Dimitri

CHARACTER
Dimitri
Gender	Male
Death	1957 Temple of Akator, Akator, Brazil
Nationality	Soviet
Profession(s)	KGB Agent
Allegiance(s)	Soviet Union

Dimitri was a KGB agent operating in the United States of America in 1957 whose main task was to capture American archaeologist Indiana Jones.

Biography

Dimitri, along with three other Russian suits, was assigned to follow Mutt Williams so as to capture the American archaeologist Indiana Jones. He and one of the other agents boarded the train Jones intended to leave on, but had to get off after Williams persuaded Jones to go with him to Arnie's Diner. There the pair tried to apprehend the two Americans, but were thwarted when a fight broke out as a result of Mutt sucker punching a college student to create a distraction.

Hitting the Brody statue.

The agents gave chase in their cars and Dimitri pulled Jones off of Mutt's motorcycle into his car through a window, but the archaeologist clambered out the other side after physically defending himself. Later they drove through a Red Scare rally, but the agent driving the car was blinded by a banner that said "Better Dead Than Red", ironically mocking Dimitri's superior Nikita Khrushchev, and crashed into a statue of the late Dean Marcus Brody.

After Jones was later found along with Williams in Peru digging for the Crystal Skull of Akator by the Soviets, Dovchenko and his men captured them and took them to their camp in Brazil where they held Jones' associates: his old friend Harold Oxley and his ex-fiancée Marion Ravenwood.

Dimitri at Akator.

One of only four Soviets other than Spalko to have survived to journey to Akator, Dimitri accompanied his now only superior to the temple. Once Spalko and the soldiers reached the lost city, they ruthlessly slaughtered nearly all of the native Ugha tribe, although some managed to escape from them via secret caves. At the Temple of Akator, Spalko, accompanied by Dimitri and just three other men, finally delivered the Crystal Skull to its decapitated skeleton. A dimensional rift was created by the interdimensional beings in order to return to the "space between spaces" and a desperate Dimitri tried to flee in the wake of Indiana Jones' party but, along with Roosevelt and the other two soldiers, was sucked into the vortex to his death while Spalko was left to burn.

Behind the scenes

The first of the two credited Russian Suits was portrayed by the late actor and musician Dimitri Diatchenko in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. As an American actor of Ukrainian descent, Diatchenko's Russian accent helped him get the part. The film's script identified the character simply as "Russian 1" but is named as Dimitri in parentheses after the actor's own name in The Complete Making of Indiana Jones during Diatchenko's contribution to the book.

To prepare for the role, Diatchenko bulked up to 250 pounds to look more menacing. Although he was cast for a minor part for a ten day shoot, when Diatchenko was accidentally struck on the chin by Harrison Ford's Indiana Jones, during the filming of the chase at Marshall College, director Steven Spielberg liked his humorous looking reaction so much that the actor's work was expanded to three months, allowing the character to make it to the film's climax.

For the 2008 release of the Indiana Jones Movie Photo Cards trading card series, Dimitri was depicted in one of the cards but was erroneously identified as George McHale, one of the film's main antagonists and a friend-turned-enemy of Jones. McHale was never involved in the Bedford car chase.

Appearances

• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (First appearance)
• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull novel
• "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" - Indiana Jones: The Official Magazine
• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull comic

Sources

• The Complete Making of Indiana Jones (First identitified as "Dimitri")