Characters / Noah

Noah's Family

Noah

Noah

Played By: Russell Crowe & Dakota Goyo

• Adaptational Badass: This version of Noah is a tough-as-nails badass, taking down three men by himself.
• Anti-Hero: Noah's belief makes him shift constantly between heroic and villainous. His solid, solemn belief and despair lead him to commit extremely questionable acts such as allowing possibly innocent people to die, telling his family that they are full of sin and should die along with him eventually, and he even promises to kill Ila's children as he believes the human race is intended for complete extermination. For the second half of the film, he's practically the main antagonist. His entire family are terrified of him and with very good reason.
• Anti-Heroic Vegetarian: Noah despises the idea of eating meat. Doesn't stop him from doing all that morally ambiguous shit he does in the second half of the film.
• Archnemesis Dad: Noah ends up in this role after announcing to his family that they all must simply live out their lives and die without procreating, and then promises to kill Ila's children. They quickly become very scared of him.
• Better with Non-Human Company: Outside of his own family or the watchers he rightfully avoids other humans.
• Big Bad: To his family once they're on the Ark. It's like being trapped with a psychopath. Especially when another one has stowed away onto the Ark.
• Big "NO!": When he finds out Ila is pregnant.
• Byronic Hero: Flawed, angsty, passionate (outright fanatical) with his beliefs, an exile who lives far from the industrial civilization of Cain, an opposing philosophy that he wishes to impose upon the world, self destructive - this depiction of Noah has all the traits of being one of these.
• Dark Messiah: He will save the world, even if it means dooming all of humanity to perish in The Great Flood.
• Despair Event Horizon: When he sees the horrors of the Cainite camp, Noah becomes convinced that all of humanity must perish.
• Drowning My Sorrows: He lapses into this, making his own alcohol to get drunk off his ass after the Ark finally lands.
• Everyone Has Standards: Even genocide-assisting Noah cannot bring himself to kill his newborn grandchildren.
• Jerkass: While he's not actively mean, Noah is a mostly humorless and self-righteous man who readily judges others, including his own family. He's dour and downright scary to the point of terrorizing his own family.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: However he readily rescues (and eventually adopts) Ila when she needs help, defends helpless animals, is very protective of his family (at the start anyway), and eventually relearns mercy when he spares the life of his granddaughters.
• Humans Are Bastards: He believes that the human race has become so evil that the creator not only desires all humans besides his family perish in the flood but even him and his own family should only live long enough to ensure the safe passage of the animals on the Ark then eventually go extinct with no new generation.
• Misanthrope Supreme: While he's always hated and judged the other men of the world, he slides completely into this when he comes to believe that no human, not even his family, should survive the cleansing.
• Nature Hero: A more gritty and moody version, he is willing to go toe-to-toe with three men at once to defend the life of an injured animal they are pursuing and tells his son that they should only harvest plants they will actually use when he picks a flower.
• Offing the Offspring: Noah plans to do it to his own grandchildren in order to prevent the human race from continuing after the flood.
• Omnicidal Maniac: The result of his Sanity Slippage is a horrific belief that everyone needs to die.
• Papa Wolf: He admits that he would kill to save his children, but sees this as a flaw in himself.
• Sanity Slippage: Noah's internal doubt, confusion and guilt quietly drive him to the brink of insanity. It's a much more subdued insanity then is normally depicted: he becomes a withdrawn Perpetual Frowner who nonetheless believes completely that murdering babies is the right thing to do.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Nothing, absolutely nothing, will stop Noah from fulfilling the task set to him. He fully believes that God wants him to leave humanity to fall into extinction while saving the animals with his ark, however he finds no joy in it.
• You Killed My Father: To Tubal-Cain, although he doesn't actively seek revenge. He knows the Ark is more important.

Naameh

Naameh

Played By: Jennifer Connelly

• The Heart: Naameh does her best to mediate between Noah and the rest of the family, holding strong moral objections when Noah goes too far.
• Mama Bear: For her children and Ila. Noah points out that she would kill for her children, and considers it a flaw that makes her just as guilty as everyone else.

Ila

Ila

Played By: Emma Watson & Skyler Burke

• But I Can't Be Pregnant!: She was stabbed as a child, and is subsequently infertile. Methuselah is able to get her pregnant...by healing her infertiliy, not the other thing.
• Mama Bear: For her newborn children.

Ham

Ham

Played By: Logan Lerman & Nolan Gross

• But Now I Must Go: He decides to leave and head out into the world, believing he can no longer trust his father.
• Corrupt the Cutie: Ham is slowly corrupted by the world around him and Tubal-Cain.

Shem

Shem

Played By: Douglas Booth & Gavin Casalegno

• Papa Wolf: He's willing to kill his own father to protect his children.

Japheth

Japheth

Played By: Leo McHugh Carroll

• Last of His Kind: Noah expected that Japheth, being the youngest person on the Ark, would become this once his family died of old age, leaving no heirs.

Methuselah

Methuselah

Played By: Anthony Hopkins & Thor Kjartansson

• Character Death: The flood kills him.
• Cool Old Guy: He's played by Anthony Hopkins, which ought to be enough. In addition, he's very much like Yoda, being both wise and very amusing.
• Face Death with Dignity: Methuselah opens his arms and welcomes the flood that washes him away.
• Hero of Another Story: We only get a brief glimpse of him battling the soldiers of Cain
• Humble Goal: Despite all his heroics in the past he doesn’t desire glory, acknowledgment for his deeds, or even to board the Ark with his descendants to live to see the new world, he only desires to taste berries before he passes.
• Mentor Archetype: His serves as one to his Grandson Noah who journey’s to seek his advice on interpreting the meaning of his dreams.
• One-Man Army: In his younger days, when he defeated an entire army with a flaming sword.
• Retired Badass: Methuselah prefers to relax in his cave than take down soldiers of Cain in his older years.
• Running Gag: His quest for berries.

