The Truck Driver was a Nazi soldier who served under the command of Colonel Herman Dietrich behind the wheel of the Mercedes-Benz LG3000 truck which was assigned to transport the Ark of the Covenant out of Egypt in 1936.
Biography
In 1936, after the destruction of the Flying Wing following the intervention of Indiana Jones and Marion Ravenwood, Colonel Herman Dietrich decided to transport the Ark of the Covenant with a cargo truck out of Tanis. He assigned a driver and his companion to drive the truck from Tanis with a group of armed soldiers in the back accompanying the Ark.
However, Jones followed them and began his attempt to hijack the truck. During the chase, after Major Gobler's gunner failed to shoot Jones, the archaeologist managed to board the truck, and the first thing he did was throw the driver's companion onto the sandy road. Jones and the driver then began to fight for the control of the vehicle during which the truck destroyed the scaffolding of a building under construction, causing several Arab workers to fall into the road. One landed on the hood of the truck itself, although he quickly hurled himself away. Faced with a comic situation, Jones and the driver shared a laugh together, only for Jones to use the opportunity to sucker punch the Nazi and send him tumbling from the truck towards an unknown fate.
Behind the scenes
The Truck Driver, as named in Lawrence Kasdan's original scrpt, was played by stuntman Terry Leonard in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Leonard also served as Harrison Ford's (Indiana Jones) second stunt double.
It remains unclear whether or not the the Truck Driver survived the Desert Chase. Although man's fate is represented in different ways in other Indiana Jones media:
- In the LEGO short film LEGO Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Brick, the driver is depicted with a gray mustache and is pulled out from the cargo truck by Jones and falls to the road complaining about what happened.
- In the video game LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures, the Truck Driver leaves the still moving cargo truck to climb up to the roof for a fight against Indiana Jones and Sallah only for them to cause his fall into the road and take control of the vehicle. In the Nintendo DS version of the game, he is simply kicked out by Jones from the truck to the road.
- In LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues, the Truck Driver fights against Jones and Sallah after the pair destroy a number of Enemy Soldier vehicles. After Jones and Sallah manage to damage his truck, the driver suddenly dies allowing either of them to take control of the cargo truck to face René Emile Belloq.
Appearances
- Raiders of the Lost Ark novel (First appearance)
- Raiders of the Lost Ark
- Raiders of the Lost Ark comic
- Raiders of the Lost Ark storybook
Non-canon appearances
- LEGO Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Brick
- LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures
- LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues