Indiana Jones

"It's not the years, honey, it's the mileage."

- Indiana Jones

Dr. Henry Walton Jones, Jr. was a bullwhip-toting, fedora-wearing archaeologist with overdeveloped ophidiophobia. He was most famously known as Indiana Jones or Indy, and known as Henri Defense during World War I,

Born July 1, 1899 in Princeton, New Jersey, Jones' life was forever changed when he accompanied his father on a world lecture tour from 1908 to 1910. Throughout his travels, Jones encountered many important figures in history who shaped his outlook on life. In 1916, Jones quit High School and briefly joined the Mexican Revolution before spending three years fighting in World War I. Following the war, he attended the University of Chicago, where he studied under Professor Abner Ravenwood. After graduating college, Jones lived life as an archaeologist and adventurer; Though professionally he was a college professor, Jones continued to travel the world. He found numerous famous artifacts throughout his career, including the Sankara Stones, the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy Grail, and one of the crystal skulls.

Early life
"Henry was a... remarkable boy, who shows every sign of growing up to be a remarkable man."

- Helen Seymour

Indiana Jones was born Henry Walton Jones Jr. to a Scottish-born professor of medieval literature, Henry Jones, and his wife Anna on July 1, 1899, in Princeton, New Jersey. From 1908 to 1910, "Junior" accompanied his father and mother on his father's travels around the world, while being taught by his father's old Oxford tutor, Miss Seymour. On these journeys around Europe, Africa and Asia, 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 on his first adventure in Egypt, by a young T.E. Lawrence, a life long friend Indy would call Ned, though the world would eventually 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.

When Indy was twelve, he accompanied his father to New Orleans where he got to listen to the jazz greats of that era.

In 1912, Indy's mother Anna died of scarlet fever, an event which created a rift in the family that survived her. To allow himself time to recover, Henry Sr. moved himself 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 the scar on his chin—and also where he received his trademark fedora. This adventure also led to his aversion to snakes.

Jones and his father had moved back to Princeton by 1916. On spring break from high school in that year, 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 woman's 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 of 1916. It is during this time that he met the Belgian Remy Baudouin, and the two quickly became friends. 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, Demetrios, and recovering an Egyptian artifact that had been lost to Howard Carter and Indy during his first archaeological adventure in 1908, Indy and Remy left Mexico, departing from Veracruz for Europe and war.

World War I
"The truth is, when you're seventeen and ya' see a fight goin' on, ya' tend to think it'd be a good idea to join in. It wasn't that good an idea, but I didn't know that then."

- Indiana Jones speaking to a tax agent in 1993

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 reached 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 Henri Defense, Indy, along with Remy, settled in to wait for their call-up papers. Indy spent this time falling in love with the young suffragette Vicky Prentiss, but 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 Havre and basic training.

After seeing action first at Flanders, where all their superior officers were wiped out, Indy and Remy were sent to join with French troops at the Somme. Here, Indy and Remy were subjected fully to the horrors and pressures of trench warfare, and were engaged in several pushes, a gas attack and the terror of German flamethrowers. Mistrust was rife in Indy's unit, but after some initial difficulties the unit pulled together enough to take their target. Victory did not last long as German reinforcements were quick to swamp the combined French/Belgian defense and Indy was swiftly captured while most of his unit was killed. Remy vanished in the confusion, apparently hit.

Indy was sent to a prison camp, where he joined an escape attempt already in progress. However, he was quickly recaptured and moved to a maximum security prison at Dusterstadt. After many escape attempts Indy, with the help of Charles De Gaulle, broke free and, after a brief flirtation with the idea of heading home to America and continuing high school, rejoined what was left of his unit, including a recovering Remy, who Indy was happy to see still alive.

In an effort to get out of the trenches, Indy joined a courier unit attached to French High Command. But when forced to deliver orders that would result in the pointless death of thousands of his fellow soldiers at Verdun, Indy sabotaged his own bike, thereby postponing the massacre, at least for a week or so. This action got 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. While it ended badly, Mata advised Indy to request a transfer to the somewhat tamer fight in East Africa. Indy followed her advice and, with Remy in tow, arrived on the African continent in November 1916.

African revelations
Indy was promoted to lieutenant, and assigned to a unit near Lake Victoria. Indy's ego and haste, however, led to the two getting lost in transit, and while trying to get back to their unit and avoiding a court martial, Indy managed to get caught up with a team of old men under British Command, the 25th Royal Fusiliers. Here Indy was tricked into helping destroy a giant cannon mounted on a train and also fooled into kidnapping the German military genius Paul Erich von Lettow-Vorbeck (whom they were eventually compelled to release).



