The Librarian: Quest for the Spear

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The Librarian: Quest for the Spear is a movie which was originally released on American cable channel TNT in December 2004, directed by Peter Winther and starring Noah Wyle in the title role.

Taglines: He didn't want to be a hero. He only wanted a job. and Intelligence can only get you so far when you have to save the world.

[edit] Plot

Noah Wyle plays Flynn Carsen, a 30 something perpetual college student who has 22 academic degrees. Carsen’s college professor kicks him out of college, telling Carsen that he lacks real life experience and needs to experience life outside of college. Carsen’s mother, Margie (Olympia Dukakis) is a typical mother, worried about her son and constantly encouraging him to get a job, find a girl, and be happy.

Carsen receives a mysterious invitation for an interview at the Metropolitan Public Library. Shortly after Carsen’s odd but successful interview, he is shown the true duties of his new job by a doleful library employee, Charlene (Jane Curtin), and library head Judson, (Bob Newhart) . The position of librarian, Carsen’s new job, has existed for centuries, and its purpose is to protect historical and often magical items in a secret section of the library. Some of the items Carsen is responsible for are The Ark of the Covenant, a unicorn, the goose that laid the golden eggs, Pandora’s Box, Excalibur, the original Mona Lisa (the Louvre's is a copy), and the Spear of Destiny.

Carsen finds that the job is a little more than he bargained for when one of three parts of the Spear of Destiny is stolen by the evil Serpent Brotherhood (members played by Kyle MacLachlan, David Dayan Fisher, and Kelly Hu). Whoever has the complete Spear of Destiny will control the destiny of the entire world (it is said in the film that "Hitler had only one" piece of the Spear). Carsen must now track down the remaining two pieces of the Spear of Destiny to prevent the Serpent Brotherhood from possessing all three pieces and gaining control of the world. His only tools are his mind and a book written in a previously untranslated language called the "Language of the birds".

Carsen heads through the Amazon rainforest and the Himalayas, ending up in Shangri-La with the help of adventurer Nicole Noone, (Sonya Walger), a Library employee who blames herself for the death of the last librarian but who resists any friendly feelings for Carsen. They encounter waterfalls, headhunters, bridge collapses, and Mayan death traps, all with often tongue-in-cheek comedy and a touch of romance, all the time proving that the years of Carsen’s book learning have paid off.

[edit] Influences

The Librarian: Quest for the Spear draws from several classic action movies and westerns, such as the Indiana Jones series, Macgyver, and Shane (primarily Jack Palance, as gunfighter Wilson). There are also comic references to Kill Bill, Candid Camera, and the U. S. Marine Corps.

[edit] The Relics

Thus far, the collection of relics included in the Library's secret vault has been revealed to include: the Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant, King Midas, Excalibur, the Golden Fleece, Pandora's Box, the Spear of Destiny (the Spear, in fact, of the film's title), the apple of Adam and Eve, the Goose that laid the golden egg, the Mona Lisa, a unicorn, and in a few technological twists, Tesla's Death Ray, Little Boy, and a jetpack similar to that used by The Rocketeer.

The backstory behind all of these relics can be found on TNT's website in the interactive tour of the Library.

[edit] DVD

An unrated, Region 1 NTSC DVD was released for this film on August 30, 2005, using an aspect ratio of 1:78:1, otherwise known as anamorphic widescreen, meaning it is viewable on both regular and widescreen television sets.

The DVD features include deleted scenes, English and Spanish subtitles, a selected scenes commentary, and a "Behind The Scenes" featurette.

[edit] Sequels

"Quest For The Spear" was originally intended to be the first film in a trilogy. The second installment, with Jonathan Frakes slated to direct, was confirmed as being in pre-production under the title The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines as of 14 July 2005. The film is currently scheduled for broadcast in December on TNT.

According to iMDB as of April 2006, most of the original cast was set to return for the second installment, including Noah Wyle (Flynn Carsen), Bob Newhart (Judson), Jane Curtin (Charlene), and Olympia Dukakis (Margie Carsen). Notable so far is the absence of Sonya Walger (Nicole Noone), whose character was the love interest for Flynn Carsen in the original film; though why she has yet to be listed in the current (as of 29 November 2006) credits on IMDb is also unclear at this point.

[edit] External links

• The Librarian: Quest for the Spear at the Internet Movie Database
• The official TNT homepage for The Librarian: Quest for the Spear, includes an interactive, Macromedia Flash-format tour of the Library showing many of the relics shown or mentioned in the film, and giving a brief bit of backstory on each relic.
• The Reliquary of St. Longinus, with further information about the "Holy Lance"