The Uncharted series is getting a boost in popularity thanks to the upcoming film adaptation starring Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg. The franchise is seen as the crowning achievement of developers Naughty Dog, telling the story of treasure hunter Nathan Drake across the globe.
With fans anticipating the film’s release and wondering how the characters will be adapted, it’s worth looking back at their strong points in terms of intelligence. To be clear, the main characters are protagonists like Nathan, Sam, Chloe, and more, while the primary antagonists of each main entry also qualify since they were mainly responsible for setting the plotlines into motion.
Rafe Adler
While the fourth game is considered by many as the best Uncharted entry in the series, its main antagonist was more of a brat than a villain. Rafe relied solely on Nadine’s men to destroy the clues pointing to Libertalia rather than solve them, while the few puzzles he did overcome were by forcing Sam Drake to do the job for him.
Rafe wasn’t smart in general either, giving away his villainy in public during the auction, attacking Nadine who was easily stronger than him, and getting outsmarted by Nathan in their duel to the death. Apart from the riches he inherited from his parents, Rafe didn’t have much else going for him.
Nadine Ross
It’s likely that a villain such as Nadine will feature in Tom Holland’s action-adventure Uncharted movie, as she was an absolute force to combat. Nadine was impossible to beat in the fighting department but she wasn’t all that smart, having very little idea how to solve any puzzles.
She was out of her element during the fourth game, where she simply took out her frustrations on the heroes. Nadine was quick in terms of combat strategy during The Lost Legacy, although she still needed Chloe’s help, for the most part, to get through all the missions.
Katherine Marlowe
Marlowe was built up as the most psychological enemy for Nathan yet, not being involved in terms of combat but controlling Talbot to do her bidding. The only truly intelligent aspect of Marlowe was that she ordered her men to take down Nathan early, apart from which Marlowe didn’t do much of anything.
She was hapless in the climax when she didn’t have Talbot nearby to save her, while Marlowe was also easily duped earlier on by the heroes to make her believe that they’d been killed. Overall, Marlowe’s cunning only came up during conversations, not planning.
Zoran Lazarevic
Calling Lazarevic weak is most likely to be an unpopular opinion among Uncharted fans, seeing as he went up against the superpowered guardians of Shambhala without fear. He was a sly man when it came to war tactics, promising people like Harry Flynn rewards for solving clues when he fully intended to dispose of him eventually.
Lazarevic’s failings in the intelligence department came from his overreliance on power. Lazarevic’s attempt to manhandle Nathan in the climax rather than killing him straightaway with his newfound powers cost him his life, as Nathan used the Tree of Life's explosive weak points to defeat Lazarevic.
Samuel Drake
Sam could have matched his brother had he not been more interested in finding the hidden locations in the Uncharted series without letting his emotions get to him. He became blinded over locating Libertalia, which denied him from realizing he was landing right into Rafe and Nadine’s trap.
Still, Sam was crafty enough to fool people into trusting him, with just about everyone from Rafe, Nathan, and Asav falling for his trickery. His quick wit helped him numerous times to slip away to save himself when things went south, too, with Sam knowing when to fold them.
Victor Sullivan
Sully is somewhat of a mixed bag when it comes to intelligence, as he was shown being too smart to fall for young Nathan’s innocent kid act and having had a career of treasure hunting. However, he was also dumb enough to tell Gabriel Roman about El Dorado before actually finding it and was clueless during the hunt for Shambhala.
Sully’s smartness is generally similar to Sam’s, in that he knows which person to fool, how, when, and where. Sully got into Marlowe’s, Rafe’s, and Nadine’s good books before they realized he was tricking them. He was also the only one who could ever think of an escape plan, with the heroes almost always surviving because of him.
Elena Fisher
Despite having no hands-on experience with hunting treasures, Elena found herself in plenty of them and did way better than most. She was intelligent mainly because she knew she didn’t have the athletic prowess the others did, which is why she focused on strategizing.
Elena was vital to Nathan’s attempts to reach Sam in the fourth game, having outsmarted Nadine’s men to infiltrate the island and steal their equipment. However, she could be very silly early on in the series, with Elena easily getting betrayed by Nathan and Sully in the first game and almost losing her life twice because she didn’t realize the villains were about to attack her.
Chloe Frazer
Chloe was a confident, efficient treasure hunter who knew where her strengths and weaknesses were. She was aware she wasn’t as smart as Nathan in the puzzle-solving department and tended to distract Lazarevic’s forces in the second game, also manipulating Harry Flynn.
As part of her leading role in The Lost Legacy, Chloe was established as competent even without the support of the Drake brothers, as she was the one to crack the clues to finding the tusk. Chloe realized Asav was too strong to fight, so came up with the strategy of double-teaming him with Nadine to defeat him.
Atoq Navarro
He’s very easily overlooked by Uncharted fans due to Navarro’s villainy coming late in the first game, but he was undoubtedly smart. Navarro played the fool the entire game, appearing as a lackey to Gabriel Roman, only to reveal himself as the mastermind that knew El Dorado was cursed and planned to sell it as a biological weapon.
Navarro’s deception surprised everyone and he’d been quietly brewing up his plans the whole time. His intelligence was shown during the climactic fight where he took cover to try and covertly take down Nate, although he ended up getting outsmarted by the protagonist to be defeated and plummet to his demise.
Nathan Drake
Nate was always presented as an Everyman character, in that he was casual, humble, and friendly in general. When it comes to overcoming obstacles, though, there was no better, with Nate solving every single clue and puzzle that came his way during the series.
He was extremely quick to improvise, escaping with his life and friends’ by coming up with ideas on the fly. Nate survived icy tundras, blazing deserts, deep forests, and more, all because he was a smart man who looked for a way out each and every time.