Indiana Jones and the Quest for the Philosopher's Brick

[Oky]

Hi, guys! This is my entry for the Indy Month "Design your own Indy Movie" Contest! I hope you like it! I apologize in advance for the large, out-of-focus pics and all the text. I was in a hurry when I took the pics. Anyway, here it is:

Indiana Jones

and the Quest for the Philosopher's Brick Stone

It's 1939, one year after Last Crusade. Dr. Jones has discovered the diary of an alchemist who claims to have succeeded in achieving ultimate enlightenment by creating the Philosopher's Stone, an object that possesses the power to turn any substance into gold and even provide long evity! He also wrote that he has hidden the stone to keep it from falling into the wrong hands and left clues on several items that tell where it is now hidden. So, Indiana Jones sets off on yet another adventure to find this alchemical marvel. The first item, as he remembered, was luckily in the possession of his father. When he visits him to ask him for the item, though, Dr. Jones Sr. only agrees on handing it over under the condition that his son takes him with him. You see, after his life-long quest for the Holy Grail had ended, the old man got quite bored. Also, to make matters worse, he became aware of the time he has spent on looking for the Grail and how old he has gotten, and was now in kind of a mid-life crisis! Therefore, he intends to use the Stone's powers to get some of his youth back. Having no other choice, Indy accepts this condition. Together, they go on a journey through Egypt, India, China, and the near East to gather the remaining items. On their travels, they meet new allies like the young Asian girl Chan (who will follow and assist our hero for the rest of the movie), but also encounter a new enemy: Colonel Totenkopf, a sly, cold-hearted Nazi who has heard of the diary and the Stone from one of his spies, and will stop at nothing to get to it first and offer the great power of this object to his Führer. Usually, he can be seen with his signature walking stick with a blood-red diamond on it.

So, Indy, Chan, and Indy's dad always have a lot of Nazis to fight before they can retrieve each item. Unfortunately, Henry Jones Sr. usually gets them almost killed during these fights because he is trying to prove himself that he is not that old yet. However, they manage to find all items and end up on a small Greek island where they find the entrance to an underground tunnel. After following this tunnel, they find themselves in a number of chambers where they have to solve alchemical riddles to be able to proceed. Fortunately, they manage to pass each challenge and finally enter the underwater cavern where the stone is hidden.

But once they step into the cave, they have to find a bad surprise: Col. Totenkopf and his Nazi minions are already there! Apparently, they used a submarine to enter the cave through the hole where the water of the lake in the middle of the cavern comes from. As it seems, this cave is below the ocean's surface.

The Philosopher's Stone was placed on top of a tower with spikes coming out of the sides. To retrieve it, one must pull himself up on the spikes, but only one out of four in each row is the right one to grab; the other ones are levers that cause deadly spears to shoot out of the holes below them!

While Indy uses his whip to check which spikes are booby trapped, Col. Totenkopf uses his loyal naval soldiers to do this job. One by one he sends them up the tower, and most of them die in this process - much to the satisfaction of the crocodiles in the water which are catching all the dropping corpses.

In the meanwhile, Dr. Jones Sr. and Chan are watching in awe.

In the end, Indy and Totenkopf get to the top of the tower at about the same time, and they engage in a fight. Totenkopf uses the tip of his pointy walking stick to try to stab Indy, but our hero can disarm his opponent with his whip.

It seems as if Jones had won, but in that moment, the colonel grabs Indy's gun that had dropped on the floor during the fight and shoots Indy in the leg!

With Jones lying on the ground, immobilized and in pain, Totenkopf approaches the column that the Stone rests on. He is too greedy to take the time to read the engraving in the stone that says "Beware! Only he who has a pure heart shall be able to retrieve the stone", so he just grabs it and holds it triumphantly into the air. Immediately he turns into gold! Indiana pulls himself up and decides to try to take the stone out of Totenkopf's hand. Carefully, he grabs it and... does not turn into gold. His heart was pure enough!

His happiness about this victory doesn't last long, though, since in that moment, the circular platform they are standing on sinks into the tower a little bit which causes water to pour from below the giant, golden Greek god statue into the lake and start to flood the cave. To make matters worse, this also elevates the crocodiles in the lake and makes it too dangerous to use the bridges that connect the tower with the ground around the lake. This mechanism was apparently triggered by the increased weight on the platform from the solid-gold Totenkopf statue and was probably installed by the alchemist to ensure that after one evil man tries to take the stone, no other should be able to. To Indy's relief, Chan and his dad, who have been watching the happenings from the edge of the lake, had crossed the bridge to help him. They climb up the tower the way Indy did to escape the crocodiles. As the water rises, Indy gets the idea to use the Germans' submarine to get out of this mess. He puts the stone in his bag and together they all jump on the U-Boat. Unfortunately, Henry Jones Sr. slips and falls into the water where he is immediately attacked by the crocodiles, so Indy jumps after him to rescue his father. He is able fight the beasts and bring his father to safety, but he looses his bag with the stone in it to one of the hungry reptiles in the process. Since the crocodile immediately turned into gold thereafter, it was impossible to get the stone back. So, they get into the sub and go out the way the Nazis came in. They land at the Turkish shore, hand the sub over to the authorities, and take a plane back home.

