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"I'm not a Frenchie, I'm a Belgie!"
―Remy Baudouin[src]

Remy Baudouin was a Belgian soldier, cook and friend of Indiana Jones during World War I.

Biography[]

Remy Baudouin was born in Belgium on May 16, 1886.[1] He worked as cook on a ship out of Belgium in the early years of the 20th century but he was a mariner who hated the sea so jumped ship while it was docked in Veracruz, Mexico.[2]

The war years[]

Mexican Revolution[]

One day the young Remy met Lupe. The two fell in love, and married, opening a cantina together in Mazatlán. For a few years they were happy, until the Federales came and Lupe was killed. After that, Remy, fueled with a desire for revenge and with nowhere else to go in life, took up with the revolutionaries under Pancho Villa.[3]

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Indy, Remy and José González during the Mexican Revolution.

It was while riding with the Villistas in 1916 that Remy met the 16-year-old Indiana Jones. Soon the two developed a fast friendship and during an attack Remy saved Indy's life. When Remy witnessed a newsreel showing the devastation wrought on his native Belgium by the invading Germans in World War I, he resolved to head to Europe to enlist in the army and help free his homeland. Indy chose to go with him[2] and so the two set off together for the port of Veracruz bound for Europe.[4]

Remy decided that they should stowaway on a ship but the two men were discovered hiding in the lifeboats on the first night and forced to work for their passage across the Atlantic Ocean.[5]

Western Front[]

After a brief stop over in Ireland,[6] Remy and Indy arrived in London to enlist in the Belgian army. Celebrating their enlistment at the Café Belgique afterwards, Remy met proprietor Suzette Chambin, a war widow. After getting rid of Indy—encouraging him to find a lonely woman of his own—Remy engaged in a flirtation with the mother of four. By the time he met up Indy again some days later at the train station where the soldiers were to be shipped out, Remy's tryst had quickly blossomed into marriage.[7]

Remy and Indy saw their first action in Flanders when a disastrous attack killed all their commanding officers in their unit. The surviving Belgians were assigned to a French unit in the Somme. There, after a successful attack, followed by a routing German counterattack, Remy was injured, and lost sight of Indy. He somehow made it back to Allied lines where, weeks later, he was reunited with Indy who had meanwhile escaped from an enemy prison camp.[8]

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Indy and Remy at the Somme.

While Indy was assigned to be a motorcycle courier, Remy was sent to the front line at Verdun, where he took another injury. Traumatized by the bloody battle of attrition, Remy spent weeks in an army field hospital, exaggerating his condition to avoid going back to the front until Allied leadership sent the patients back anyway. Marching into an attack in which he knew was a death sentence, Remy's life was spared at the last moment thanks to a desperate decision by Indy, who destroyed the orders he carried that would send Remy and his unit into battle that day.[9]

Reunited in the trenches, Indy got himself and Remy a much needed break by arranging for leave in Paris where Remy indulged himself with the local prostitutes. He emerged from a heady week of debauchery to find Indy arrested, prompting their superiors to send them back to the front; however, Indy arranged through his contacts for a transfer to Africa.[10] Remy was thrilled, as Africa was one place he'd always wanted to visit.[11]

African turnaround[]

In October 1916, their arrival was augmented with the announcement that their tour of duty also came with an automatic promotion to the rank of Lieutenant. Remy had gotten used to following the talented, energetic, younger Indiana, so he reacted with much annoyance when Indy managed to get them totally lost on their way to Belgian forces at Lake Victoria. Meeting up with British troops, Remy ended up serving in the beachfront trenches in German East Africa, while Indy went on a mission with a band of old soldiers, the 25th Frontiersman Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, to blow up a German artillery train. After completing that mission, the fusiliers decided to help 'escort' Indy and Remy back to Belgian forces, but were actually on a mission to capture German field marshal Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck. In their plan, they masqueraded as European settlers, and Remy was forced to dress as a woman. The disguises failed and the entire force was captured by von Lettow-Vorbeck. After a jailbreak, Remy and Indy managed to capture von Lettow-Vorbeck and escape in a hot air observation balloon. After Indy shot down their balloon, Remy and Indy escorted their prisoner on foot, using him to also provide local survival knowledge. Eventually, German agents recovered von Lettow-Vorbeck but allowed Remy and Indy to escape, and the duo finally made it to their unit on Lake Victoria.[11]

There, under the command of Major Boucher, Remy, a lieutenant, watched as Indy, now promoted to captain after a daring attack on German forces, started to become a mature officer. While crossing the Congo, Remy participated in the mutiny against Boucher over the treatment of an orphan, and managed to survive a trek across the entire African continent from east to west despite illness and exhaustion killing half of his unit. Once they reached their destination at Port-Gentil to pick up artillery and machine guns needed to take Tabora, they were denied troops by their French allies to make the return trip. At this point in January 1917, with only twelve men, and no hope of making it back to Lake Victoria, Remy gave into despair and hopelessness. Indy too was unhappy but as the highest ranking remaining officer resolved to return. Their friendship was severely tested, with Remy delivering a right hook to his superior officer's jaw after Indy tried to pull rank on him.[12]

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Remy and Indy in Africa.