Jones and Remy finally managed to make it to Lake Victoria and join their new unit. During October, Indy and Remy join what Indy believed to be a fight for the indigenous population against the German aggressors. Indy quickly became a skilled, talented and rather vicious officer. During one charge, he disobeyed direct orders, continuing the charge despite an order to retreat. Because of Indy's quick thinking, however, the battle was won and he was subsequently promoted to captain, much to the chagrin of Major Boucher, his direct superior. His unit's next mission was to march across the Congo to retrieve a weapons shipment that ran aground in West Africa. The unit set off, and traveled through Christmas 1916 and into the first weeks of 1917. Unfortunately, the entire unit became seriously ill, and only a fraction of the unit survived. With the death of Major Boucher, Indy assumed command. However Indy had come to realize that this fight in Africa was between White men, fighting for African land, and began to wonder what he was doing there. Devastatingly at the units destination they were denied extra troops for the journey back and, still feverish and exhausted, Indy and a dozen men headed back onto the river.

Indy and his men promptly fell to the fever, but luckily were rescued by the doctor and humanitarian Albert Schweitzer, a German who ran a hospital in the jungle. Indy initially distrusted Schweitzer due to his nationality, but soon saw reason. From Schweitzer Indy learned lessons that would turn his life around: up until meeting Schweitzer, Indy thought he was becoming a man that would demand respect, a military man whose life revolved around orders and discipline. Schweitzer taught Indy a reverence for life and he and Remy pledged themselves to ending the war and the bloodshed.

Adventures in the Secret Service
To that end Indy and Remy joined the Belgium secret service before forging their own transfer to the far more efficient French secret service. The two were split up, Remy being sent to Brussels to become the French contact with the Belgian resistance, known as the White Lady. 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 with the American volunteers of the Lafayette Escadrille, Indy is assigned a series of courier missions, such as a defection plea letter for the aircraft designer Anthony Fokker, and a desperate attempt for a separate peace with Austria. Next Indy spent a few months in S.t Petersburg in the Analyst Department, and he and his friends there become caught up in the Bolshevik revolution.

A promotion to military intelligence saw Indy back in Western Europe, and then as the main French agent in Cairo, where his skills were brought to bear by his old friend T.E. 'Ned' Lawrence in the liberation of Beersheba in Palestine. Later, while in Italy, Indy struck up a rivalry with Ernest Hemingway for the affections of a beautiful Italian girl, who eventually married someone else, leaving Indy and Ernie with a lasting friendship.

War's end
"I'm goin' home."

- Indiana Jones, after discussing his future with Bronisław Malinowski

As the war drew to a close, Indy saw missions in Eastern Europe. At one point, he was engaged to Molly, an American school teacher in Istanbul. Tragically, however, she was killed by a bullet meant for Jones. Indy's depression was somewhat lifted by his reunion with Remy; and the war's end found the two on assignment in the trenches to arrest an Indian officer. This snowballed into a post-war quest for Alexander the Great's lost diamond, the "Treasure of the Peacock's Eye." The adventure took them from Alexandria to India and on to the South China Seas. However, after an illuminating run in with the Polish anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski, Indy realized that finding the diamond would have very little impact on his future plans, which was to finally start studying as an archaeologist. In fact, by continuing this wild search, he was only delaying what he had wanted since the age of nine. So he and Remy parted ways, with Remy's obsession with the Peacock's Eye leading him to unknown ends.

Indy headed home, but before he reached Le Harve for the homeward voyage he was brought on to work as a translator at the Paris Peace Conference, where his disillusionment with the war and politics became complete. He saw not only the seeds of a second world war, but also a war in Vietnam and every conflict in the Middle East for years to come. Indy was finally ready, after four years, to head home.

Indy's homecoming found his father emotionally unmoved. Henry Sr. acted as though nothing had transpired. This seeming lack of emotionality did not, however, outlast Indy's declaration that he would not be studying in Princeton, as his father had wished, but rather in Chicago. Indy left his father cold, and would not speak to him again for years.

College years
At the University of Chicago and under the tutelage of Professor Abner Ravenwood, Jones studied archaeology.

