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Obergruppenführer Helmut von Mephisto was a member of the Nazi Ahnenerbe with a mechanical right arm who faced off against Indiana Jones in 1941.

Biography[]

Helmut von Mephisto claimed to be a descendant of Frederick the Second of Prussia. By Mephisto's own admission, his mother had had him locked up for his own good because he was a "bad boy".[1]

Mephisto was trained at Castle Wewelsburg, Heinrich Himmler's SS school and was awarded the Totenkopfring. At some point, the Nazis outfitted him with a formidable mechanical right arm that could fire electrical energy.[1]

He had achieved the rank of Obergruppenführer by 1941 when he sent a telegram from Berlin to Agent Z-733 to spy on Indiana Jones who was in Mexico assisting Colonel Musgrove. Ironically, by the time Mephisto traveled to Mexico as the head of a team looking to research ancient weapons, Jones had been assigned the task of finding out what held the Nazis' interest to which Mephisto's name was connected.[1]

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Behind the scenes[]

RoboToht

Toht concept art by Ron Cobb.

Helmut von Mephisto was created by J. W. Rinzler for Indiana Jones and the Mystery of Mount Sinai.[1] However, the names can be traced back to Mephisto and Helmut Gutterbuhg, antagonists present in Chris Columbus' unrealized Indiana Jones and the Monkey King script,[2] one of the screenplays considered for the third Indiana Jones film before the production settled on the plot of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.[3]

The idea of a Nazi character with a mechanical arm as a weapon was also present in the Monkey King draft but the idea itself dates back to Raiders of the Lost Ark with concept art by Ron Cobb showing Arnold Ernst Toht with such a limb before George Lucas rejected the idea for being "too unrealistic" for the film's 1936 setting.[3] During his research for his The Complete Making of Indiana Jones behind-the-scenes book, Rinzler came across the images and utilized them for Mystery of Mount Sinai.[4]

Appearances[]

Notes and references[]

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