Morgan Sinclair is the main antagonist of the 2006 action-adventure film The Curse of King Tut's Tomb. He is an Egyptologist who is secretly a member of the Hellfire Club, who intended to dominate the world by seeking the four pieces of a mystical tablet that would enable them to obtain the power of Set. He's also Danny Fremont's rival.
He was portrayed by Jonathan Hyde, who also portrayed Van Pelt from Jumanji.
Personality[]
Morgan Sinclair is a power-hungry psychopath who finds evil to be more fun than good. He likes to antagonize Danny Fremont at every opportunity he can, and desires to conquer the world via the power of Set. Due to the continuous mistreatments he received from Hellfire Club's leader, Nathan Cairns, Sinclair seeks to overthrow him and eventually succeeds at the end of the movie.
Role[]
Sinclair is a member of the Hellfire Club, led by Nathan Cairns, who intended to dominate the world by seeking the four pieces of a mystical tablet that would enable them to obtain the power of Set. When Danny Fremont found three pieces of the tablet, Sinclair stole them from him. He later used his influence to damage his reputation, removing him from his position as a writer and a university professor.
While Cairns began losing his patience with him, Sinclair searched for the fourth piece of the tablet inside King Tut’s tomb, which Fremont unsuccessfully tried to trick him into digging in the wrong place by planting Tutankhamen’s gold mask. He eventually found the tomb after Fremont and his crew dug it up, though as Fremont placed an ancient Greek lock on the door Sinclair couldn’t get in, so he planned to blow it up with dynamite, but his plans were foiled when Fremont got the press involved.
After Fremont hid the fourth tablet piece, Sinclair kidnapped Fremont, tortured him for the location of the tablet, and eventually tried to mummify him, from which he was rescued by his teammates as Sinclair was about to remove his brain through his nose.
Sinclair sent his spy, Margaretha Zelle, to get the tablet’s location from Fremont. Fremont was suspicious of her and told her a false story, which Sinclair saw through, smacking Margaretha in the face. So he gave Fremont’s teammate, Andrew Walker, the cure for his terminal tuberculosis, in exchange for the tablet’s location, also offering him money. Following Walker’s directions, Sinclair found the tablet, but instead of paying Walker, he killed him.
Entering the tomb with the rest of the Hellfire Council, Sinclair put the tablet together and absorbed its power. Using his new power, he absorbed one of his own men, which was witnessed by Margaretha, causing her to leave his side. Meanwhile, Cairns told his right hand man, George Russell, to kill Sinclair, as he no longer had use of him. Russell sent his top assassin, but Sinclair used his power to force him to commit suicide. Then he sent Set’s army of demons to kill Fremont, before incinerating the entire Hellfire Council, starting with Russell and ending with Cairns, while declaring his intent to unleash Set upon the world.
With help from Margaretha, Fremont and his team stole the tablet back from Sinclair. Sinclair and his minions followed Fremont’s team deep into the tomb, escaping a room with a lowering ceiling which crushed some of his minions. As Fremont and his team made their way through the portal into the underworld, Sinclair shot and killed Mahmoud, and Margaretha held him off allowing the others to go through the portal, and Sinclair presumably killed her as well before entering the underworld. He later absorbed his assistant, Prakesh, when he expressed fear at the underworld’s obstacles.
When Fremont’s team found and released Tutankhamen, Sinclair confronted them, absorbing Yunan Heikal and Jacques Belmond while apparently killing Jason McGreevy as well, before releasing Set from his imprisonment. Upon awakening, Set absorbed Sinclair, thus killing him.
Trivia[]
- He is similar to René Belloq, much like the protagonist of the film, Danny Fremont, is similar to Indiana Jones. Also, the scene with the lowering ceiling that he enters is reminiscent of the spike room in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, playing a similar theme.