During his off-campus hours, Indy waited tables at Colosimo's Restaurant, and frequented jazz bars with his reluctant roommate Eliot Ness and jazz clarinetist Sidney Bechet. With Ness and Ernest Hemingway, Indy investigated the murder of his boss, nearly ending 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 where Indy took a job working for Carl Lemle head of Universal pictures. There while trying to get Erich Von Stronhiem to finish his movie he encountered Irving thalberg, Jack Warner and John Ford. Indy eventually graduated from Chicago in 1922 and moved onto a graduate program in linguistics at the Sorbonne in Paris.

In Greece, on his first properly qualified archaeological dig with his professor Dorian Belecamus, Indy became embroiled in a plot to kill King Constantine and the Oracle at Delphi. This experience refocused Indy's archaeological aims, which had been flagging somewhat after the routines of college, where only the lecturer Abner Ravenwood managed to make the subject exciting.

Archaeology at last
In 1925, Indy took his first teaching job as a doctor of archaeology at London University for the summer program. Here he romanced one of his students, Deirdre Campell as, over the following two years, they were swept up in various mysteries involving Stonehenge and the Mask of Comototz in Guetamala. Their turbulent relationship culminated in marriage aboard a boat off New Orleans. Sadly, during a search for the hidden city of the Ceiba, and the long lost explorer Percy Walcott, Deirdre Jones was killed in a plane crash that Indy only survived due to the grace of forces unknown.

Later that year, in 1926, while still in a bad emotional state, Indy joined his old archaeology professor, Abner Ravenwood, on a dig in Jerusalem. The pair found an artifact known as the headpiece to the staff of Ra. Still reeling from the death of his wife, Indy romanced Abner's daughter Marion. The intense courtship was cut short as Dr. Jones abruptly left the Ravenwoods; he would not see Marion again for ten years.

High adventure
The next ten years in the Indiana Jones' life were spent scouring the globe, getting involved in many different adventures: the quest for Noah's Ark on Mount Ararat, the search for the last unicorn's horn, the Philosopher's Stone and the interior world of Easter Island; cavorting with the likes of the Sky Pirates, giants, dinosaurs, sea devils, vampires, and looking for the Heart of the Dragon in 1935. All the while, Indy worked as a lecturer in various colleges around America and Europe, eventually settling in Marshall College in order to fund his expeditions into the world of archaeology.

In the latter adventure, the search for the Heart of the Dragon, Indy encountered Wu Han, who became a close friend, and also found, attempting to pick his pocket, 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 demanded the remains of Nurhachi. Dr. Jones, along with nightclub dancer Willie Scott and Short Round, escaped to India, where they ran into a plot by the Thuggee cult to steal the Sankara Stones. After an action-packed adventure to destroy the Thuggee and get the Sankara Stones, they all make it to America. After placing Short Round in the care of an American orphanage, Indy took off again, unable to keep still.

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 beat the Nazis in retrieving the Ark of the Covenant. During this adventure he encountered Marion Ravenwood for the first time in ten years. Indy also learned that Abner, his mentor, had apparently been killed in a landslide some years before. He had dragged his daughter half way around the globe and had died, leaving her his cantina, the Raven, on the side of a mountain in Nepal, all due to his obsessive search for the lost Ark. Indy and Marion briefly rekindled their relationship, and though Indy helped Marion set up a new, jazzier version of the Raven in Manhattan, the relationship did not last.

The adventures continued, as Indy became as accustomed to danger as he was to breathing. He moved to Barnett College and continued his adventures with academic help from his close friend and colleague Marcus Brody, a friend of his father who followed Indy from Marshall to Barnett. In 1938, Indy retrieved the Cross of Coronado on a freighter during a hurricane, a quest, for Indy, as old as his hat. Later that year, he was hired by Walter Donovan to help search for the Holy Grail, and rescued his father from the Nazis also seeking the relic, during which he finally healed the rift between him and his father that had been created with the death of his mother.

Older years
Jones' adventures continued well into his older years, as did his teachings. The winter of 1950 saw him in Wyoming, fleeing armed goons with his close friend, an old American Indian named Great Cloud&mdash;to whom Indy told tales of his experiences as a waiter in 1920 Chicago. In 1957, as the Red Scare grew, Indy was targeted by anti-Communist sympathizers who spotted him talking to Russian spies, trying to pursuade him to search the mysterious Crystal Skull. A student protest against him forced him to run away with the help of one of his young students, a greaser named Mutt Williams. Jones was later contacted by the United States government to retrieve the Crystal Skull before the Communists. Upon discovering that his ex-girlfriend Marion Ravenwood has been kidnapped Indy begins his journey to find the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Accompanied by Mutt, and a Yale colleague by the name of Mac, Indy fights off the Communists and their beautiful female leader, Agent Spalko.

