Clayton

"Hiding, are we? Good! I could use a challenge, because after I get rid of you, rounding up your little ape family will be ALL TOO EASY!"

- Clayton taunting Tarzan Clayton is the main antagonist of Disney's 1999 animated film Tarzan, replacing the first act's antagonist, Sabor, shortly after her death.

Personality
Clayton initially appeared to be a chivalrous gentleman, albeit with a fragile temper and intolerance for treating the African expedition as a vacation experience, rather than a business endeavor, as the Porters were often sidetracked by sights and wildlife other than the gorillas. He was also shown a hint of hatred towards animals, and ignorance in terms of understanding them, believing gorillas to be savage beasts, in spite of Professor Porter's hypothesis that gorillas are generally social creatures. This also ties to Clayton's slight paranoia of the jungle, as he was shown to be overly protective of himself, as well as trigger-happy, blasting his gun the second he suspects that an animal, other than a gorilla, may be nearby.

As time goes on throughout the film, Clayton's patience with the Porters wanes thin, and with it, his true nature begins to unfold; one that is vicious, abusive, and conniving. By the time the climax comes forth, he is revealed to be a very sinister individual who was planning to make wealth from selling gorillas. According to the audio commentary of the Tarzan DVD, Clayton's actions during his final moments in the film were meant to mirror the film's initial antagonist, Sabor, thus symbolizing Clayton's increasing lack of humanity, and descent into animalistic madness.

Tarzan
In Tarzan, Clayton, a veteran hunter and guide, serves as guide for Jane and her father Archimedes Q. Porter on an expedition to Africa in search for gorillas, but his secret agenda is to use the trip as a means to hunt gorillas to sell on the black market. Clayton is arrogant and totally convinced in his own abilities and invulnerability.

With the introduction of Tarzan to the expedition, Clayton makes several attempts (all unsuccessful) to get the location of the gorillas from Tarzan, who is far more fascinated by what Jane has to teach him about humans.

Days later, a cargo ship arrives to pick up the explorers and escort them back to England, much to their dismay. As the ship's crew loads up their luggage and supplies, Clayton and Jane attempt to reason with the captain and request more time, but the captain refuses, fearing falling behind his schedule. Clayton subsequently blames Jane for distracting herself with teaching Tarzan, but Jane retorts that she is just as upset about not being able to find the gorillas. With both his and his employers' goals thwarted, Clayton prepares to leave Africa with Jane and Professor Porter until he witnesses Tarzan asking Jane to stay while presenting her flowers. Realizing Tarzan has strong feelings for Jane, he manipulates the ape man into believing that they'll stay if he takes them to the gorillas. This is of course, not true—Jane would have had to return to England at some point anyway. Tarzan, however, is convinced, and has Kerchak, the head gorilla, distracted so that he can lead Jane to the gorillas. Upon arrival Clayton secretly forges a map to the troop's home. Kerchak returns unexpectedly though, and is angered by the trespassers and attacks Clayton, after the hunter threatens one of the family during a skirmish.

Luckily for Clayton, Tarzan manages to pin down Kerchak. Disowned from the family by Kerchak, he agrees to return to England with Jane and the professor. However, when they board the ship, they are unexpectedly ambushed by the captain's crew who had also on the captain and his officers. As Jane and her father are taken to the ship's brig to be imprisoned, Tarzan tries to flee the thugs but is eventaully captured them. The scuffle is ended when Clayton steps in and fires his rifle. Taran is intially relieved to see him and begs for his help but is soon surprised by Clayton's casual behavior towards the ape man's situation and realizes that he leads the thugs. After striking the angry Tarzan in the chest with his rifle's handle, Clayton reveals to him his plan to capture the gorillas and sell them to a zoo for three hundred pounds each (a substantial amount of money in the days when the movie was set). In order to further emotionally damage Tarzan's spirit, Clayton sadistically reminds him that only by his own unknowing efforts would he have succeeded and orders him to be imprisoned with the other captives. He and his men then leave in a small boat loaded with large cages and make way for the gorilla's nests.

