Armed Guard

"Who are you?"

The title of this article is conjectural.

Although this article is based on canonical information, the actual name of this subject is pure conjecture.

Please see the reasons for this title in the "Behind the scenes" section below, and/or the relevant discussion on the talk page.

CHARACTER
Armed Guard
Gender	Male
Nationality	German
Profession(s)	Soldier
Allegiance(s)	Nazis

A Nazi soldier was present at the Tanis digsite for the Ark of the Covenant outside Cairo, Egypt in 1936, under the orders of Colonel Dietrich and a Sergeant, and after the Ark was found he was among five other soldiers who, with the Sergeant, loaded onto a cargo truck which contained the ancient relic in order to defend it from American archaeologist Indiana Jones and his comrades. During a chase which ensued as a result of the arrival of Jones, this soldier and his fellow men all ended up falling out of the truck after it was hijacked by the American.

Biography

Tanis, Egypt

The truck circling the rest of the soldiers preparing to transport the Ark of the Covenant.

In 1936, this German soldier was among the men who made up the Nazi party who attempted to unearth the Ark of the Covenant from the Well of the Souls at Tanis outside Cairo, Egypt under the orders of Colonel Herman Dietrich, Major Gobler, Gestapo agent Major Arnold Ernst Toht and the French archaeologist René Emile Belloq. The Ark was secretly dug up overnight by American archaeologist Indiana Jones and his associates, including Arab excavator Sallah Mohammed Faisel el-Kahir, but Dietrich and Belloq confronted them, took the Ark, arrested Sallah and his men and sealed Jones and Marion Ravenwood inside the cave. However, the two soon managed to escape, and ended up blowing up the Flying Wing, the jet plane meant to transport the Ark to Berlin, Germany.

The passenger and his driver watching Belloq walking past.

Following the Flying Wing's destruction, Colonel Dietrich decided that the Ark would instead be transported from Tanis to Cairo by truck. With Jones' location unknown, this soldier boarded the front of the truck with another, sitting besides him, in the vehicle's front as it moved to the centre of the digsite as four of his fellow men carried the Ark into the back of a Mercedes-Benz LG3000 cargo truck, before getting inside themselves to protect the relic along with two other men and a Sergeant, with this soldier driving the truck. The vehicle was protected by a Mercedes-Benz G5 troop car driven by Major Gobler and two officers and a motorcycle and sidecar helmed by a driver and his passenger.

The Desert Chase

The passenger thrown out of the truck by Indiana Jones.

Soon, the truck, jeep and sidecar began moving, following a 1937 Mercedes-Benz 320 carrying Colonel Dietrich, Major Toht, Belloq and their driver. All seemed to be going well as the convoy's journey through the desert began, but Indiana Jones promptly appeared behind the truck riding an Arabian stallion. Gobler's gunner began peppering Jones with gunfire, but both he and his horse made it to the truck and the American leapt onto the vehicle. Opening the door at the front of the truck, he hurled its front passenger out into the desert, who rolled over towards a rock mound in the sandy road, before hopping inside and wrestling the driver, fighting with passion for the wheel.

Behind the scenes

The Armed Guard was portrayed uncredited by the late stuntman Romo Gorrara in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

In Campbell Black's novelization, the Armed Guard lives up to his name by trying to kill Indiana Jones with a rifle, but Indy grapples and twists his weapon, breaking his wrists before throwing the guard out of the vehicle as he cries in pain. In the Marvel Comics' comic book adaptation, the truck passenger has a line unlike the film: this is "H-Help!", which he says to Jones when he throws him off the truck, teasing the passenger by saying that he doesn't need to fret as he can exchange his seat in the truck for the stallion Jones employed to reach the truck.

In the LEGO video game adaptations of Raiders of the Lost Ark, this character, as with the tough Sergeant, is omitted from the desert chase. In the TV short film LEGO Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Brick, the Truck Driver is depicted as the only occupant of the truck's cab. The LEGO set Race for the Stolen Treasure includes the cargo truck and the driver but, again, no passenger. The same happens in LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures and its sequel. In the latter, the passenger's role is fulfilled at one point by Arnold Ernst Toht during the cutscenes.

Appearances

• Raiders of the Lost Ark novel (First appearance)
• Raiders of the Lost Ark
• Raiders of the Lost Ark comic
• Raiders of the Lost Ark storybook