James Rutland

James William Rutland Jr. is the secondary antagonist of Tomb Raider: Legend.

Events in Tomb Raider Legend[]

He first appears in Bolivia, examining the stone dias, where he tries to find out what Lara knows about it and Excalibur. Before leaving with Amanda, he orders his mercenaries to kill Lara, and when his Helicopter takes off, he opens fire on her.

In Ghana, he personally decided to track down a piece of Excalibur himself, Lara managed to defeat his mercenaries until she caught up with him, where he was trying to find The Ghalali Key used to bind Excalibur. After trying to intimidate Lara he proceeds to fight her using his fragment of Excalibur and Grenades, using cobra themed altars to heal himself. After a long battle he is defeated but left alive, although Lara takes his piece of Excalibur.

After this he agreed that Amanda should go to Kazakhstan with some of his Mercenaries to try and find where the next piece of Excalibur was, but Lara manages to find the fragment before they do.

His helicopter briefly appears in Nepal, where he attempts to track down the Ghalali Key and sent more mercenaries to kill Lara.

Back in Bolivia, when Lara first sees Rutland he waves at her and then attemps, with Amanda to coerce Lara to give him the now completed Excalibur. An outraged Lara however uses Excalibur at James and Amanda wounding him in the process, he then orders his men to kill Lara. After they are all killed, he stumbles over to Amanda gravely wounded and says to Amanda "See You..." before collapsing afterwards, finally dead. This outrages Amanda who attemps one final time to kill Lara by fusing with the Unknown entity.

Description and Personality[]

James, the youngest son of a Senator, is from a wealthy family. Although he graduated from West Point University under his own merits (barely), he is not as intelligent as Amanda. He's brash in his actions, and does things without thinking. He prefers to substitute tactics for speed in his plans. Although his stubbornness lends a hand in his need to get what he wants, James can hold his own without the help of his money and influence. He's a competent athlete, with the ability to focus on his selfish goals.

Amanda Evert was working with Rutland to obtain Excalibur, at some point developing a romantic relationship with each other. While it's clear they care for each other, they are also determined to find Excalibur and seek revenge on Lara for leaving Amanda to die in Peru. He also has seemingly unlimited Mercenaries working for him.

He always kept a piece of Excalibur on him at all times, wielding it as a status symbol. Despite this, he wields it readily in combat, using it to greatly increases his defense, agility, stamina and melee abilities, as well as giving him the ability to levitate and to cure himself.

Tactics[]

James Rutland is the final boss in the Ghana level, and the only one to use both ranged and close up attacks. He is a very agile opponent that moves quickly and uses an unlimited amount of grenades. To defeat him you must shoot down the ledges he uses to heal himself until you are ready to use the grapple to destroy it, repeating this process on all four ledges, will prevent him from helaling, and then, regular weapons can be used to finish him off.

Trivia[]

A trick can be performed during his bossfight on Ghana where Lara can chain her grenades explosions and grapple pull to keep Rutland stunned. This allows him to be defeated without needing to destroy the pedestals.
In the game, Zip says that James is the Senator's youngest son. This means that James must have at least one older full brother or older paternal half-brother.
He will taunt you several times while you fight him in Ghana.
In Bolivia, even though Rutland and Amanda don't appear when you attack their henchmen, he will die after you defeat all of them
His glasses never come off within the game.
The boxes with equipment supplied by Natla Industries, can be found on the final fight in Bolivia pointing to their semialliance in Tomb Raider Underworld.
James Rutland is the only main antagonist throughout the entire Tomb Raider series that Lara did not mean to kill.

Quotes[]

"Hey, you have some too... Mine are bigger!" (Regarding their Grenades).
"We're done talking."
"History doesn't interest me."
Lara:" Tell me about that sword fragment you're so fond of waving about?" Rutland:"Huh, well I have been spending some time with it, and I've learned a couple of things... Let me show you."
"Hey, woah, woah.. I thought archaeologists were supposed to be careful!"
"Amanda was right about you Lara."
"And according to Amanda's research.. its right here."
"So your father did something here didn't he.... You know Amanda thought that maybe... he found the key."
"Kill her!"
"Amanda... See you...."