In the 1986 film *The Mission*, there are two primary protagonists whose conflicting philosophies drive the narrative: **Captain Rodrigo Mendoza** (played by Robert De Niro) and **Father Gabriel** (played by Jeremy Irons). While Gabriel is the moral anchor, Mendoza is often considered the "main character" because he undergoes the most significant transformation—moving from a violent slave trader to a Jesuit priest seeking redemption.
### **1. Rodrigo Mendoza (Robert De Niro)**
Mendoza begins the film as a mercenary and slave trader who captures the Guaraní people. After killing his brother in a fit of jealous rage, he falls into a deep depression. Father Gabriel challenges him to undergo an arduous penance: dragging his heavy armor and sword (the symbols of his past life) up the steep cliffs of the Iguazu Falls to the mission.
**Most Memorable Lines:**
* **"For me there is no redemption, no penance great enough."**
* *Context:* Said while Mendoza is wallowing in self-loathing in a prison cell after killing his brother. It sets up his journey toward spiritual rebirth.
* **"Do you dare to see it fail?"**
* *Context:* His defiant response to Father Gabriel, who challenges him to find a penance that matches his crime.
* **"My cloth protects *you*!"**
* *Context:* After Mendoza has become a Jesuit, he is insulted by the slave trader Don Cabeza. Mendoza, now a man of God, uses the irony of his new "holy" status to intimidate the man who once profited from his violence.
* **"Father, I’ve come to ask you to bless me."**
* *Context:* At the end of the film, Mendoza decides he must take up arms to defend the Guaraní from the Portuguese army, breaking his Jesuit vows of non-violence. He seeks Gabriel's blessing, which is famously refused.
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### **2. Father Gabriel (Jeremy Irons)**
Father Gabriel is a Jesuit priest who establishes the San Carlos mission. His character represents the power of music, faith, and non-violent resistance.
**Most Memorable Lines:**
* **"If might is right, then love has no place in the world. It may be so, it may be so. But I don’t have the strength to live in a world like that, Rodrigo."**
* *Context:* This is the film's philosophical core. Gabriel says this to Mendoza just before the final battle, explaining why he refuses to fight despite the impending slaughter.
* **"If you die with blood in your hands, Rodrigo, then you betray everything we have done! You promised your life to God! AND GOD IS LOVE!"**
* *Context:* Gabriel’s desperate plea to Mendoza to keep his vows and not return to his violent ways.
* **"I am laughing because what I see is laughable. I see a coward, a man running from the world."**
* *Context:* Gabriel uses "tough love" to provoke Mendoza out of his suicidal depression in prison, forcing him to face the world instead of hiding from his guilt.
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### **3. Cardinal Altamirano (Ray McAnally)**
Though not a "main character" in the traditional sense, the Cardinal serves as the film’s narrator and the judge who decides the mission's fate. His closing lines provide the film's haunting conclusion.
**Most Memorable Lines:**
* **"No, Señor Hontar. Thus have we made the world... thus have I made it."**
* *Context:* When the Portuguese emissary claims the destruction of the mission was inevitable because "the world is thus," the Cardinal takes personal and collective responsibility for the injustice.
* **"With an orchestra, the Jesuits could have subdued the entire continent."**
* *Context:* A comment on the Guaraní people's incredible musical talent and the missed opportunity for a peaceful integration of cultures.
* **"So, Your Holiness... now your priests are dead, and I am left alive. But in truth it is I who am dead, and they who live."**
* *Context:* The final voiceover as the Cardinal writes his report to the Pope, acknowledging that while the missionaries were physically destroyed, their moral spirit survived. He then quotes the famous passage from **1 Corinthians 13**: *"But the greatest of these is love."*