Indiana Jones

Indiana Jones was a bullwhip-toting, fedora-wearing archaeologist with an overdeveloped ophidiophobia (fear of snakes). He is the protaganist of the Indiana Jones film series. Jones has found numerous famous artifacts, including the Ark of the Covenant, the Sankara Stones, and the Holy Grail.

Early Life
Indiana Jones was born Henry Walden Jones Jr. to Scottish-born professor of medieval literature Dr. Henry Jones and his wife Anna on July 1, 1899, in Princeton, New Jersey. "Junior" accompanied his father on his travels throughout the world, where he learned to speak, read, and write 27 languages, including French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Greek, Arabic, Turkish, Vietnamese, Swahili, Latin and Chinese, as well as some Hindi, learning the language of the country was a lesson imparted to him by a young T.E. Lawrence, for Indy a life long friend he would call Ned, but the world would call him 'Lawrence of Arabia'. By age 9, young Henry had adopted the name of his beloved dog Indiana for himself, though his father would continue to refer to him as "Junior" throughout his adult life.

In 1912, Indy's mother Anna died of Yellow Fever, an event which created a rift between the family that survived to her. To allow himself time to recover Henry Snr moved him and his son to Utah. Here Indy kept busy as a member of the Boy Scouts, having achieved the rank of "Life Scout." It was here, while attempting to secure the Cross of Coronado from thieves, that Indy learned to use a bullwhip - his first crack of the whip left a scar on his chin - and he received his trademark fedora. This adventure also led to his aversion to snakes.

Indiana Jones was born Henry Walden Jones Jr. to Scottish-born professor of medieval literature Dr. Henry Jones and his wife Anna on July 1, 1899, in Princeton, New Jersey. "Junior" accompanied his father on his travels throughout the world, where he learned to speak, read, and write 27 languages, including French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Greek, Arabic, Turkish, Vietnamese, Swahili, Latin and Chinese, as well as some Hindi. By age 9, young Henry had adopted the name of his beloved dog Indiana for himself, though his father would continue to refer to him as "Junior" throughout his adult life.

In 1912, Indy lived in Utah with his father. He kept busy as a member of the Boy Scouts, having achieved the rank of "Life Scout." It was here, while attempting to secure the Cross of Coronado from thieves, that Indy learned to use a bullwhip - his first crack of the whip left a scar on his chin - and he received his trademark fedora. This adventure also led to his aversion to snakes.

On Spring break from high school in 1916 while visiting family down south with his father, Indy and his cousin secretly hitched south across the border to see the senoritas; caught in a border clash with Mexican revolutionaries, and impulsively trying to get back a screaming womans stolen dresses, Indy took off on horse back after the receding marauders. Hopelessly outnumbered and outmatched, Indy was captured and almost shot, however at the last moment he was released by Pancho Villa himself. He joined this army of revolutionaries, playing a part in the Mexican Revolution in 1916. It is here that he also met his friend Remy, a Belgian. After learning the truths about revolution and warfare, and becoming disillusioned, Indy decided to join Remy in heading for the Great War in Europe, a War he felt had to be fought. After settling a score with an old enemy, Demitrios, and recovering an Egyptian artifact that had been lost to Howard Carter and the Younger Jones in 1909, Indy and Remy left Mexico, departing from Vera Cruz for Europe and War. '''

Indiana goes to War
'''

After a brief stopover in Ireland in time to witness 1916's Easter Rising, and engage in fisticuffs with future prime minister Sean Lemass, Indy and Remy reach London and the recruiting office of the Belgian Army (as this was not only Remy's country of birth, but the only army that wouldn't ask awkward questions about age). Enlisting under the pseudonym Henry Defense, Indy and Remy settled in to wait for their call up papers. Indy spent this time falling in love with the young suffragette Vicky Prentiss, however his proposal was rebuffed and, heartbroken, Indy joined a newly married Remy (To Suzette, a War Widow with a number of kids) at the train station to head for Le Harve and Basic training.

