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[bibliothecula]

...To hell with the lumps of gold or whatever.  He should have figured out how the traps worked, and patented the mechanism.  The swinging spiky-arm trap at the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark alone (with its light-sensitive trigger and ability to work apparently as often as needed without being rewound) should yield some amazing new engineering principles.

There is a great coffee table book in there:

Death Traps of Indiana Jones Explained (200 pages with working diagrams).



Hell, I would buy one myself...

Make it a pop-up book and you'll sell thousands....

[petitesirah]

IBTW, Indiana Jones is supposed to have been at the University of Chicago, but every male archaeologist over the age of 60 claims Indy is modelled on him.

I've heard that he was modelled on Langdon Warner, who went to eastern Central Asia (e.g. Xinjiang province in China) in the 1920s under the auspices of the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard.  His adventures, and those of his European and Japanese contemporaries & competitors, are detailed in "Foreign Devils on the Silk Road" by Peter Hopkirk.  Actually not a shining moment in the history of archaeology, and arguably verging on downright looting (the Chinese certainly argue that today).  Hopkirk's account, while lacking in death traps, whips and the like, is a fun read.

[jonesey]

Indiana Jones (Dr. Henry Walton Jones, PhD) has a PhD in Archeology from the University of Chicago (he mentions this in the new film).  He teaches at (the fictional) Marshall College in Conneticut in the first film.  By the third film, he's teaching at Barnett College, another fictional school somewhere near the Hudson River in upstate New York.

Yes, I'm a nerd.

As far as Benjamin Franklin Gates (National Treasure), "he pursued and gained degrees in mechanical engineering from MIT and American history from Georgetown University. While serving on active duty in the United States Navy (via NROTC), he attended the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center before leaving the service to continue his work."

Thank you, Wikipedia.

So, PhD in American History, Navy Officer and certified Salvage Diver.  Very Dirk Pitt, actually. 

[bibliothecula]

He may teach in New England, but in Last Crusade when he climbs out of his "office window," it's actually a men's room at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA.

There's your trivia for the day.

[stormymonday]

IBTW, Indiana Jones is supposed to have been at the University of Chicago, but every male archaeologist over the age of 60 claims Indy is modelled on him.

I always thought Indiana Jones was modeled on James Henry Breasted (UChicago bigshot who founded the Oriental Institute). He was definitely crazy enough -- if you go to the OI museum there's a great quote where he talks about loading mummies into his bedroom during his honeymoon.

Badass.

[profesoramujer]

For a both affectionate and critical take on Prof Jones and his most recent adventure, see

http://www.ethnography.com/2008/05/indiana-jones-and-the-myth-of-the-moundbuilders-big-time-spoiler-alert/

FTR, My archaeologist spouse and I own the boxed set of all Indy films, and will be carving out time to see the newest one ASAP.

They are fun (well, except for the second one, which I thought was awful), and can also provide Teachable Moments:  "see, students, this is how NOT to deal with the archaeological record/indigenous people/local governments/your estranged father...."

[cgfunmathguy]

At least the archaeologists and historians get adventure movies made about their disciplines, even if they inaccurately portray the discipline. What's the last adventure movie you saw that was about a mathematician? Hmmmmmmmmm. I can't think of one. The last movie about a mathematician involved some serious mental illness, which several people around me associated with mathematicians as a whole (again, this would be inaccurate). I think I'd rather be an archaeologist on this score.

[jonesey]

What's the last adventure movie you saw that was about a mathematician?

On TV:

Numb3rs

Plays:

Proof (also a movie)

Fermat's Last Tango

Copenhagen

It's My Turn

Film:

Straw Dogs

Good Will Hunting

Pi (although the math is wrong)

Flubber (okay, I'm reaching here)

Unabomber:  The True Story (sorry)

Stand and Deliver (high school, but still a Math teacher)

Sneakers

Cube (sure, it's violent, but it's got Cartesian coordinates and prime numbers!)

[bibliothecula]

Mamet's The Spanish Prisoner uses a Calc equation right out of the book my spouse used in undergrad....

[ab_grp]

There was also a show called Square One, with a Mathnet segment that involved crime solving using mathematics.  If that isn't adventure, I don't know what is.  I think that the impression given of math people as crazy geniuses with board after board covered in complicated equations is part of what makes me glad there aren't more math-related shows and movies.

[epistephiliac]

And don't forget Jurassic Park, where the mathematician was something of a rockstar, and the only one who foresaw the problems from the outset...

[hollow_man]

Consider: In the various films, he went through millennia-old temples, graves, etc., all full of traps.  These traps not only worked after all those millennia, but they automatically reset themselves!  In the modern world, we can't make anything that lasts even fifty years, let alone a thousand or so.  And none of the modern things manage to reset themselves automatically without requiring recharging or human intervention.  To hell with the lumps of gold or whatever.  He should have figured out how the traps worked, and patented the mechanism.  The swinging spiky-arm trap at the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark alone (with its light-sensitive trigger and ability to work apparently as often as needed without being rewound) should yield some amazing new engineering principles.

WARNING: MINOR SPOILER BELOW










Well, this last movie explains all that: The technology was taught to the ancients by "interdimensional hive-mind beings."  So, duh!

FWIW, I was shockingly and completely disappointed by this new Indy movie.  Not a single moment of it was fresh or new.  All completely from the old playbooks.

[edwoof]

The main problem I have with The Indiana Jones movie regarding the inaccuracies is that there is no material evidence that aliens, a/k/a "the others," ever were in the southern hemisphere. Area 51, yes. Canada and Europe, yes. But there isn't one decent crop circle below the equator.

[bacardiandlime]

Erik von Danikan might disagree with you there...

[cgfunmathguy]

What's the last adventure movie you saw that was about a mathematician?

On TV:

Numb3rs

Plays:

Proof (also a movie)

Fermat's Last Tango

Copenhagen

It's My Turn

Film:

Straw Dogs

Good Will Hunting

Pi (although the math is wrong)

Flubber (okay, I'm reaching here)

Unabomber:  The True Story (sorry)

Stand and Deliver (high school, but still a Math teacher)

Sneakers

Cube (sure, it's violent, but it's got Cartesian coordinates and prime numbers!)

In most of these, including Numbers, the mathematician is NOT an adventurer. Also, with the possible exception of Numbers, none of these have anywhere close to the viewing numbers of the Indiana Jones franchise. The only one that came close on numbers was A Beautiful Mind, which is most people's view of mathematicians. I'm not saying there aren't movies/books/plays/tv shows about mathematicians; I'm just saying that I would rather by Dr. Jones than Dr. Epps.