The poachers eventually reach the nests and begin capturing the gorillas, netting them, forcing them in the cages, and throwing the babies into burlap sacks. Kerchak attempts to rescue his group but is captured as well. Clayton slowly approaches the restrained ape leader and prepares to shoot him in revenge for having been attacked by him earlier but is interrupted when he hears Tarzan's trademark yell. Tarzan and his friends, who had escaped imprisonment earlier, ambush and scare Clayton's henchmen (trapping some in the same cages they intended to trap the gorillas in), and free the gorillas, including Kala, Tarzan's adoptive mother. Clayton is forced to take cover during the scuffle but soon sets out to kill Tarzan for meddling in his plans.

From the undergrowth, Clayton shoots at Tarzan, but the bullet only grazes his arm. Kerchak is fatally shot when he charges Clayton. After knocking Jane aside savagely with his rifle, putting her out of the fight, Clayton confronts Tarzan, who takes the battle to the treetops. The two of them exchange blows briefly, nature versus civilization, but nature wins when Tarzan causes Clayton to drop his rifle. Tarzan then takes the rifle and points it at him. Clayton mocks Tarzan by telling him to "be a man" and shoot him, but Tarzan realizes that doing it would make him no better than Clayton. In retaliation, Tarzan angrily presses the rifle's muzzle against Clayton's neck and instead imitates a loud gunshot noise, startling Clayton. Tarzan then retorts that he is not a man like him, and smashes the rifle. After watching the pieces of his beloved gun fall to the ground, Clayton flies into a rage and draws his machete. Tarzan jumps back into a mass of vines to escape Clayton's furious swipes. He manages to entangle Clayton in the vines, but Clayton mindlessly hacks at them with his machete in an attempt to free himself, not noticing that one vine has slipped like a noose around his own neck. Tarzan tries to warn him, but in his rage, Clayton accidentally cuts the vine he's holding on to, causing him and Tarzan to plummet towards the ground. Tarzan lands safely, but Clayton is hanged by the vine and dies when it snaps his neck. A flash of lightning briefly illuminates the shadow of his hanged corpse, swaying ever so slightly in the breeze, the jungle having claimed him.

Alternate Ending
There was an alternate ending to the original movie where Clayton and Tarzan fight on a boat where Clayton has some gorillas in cages and is trying to make an escape along with his henchmen.

In this version, Clayton battles Tarzan with a machine gun and a dagger while making references to Tarzan being a savage and not a real man, which is reminiscent of the statement made in the actual ending. In this version, he dies when some barrels of oil catch fire and blow up the boat. Both Tarzan and Clayton are trapped on the boat, but Clayton meets his end when support ropes tie up his legs and bring him down with the boat, making him drown.

This ending was dropped because it was too dark and violent for young viewers and was felt that it was more appropriate to have the final fight in the jungle and allow the jungle to play a part in Clayton’s downfall (the vine around his neck). Another reason for it being dropped was because it also contradicted Tarzan's remark that he won't kill as a "man like [Clayton]." They also wanted Clayton to appear more animalistic and rely more on brute force in his battle with Tarzan. Hence, he has a lot less dialogue in the final version, except for his xenophobic remark, and is a lot more violent in his attacks. This alternate ending can be found on the Special Edition 2-Disc DVD.

The Legend of Tarzan
In The Legend of Tarzan episode The Gauntlet of Vengeance, It is revealed that Clayton has a sister named Lady Waltham who plots revenge on Tarzan (whom she thinks killed Clayton on purpose). Lady Waltham has her butler kidnap Jane, Professor Porter, Terk, and Tantor, hiding them in places all over the jungle with dangerous traps set to kill them. Before Tarzan can go to save them, Lady Waltham shoots him with a dart, causing Tarzan to be poisoned, giving Tarzan a choice to suffer the way she did by having someone he loves die or suffer the way Clayton did and die.

However after Tarzan saves her life, she gives him the antidote for the poison and finally understands that Tarzan never killed her brother.