Lamech

Lamech

Played By: Marton Csokas

• Character Death: He's killed early on by a young Tubal-Cain.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: He's only showed in the intro, where he gets killed by Tubal-Cain.

Cain Clan

Tubal-Cain

Tubal-Cain

Played By: Ray Winstone & Finn Wittrock

• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Tubal-Cain became King of the Cainites by being the toughest, smartest and most ruthless of them all.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: Kills and eats several animals aboard the Ark, essentially rendering them extinct.
• Big Bad: He's the main human antagonist.
• Character Death: Ham stabs him in the side when he's about to kill Noah.
• Corrupt the Cutie: Towards Ham.
• The Corrupter: Tubal-Cain quickly sets to work on Ham, easily manipulating him by playing on his desires, frustrations and anger.
• Evil Gloating: Toward Noah, when he says he will kill him and take his women.
• Evil Scars: His face is criss-crossed with scars.
• Exact Words: It ultimately didn't matter who Ham had to kill in order to become a man. Even if it was Tubal-Cain himself.
• A God Am I: With the world flooded clean, Tubal-Cain seeks to remake the world in his own image mostly because he's a power-hungry psychotic but also as a fuck-you to the Creator.
• Graceful Loser: After being fatally stabbed by Ham, Tubal-Cain merely smiles and proudly states that Ham has become a man.
• Jerkass Has a Point: He might be a savage monster, but he frequently makes good points about the brutality and ruthlessness inherent in Noah.
  Tubal-Cain: He abandoned your woman to die, and now he plans to kill your brother's firstborn. Are you going to tolerate that?
• Mirror Character: From Noah. Both have their Rage Against the Heavens moments, they're both determined men with strong personalities who consider themselves responsible for their people's survival. Tubal-Cain even becomes something of a father figure to Ham.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: He considers Noah to be his to kill, as shown when he knocks Shem out of the way when he's about to kill Noah.
• Rage Against the Heavens: Tubal-Cain has some severe issues with the Creator; he acknowledges the Creator's existence, but is deeply frustrated that he is judged as a wicked man despite, in his view, achieving a great deal and only doing what came naturally.
• Rape, Pillage, and Burn: The general rule of the Cainites is built around this being a good idea.
• Real Men Eat Meat: Part of the Cainite way of living is eating meat. Tubal-Cain explains to Ham that Man has dominion over the creatures of the Earth.
• A Real Man Is a Killer: His view of the world is shaped by this philosophy, which he passes on to Ham.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: He leads the assault on the Ark personally and before that forges his own weapons.
• We Can Rule Together: Offers this to Ham, who he takes something of a shine to.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Tubal-Cain is a mass-murdering lunatic, but he's also a highly intelligent man seemingly tortured by doubt, fear and intense feelings of abandonment.
• You Killed My Father: He murdered Noah's father when he was still a young man.

Na'el

Na'el

Played By: Madison Davenport

• Death by Adaptation: In the Book of Jubilees, Na'eltama'uk is the wife of Ham aboard the Ark.
• Hope Spot: Na'el almost has a chance to escape certain death with Ham, but is caught in a trap and subsequently killed.
• Kill the Cutie: Combined with Hope Spot... just as Ham and her are approaching the Ark, she's caught by a trap set up by the Cainites. After Noah abandons her she gets trampled by her own people.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: All we know about Na'el is that she is an innocent girl that Ham meets in the camp, and that she gets squashed by the other people after she gets her foot in a trap.

The Watchers

In General

• All There in the Script: According to the end credits, there are two other Watchers known as Magog and Rameel, voiced by Mark Margolis and Kevin Durand, respectively. Despite that, neither of them are identified in the film, nor do they speak.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: When their rock bodies are destroyed, they regain their angelic forms and return to Heaven.
• Death Equals Redemption: Sacrificing themselves to protect Noah and his family earns them the Creator's forgiveness.
• Defeat Equals Explosion: Which has the added bonus of taking out several nearby members of Cain's army when each one falls.
• Fallen Angel: They are angels who were marooned on Earth by the Creator as punishment for trying to interfere with humanity.
• Rock Monster: All the Watchers have this form.
• Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: None of them appear in any of the trailers or TV spots. This was probably done in order to avoid spoilers. However, Og is shown very briefly in a featurette for the film.
• You Shall Not Pass!: They hold the line to protect the Ark against Cain's followers and buy time until the flood arrives.

Og

Og

Voiced By: Frank Langella

• Heroic Sacrifice: During the attack on the Ark, Og rips himself apart to explode and keep Cain's followers at bay.
• Mr. Exposition: He helps explain who and what the Watchers are to Noah's family.

Samyaza

Samyaza

Voiced By: Nick Nolte (English), Alain Dorval (European French dub)

• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He, like many Watchers, hates humans. But upon finding out that Noah has been chosen to build the Ark by the Creator, he promptly stops his bickering and helps out.
• Redemption Equals Death: When he meets his end, he begs the Creator to forgive him. The Creator does.
  Og: The Creator brings him home!

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