Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis

Two video games by LucasArts, based on the popular Indiana Jones movie series.

The first (and the most well known) is an Adventure Game with painted cinematic screen-by-screen backgrounds, while the second was subtitled "the action game" (it was more like an Action Adventure, viewed from an faux 3d isometric perspective, and based solely on a few select moments from the point and click adventure version). The action game is mostly forgotten today. This article, for the most part, discusses the adventure game, the second Indiana Jones SCUMM adventure, released three years after Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade.

Set in the months prior to World War II, the storyline sees Indy team up with an old flame, Sophia Hapgood, who is an expert on the mythical city of Atlantis, and in particular its god Nur-ab-sal. This being an Indiana Jones story, it of course turns out that Atlantis was real, and our hero finds himself in a race against time to get there before Those Wacky Nazis can harness its power to Take Over the World.

This game was the first time that an Indiana Jones graphical video game had featured an entirely original storyline, not based on one of the films. Given the reluctance of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas to confirm a proper Indy sequel following The Last Crusade, many fans came to refer to this game by the informal title Indiana Jones 4. For years afterwards, lazy journalists used this as conclusive proof that the next movie sequel would feature Atlantis (a rumour which continues to pop up even post-Crystal Skull).

The game's storyline was also later adapted into a four issue comic book series. A sequel to the game was planned under the title Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix, but was eventually cancelled, and the Indiana Jones game series would not continue until 1999's Indiana Jones and The Infernal Machine. Iron Phoenix, however, saw a comic book adaptation after its cancellation.

The Nintendo Wii version of Indiana Jones and The Staff of Kings also features the complete full version of The Fate of Atlantis as an unlockable bonus game.

Tropes used in Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis include:

