Mattias Targo

CHARACTER
Mattias Targo
Gender	Male
Death	1918 Transylvania, Romania
Nationality	Romanian
Profession(s)	General Vampire

"You're insane."

―Indiana Jones

Mattias Targo was an enigmatic Romanian separatist general who operated out of Transylvania during World War I. He was believed to be the reincarnated form of Vlad Tepes (the Impaler).

Biography

General Mattias Targo came to the attention of the Allied forces when he led an attack on an Austrian prisoner of war camp and abducted the population despite Romania's allegiance to Austria-Hungary in the war effort.

He returned with them to his castle and had some of the men impaled upon sharpened poles at the grounds of his castle, while the others were placed in a state comparable to living death at a campsite near his headquarters alongside German and Austrian soldiers he had also captured.

One month following the abduction, a French agent, François Picard arrived to investigate. Two Americans, Frederick McCall and Evan Thompson followed the month after. In response, Targo sent back a message not to send anymore agents: a package containing Picard's finger, McCall's ear and Thompson's eyeball.

Targo's warning went unheeded and the general began preparing for the arrival of a group made up of Colonel Waters, Indiana Jones, Nicholas Hunyadi, Franz Heinzer and Picard's fiancé, Maria Straussler. Waters mysteriously died before Targo was confronted but Jones demanded they be taken to their agents. Targo agreed and led the remaining four to a dining room, surprising them with the sight of the three agents seated as guests at a large banquet.

The general laughed away the notion that the men had been drugged, with which the men agreed. In the process, Picard revealed that Heinzer was in reality Adolf Schmidt, captain of the Austrian Secret Police. Schmidt responded by shooting Picard. Stricken by grief, Maria threw a knife from the table into Schmidt's chest when Picard simply sat back up unharmed.

With the three shocked by this, Targo's soldiers managed to quickly take Jones, Straussler and Hunyadi prisoner as Targo explained his plans. He stated that he had been besieged by outsiders for far too long and revealed that he planned to create a powerful Romanian separatist state which he would rule over. He would cleanse the country of outsiders either by driving them out or impaling them on the stakes, remarking that the latter would be preferable as death had a perfect purity. Indy then realized Targo believed himself to be Vlad Tepes and declared him insane, which Targo simply laughed off.

The general then directed his soldiers to take them up to his tower. Indy and Maria were chained to the wall while Hunyadi was tied down upon a bench. Targo picked up a scalpel and proceeded to perform a live vivisection on the man, but not before showing elongated pointed teeth that seemingly appeared from nowhere, hinting that perhaps he was not human. He then supplied Maria with a sleep inducing liquid and placed her upon a bed before turning his attention to Jones.

Targo tries to subdue Jones.

Jones feigned drinking the concoction and sucker punched Targo the moment he undid the chains. However, the general was unimpaired and grabbed Indy by the throat, lifting him with one arm onto the operating table. Just as he was about to put the scalpel to him, Targo felt a knife slam into his back from a fully conscious Straussler and he collapsed to the floor.

Maria helped Indy from the bench and as the pair made their way to the door, Targo soon rose back to his feet, seemingly none the worse. The pair fled across the fortifications but were hindered by a locked door. Targo and Jones fought high above the castle floor with Jones eventually managing to flip the general over the edge. Targo managed to hang on but at Maria's insistence Jones loosened the man's grip by stomping on his hands and Targo plummeted to the ground below.

Jones and Straussler carried Targo's broken body to where four roads met and prepared to hammer a wooden stake through his chest. Targo suddenly sprang back to life, but Indy quickly nailed the stake into the general's heart, finally subduing him. Targo's body began to smolder then erupted into flame, black smoke rising into the shape of the general's grinning visage before dissipating. All those he had taken then collapsed upon his death, hinting that once the one who killed them dies, they passed on from their seeming undeaths.

Behind the scenes

Mattias Targo was played by Bob Peck in "Transylvania, January 1918", later edited in Masks of Evil.

While the episode leaves ambigous whatever Targo is Vlad Tepes, The World of Indiana Jones and The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones Media Kit directly identify him as such.

The character is an adaptation of Count Dracula. The name "Targo" is possibly derived from the Romanian city of Târgoviște, which had been the capital of Wallachia (one of the countries that would eventually unite to make modern-day Romania), during the rule of Vlad Tepes (the Impaler).

Appearances

• The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles – "Transylvania, January 1918" → Masks of Evil
• Indiana Jones and the Cup of the Vampire (Possible appearance)

Sources

• The World of Indiana Jones
•  Chapter 17: Masks of Evil on IndianaJones.com (backup link on Archive.org)
• The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones Media Kit
• The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Volume Three, The Years of Change
• Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide
•  Into The Unknown: Lucasfilm's Brushes with Horror on Lucasfilm.com (backup link on Archive.org)