— Why are you dragging us off to this deserted palace? Fortune and glory?
— Fortune and glory... Well... this is a piece of an old manuscript. This pictograph represents Sankara, a priest. Gentle. Gentle. This is hundreds of years old.
— Is that some kind of writing?
— Yeah, it's Sanskrit. It's part of the legend of Sankara. He climbs Mount Kalisa where he meets Siva, the Hindu god.
— That's Siva? And what's he handing the priest?
— Rocks. He told him to go forth and combat evil. And to help him, he gave him five sacred stones with magical properties.
— Magic rocks? My grandpa was a magician. He spent his entire life with a rabbit in his pocket and pigeons up his sleeves. He made a lot of children happy and died a very poor man.
— Where did you find your little bodyguard?
— I didn't find him, I caught him.
— What?
— Shorty's family were killed when the Japanese bombed Shanghai. He's been living on the streets since he was four. I caught him trying to pick my pocket, didn't I, short stuff?
— On the way to Delhi, you will stop at Pankot.
— Pankot is not on the way to Delhi.
— You will go to Pankot Palace. <...> Now there is a new Maharajah, and again the palace has the power of the Dark Light. It is that place kill my people.
— What has happened here?
— The evil start in Pankot, then like monsoon, it moves darkness over all country, over all country. <...> It is why Siva brought you here.
— We weren't brought here. Our plane crashed. It crashed.
— No, no. We prayed to Siva to help us find the stone. It was Siva who made you fall from the sky.
— Wow! Holy smoke! Crash landing!
— Short Round, step on it.
— Okeydokey, Dr. Jones. Hold on to your potatoes.
— For crying out loud, there's a kid driving the car! Wow! Wow.
— Where's the antidote? Let me have it.
— Listen, I just met you, for Christ's sakes.
— Give me...
— I'm not that kind of girl.
— Hey, Dr. Jones, no time for love. We got company.
— Oh, I hope you choke.
— This is Willie Scott. This is Indiana Jones, famous archeologist.
— Well, I thought archeologists were always funny little men searching for their mommies.
— Mummies.
Okay, Jones. You win. Blow it up. Yes, blow it up. Blow it back to God. All your life has been spent in pursuit of archaeological relics. Inside the Ark are treasures beyond your wildest aspirations. You want to see it open as well as I. Indiana... we are simply passing through history. This... This is history. Do as you will.
— Why, Dr Jones, whatever are you doing in such a nasty place?
— Why don't you come on down here. I'll show you.
— Thank you, my friend, but I think we are all very comfortable up here.
— That's right, isn't it?
— Yes, we are very comfortable up here. So, once again, Jones, what was briefly yours is now mine. What a fitting end to your life's pursuits. You're about to become a permanent addition to this archaeological find. Who knows? In a thousand years, even you may be worth something.
You and I are very much alike. Archaeology is our religion, yet we have both fallen from the purer faith. Our methods have not differed as much as you pretend. I am a shadowy reflection of you. It would take only a nudge to make you like me, to push you out of the light.
— What does this Ark look like?
— There's a picture of it right here. That's it.
— Good God.
— Yes, that's just what the Hebrews thought.
— Now, what's that supposed to be coming out of there?
— Lightning... fire... power of God or something.
— I'm beginning to understand Hitler's interest in this.
— Oh, yes. The Bible speaks of the Ark levelling mountains, and laying waste to entire regions. An army which carries the Ark before it... is invincible.
— Dr Jones, now, you must understand that this is all strictly confidential?
— I understand.
— Yesterday afternoon, our European sections intercepted a... a German communiqué that was sent from Cairo to Berlin.
— Now, to Cairo...
— See, over the last two years, the Nazis have had teams of archaeologists running around the world looking for all kinds of religious artefacts. Hitler's a nut on the subject. He's crazy. He's obsessed with the occult. And, right now, apparently, there's some kind of German archaeological dig going on in the desert outside of Cairo. Now, we've got some information here, but we can't make anything out of it, and maybe you can. «Tanis development proceeding. Acquire headpiece, Staff of Ra». «Abner Ravenwood, US». The Nazis have discovered Tanis. Just what does that mean to you, Tanis?
— Well, it... The city of Tanis is one of the possible resting places of the Lost Ark. The chest the Hebrews used to carry around the Ten Commandments.
— You talking about the Ten Commandments?
— Yes, the actual Ten Commandments. The original stone tablets that Moses brought down out of Mount Horeb and smashed, if you believe in that sort of thing. Any of you guys ever go to Sunday school? Well, I... Oh, look. The Hebrews took the broken pieces and put them in the Ark. When they settled in Canaan, they put the Ark in a place called the Temple of Solomon. In Jerusalem. Where it stayed for many years. Until, all of a sudden, whoosh, it's gone.
Archeology is the search for fact... not truth. If it's truth you're interested in, Dr. Tyree's philosophy class is right down the hall.
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