• Advanced Ancient Acropolis: Guess.
• Adventurer Archaeologist: Indy, naturally.
• Aesoptinum: The ascension machine.
• All There in the Manual: The comic adaptation explains a lot, like the connection between the Atlanteans' Schizo-Tech and the reason for the God Machine. It was aliens. They had horns, gave the Atlanteans some technology and Orichalcum, and when they left, the Atlanteans, misguided souls that they were, tried to bring them back by turning normal people into "gods". Unfortunately, it didn't work, and they became mutants.
• And Man Grew Proud
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Poor Indy.
• As Long as It Sounds Foreign: The controls for the Nazi submarine are labeled "Ausgeschnitzel", "Flugeldufel" and "Krauskefarben" (clearly, the games had substantially less budget for translators than the films). Indy doesn't speak German, so even if the player does, the labels still don't help... And yet he is able to order the submarines crew around without anybody batting an eye.
• Asshole Victim: Dr. Heimdall, Dr. Sternhart and the Nazis themselves at the end.
• Atlantis
• Baleful Polymorph: The Atlantean ascension machine is very bad at making gods and very good at making monsters.
• Bamboo Technology: Powered by Orichalcum.
• Be as Unhelpful as Possible: Everyone Indy meets, to ensure plot progression of course.
• Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: It's about Atlantis. Guess who built the Mayan pyramids, the Labyrinth of King Minos, etc?
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Indy and Sophia, as expected. Most obvious if you play the "Team" path.
• Beneath the Earth
• Big Labyrinthine Building: Knossos (the Trope Maker), Atlantis itself.
• Biological Mashup: The halls Atlantis are full of glowing statues of Eldritch Abominations.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Nur-Ab-Sal.
• Bittersweet Ending: The bad ending: the Nazis are defeated, and Atlantis is destroyed, but at the cost of Sophia's life.
• Black Mesa Commute: The opening sequence has Indy appear to be breaking into a secret stash of artifacts... only for it to be gradually revealed that he's in Barnett College and only swung through the window because the door was blocked. He then falls through multiple floors slapstick-style.
• Body Horror: The innermost sections of Atlantis are littered with the twisted skeletons of people mutated by the Atlanteans' failed experiments with their ascension machine. When Klaus Kerner decides to try the machine himself, he ends up transforming first into a giant, then into a stunted minotaur.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: One interpretation of the ending is that the newly ascended Eldritch Abomination discovers the nature of the universe, and doesn't take it well.
• Broken Pedestal: Nur-Ab-Sal is not as nice as Sophia believes at first. In a room full of horribly mutated skeletons, he tries to take over Sophia's body; Indy manages to save her by disposing of his Soul Jar in a conveniently-placed pool of lava.
• But Thou Must!: It uses LucasArts' classic menu-dialogue interface, soo...
• Character Name and the Noun Phrase
• Chekhov's Gun: Pretty much every single object you can pick up. Especially the ship rib.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Every single other archaeologist who knows anything about Atlantis. Justified because...
• Collapsing Lair: I bet you didn't think this would get invoked in an Indy story.
• Comic Book Adaptation: See page image above. Also something of a Compressed Adaptation.
• Convection, Schmonvection: Indy and Sophia have to cross a lave flow at one point, using cooled lava as stepping stones.
• Cosmic Horror Story: The actual fate of Atlantis; see Broken Pedestal above.
• Cosmic Keystone: All three keystones are needed to power up the God machine.
• Crate Expectations: Source of the trope image!
• Crush! Kill! Destroy!: The stone sentry robot.
• Crystal Spires and Togas: Atlantis (as described by Sophia Hapgood in her channellings with Nur-ab-Sal).
• Death by Adaptation: Virtually every character bar Indy and Sophia bites the dust in the comic adaptation.
• Domed Hometown: Atlantis for the past 5,000 years.
• Dragon with an Agenda: Kerner.
• Driven to Suicide: Happens to Kerner after he gets turned into a Minotaur-like creature by the ascension machine.
• Dummied Out: The game code features several rooms which are never even seen in the finished game, including an entire section based around Sophia's apartment (which was relegated to only being an unplayable Cutscene in the final version).
• Dungeon/Dungeon Crawl: The Labyrinth at Knossos.
• Durable Deathtrap: Many of the death traps in Atlantis seem to be just as functional thousands of years later.
• Eldritch Abomination:
  • Anyone who successfully uses the ascension machine.
  • Humanoid Abomination: Nur-ab-sal.
• Eternal Engine: The ascension machine. It sits in the Third Circle of Atlantis, atop an underwater volcano.
• Fiery Redhead: Sophia, played completely straight. Especially when possessed by Nur-ab-sal.
• Foot Popping: In one of the Multiple Endings, Sophia does this.
• Forgotten Superweapon: The God Machine.
• Ghostapo: Dr. Hans Ubermann and Klaus Kerner, who is in fact a Gestapo and member of the Thule society.
• A God Am I: The goal of Klaus Kerner and Dr. Hans Ubermann, using the Atlantean ascension machine. It doesn't work out very well for either of them. Sophia at one point, when possessed by Nur-ab-sal.
• Grand Theft Me: Nur-Ab-Sal takes over Sophia's body in Atlantis.
• Great Big Library of Everything: Indy's college has one.
• Green Rocks: Orichalcum.
• Have a Nice Death/It's a Wonderful Failure: Game Over screens will usually be accompanied by a text explaining Dr. Jones' death and/or what happened after. An example: "Indy's failure to subdue a sixy-year-old U-boat captain allowed the nazis to conquer the world."
• Heroes Want Redheads
• Herr Doktor: Doktor Hans Ubermann.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The Nazis' plans are ultimately foiled by the very thing they sought after. This is an Indiana Jones story; what did you expect?
• I Love Nuclear Power: The Nazis, The Atlanteans. The good guys are afraid they want orichalcum for nefarious purposes, since a single bead contains enormous power. It turns out they want to use it to turn on the ascension machine.
• Imported Alien Phlebotinum: Atlantean artifacts all around the globe. Orichalcum averts this oddly enough, since it does actually originate from Earth, but is exceptionally rare and requires some advanced technology to mine and process.
