Captain John Smith and Pocahontas (Summary)

The movie starts with Captain John Smith, who had just returned from the Jamestown colony, telling his story in the court of King James I. His story started with him being held prisoner by one of the man in the Colony named Fleming. According to Fleming there was no room for two leaders. However, John Smith managed to break free from his prison, got back to the men, and helped them escape from an Indian attack. After that, most of the men picked John Smith as their leader. Only a couple of them preferred Fleming.

John Smith decided that they needed to make peace with the Indians in order to trade with them, as they were running out of their food supplies. He took two Indians with him on his mission to seek the big chief. On the way they separated ways in the hope that at least one of them would find the right path. Soon afterwards, John Smith ran into an Indian girl called Pocahontas, who told him that she was the daughter of the chief and pointed out the place where the chief lives before she fled from him. Upon arriving at the Indian village, he and his two companions were captured and sentenced to death. But, when John Smith was on the verge of being executed, Pocahontas saved him by throwing herself between him and the executioner. And instead of a slaying, there was a wedding as it was according to their law that the woman marries the man she had given her life for. Thus, Pocahontas went back with him to Jamestown as his bride.

Back at Jamestown, John Smith made efforts to use this marriage as an advantage to keep the colony united and the Indians from attacking. John Smith never meant to fall in love with Pocahontas. His main intention in marrying her was to ensure that the men in the colony and the Indians could live and trade in peace with each other. After all, he was a man who went from place to place looking for adventures, and he did not think that would be a suitable life for a lady. But gradually, unable to stop himself, he did fall in love with his wife.

In spite of John Smith’s efforts to keep the peace, trouble was stirred up soon by Fleming and his men. They had discovered a substance they believed to be gold and was looking for a plot that would secure them as the only three owners of the gold. As if by fate, Pocahontas’ former lover Opechanco happened to sneak into the stockade of the colony one night to steal a gun. He was caught and held prisoner. During his imprisonment, Fleming talked to him and promised him all the gun powder he could want if he helped his men in a plot to get the gold all for themselves. When one of John Smith’s men discovered their scheming and threatened to tell his leader, he was killed by a knife. Fleming then went on to promptly blame Pocahontas’ brother Nantaquas for the murder, pointing out that the knife was his. But John Smith chose to believe Nantaquas’ innocence.

And soon after, the earlier plots were brought into action by Opechanco and his Indian army. To break the settlers' truce with the Indians, he and his followers attacked the stockade. Many people were killed during the battle that followed. Fleming and his men were supposed to be spared, but one of them climbed the wall and was hit by an arrow.

While the battle was still going on, Pocahontas managed to sneak out of the stockade to find her brother. When she found him, he told her that he had just discovered that Opechanco was behind all this. When Nantaquas was hastening to tell his father, Opechanco killed him. Pocahontas ran away from them back to the stockade to tell her husband what she had found out. She said now John Smith could challenge Opechanco to a one-on-one fight in order to avenge Nantaquas. This is because in marrying Pocahontas, John Smith became brothers with Nantaquas. John Smith’s challenge was accepted by Opechanco. In the following fight, John Smith won and killed Opechanco.

The gold that Fleming worked so hard to keep secret was eventually found by the other men of the colony. John Smith told everyone that it was not really gold but rather ‘fool’s gold’. However, Fleming and his follower was not convinced. And so, that night, they sneaked into the tent where the gold was now placed, and attempted to steal it back. Consumed by greed, Fleming killed his last remaining follower so that he would not have to share. John Smith found them and there was soon a fist fight. Then, a gunpowder explosion occurred that killed Fleming and left John Smith barely alive.

John Smith, suffering from almost fatal burns, returned to England to give his report. He asked Pocahontas to come with him, but she stayed behind because in her heart she knew that he really wanted her to remain and keep the peace within the colony. He didn’t return to Virginia because Pocahontas, thinking he was dead, had remarried. Throughout the history, Pocahontas is honored for the huge role she played in the colonial years.