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Revision as of 23:00, 22 April 2010

"So once again, Jones, what was briefly yours is now mine."
―René Belloq[src]

René Emile Belloq was a French archaeologist and rival of Indiana Jones. Like Jones, Belloq scoured the globe for antiquities, but would rather sell them for his own profit instead of giving them to a museum as Indy did. On several occasions, he would simply let Jones do the dirty work and then steal the prize from him.

Biography

René[1] Emile Belloq was born in Marseilles, France to a wealthy wine making family at Forteresse Malevil. He grew up admiring France's most acclaimed archaeologists and made it his mission to become one himself by enrolling at the Sorbonne where a fellow student named Indiana Jones was studying linguistics.

In August 1922, the two met at an archaeological dig at Ur in Iraq when Belloq absconded with several artifacts and sold them off, damaging the reputation of Andres Uribe in the process, though the act made Belloq a contact with dealers on the black market. Returning to the university, Belloq came across a paper on stratigraphy by Jones and — Jones claimed — plagiarized the work. As a result he was awarded the Archaeological Society Prize.

His accolade and inherited wealth bought him a job at the Louvre in Paris as an assistant curator. He held the position for under a year as he became suspect in the funding of a grave robbing expedition in Persia which led to the deaths of several of the museum's employees and a British archaeologist. Fired, Belloq became a mercenary to whomever could afford him.[2]

At some point in his career, Belloq journeyed to Estray in the Orkney Islands where the ruins were believed to hold the lost treasure of tenth century Viking pirate Magnus Redhand. Belloq's methods only resulted in angering the locals, and he left them distrustful of all archaeologists.[3][4]

Belloq 1930

Catching up with Indiana Jones in Marrakesh, 1930

In 1930, he was on the trail of the Uppsala Scroll and traveled to Sweden to acquire it for the Nazis. Unfortunately, he reached the site, too late, only finding Theresa Lawrence, who did not have the scroll, but instead had Baldur's Ring. He went to London, and with the help of some thugs, he stole the scroll from Marcus Brody. He traveled to Marrakesh where he met with his buyer, Krause. While showing the potency of the scroll's information, Belloq was unaware of Jones disguised nearby. When Jones stole the scroll and escaped, Belloq and Krause made the Nazi soldiers follow him. In a dead-end alley, Belloq found Jones fighting with a Nazi, and recovered the scroll. Giving the scroll to Krause, he offered to enlist Jones in future operations for the Nazis. Krause revealed that the scroll was a Torah, and Belloq was enraged at his deal gone sour - Jones had given the real scroll to Lawrence during the chase. With no deal, Belloq tried to maintain face with Krause and left Jones beat-up in the alley.[5]

In 1931, Belloq sought the Invincible Ruby of Ali Bey, and his research team recognized the need to obtain the five mammalian Wohat Statues. Belloq hired Ali Bey-Faisal to steal them from various museums around the world. After realizing that Jones was on the trail of the stolen statues, Belloq and Bey-Faisal planned to trick Jones into reclaiming the carvings, and then use them to find and enter Ali Bey's Palace. The night after the Lion statue was stolen from the Barcelona History Museum, Bey-Faisal hinted to Jones that Belloq had hired him, and made sure that Jones followed him back to a hotel, where he met with Belloq in the lobby. The two talked downstairs, allowing Jones to sneak into Belloq's room and take the statues. Belloq and Bey-Faisal then followed Jones to Kenya, where the palace was. While Bey-Faisal was to overcome Jones and claim the ruby, Belloq stayed out of the jungle. As Jones returned from the jungle empty-handed, Belloq asked if Bey-Faisal had gotten the ruby. Jones' response indicated that if Bey-Faisal had found it, he'd still need to be dug out.[6]

The following year, Belloq approached Wolfgang S. Staubig with interest in The Book of the Spells of Merlin manuscript believed to contain a runic incantation for summoning the image of the Holy Grail.[7]

