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Klaber

"I don't take government jobs."
―Klaber[src]

Klaber was a nefarious and crazy American Neo-Nazi who worked for the former Third Reich scientist turned NASA official Jürgen Voller in 1969.

Biography

Looking for the Antikythera

At some point, Klaber became a loyal neo-Nazi enforcer for Jürgen Voller. Known publicly as Professor Schmidt of Alabama University, Voller had been a rocket scientist for Adolf Hitler who was tapped by the US, aware of the scientist's background, to work for NASA after World War II.[1]

Along with Hauke, Klaber came into conflict with American archaeologist Indiana Jones on August 13, 1969 during the New York City ticker-tape parade for Apollo 11, killing Professor Plimpton at Hunter College and firing his gun into the air in the middle of an anti-war demonstration in his pursuit of the retired Jones for the CIA-backed Voller and chased him into the New York City Subway, losing Jones when he escaped with a police horse onto the tracks.[1]

Klaber accompanied Voller and their associates to Tangier, Morocco the four days later to retrieve the Antikythera from Helena Shaw at Hotel L'Atlantique, but the scuffle between them, Jones, his friends and the hotel's patrons got bigger when Aziz Rahim and his men came along, leading to a chase where Klaber did everything to help Voller escape with the prize, but they were detained by the CIA in its aftermath. Aboard a Sea Stallion helicopter, Agent Mason tried to rein in Voller and his excesses but it was too late: the man no longer needed US government support to achieve his goals so he and his men hijacked the flight and killed the CIA passengers.[1]

Klaber himself died during the Siege of Syracuse when the Antikythera took him and his fellow Nazis back too far into the past. Roman forces shot at their plane which lost control and was sent plummeting into the ground.[1]

Legacy

Two thousand years later, the sight of the Heinkel 111's attacks from Klaber's guns during the Siege of Syracuse led Romans to mistake the plane for an attacking dragon and the encounter survived as a story put on as a puppet show watched by a rich kid and his fellows in 1960s Sicily.[1]

As for Klaber's murder of Plimpton and the others his fellows pinned on Indiana Jones,[1] Jones would ultimately be able to walk freely in his twilight years by the 1990s.[2]

Personality and traits

Klaber's body

Klaber showed little remorse for his actions, and did not hesitate to kill anyone that could stand in his way, such as bystanders, and would take any action he saw as necessary to serve Voller. During the Siege of Syracuse, he fired at the Roman forces with a machine gun. When Indiana Jones correctly guessed his captors were CIA, Klaber proudly expressed that he was not among their number.[1]

Behind the scenes

"I think, really, he's a very confused individual who doesn't know who he is. There's a sense of him wanting to at least belong to something, which lands him in this predicament."
―Boyd Holbrook on Klaber[src]

Klaber was portrayed by Boyd Holbrook in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.[3]

Holbrook was offered the part of Klaber by Mangold owing to their past collaboration in Mangold's 2017 X-Men film Logan, where Holbrook played Donald Pierce, a second-in-command villain similar to Klaber. The similarities between both roles caused Holbrook to be hesistant on playing Klaber due to not wishing to repeat anything, but ultimately agreed on the basis that Dial of Destiny would be Harrison Ford's "last hurrah" as the title character. He indeed felt surprised and a "little emotional" when Ford's character grabs his by the troath in the film.[4]

Holbrook describes his character as a "lapdog" to Mads Mikkelsen's Jürgen Voller, who is "a crazy one at that"[5] and a bit of an opportunist who wants to get in on the ground floor of the "great enterprise" Voller is starting up, serving its purposes.[6] In regards to his opinions about his character's motivations, Holbrook told Total Film that he feels that Klaber is just a "very confused" outcast who doesn't know who he really is and thus joins the Neo-Nazis to feel the sense of belonging to something.[7]

Appearances

Sources

Notes and references

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
  2. ↑ The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles
  3. ↑ ‘Indiana Jones 5’: Boyd Holbrook and Shaunette Renée Wilson Join Harrison Ford In Next Installmentl at Deadline
  4. ↑ Boyd Holbrook Breaks Down His ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ and ‘Justified: City Primeval’ Baddies at The Hollywood Reporter
  5. ↑ Indiana Jones 5 Will Pit Indy Against Nazis Again, In 1969 – Exclusive at Empire
  6. ↑ Production notes.
  7. ↑ Total Film