his position at the Smithsonian was causing him to feel. At last, his talents were recognized in a way that was very similar to what had happened to Helga. Preston Whitmore was indeed the central catalyst for bringing the various members of the expedition together, but it must be remembered that Rourke knew all about the Shepherd's Journal and the page regarding the Atlantean crystal by this time. He absolutely played a role in influencing Whitmore to act when he did in securing Milo's services. One wonders what the commander's intentions were for the linguist at this point. Did Rourke initially want to get a feel for Milo and see whether or not he could turn the idealist to his side of thinking? Did he only want to utilize his knowledge and then discard him immediately afterwards?
Given how Rourke does eventually attempt to convince Milo to join him after he reveals the expedition's true purpose in the middle of the film, I do think he was hopeful that there was a slight possibility of success. Years prior he had expertly scouted out a singular talent in Helga Sinclair, taken the young woman under his wing, and molded an extremely loyal and capable lieutenant out of her. I think it can be argued that he had a very similar purpose with regards to Milo, whether this was at the forefront of his mind or not. With this taken into consideration, the meeting between Milo and Helga in the former's apartment becomes even more recontextualized and fascinating. When the linguist lays his eyes on the lieutenant he's literally looking directly at a potential future for himself. Rourke is essentially acting through his agent to snatch up Milo like he snatched her up. If Milo had given in and joined Rourke, perhaps he'd become just as loyal and efficient of a left hand for the commander as Helga was his right. We know that Milo was arguably too much of an idealist for this to happen, but it may have been what Rourke was hoping for. With Milo's mind added to Helga's already considerable list of skills, the commander would have been utterly unstoppable in any future expedition. That in and of itself would have been worth as much if not more than the Atlantean crystal itself. You can even see them sort of resembling a trio working together in the Atlantean Crystal Chamber. They’re all in the same frame, all curious about what’s happening with Kida. It’s a bit of a phantom suggestion of that potential future where Milo took up Rourke on his offer.
The connective narrative tissue between Helga and Milo, with one as a student/personal enforcer of Rourke's in the case of the former, and a potential one in the case of the latter, permeates the entire movie. In a sign of how similar she is to her commander, Helga explicitly makes note of Milo's abilities when he's giving the crew a presentation about the route to Atlantis on the Ulysses. Rourke gives her a knowing look here. It's a demonstration of how good her and Rourke are as a pair because they notice the same things and genuinely appreciate talent and competency where they find it. Helga treats Milo with respect throughout the film, and even after she turns on him with the rest of the crew she is still somewhat sensitive to Milo's point of view. I've talked about this in a previous post, but when Kida falls over in the crystal chamber and Milo gives her an admonishing look, she is genuinely taken aback and clearly feels a degree of shame.
Returning to the more general path of these characters as students of Rourke, Helga's steadfast loyalty to Rourke (and her greed) puts her in direct opposition with Milo in the battle at the end of the movie. Her skill and martial prowess is not enough to overcome the way the linguist comes up with a plan to overwhelm both her and Rourke by employing his knowledge as an archaeologist, as well as a less conventional approach, in taking them down. This is where you really feel the fact that if Rourke had been able to turn Milo no one could have stood against the three of them. Even at the very end, Rourke recognizes just how dangerous of an opponent the linguist truly is (side note: this is just my personal opinion here, but I do think that if he'd been able to find a way to come out of the expedition with Helga, Milo, and the Atlantean crystal if possible, at the expense of losing the entire rest of the expedition, Rourke would have been okay with that).
The commander's betrayal of his lieutenant is where we see the connective dynamic between Helga and Milo reach its climax. With Rourke throwing away such a strong relationship that's lasted for two decades at this point, we can understand that the same thing may well have occurred to Milo at some point in the future. Rourke is revealed as opportunistic and willing to throw away the talent he'd taken so long to cultivate. Helga, likely unwilling to believe this of a man who did so much for her, has tethered herself to a cause that will inevitably lead to her own demise. Milo, on the other hand, has no such tether and in the refusal of Rourke's offer ends up saving himself.
In spite of their differences, we see both "students" fighting against Rourke at the very end. Both of them are unable to defeat the commander in a purely physical contest. It is only together that they are fully able to finish him off (even though they do not knowingly or willingly work together). Helga kicks Rourke around before being thrown out of the Gyro-Evac, then Milo comes in after her and immediately picks up where she left off after damaging the aircraft. Rourke gives Milo a beating before Helga again changes the dynamic of the fight by firing her flare gun at the Gyro-Evac, crippling it. Rourke becomes desperate, and Milo is able to take advantage of this, cutting his foe with a shard of Atlantean crystal-infused glass, which turns him into a crystalline monster which is destroyed by one of the Gyro-Evac's large fans. Rourke is thus ended by both his own lieutenant and a linguist who Lyle wanted on his side.
Milo and Helga start Atlantis as people on similar trajectories: one who has already taken the path of being under Rourke's mentorship, and one who may have gone down that same route but in the end chose not to. The decisions they make cause them to branch off in diverging directions as a secondary antagonist and protagonist respectively, but their parallels with each other and connections to Rourke demonstrate just how much the lines between one path in life and another can be blurred.