Sometime in the years between 1957 and 1992, Jones suffered a wound to his right eye, which required him to wear an eyepatch. He eventually had a daughter&mdash;Susan&mdash;in 1958, and five grandchildren: Caroline (in 1958), Mark/Spike (in 1977), Lucy (in 1982), Annie (in 1986) and Allison. His oldest grandchild&mdash;Caroline&mdash;gave birth to his first great-grandchild&mdash;Harry&mdash;in 1988. By 1992, Jones was living in New York City with his daughter and grandchildren. He drove a 1952 Plymouth, and used a cane to aid in walking. Still giving the occasional college lecture, he enjoyed relating stories of his youth to anyone he could get to listen.

Personality and traits
Jones was an aficionado of the soprano saxophone, which he was introduced to while in basic training in La Harve. He later utilized his saxophone skills in 1918 Italy in an effort to impress a girl he liked. In 1920 Chicago, Jones played the soprano sax with Sidney Bichet&mdash;an event he looked back on fondly in 1950 while hiding from a group of thugs who were trying to steal his friend Great Cloud's peace pipe.

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 theme park attractions.

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 October 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 (age 3), Young Indiana Jones: Travels with Father
 * Corey Carrier (ages 9-11), The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles
 * River Phoenix (age 13), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
 * Sean Patrick Flanery (ages 17-21), The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles
 * David Esch (voice, age 35), Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb
 * Harrison Ford (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 (voice, ages 40-48)
 * Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
 * Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine
 * George Hall (ages 93-94), The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles

Influence on popular culture
Whilst himself arguably a pastiche of various prior adventurers, the character can also be seen as a forerunner to (or in some cases direct influence on) other more recent fictional adventurers of a similar nature. These include:
 * Lara Croft, the self-styled archaeologist of the Tomb Raider franchise
 * Jack Colton, a mercenary and treasure-hunter seen in Romancing The Stone
 * Jackie A.K.A. also called 'Asian Hawk', an adventurer/mercenary treasure hunting, martial arts 'daredevil' character; played by Jackie Chan in the films Armour of God and Armour of God II: Operation Condor.
 * Ben Gates, a cryptologist featured in the 2004 film National Treasure
 * Danny Fremont, an archeologist seen in the film The Curse of King Tut's Tomb
 * Rick O'Connell, an adventurer and treasure-hunter seen in the 1999 film The Mummy and The Mummy Returns.
 * The latter-day adventures of Dirk Pitt, Special Projects Director of NUMA (the National Underwater and Marine Agency)
 * Sydney Fox, a female archaeologist and martial arts expert, protagonist of the television series Relic Hunter
 * Johnny Thunder, an adventurer and archaeologist from the Lego Adventurers building toy theme.
 * The "Cliffhangers" series of stories in the online comic strip Irregular Webcomic!. This includes a spoof of Indiana Jones, (Montana Jones, North Dakota Jones, and Minnesota Jones)
 * Jack West Jr. of the Matthew Reilly novel, Seven Ancient Wonders
 * Jake Cutter of the Tales of the Gold Monkey
 * Minnesota Cuke of the Veggietales episode Minnesota Cuke and the Search for Samson's Hairbrush
 * In the comic Adventures in the Rifle Brigade, the American forces are represented by a whip-wielding "Maryland Smith", with the unwanted nickname of "Mary", obviously a parody of Indiana Jones.

The character of Indiana Jones has been directly referenced by several video game characters, such as:
 * In Morrowind, there is a skeleton who is partially crushed by a giant boulder in a cave. A note next to has his final thoughts, which reference the movies many times, and is signed "Indie."
 * Alabama Smith, protagonist of the Paganitzu computer game series
 * Duke Nukem 3D, a hidden area in the level "Hotel Hell" prompts Duke to say "We meet again, Dr. Jones!"
 * Rick Dangerous, as featured in the eponymous video game by Core Design
 * Jack Van Burace from the video game Wild Arms. In the intro, he is shown running away from rolling boulders.
 * Dr. Henry "Dakota" Fanning, Ph.D, a character in the game Kingdom of Loathing
 * Harrison Jones, a short lived NPC found inside the dungeon Zul'Aman in the game World of Warcraft
 * Indiana Jones was in The Ultimate Showdown.