Eaton

CHARACTER
Eaton
Gender	Male
Nationality	American
Profession(s)	US Army Major Intelligence agent
Allegiance(s)	US Army US Army Intelligence

"What exactly is a headpiece to the Staff of Ra?"

―Major Eaton

Major Eaton was a US Army officer and intelligence agent for the United States federal government.

Biography

Major Eaton was a United States Army Intelligence bureaucrat based out of Washington DC. He was teamed with a colonel, Musgrove, to keep an eye on Adolf Hitler's international activities which included the Führer's interest in artifacts with supposed supernatural properties.

In 1934, Eaton and Musgrove monitored the Adventure Society, a group that was collecting powerful artifacts across the globe.

Musgrove and Eaton at Hangar 51.

Believing the members could be useful to them, Eaton and Musgrove arranged to have the artifacts stolen and left a trail for the protegé of Society member Professor John Allen to follow which led back to a warehouse in Nevada. When the Society member arrived, Eaton and his partner revealed their ruse and their true intentions: they wanted Allen's team to join them as "top men."

In 1936, Army Intelligence had intercepted a Nazi communiqué that mentioned Abner Ravenwood and the Staff of Ra. Eaton and Musgrove sought out Indiana Jones, a former student of Ravenwood, at Marshall College, Connecticut to learn more information about Ravenwood, Tanis, and the headpiece to the Staff of Ra. After Jones and Marcus Brody made the connection to the Ark of the Covenant, Eaton and Musgrove decided to hire Jones to recover the Ark for the United States before the Nazis could retrieve it. As part of the deal, the Ark would go to Brody's museum after it was found.

After Jones survived the opening of the Ark on a secret Nazi island in the Mediterranean, Eaton and Musgrove reunited with Jones and Brody back in Washington DC. While Jones and Brody argued that the Ark needed to be studied, Eaton told them that their assistance was no longer needed, and instead "top men" would be handling the further research into the Ark's powers. In fact, the Ark was secreted away for storage at the army intelligence warehouse installation in Nevada as crate #9906753.

Behind the scenes

Actor William Hootkins played Eaton in Raiders of the Lost Ark. He had previously worked for Lucasfilm Ltd. portraying rebel pilot 'Porkins' in the original 1977 Star Wars movie.

At the end of LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures' Raiders of the Lost Ark stage, Eaton supervises the storing of the Ark in the gargantuan warehouse, only to become comically lost when he can't find his way through the maze-like stacks of boxes.

He is unplayable in the game, and is omitted from its sequel along with Musgrove and the Bureaucrat.

Appearances

• Indiana Jones Adventure World
• Raiders of the Lost Ark novel (First appearance)
• Raiders of the Lost Ark
• Raiders of the Lost Ark comic
• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull junior novel (Indirect mention)
• LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures (Non-canonical appearance)

Sources

• Raiders of the Lost Ark Sourcebook