Nevertheless they went on but tropical disease affected each and every one of them. With jiggers burrowing under Remy's skin and the whole group feverish, they didn't get far. Luckily, they were rescued by German humanitarian Albert Schweitzer, who had a field hospital where it was most needed, in equatorial Africa. Jiggers had lain eggs in Remy's feet, and he lost two of his toes. Jones realized the foolhardiness of the mission and apologized to his bed-ridden friend. Schweitzer turned Indy around, back into being a humanitarian rather than an officer, but was tragically evicted from from his hospital by the French authorities who couldn't see past his nationality. As Indy and Remy watched, Schweitzer's patients stumbled out of the wards, and back into the jungle to die while Schweitzer and his wife were arrested and sent back to Port-Gentil to be deported. With their guns no longer needed at Tabora, Indy and Remy received orders in Port-Gentil to escort the heavy weapons back to Europe. They bid farewell to the Schweitzers, and Remy convinced a French soldier to carry Mrs. Schweitzer's luggage.[13]

Secret service[]

Hawk07

Indy and Remy part company.

Remy and Indy, after Schweitzer's lessons, decided to do all they could to end the war by enlisting in the Belgian secret service. Finding this unsatisfactory they managed to transfer themselves to the far more efficient French secret service. Because he had experience as a cook, Remy was assigned to his hometown of Brussels where he was to take over Café Noir and with a new identity, "Albert", he was to become the main French contact with the Belgian Resistance, known as "the White Lady". As a result he and Indy were forced to part company. As Remy was shipped away, Indy's words of advice were simply, "Stay alive."[14]

Remy's important duties in Brussels lasted for two years, until the end of the war. In a final mission in the last days of the war, he was reunited with Indy on a mission to arrest an Indian officer in the trenches on the front line. This assignment led to a postwar adventure, a search for Alexander the Great's lost diamond: the Peacock's Eye.[15]

One final adventure[]

"A stone. All this for a stone!"
―Remy Baudouin[src]

Indy and Remy returned to London, where Remy was reunited with Suzette, whom he had seen for only one week in the past three years. After a week home, Remy convinced Suzette to fund a scheme to track down the Peacock's Eye. He dragged along Indy, who proved to be far more proficient at treasure hunting than Remy.[15]

Trpea04b

Remy and his wife, Suzette.

Their adventure took them to Alexandria, the island of Java, and finally the Trobriand Islands off the coast of New Guinea. Frustrated at every turn, yet always with one more tantalizing clue at arm's length, Remy became obsessed; meanwhile, all Indy wanted was to finally go home and start studying archaeology. Indiana was finally persuaded by Polish anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski to forsake the quest, which could easily have lasted years, and follow his heart, which was leading him to higher education. With that, Indy and Remy parted company;[15] while Indy returned home to Princeton,[16] Remy headed for Bombay where the diamond was linked to the Temple of Piety.[15]

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The Peacock's Eye.

Indy eventually tracked down the Peacock's Eye himself years later.[17] In a night club in 1935 Shanghai, Indy traded the ashes of Nurhachi for the diamond, which had been in the ownership of the Chinese gangster Lao Che. However, after obtaining the diamond, Indy learned that Che had poisoned his drink. The diamond was lost somewhere in the club during Indy's mad dash to get the antidote.[18] After having briefly seen the diamond, Jones began writing a letter to his old friend Remy, but never sent it, keeping it in his journal.[19]

Personality and traits[]

Although Remy married Suzette in May of 1916, he didn't see her again until the end of the war.[15] During the war, Remy was unfaithful to his wife as he was known to visit brothels while on leave.[8][10]

He had a relative, Jean Baudouin, in London in 1916 who gave a toast to him and Indy during a dinner at Café Belgique on the day they both enlisted in the Belgian army.[7]

Behind the scenes[]

Remy Baudouin was portrayed by the late Belgian actor Ronny Coutteure in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.[20] He returned to the role to film bridging segments for the series when it was recut and edited into The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones.[21]

The character was conceived by Indiana Jones creator George Lucas while pitching the first Young Indy episodes due to his desire to have a Belgian character whom the title character could befriend so he could go back to Europe and join the Belgian army. However, it was left to the show's writers like Jonathan Hales to flesh Remy out beyond Lucas' initial concept through the course of the show.[22]

Appearances[]

Sources[]

Notes and references[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide
  2. 2.0 2.1 The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles – "Young Indiana Jones and the Curse of the Jackal" Spring Break Adventure
  3. The Mata Hari Affair
  4. Mid-Atlantic, April 1916
  5. The Adventures of Young Indiana JonesLove's Sweet Song
  6. The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles – "Ireland, April 1916" Love's Sweet Song
  7. 7.0 7.1 The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles – "London, May 1916" Love's Sweet Song
  8. 8.0 8.1 The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles – "Somme, Early August 1916" Trenches of Hell
  9. The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles – "Verdun, September 1916" Demons of Deception
  10. 10.0 10.1 The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles – "Paris, October 1916" Demons of Deception
  11. 11.0 11.1 The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles – "Young Indiana Jones and the Phantom Train of Doom" Phantom Train of Doom
  12. The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles – "German East Africa, December 1916" Oganga, The Giver and Taker of Life
  13. The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles – "Congo, January 1917" Oganga, The Giver and Taker of Life
  14. The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles – "Young Indiana Jones and the Attack of the Hawkmen" Attack of the Hawkmen
  15. 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles – "Young Indiana Jones and the Treasure of the Peacock's Eye" Treasure of the Peacock's Eye
  16. The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles – "Young Indiana Jones: Travels with Father" Winds of Change
  17. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom junior novel
  18. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
  19. The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones
  20. The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles
  21. The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones
  22. Lucasfilm Screenwriter Jonathan Hales on Helping Create Young Indiana Jones on Lucasfilm.com (backup link on Archive.org)
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