The Chief Guard was the ruthless, imposing commander of Mola Ram's Thuggee guards and also helped oversee the enslaved children in the mines that were under Pankot Palace in 1935.
Biography[]
Search for the remaining Sankara Stones[]
The most brutal of Mola Ram's men,[2] the huge, powerfully built Thuggee Chief Guard was first seen by Indiana Jones, when he saw the guard whipping and yelling at one of the enslaved children in the diamond mine beneath Pankot Palace, India. Jones threw a rock at the guard, which allowed the child to get away. The guard, furious at Indy's intrusion and nerve, alerted a few underlings and ordered the archaeologist's capture.[1]
Later, he restrained Jones while the archaeologist was forcibly put under the Black Sleep of the Kali Ma, and much later, he fought with Indy in the mines. The large Thuggee attacked Jones after Jones freed the children. Jones landed several good punches on him, but the guard brushed them off and punched Jones, then threw him in a mine cart. With Willie Scott's permission, Short Round tried to help Indy by flogging the guard with his whip, but was hurled aside by the man. The guard then pushed the cart until it gained momentum to move itself. Jones and the guard fought in the cart, with the guard winning.[1]
The Thuggee and Indiana Jones exchange blows.
The cart stopped at the top of the ramp and flipped both men onto a conveyor belt which led to a rock crusher. On the conveyor belt, Jones and the guard fought each other, with both men landing heavy blows. But whenever Indy gained the upper hand, he was paralyzed via a voodoo doll at the hands of Zalim Singh, until Short Round disabled the Maharajah and then freed him from the Black Sleep using a torch.[1]
Willie Scott assisted Jones by throwing rocks at the guard and giving Jones things to hit him with and cheered him so he could defeat the guard. The guard was finally defeated when his red sash was caught in the rock crusher. Indy handed him a rope in a merciful attempt to save him, but it was too late; the guard wasn't able to get free. He was pulled into the device, fatally crushed and his blood was smeared all over the machine, much to Jones's and Scott's revulsion.[1]
Legacy[]
Upon being informed about Indy's exploits in retrieving the Sankara Stones, the French mercenary archaeologist René Emile Belloq was told about Jones' fight against the Chief Guard on the conveyor belt, realizing that his rival bettered the Thuggee man, whose end was "colourful".[3]
Behind the scenes[]
The Chief Guard was portrayed by the late professional wrestler and stuntman Pat Roach in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.[1] Roach had previously played the Giant Sherpa and the German Mechanic in Raiders of the Lost Ark[4] and later went on to portray the Gestapo in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.[5] The film's script referred the character as the "Thuggee Giant".
In an earlier script of the film, written by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, the Chief Guard only appeared when he battles Indy at the mines. Neverthless, his death scene is the similar to the finished film, but in this version Jones does not try to save him. According to director Steven Spielberg, the fight scene between Indiana Jones and the Chief Guard wasn't storyboarded at all. Spielberg shot it like the airplane fight from Raiders, but given that Harrison Ford was absent from the production while recovering from a back injury in the US, Spielberg had Ford's stunt double Vic Armstrong film the scene with Pat Roach, doing 80% of the scene with Armstrong and then making 20% of close-ups with Ford.[6]
During filming of the Chief Guard's fight with Indy in the mines, Roach was struck by Ke Huy Quan (Short Round) with a bat on the set, but this resulted in the bat breaking and a splinter hitting Kate Capshaw (Willie Scott) in the eye, leading her to wake up next morning with a shiner. This led all of the crew members, Spielberg included, to wear a make-up black eye the moment Capshaw stepped back on the set.[7]
As with most of the Thuggee, the Chief Guard rarely speaks during the film. One of the Chief Guard's few lines in the film is "जल्दी करो!" which is Hindi for "Hurry up!", and is repeated by the character as he whips the enslaved Mayapore children in the mine before Indy throws a rock at him to stop his hitting the infant. He also calls for help from Jones in Hindi upon getting his sash caught in the rock crusher saying मुझे बचाओ (save me) and नहीं (no).[1]
In James Kahn's novelization, the Chief Guard's sash is caught in the rock crusher when he tries to grab Indy but loses his balance and succumbs to his movie fate.[8] In the Read-Along Adventures adaptation of the film, the Chief Guard survives the (abridged) encounter with Jones as the archaeologist makes his escape in the mine cart.[9]
The Chief Guard can be seen in the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom arcade game in the mine car stages as an obstacle the player must overcome to continue.[10] The Chief Guard is absent from the mine scenes of Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures. Instead, Indy battles several Thuggees on the conveyor belts instead while finding and freeing the enslaved children.[11]
In LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures, unlike the film, the Chief Guard has a shaved beard and the Maharajah lends assistance by replenishing the man's health after the first two fist fights. The player is only able to deal lasting damage to the guard once they free Short Round and use him to rout the Maharajah. In this version, the guard never fights with Indy on the conveyor belt itself. He jumps independently to the conveyor belt and begins throwing giant mine stones at Jones, who retaliates with dynamite. The Chief Guard eventually falls, defeated, to the belt and is subsequently pulled along some rocks by the rock crusher, dying without Jones trying to save him.[12]
Appearances[]
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (First appearance)
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom novel
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom comic
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Read-Along Adventure
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom game
- Indiana Jones: The Search For Buried Treasure
- LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures (Non-canonical appearance) (As Thuggee Slavedriver)
- LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues (Non-canonical appearance) (As Thuggee Slavedriver) (Portable consoles exclusive)
Sources[]
- Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide
- "You Call This Archeology?" - Indiana Jones: The Official Magazine 3
- Indiana Jones Action Figures
40 Great Indiana Jones Quotes on Lucasfilm.com (backup link on Archive.org) (Picture only)
Notes and references[]
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
- ↑ "You Call This Archeology?" - Indiana Jones: The Official Magazine 3
- ↑ The Greatest Adventures of Indiana Jones
- ↑ Raiders of the Lost Ark
- ↑ Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
- ↑ The Complete Making of Indiana Jones
- ↑ The Making Of Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom at Empire
- ↑ Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom novel
- ↑ Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Read-Along Adventure
- ↑ Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom arcade game
- ↑ Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures
- ↑ LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures