The World War One Ace was a retired pilot from World War I, who sided with the Nazis during their search for the Joneses aboard the D-138 in 1938.
Biography
In 1938, the World War One Ace was a fellow passenger of the zeppelin with Indiana Jones and his father when it left Germany. During the trip, he drank heavily and told war stories to the other passengers.
His allegiance to the Nazis (or at least his country in general) was revealed when a Gestapo agent called for any loyal Germans to help him pursue the Joneses, and he volunteered along a Zeppelin crewman. After the Joneses escaped in a biplane and the crewman nearly dies for falling of the zeppelin's scaffolds, the Gestapo and him decided to follow the Joneses in another biplane which was there. Unfortunately, he was so drunk that when he and the agent tried to follow the Joneses in a second biplane, he neglected to turn the motor on and they fell to their deaths.
Behind the scenes
The World War I Ace was portrayed by the late Frederick Jaeger in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The film's original script indentified the character as the "World War I German Flying Ace".
The World War I Ace telling his WWI stories to the passengers of the D-138 as depicted in the comic.
In the third revision of the film's original script, written by Jeffrey Boam, the World War I Ace had a line that ended up unused in the final movie (or it could have been kept, but as his death scene was deleted is unknown if the line make it). This was "Come! Come!", said to the Gestapo in response to board the second biplane to pursue Indiana Jones and his father.
The sequence in which he and his partner are killed was cut from the final version of the film because director Steven Spielberg felt it made the film run too long; but remains in the film's novelization and its comic book adaptation.
Appearances
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade novel (First appearance)
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade comic
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade