Mikael Blomkvist

Mikael loses the libel suit brought by financier Wennerström and is sentenced to prison. Before he serves his time, Henrik Vanger asks him to find out what happened to his niece Harriet, who vanished in 1966. An anonymous message cracks the numbers in Harriet's diary; Mikael traces the sender and finds Lisbeth. Together they tie the disappearance to murdered women. The Jewish-victims lead takes him to Harald Vanger's house, and it's Martin who gets him out, only to lock him in his own basement. Lisbeth saves him. With the evidence she digs up, Mikael publishes the story that brings Wennerström down.

Millennium is getting Dag Svensson's sex-trafficking story ready, naming powerful clients, when Dag and Mia are killed. With Lisbeth accused and the press against her, Mikael is one of the few who believe she's innocent. He follows the name "Zala," which turns up in Dag's material, chasing the same lead as Lisbeth. He reaches Gosseberga in time to find her wounded and call for help.

Mikael goes back to work clearing Lisbeth's name. He talks her doctor into sneaking an internet phone into her hospital room and digs into the Section, the secret group that protected Zalachenko. At trial, he and his sister, lawyer Annika Giannini, prove that Teleborian's diagnosis was faked on the Section's orders. At the end, he visits Lisbeth to tell her what happened to Niedermann, and the two make peace.

In Fincher's film, Mikael works the same Vanger case and becomes Lisbeth's partner and lover. Henrik keeps his promise of evidence against Wennerström, but it's too old to use; Lisbeth supplies what works. Mikael realizes "Anita" in London is Harriet herself and brings her back to Henrik. At Christmas he's with Erika Berger when Lisbeth shows up with a gift he never gets to see.

In 2018, Lisbeth turns to Mikael, her ex-lover, to find out who attacked her. He learns that the mercenary Holtser worked for Zalachenko and is tied to the Spiders. At Lisbeth's childhood home, he ends up in the gunmen's sights with August and is saved by Needham's shots. At the end, he deletes the article he wrote about the case.

Colleagues call him Kalle Blomkvist, after Astrid Lindgren's boy detective, because of one of his early stories. Michael Nyqvist played him in Sweden, Daniel Craig in Fincher's film and Sverrir Gudnason in 2018.