In 1933 Belloq came across a powerful artifact, the Crystal Skull of Cozan, on the black market and took it into his possession where he found a buyer in the Nazis who had recently began scouring the globe for occult relics. Jones turned up at his home looking for the Skull which he had uncovered. With help from the Daguerre brothers Jean and Claude, Jones was taken captive when the Nazis led by Franz Kroeger arrived in a U-boat to finish the deal. Belloq completed the transaction but fearing Nazi reprisal, attempted to have Jones shot even though Kroeger had already left. However, while the Frenchman was distracted with the Daguerres, Jones escaped cursing Belloq's name and the Nazis turned the U-boat's guns on Forteresse Malevil regardless, destroying it with two torpedoes. Belloq survived and later gave Jones coordinates to find the Skull.[8]

Belloq resurfaced during Mardi Gras in New Orleans in March 1934 after he found Jones was seeking his help in locating the Skull which had once again slipped his grasp. For a price, Belloq supplied Jones with a means to locate the Skull but Jones' antagonistic remarks prompted the Frenchman to challenge the archaeologist to a duel. Jones chose the match to be decided by single shot revolver and took a bullet to the arm.[9]

In the June of that year, Indy found that Belloq had already swooped in and excavated a spot in the Rub al Khali Desert of Saudi Arabia, a place which Indy had spent months planning to dig.[10]

When Jones was making plans in to search for the Savarati Idol in Ceylon in 1935, Belloq made him aware of Albrecht Von Beck's plans to do the same. Jones noted in his journal that Von Beck and Belloq's rivalry appeared greater than theirs.[11] Later in the year, Belloq was in Shanghai, China looking for the remains of Nurhachi. When Jones recovered them first, Belloq had to assure gangster Lao Che - who had hired Jones to recover the urn - that his interest in the find was purely archaeological. Instead, he set his eyes on a large diamond which Jones was trying to acquire in exchange for Nurhachi.

Upon hearing Jones' plane had crashed in India, Belloq flew to the site to confirm that his rival was dead. He then made his way to Mayapore village where the local Shaman and villagers told a story of how Jones had rescued their children from the Thuggee and returned the stolen Sankara stone.[12]

Belloq is amused

Belloq is amused

In 1936, Belloq and a group of Hovitos warriors ambushed Jones after he recovered the Chachapoyan Fertility Idol from a Peruvian temple and Belloq took the relic for himself. After setting the Hovitos onto Jones, he returned home and was contacted by Colonel Dietrich where he was taken to see Adolf Hitler who wished to hire Belloq to find him and the Nazis the Ark of the Covenant.

Belloq agreed, siding with the Nazis during their search and fashioned a crude but working replica of Marion Ravenwood's medallion using the imprint burned onto Major Toht's right hand. However, crucial information was contained on the other side of the medallion and, as a result, his people ended up digging in the wrong place to find the Well of the Souls.

Noting their lack of progress, Dietrich's aide Major Gobler suggested that Marion Ravenwood might hold the answers, but Belloq insisted that she knew nothing. René attempted to extract information from her to placate Dietrich and Gobler. He seems to be more friendly with Marion than the Nazis; he gave her a new dress and joined her in a drinking contest.

The next morning, he saw a group of diggers in the far distance and it was soon discovered that Indy had found the Ark. Gloating, Belloq stole the Ark from him, but he was more than a little disappointed when Marion was thrown into the snake-infested Well of the Souls along with Indiana Jones. However, he quickly accepted her fate and left with Nazis.

After Indy and Marion escaped and destroyed the Flying Wing that was going to be used to fly the Ark out of Tanis, it was put on a truck and Belloq traveled with Dietrich and Toht to guard the Ark on the trip to Cairo so it could be taken to Germany. However, Indiana intervened and stole the Ark back.