After seeing action first a Verdun, where all their superior officers were wiped out, Indy and Remy were sent to join with French troops at the Somme. Indy and Remy are inflicted fully to the horrors and pressures of trench warfare, and are engaged in several pushes, a gas attack and the terror of German flamethrowers. Mistrust is rife in the unit, but after some initial difficulties the unit pulls together enough to take their target. Victory doesn't last long as German reinforcements are quick to swamp the combined French/Belgium defense and Indy is swiftly captured while most of his Unit is killed, Remy vanishes in the confusion, apparently hit.

Indy is sent to a prison camp, where he joins an escape attempt already in progress, however he is recaptured and moved to a maximum security castle like prison. After many escape attempts Indy, with the help of Charles De Gaulle, breaks free and after a brief flirtation with the idea of heading home to America and continuing high school, rejoins whats left of his unit. including a recovering Remy, still alive.



In an effort to get out of the trenches Indy joins a courier unit attached to French High Command, however when forced to deliver orders that will result in the pointless death for thousands of his fellow soldiers, Indy sabotages his own bike and prevents the needless death, at least for a week or so. However this action gets Indy fired from Courier duty and thrown back to the trenches rejoining Remy.

While on leave in Paris Indy engaged in a tumultuous sexual affair with Mata Hari, a first for young Indy, and while it ends badly, Mata advises Indy to request a transfer to the somewhat tamer fight in East Africa, so he does, and with Remy arrive on the African continent in November 1916. '''

African Revelations
Promoted to Lieutenant, and assigned to a unit near Lake Victoria, However, Indy's ego, and haste lead to the two getting lost in transit, and while trying to get back to their unit and avoiding a court martial, Indy manages to get caught up with a team of old men under British Command, the 25th Royal Fusiliers and is forced to help destroy a giant cannon mounted on a train, and tricked into kidnapping the German military genius Paul Erich von Lettow-Vorbeck (whom they are eventually compelled to release).



Jones and Remy Finally manage to make it to Lake Victoria and join their new unit. During October Indy and Remy join what Indy believes to be a fight for the indigenous population against the German aggressors and becomes a rather vicious skilled and talented officer. During one charge he disobeys direct orders, continuing to charge despite an order to retreat, and because of this wins the battle. For this he is promoted to Captain, much to the chagrin of Major Boucher his direct superior. His units next mission is to march across the Congo to retrieve a weapons shipment that ran aground in West Africa. Remy, Indy and the unit set off, and travel through Christmas 1916 and into the first weeks of 1917. Unfortunately the entire unit takes seriously ill, and only a fraction of the unit makes it, with Indy now in command following the death of Major Boucher. However they are denied extra troops for the journey back, and still slightly feverish, Indy and perhaps his dozen men head back onto the river.

Indy and his men succumb to the fever, but luckily are rescued by the doctor and humanitarian Albert Schweitzer, a German who runs a Hospital in the jungle. Indy initially distrusts Schweitzer due to his nationality, but soon sees reason. From Schweitzer Indy learns lessons that will turn his life around, up until meeting him he thought he was becoming a man he could respect, a military man, whose life revolved around orders and discipline, however from Schweitzer Indy learns a reverence for life and he and Remy pledge themselves to ending the War and the bloodshed.

Adventures in the secret service
To that end Indy and Remy join the Belgium secret service before transferring to the far more efficient French. The two are split up, with Remy sent to Brussels to become the French contact with the White Lady: The Belgium Resistance. Indy is shuffled around to various fronts and missions, as French intelligence initially knows not what to do with him. After a brief sojourn as a reconnaissance photographer, Indy is first assigned to mainly courier missions, such as defection plea letter for the aircraft designer Anthony Fokker, and a desperate attempt for a separate peace with Austria. Next Indy spends a few months in St Petersburg in the Analyst department, and has friends there caught up in the revolution.

