Jefferson

"...don't call me Junior!"

The title of this article is a nickname. This article is about a canonical subject that lacks a proper name, and is known only by its nickname or callsign. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page or explanation in the article itself.

CHARACTER
Jefferson
Gender	Male
Death	1957 Temple of Akator, Akator
Nationality	Soviet
Profession(s)	Soldier
Allegiance(s)	Soviet Special Forces

Disguised as American serviceman "Jefferson", a Russian soldier served under Colonel Antonin Dovchenko and Colonel Doctor Irina Spalko, helping them to infiltrate Hangar 51 in Nevada in 1957.

Biography

In 1957, disguised with his comrades as US military soldiers, "Jefferson" aided Colonel Antonin Dovchenko and Colonel Doctor Irina Spalko in infiltrating Hangar 51 in Nevada, USA as part of a covert Soviet invasion of America to acquire the Roswell remains.

Jefferson accompanied his superiors to Hangar 51 in the passenger seat of a small roofed jeep behind the staff car in the boot of which American archaeologist Indiana Jones and double agent George "Mac" McHale were held. On the way there, Jefferson watched as the driver of the staff car was goaded into a race with teenager Jimmy Keegan, and, along with Colonel Dovchenko, disguised as American Colonel Truman, and his passenger, Lincoln, looked on in disapproval. Once they arrived at Hangar 51, Sergeant Wycroft and his MPs approached them, informing them that the base they were entering was closed due to weapons testing. Jefferson was among the four soldiers who executed the guards with their machine guns as Dovchenko tied his shoelaces, and then they leapt into a roofless jeep and were led into the hangar itself.

Jones and Mac were released under Dovchenko's orders, and were surrounded by the Soviets as Jones retrieved his fedora. It was Jefferson and another soldier who dragged Jones and Mac from the boot of the car and dumped them on the ground. After Jones was coerced into finding the crate holding the Roswell crash victim, he lead the group into the hangar, where they awaited further instructions from their captive. When Jones asked Colonel Dovchenko for bullets, the Colonel translated this to his subordinates and they all laughed at Indy. However, the archaeologist was able to convince Dovchenko to give him several bullets, which he then used to locate the highly magnetized crate in which the Roswell remains were kept.

Jefferson in disguise.

The Soviets looked on in awe as Spalko opened the crate, showing them all the corpse of a deceased being from another world. However, Jones used the distraction of the inhuman body to disable the Soviet guarding him and steal a machine gun from both the latter and Franklin for himself and Mac. The two threatened Spalko, but after Mac revealed his loyalty was to the Russians, Indy realized he was outnumbered. Dovchenko ordered him to drop his gun, but when Jones did the machine gun fired and the bullet hit a Soviet in the foot, allowing Jones time to climb a wall of crates and make his escape, despite the efforts of several soldiers to kill him. Grant and Jefferson took over a cargo truck and began to drive it alongside Spalko in a roofless jeep, but Indy leapt from the wall of crates and inadvertently swung away from his goal, Spalko, and straight into the truck's windscreen. The two Soviets looked at Jones, baffled, as he came crashing through the window, before first throwing Jefferson out of the vehicle followed by Grant.

After Jones was later found along with his son Mutt Williams in Peru digging for the Crystal Skull of Akator by Jefferson and his comrades, Dovchenko and the Soviets 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. Jefferson was present as Spalko and Dovchenko were aided by Jones in locating the Temple of Akator, and helped his superiors to recapture Indy and his friends when they attempted to escape. The next day, Jefferson was one of the many soldiers who participated in the jungle chase during which Indy made use of a rocket launcher to blow up the Jungle Cutter the Soviets were using to bypass the tall trees, before stealing a duck and duelling Spalko in her jeep on the edge of a cliff. Jefferson also outlasted both the subsequent encounter with a deadly nest of siafu and the climb down towards Akator when Ravenwood caused a large tree to richochet off the cliffside during the Soviets' descent.

One of the only four Soviets other than Spalko to have survived to travel to Akator, Jefferson 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 Jefferson 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 Jefferson 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

"Jefferson" was played by Venya Manzyuk under the name "Veniamin Manzyuk" in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Manzyuk was credited as one of the four Russian Soldiers. Like many of the Soviet Special Forces who infiltrated Hangar 51, Jefferson shares his name with a US president, in his case Thomas Jefferson.

According to the insignia on his shirt, Jefferson was pretending to be a Private First Class in the U.S. Army.

While he and his companions are pulled into the vortex in the film, Jefferson and his companions receive a different fate in the comic book adaptation where the soldiers are incinerated by the piercing gaze of the crystal skeletons at the Temple of Akator.

Appearances

• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (First appearance)
• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull novel