In the episode Tarzan and the Race Against Time, After Tarzan is bitten by a venomous spider, Jane and the others learn that the only cure is the Mububu flower, found on the top of a waterfall. Terk begins to feel jealous of Jane and thinks that she is not suited for jungle life, so Terk makes a bet that she cannot make it. But as Tarzan's condition worsens, one of Tarzan's hallucinations was of Clayton.

Descendants: Isle of the Lost
Clayton is one of the villains brought back to life and imprisoned on the Isle of the Lost. He now has a son named Clay.

Kingdom Hearts


Clayton appears as a minor antagonist in the first installment of the series, residing in the world of Deep Jungle. His role in the game's storyline largely follows that of the original film.

Clayton finds Donald and Goofy in a bamboo thicket after they crash landed in the world, taking them to the Encampment Site, where they reunited with Sora and met Tarzan and Jane. Suspicion over Clayton's activity arose when Clayton said that Donald and Goofy were "not much use for hunting gorillas", when he and Jane actually came there for research. He questioned Tarzan about the gorillas' nesting grounds, secretly desiring to hunt them down as they would fetch a great price at the zoos.

Eventually, Tarzan agreed to take him to the nesting grounds and met with the pack leader, Kerchak, while Clayton snuck to the abandoned treehouse. There, he tried to shoot Terk, but stopped when startled by Donald's squawking. To defend himself, Clayton lied that he shot at a snake threatening Terk's life.

Once back at the tent, a furious Jane reprimanded Clayton for his actions, forbidding him from going anywhere near the gorillas for the remainder of the trip. Furious, Clayton leaves the tent to lament to himself, but his anger and determination had unknowingly lured the Heartless to Deep Jungle. Frightened of them at first, Clayton took a shot at the Heartless, but the darkness in his heart took him over and he realized that he could use his new-found mastery over these "animals" to help him catch the gorillas.

While Tarzan, Donald, Sora, and Goofy were out looking for him, Clayton kidnapped Jane and Terk and imprisoned them in the jungle. He then hunted out the location of the gorillas, with the help of the Heartless. After a battle with Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Tarzan arrived, Clayton summoned a Heartless known as the Stealth Sneak, to assist him in defeating the heroes. Just as Clayton prepared to finish Sora off, the Stealth Sneak, having been defeated and dazed, fell and ultimately crushed Clayton to death.

In Hollow Bastion, Maleficent and her legion of villains discussed the presence of the Heartless in Deep Jungle due to Clayton's darkness, saying that his darkness was a bait too tasty to the Heartless for his own good, believing the hunter to have been weak-hearted.

Trivia

 * When the lightning flashes in the original movie, viewers can see Clayton's shadow in the flash, dangling from the vine-turned-noose for a brief moment. This makes Clayton's death scene one of the most graphic in Disney's animated history. Due to the graphic appearance of his death, it is often rewritten in media such as children's novelizations, such as that he merely fell to his death rather than getting hanged.
 * Tarzan's true name is never shown. In the original Tarzan of the Apes, Clayton is the surname of both Tarzan and his father, and the man who accompanies Jane to Africa is William Cecil Clayton, Tarzan's biological cousin.
 * Clayton is the only villain in the first Kingdom Hearts to control the Heartless without being a member of Maleficent's council.
 * Although Brian Blessed is the voice of Clayton, he proved to be better at the Tarzan yell than Tony Goldwyn.
 * Brian Blessed has stated that Clayton is one of his two most cherished roles in his career, the other being Blackadder's father, King Richard IV, in the British sitcom The Black Adder.
 * Clayton appears in the stage musical adaptation, but not even there does he have any singing parts. Also, in this version, Clayton is American, not British, and has romantic feelings towards Jane. He also lives in this version.
 * According to the film commentary, Clayton's outfit was designed to appear like Sabor's yellow fur to designate him as the new villain. When he's introduced, he's covered in shadows that gives him the look of spots similar to Sabor's.

Clayton