| “ | Finally! The new world beckons! It's up to us, as Americans, to meet the other side and secure their cooperation with the West. We need an ambassador! | „ |
| ~ Simon Turner's plans for the Aetherium. |
| “ | You don't fool me, Jones: once you stop the Commies, you'll use the Machine to take over! That's your plan! | „ |
| ~ Turner's delusions over Indiana Jones' good intentions. |
Simon Turner is the main antagonist of the 1999 action-adventure video game Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, the second original Indiana Jones video game.
He is a World War II veteran who, by the time of the Cold War, is a high-ranking official of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), serving as Sophia Hapgood's superior. In 1947, Turner tasks Hapgood to contact her friend Indiana Jones to assist them in the search for the Tower of Babel before Gennadi Volodnikov finds it for the Soviet Union, but it turns out later on that Turner has sinister intentions for the Babylonian technology.
He was voiced by Bruce McGill, who also played Peter Bellingham in Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Lloyd Waterman and Mr. Coroner in The Cleveland Show.
History[]
Past[]
Simon Turner started his career within the American government by fighting against the Nazis in World War II. One particular mission that involved him had Simon parachute into France while it was being controlled by Adolf Hitler's Nazi forces and assist the resistance movements there in overthrowing the Nazis stationed there.
By the time of the Cold War, Turner had become one of the highest-ranking officials within the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), but grew paranoid at the growing threat of the Soviet Union. Wishing for his country to win the conflict at all costs, Turner set himself on finding the legendary Tower of Babel and use the Babylonian technology in America's favour before Gennadi Volodnikov could find it.
Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine[]
In 1947, Simon Turner assigns Sophia Hapgood, one of his best agents, to seek for the help of her archaeologist friend and old flame Indiana Jones in finding the Tower of Babel before the Soviets could find it to further Joseph Stalin's goals. His reasonings are that, as a field man, Jones would be useful to find Babel before the "hopeless academic" of Volodnikov.
Simon and Indy come across for the first time when the former saves the latter from one of Volodnikov's men at a Soviet excavation in Babylon, introducing himself and then informing Jones about the golden stattuete of the Babylonian god Marduk that Volodnikov has found before leaving. Simon meets with Indy later on after the latter retrieves the statuette from the Soviets, but Turner declines to go to Kazakstan, Central Asia due to the Soviet occupation there despite the statouette's indications, leaving Indy with his car to go on his own.
Turner isn't seen after this until Indy retrieves the last part of the Infernal Machine at King Nub's Tomb inside King Solomon's Mines in Meroë, Nubia. Once Indy gets rids of most of Volodnikov's forces, Simon and Sophia come across him at the tomb's exit and demand him to hand over the pieces despite Volodnikov reaching him and warning Indy that he can't trust them. Despite Simon's rantings about how patriotic his mission is, Indy does so anyway and Turner leaves him and Volodnikov behind, leading Sophia to throw a ladder for the two to leave the tomb.
Finding his way into the Infernal Machine, Simon activates it and tells Sophia that now that they can open a portal to the Aetherium, they must ally with Marduk and establish an ambassador to secure the Babylonian deity as an ally of the West. Indy appears and demands the pair to stop their scheme, but Simon orders Indy to stay away from their plans and resorts to push Sophia into the spherical portal due to her past history with Nur-Ab-Sal to serve as the USA's diplomat before ordering Indy to help him with the controls in the name of freedom, democracy and victory over the Soviets.
Indy refuses and proposes him to let Sophia go and study the structure for a couple of years before employing it on America's behalf, but Turner refuses and leaves Sophia trapped there, forcing Indy to rescue her but not before exploring the Infernal Machine and putting in their right positions the pieces Turner had incorrectly put them in. He then comes across Simon and pleads him to hand over the last piece to save Sophia, but he accuses Indy of planning to use the Infernal Machine to defeat the Communists and then take over the world, proceeding to turn himself invisible and fight Jones. However, Indy doesn't give up and engages Simon in a shootout that ends with his death, preventing him from using the Infernal Machine to his extremistic intentions.
However, Turner's death comes at the price that, to rescue Sophia, Indy would activate the Infernal Machine at the behest of a statue serving Marduk, leading Sophia to be lowered into the Aetherium and forcing Indy to go to save her.
Trivia[]
- Simon Turner is among the most unusual Indiana Jones villains, as he has the distinction of not being a Nazi or a Soviet, who are deemed as the most recurring antagonists in the franchise, but none other than a member of the American government, making Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine one of the few times in which Indy had to face a villain from his same side.
External Links[]
- Simon Turner on the Indiana Jones Wiki
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 Villains
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Nazi Party Thuggee Soviet Union Others | ||