The End

Behind the Scenes:

As you can see, I have put most of the thought into the story. That's because I was on vacation until yesterday, so I had almost a whole month to think about what my entry is gonna be about and only a day to build the MOC itself. I think this shows in the MOC as it looks a bit simple and rushed through all the <insert that tiresome argument> wall pieces and baseplates which make up most of the piece. But since I still payed some attention to the detail on the tower and bridges, it looks pretty good nevertheless, I think. I chose the Aquazone baseplates because I wanted to take a baseplate that's otherwise useless and use its properties to work for the story of my entry. And so - vois la - the idea of an underwater cave was born! And you might wonder why the ancient Greeks worshiped BIONICLEs , but that's also just a result from the lack of time - I needed something interesting and yet simple to go between the two walls of rock. Oh, and it's a light brick that make the eyes glow. Also, I had unfortunately not the time to think of a Star Wars Reference to put in my movie! Perhaps I should have given the submarine a SW name...

Anyway, what do you think?

Edited August 4, 2010 by Oky Wan Kenobi

[Svelte]

Really great entry Oky Wan! You have used those baseplates very well and the composition of colour is very nice - it is very different and you do get the sense that the story is taking place in some massive underwater cavern. I especially like the tower in the center and the rope ladders on either side to illustrate the race against each other. The submarine top is a great way to show off the vehicle without building the whole thing! An interesting story as well, but mostly it is the very original and well coordinated colour scheme and overall layout which I like.

[Oky]

Wow, thanks svelte corps! That means a lot comming from the one who I think has entered the best MOC in this contest!

[Ronan Nissen]

I think its really good but there is a novel called Indiana Jones and the Philosopher's Stone.

[BlueBard]

Amazing set! I really like it, specially the altar and the sub!

[JimBee]

Amazing! I think the baseplate actually fits in perfectly, especially with your cool bridges and tower! Ecxellent building techniques, there are so many details in this, I have to look at it over and over again! i always notice something new. like the lightsaber cane, or the skeletons holding torches. Cant wait to vote, but yours and svelte_corps's are both really great...

[darkrebellion]

That a great entry Oky Wan Kenobi . The temple looks awesome and the BIONICLE mask with the lights coming from his eyes (cool idea and nice use for the light-up bricks) add a nice look at the temple. The half build submarine is another great detail .

[Pencoin]

a good entry but the philosopher's stone isnt a stone...

[Oky]

I think its really good but there is a novel called Indiana Jones and the Philosopher's Stone.

Yeah, I know, but my story is different since he is looking for the actual stone and not the manuscript that describes how to make one like in the novel. Besides, things like the Spear of Destiny or the Golden Fleece that are the center piece of other entries were used in novels before as well. Sorry, but I just couldn't think of any other powerful and relatively known object to use for my entry. So, deal with it!

[Wilhelm screamer]

It really manages to have the feel of the final scene from a real indy movie.

You have earned my vote.

[Stony]

I this thing! My favorite parts are the altar(Nice use of a Bionicle Mask) and the use of the old Aquazone baseplate. I just would like to know what torso and legs are on the one with the Spalko hair(Chan?)?

[Oky]

It really manages to have the feel of the final scene from a real indy movie.

You have earned my vote.

Sweet! Thanks!

I this thing! My favorite parts are the altar(Nice use of a Bionicle Mask) and the use of the old Aquazone baseplate. I just would like to know what torso and legs are on the one with the Spalko hair(Chan?)?

It's Taejo Togokhan from the Speed Racer set 8159. I thought that the Spalko hair would come in handy for a Chinese female someday when I first saw the KOTCS sets, and Togokhan's body was the perfect one to enhance the Chinese feel of the fig, so that's why I combined them!

Thanks for all the kind words, guys, I really appreciate it!

Edited July 2, 2008 by Oky Wan Kenobi

[Lanker]

Really detailed and interesting, the submarine is very 'cute'! Well done!

[Shoc]

I like it a lot! The use of Lego intergrated aroudn the baseplates is very clever, and it looks good!

Good luck in the contest, I may vote for you!

:skull:

[badboytje88]

What a great story and what a great moc! I really love the female fig!

[DarkYamiDragon]

This is the best MOC I've ever seen in my life! Is there any chance you might have building instructions, Oky Wan Kenobi?

[Oky]

This is the best MOC I've ever seen in my life! Is there any chance you might have building instructions, Oky Wan Kenobi?

WOW! Are you serious? I am so flattered!

Well, let's see... I don't have instructions unfortunately, but the build is actually not that complicated. If you look at it closely, you can mostly see what the MOC is made of. For that purpose, here is a link to my Flickr photostream, where you can see the pics in their large and detailed, unresized state: Click here!

But if you insist, I could take some pics of a half-built state of it since I was going to take it apart just now anyway. That would reveal all that is to know about it Just let me know if you need that and which parts of the MOC are not clear to you!

Edited July 3, 2008 by Oky Wan Kenobi

[DarkYamiDragon]

But if you insist, I could take some pics of a half-built state of it since I was going to take it apart just now anyway. That would reveal all that is to know about it Just let me know if you need that and which parts of the MOC are not clear to you!

If you could, that would be great!

Thanks for this, I really appreciate it!

[Stony]

It's Taejo Togokhan from the Speed Racer set 8159. I thought that the Spalko hair would come in handy for a Chinese female someday when I first saw the KOTCS sets, and Togokhan's body was the perfect one to enhance the Chinese feel of the fig, so that's why I combined them!

Oh, him. I didn't know he had a dragon on there.