Indy and Marion escaped with the Ark on a liner, the Bantu Wind, but the Nazis recaptured the Ark and took Marion with the German U-boat Wurrfler. Indiana Jones managed to hitch a ride on the Wurrfler in an attempt to save Marion. From there they went to the Nazis' secret island base near Crete, where Belloq planned to open the Ark to see whether or not it was genuine. To this end, he made a deal with Captain Mohler to set up the Tabernacle on the island, against Dietrich's wishes. Belloq was quite shocked to encounter Indiana once again while he and the Nazis were on their way to the Tabernacle. Indy threatened to destroy the Ark unless they turned Marion over, but Belloq called his bluff and Jones was captured.

Belloq on fire

Belloq absorbed by holy fire

With Indy and Marion bound to a stake at the Tabernacle later that night, Belloq eventually began the ritual, but to his dismay, there appeared to be nothing more than dust and sand inside the Ark. However, spirits flew down on them and Belloq, believing this was going to be a wonderful experience shouted that it was beautiful. However, one spirit transformed into the hideous Angel of Death and howled menacingly at Belloq. As Toht and Dietrich were screaming in fear, Belloq's jubilant face turned into horror as his body absorbed the holy fires of the Ark like a conduit. The fires then shot outward and struck all of the soldiers dead. As the Tabernacle became surrounded by a fiery inferno, Belloq let out a final scream of agony before his head exploded while his body was swept up and disintegrated by the fiery whirlwind.[13]

Upon Belloq's disappearance, his son decided to track Jones using entries from his father's diary to find out what happened.[14]

Behind the scenes

Exploding head

Belloq's head explodes.

Belloq was portrayed by Paul Freeman in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Lawrence Kasdan's script for the film originally had his first name as Emile, but this had to be changed when the legal research department of Lucasfilm discovered there already was an Emile Belloq. IndianaJones.com later honored the previous name by establishing Emile as Belloq's middle name.

Belloq was going to be a character in the unproduced third season of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. He was to be introduced in "Honduras, December 1920", and reappear in "Brazil, December 1921".[15]

The character was also set to make an appearance in the opening of Dark Horse Comics' Indiana Jones and the Lost Horizon set on a New York City skyscraper in 1926 involved with a fake Shroud of Turin. [16] However, the whole project had to be stopped when the Indiana Jones comic series was cancelled.

There is some inconsistency for when Belloq and Indiana Jones first met. The 1981 Raiders of the Lost Ark novelisation claims that the two learned of each other as archaeology students, from which most sources base the event and is supported by the unproduced episodes of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. However, Max McCoy's novel Indiana Jones and the Dinosaur Eggs later depicted their first meeting in 1933.

The breastplate worn by Belloq in the climactic final scene is actually quite true to the Hoshen, the breastplate worn by the High Priests who were the only ones to have contact with the Ark, according to the description of the Hoshen as found in the Torah.

Appearances

Sources

Notes and references

  1. ↑ Template:Recontra
  2. ↑ Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide
  3. ↑ The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones — "Magic, Murder, and the Weather!"
  4. ↑ The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones — "Something's Gone Wrong Again!"
  5. ↑ Indiana Jones Adventures: Volume 1
  6. ↑ Indiana Jones Adventures: Volume 2: Curse of the Invincible Ruby
  7. ↑ Grail Diary
  8. ↑ Indiana Jones and the Dinosaur Eggs
  9. ↑ Indiana Jones and the Hollow Earth
  10. ↑ Raiders of the Lost Ark novel
  11. ↑ Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb: 1935 Journal
  12. ↑ The Greatest Adventures of Indiana Jones
  13. ↑ Raiders of the Lost Ark
  14. ↑ The Greatest Adventures of Indiana Jones
  15. ↑ StarWars The Lost Chronicles of Young Indiana Jones on StarWars.com (backup link on Archive.org)
  16. ↑ Interview with Dark Horse artist Hugh Fleming at TheRaider.Net

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