In Atlas, Colonel Elias Banks leads the mission to capture Harlan. Sterling K. Brown plays Elias.
Like Atlas, Colonel Elias works under General Boothe. He is determined to bring Harlan to justice and is confident in his and his unit’s abilities to do so.
However, an oversight on his part proves dangerous, as his unit faces attacks they are not prepared for on a hostile planet.
Elias and Atlas’ conflicting viewpoints
When Casca is arrested, Boothe decides to let Atlas interrogate him. Elias opposes this decision, believing that Atlas is emotionally unstable.
Elias fears that Atlas might lose control and cost them their only chance of finding Harlan. He finds it odd that Boothe is even working with Atlas.
Contrary to his concerns, Atlas does what no one has been able to do: extract Harlan’s location from Casca.
As Elias is not rigid in his opinions, he comes to see Atlas as a valuable asset in capturing Harlan. He backs Atlas when she asks Boothe to let her join the mission.
He even takes the time to convince Atlas that his squad is more than capable of facing Harlan when she warns him that his squad will not return alive if they try to capture Harlan instead of killing him.
Elias has been using the Neural Links developed by Atlas’ mother to neuro-sync his rangers to their high-powered ARC suits.
He believes that his synced rangers will be superior to Harlan. Unlike Atlas, he is not afraid to use the technology that has been misused in the past to gain an advantage.
However, Atlas, who knows Harlan too well, expects there to be a trap. She warns Elias of this, but he brushes aside her concerns.
While he does not approve of Atlas discouraging his crew with her warnings right before the mission, he understands that she is only doing it out of concern for them.
Elias’ sacrifice
Eventually, Elias pays the price for not heeding Atlas’ warnings, as his crew is killed as soon as they reach the planet where Harlan is hiding.
Elias is the only one who survives because Harlan needs him and Atlas to get the clearance codes to bypass Earth’s defense systems.
Elias reunites with Atlas when she also gets captured. He admits that he was wrong not to listen to her. It is then that he discovers they can still use Smith to escape.
To completely sync with Smith, Atlas confesses that she had a hand in overriding Harlan’s programming, but Elias does not judge her for that.
Once Smith comes to their rescue, Atlas and Elias fight Harlan’s soldiers. To give Atlas the opportunity to stop Dhiib from leaving the planet, Elias makes a heroic sacrifice.
He blows up Harlan’s army, allowing Atlas to escape with Smith while sacrificing his own life in the process.
Also Read: The Neural Links in Atlas explained