• Interchangeable Antimatter Keys: Orichalcum.
• It May Help You on Your Quest: Everything you pick up is either unexpectedly useful or a fits this trope. There's even the Maltese Falcon.
• Jerkass: Many of the characters you encounter, but especially Dr. Heimdall.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Alan Trottier and Omar Al-Jabar.
• King of All Cosmos: Nur-ab-Sal.
• Knife-Throwing Act: Sofia gets thrown into one of these by Indy.
• Last Lousy Point: The game's "Indy Quotient" score keeps track of points found in each of the three paths players can take, so you have to play all three routes (multiple times each) to get a perfect score. And some of the points involve fighting the biggest, toughest guys in the game instead of getting around them through puzzle-solving.
• Lethal Lava Land: The Colossus room in the middle of Atlantis.
• Living Labyrinth: The original minotaur Labyrinth at Knossos, or what's left of it; Atlantis itself.
• Lost Technology: Scattered all around the world by Atlanteans, and Indy has to find it.
• Lovecraft Lite
• MacGuffin: Orichalcum, and Plato's Lost Dialogue, and the keystones, and Atlantis itself.
• Mad Scientist: Dr. Hans Ubermann, complete with Scary Shiny Glasses and Bald of Evil.
• Maze: The opening labyrinthine library sequence turns out to be the attic of Indy's college library.
• Meaningful Name: Ubermann.
• Monologuing: When Sophia!Nur-ab-sal enters the throne room.
• Multiple Endings: Depending on whether or not you rescue Sophia and convince Ubermann to test the machine on himself. The entire game has three paths with different plots and different solutions to most of the puzzles: Wits, Fists and Team. Various puzzles and actions can be taken in any of the three paths, but are most effective in the appropriate scenario, while other items become useless in the other paths.
• Mundane Utility: Gold is impervious to orichalcum, and amber can be used to dowse for it.
• Neglectful Precursors: Atlanteans.
• No OSHA Compliance: Some of the archaeological digs Indy is forced to explore, not to mention Atlantis itself.
• One-Winged Angel: Most versions of the ending.
• One True Sequence: Averted. If the Nazis know anything, it's that they should let Indiana Jones do all the dirty work. Depending on the path you take, sometimes the Nazis get to scene before Indy. A prominent example is the Fists path version of the Labyrinth.
• Orichalcum: It's radioactive Bamboo Technology. One of the few works that not just uses it, but uses it as Phlebotinum.
• Our Gods Are Different: They come in all shapes and sizes, for one.
• Painting the Fourth Wall: In a manner of speaking. One puzzle involves Indy turning on a generator in a darkened underground dig site. If the player waits, Indy's eyes will adjust, and you'll be able to see what you are doing.
• Phlebotinum Muncher: Sophia's necklace.
• Phlebotinum Overload: One of the alternate Bad Endings.
• Phony Psychic: Indy implies Sophia to be this, thanks to her stage props.
• Plot Coupon: The keystones.
• Plot Coupon That Does Something: Orichalcum, the keystones.
• Powered by a Forsaken Child: The ascension machine. And how.
• Powers Via Possession
• Psychic Link: Sophia Hapgood.
• Ragnarok Proofing: Atlantis. Of course, it's built out of stone and bronze...
• Reverse Psychology: One of the ways to convince the Nazis to test the machine on themselves first.
• Running Gag: Started one in Lucasarts games with Indy's Lame Excuse "Would you like to buy these fine leather jackets?".
• Save Scumming: The only post-Monkey Island Lucasarts adventure game where this is necessary. You generally don't have to worry about it on the "Teamwork" and "Wits" paths unless you're thinking of doing something really stupid, but it's practically a requirement for getting through the "Fists" path.
• Schizo-Tech: Justified since orichalcum is a clean, safe source of nuclear power of some sort.
• Shout-Out:
  • To not just to the movies, but also to other LucasArts titles, Star Wars, Metropolis^[1] and even The Maltese Falcon.^[2]
  • The "oddly familiar-looking" boulder found on the Fists path.
• Slap Slap Kiss: Indy and Sophia after rescuing Sophia from the dungeon.
• Smug Snake: Kerner and Ubermann, who are convinced that the very same machine that horribly mutated scores of Atlanteans will work on them because of their superior Aryan qualities. They find out the hard way that they are wrong.
• Soul Jar: Sophia Hapgood channels the spirit of the last Atlantean King through her necklace. It's a reliquary for Nur-ab-sal, and Indy has to take it from her by powering it up with orichalcum, whereupon it morphs into a demonic face.
• Spirit Advisor: Nur-ab-Sal.
• Stalking Mission: While trying to track down Omar Al-Jabbar's house.
• Stupid Jetpack Hitler: See Ghostapo above.
• Tethercat Principle: Played with. When you meet the Norwegian archaeologist, he constantly digs in the same spot (as is common of adventure games of this era). When you leave and come back, he has frozen to death, apparently never having left the cave.
• These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know
• Those Wacky Nazis: Are trying to find Atlantis so they can take over the world.
• The Tower: The ascension machine.
• Town with a Dark Secret: Atlantis.
• Ubermensch: Nur-ab-sal. This is Ubermann's and Kerner's ideology as well, of course.
• Underwater Base: Atlantis itself.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change: The balloon simulator sections. And the submarine sequence. And also the car chase in Monte Carlo. It is an Indy game though. Don't forget the fist fights, although these are thankfully skippable if you hold the right button (period?) during the fight. You don't get the points for your Indy Quotient if you do this though.
• Unobtanium: The adventure begins when the Nazis steal a bead of Orichalcum from Indy: it's portrayed as an incredibly powerful energy source (and a set of Interchangeable Antimatter Keys for many of the game's puzzles), and most of the game is a race for the motherlode at Atlantis itself.
• Unwinnable by Design: Averted: it's not possible to become irreversibly stuck in the game.
• Walk Into Mordor: While Atlantis is inaccessible for justified reasons, to get to the Third Circle of Atlantis, you have to use an orichalcum-powered Bronze Age tunnel-boring machine, which promptly falls into the lava.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: An implied side effect of the Atlantean ascension machine; Dr. Ubermann does not survive long enough after his transformation for this to be certain.

1. ↑ The Orichalcum machine.
2. ↑ "It's the stuff that dreams are made of."