A promotion to military intelligence sees Indy back in Western Europe, and then as the main French agent in Cairo, where his skills are brought to bear by his old Friend 'Ned' T.E. Lawrence in the liberation of Beersheba in Palestine. While in Italy Indy strikes up a rivalry with Ernest Hemingway as the view for the affections of a beautiful Italian girl, who marries someone else and leaves Indy and Ernie with a lasting Friendship.

'''

Wars End
As the war drew near its end Indy saw missions in Eastern Europe, at one time engaged to an American School Teacher Molly in Istanbul, only for her to be killed by a bullet meant for Jones. Indy's depression was somewhat lifted by his re partnering with Remy; and the wars end finds the two on assignment in the trenches to arrest an Indian Officer. This snowballs into a post war adventure for Alexander the greats lost diamond, the 'Treasure of the Peacocks eye'. The adventure takes them from Alexandria to India and on to the south China seas. However, after an illuminating run in with the Polish anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski, Indy realizes that at this moment in his life finding the diamond will have very little impact on his future plans, i.e. to finally start studying as an archaeologist, in fact by continuing this wild search he only delays what he has wanted since the age of 9. So he and Remy part ways, with Remy's obsession with the Peacocks eye leading him to unknown ends.



Indy heads home, but on the way is brought on to work as a translator at the Paris Peace Conference, where his disillusionment with the war and politics becomes complete as he sees not only the seeds of the second world war, but the war in Vietnam and every conflict in the middle east for years to come. After this, Indy is finally ready to head home.

Indy's homecoming finds an emotionally unmoved father, acting as though nothing has transpired, however this seeming lack of emotionality does not outlast Indy's declaration that he will not study in Princeton as his Father had wished, but in Chicago. Indy leaves his father cold. And will not speak to him again for years.

Adult Life
At the University of Chicago under Professor Abner Ravenwood Jones studied Archeology.



During his off campus hours he worked at Colosimos bar, and frequented Jazz bars with his reluctant roommate Eliot Ness; and as is his nature became involved over his head in the investigation of his bosses murder, and almost ended up a victim of Chicago's nascent mob families. During the summer of 1920 Indy earned money for his tuition in New York Theaters and back West in Hollywood. Indy eventually graduates from Chicago in 1922 and moves onto a graduate program in linguistics at the Sorbonne in Paris, and leaves for his first proper qualified archaeological dig with his professor Dorian Belecamus in Greece, where Indy becomes embroiled in a plot to kill King Constantine and the Oracle at Delphi. This experience sees Indy refocus his lifes aim with archaeology.

Archaeology at last
'''

In 1925 Indy takes his first teaching job as a Doctor of Archaeology in London University teaching the summer program. Here he romances one of his students, Deirdre Campell as that year and the next they are swept up in various mysteries involving stonehenge and the mask of Comototz in Guetamala. Indy and Deirdres turbulent relationship culminates in marriage aboard a boat in New Orleans. Tragically, During a search for the hidden city of the Ceiba, and the long lost explorer Percy Walcott, Deirdre Campell Jones is killed in a plane crash that Indy only survives due to the grace of forces unknown.

Later that year, 1926 while still in a bad state emotionally, Indy joins his old Archaeology Professor, Abner Ravenwood on a dig in Jerusalem, where they find an artefact known as the headpiece to the staff of Ra, Still reeling from the death of his wife Indy romances Abners daughter Marion. However this intense relationship was cut short as Dr. Jones abruptly fled the Ravenwoods, he wouldn't see them again for 10 years.

High Adventure
The next 10 years in the life of Indiana Jones were spent chasing all over the globe getting involved in many different adventures, the quest for Noah's ark on Mount Ararat, the search for the last unicorns horn,, the interior world of Easter Island, Sky Pirates, the Philosopher's Stone, Giants, Dinosaurs, Sea Devils, Vampires, and the Heart Of the Dragon in 1935. All the while working as a lecturer in various colleges around America and Europe, eventually settling in Marshall College, in order to fund his exhibitions into the world of Archaeology.



In the latter adventure Indy encountered Wu Han, a close friend, and also found, picking his pockets the homeless orphan Short round. Wu Han would be killed later that year when Dr. Jones faced the gangster Lao Che in Shanghai after Lao wanted the remains of Nurhaci. Dr. Jones, along with nightclub dancer Willie Scott and Short Round, escaped to India, where they faced off against the Thuggee cult. After placing Short Round into the care of an American Orphanage, Indy took off again, not to be stopped.

In 1936, Jones narrowly escaped with his life after retrieving the Golden Idol of Fertility in Peru. That same year, Jones was contacted by the United States government to retrieve the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis. This brought him back into contact with Marion Ravenwood, where he learned that Abner, his mentor, had been apparently killed in a landslide after dragging his daughter half way across the globe to set up a cantina on the side of a mountain in Nepal due to his obsessive search for the grail. Indy and Marion briefly rekindled their relationship, but it didn't last.

The adventures continue, as Indy becomes as used to danger as he is to breathing. He moves to Barnett college and continues his adventures with academic help from his close friend and colleagie Marcus Brody who follows him to Barnett. In 1938, Indy retrieves the cross of Coronado during a hurricane at sea, a quest for Indy as old as his hat, and later rescues his father from the Nazis and becomes embroiled in the search for the Holy Grail. During which he finally healed the rift between him and his father sowed with the death of his mother in 1912.



The next year sees Indy take up with Sophia Hapgood in the search for the lost city of Atlantis, another quest where the prize had to be wrested from the Nazis. Indy would see Sophia again after the war in 1946 when, as an agent of the newly formed CIA she enlisted Indy's help in beating the forces of the USSR to whatever Infernal Machine lay beneath the ruins of Babylon.

Indiana's adventures continued, as did his teachings, 1950 saw him in the American Mid West, fleeing armed goons with his close friend Grey Cloud. It seemed for Indy, that his adventures would never end.



Older Years
When last seen in 1993, Jones was living in New York City with his daughter and his three grandchildren: Spike, Lucy, and Harry. Sporting an eyepatch and cane, he stopped anyone within earshot to regale them with tales of his exploits as a young man.

Behind the scenes
Since his introduction in 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark, the character of Indiana Jones has become a cultural icon for adventure. His popularity has allowed him to make appearances in three more feature films, a three-season TV series, dozens of novels, comic books, and video games, and his own amusement park ride.

The television series, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, aired from 1992 to 1996. Many of these episodes were edited into made-for-TV and made-for-video movies, mostly featuring Sean Patrick Flanery as young Indy. One of the last Young Indiana Jones TV movies featured a cameo appearance by Harrison Ford, reprising the role of Indy as a man in his 50's.

The popular trilogy of theatrical films: Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, were produced by George Lucas and directed by Steven Spielberg. The series starred Harrison Ford as Jones. The upcoming Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, once again to star Harrison Ford, is in production (as of September, 2007) and will be released on May 22, 2008. Jim Ward, Vice President of Lucasfilm, said in a recent press conference that a new Indiana Jones video game is expected that same year, around the time of the movie.

Portrayals of Indiana Jones

 * Neil Boulane (as Indy, age 3), Young Indiana Jones: Travels with Father
 * Corey Carrier (as Indy, ages 9-11), The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles
 * River Phoenix (as Indy, age 13), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
 * Sean Patrick Flanery (as Indy, ages 16-21), The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles
 * David Esch (as the voice of Indy, age 35), Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb
 * Harrison Ford (as Indy, ages 36-58)
 * Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
 * Raiders of the Lost Ark
 * Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
 * The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles
 * Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
 * Doug Lee (as the voice of Indy, ages 40-48)
 * Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
 * Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine
 * George Hall (as Indy, age 93), The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles