It’s clear from the outset that this is a far cry from the Angelina Jolie movies of yore. The 2018 Tomb Raider film, starring Alicia Vikander as the archeology student-turned-action hero Lara Croft, leans heavily on the 2013 video game of the same name by studio Crystal Dynamics.
A Realistic Lara Croft
Previous Tomb Raider films featured a more mature version of Lara Croft, a grown woman backflipping and gunslinging through ruins and mowing down bad guys, sure of herself (and very much sexualized). But Vikander’s Croft is different. Like her more recent video game counterpart, she is an untested young woman, her demeanor less confident — but she is clearly not without bravery.
There are several points in the new trailer that show how the movie will sync up with the 2013 reboot. First and foremost is Vikander’s costume. In the reboot game, Lara wears a tank top, cargo pants, and boots, with her hair in a simple ponytail. Vikander’s costume mirrors this to a T; even the bandages on her right arm mirror those shown on Lara in the game’s promotional artwork. It’s a carbon copy of Lara’s game look.
There are a few visual similarities to the game as well, down to the shooting angle. There’s a moment in the trailer when Lara runs across a fallen airplane to cross a ravine. In the game, Lara climbs along the same structure to cross a similar space.
Similar Backstory
In the trailer, we learn that Lara’s father has passed away. He has left her video diaries, instructing her to beware a group named Trinity. In the 2013 Tomb Raider game, Lara frequently plays audio tapes that her father left behind as she goes about her journey. In the 2015 follow-up, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Lara makes her own audio diaries, mirroring her father’s style of narrating his discoveries.
The malicious group Trinity that Lara’s father mentions is also taken directly from the 2013 game. In the game, the Order of Trinity is an ancient militant group funded by the Vatican. The group lurks in the world’s shadows, seeking to control mankind and the course of the world’s development. They collect relics with supernatural powers and destroy any remnants of the civilizations that used them, claiming they are heretics against the Roman Catholic Church.
In the movie, Trinity is also an underground organization that threatens to take control of the world. They are searching for a tomb that will grant them a terrible, otherworldly power.
Weapons
Perhaps the most obvious call-out to the Tomb Raider series reboot is Lara’s tool of choice: a climbing axe. We watch Lara use it to climb out of danger and slash more than a few enemies. This axe has become a hallmark of the new game series.
There’s also an easter egg at the end of the trailer similar to an easter egg in the 2013 game. Towards the end of the game during the final boss battle, Lara obtains two guns — a throwback to the dual-pistol-wielding Lara Croft of previous games. In the trailer, we see Lara with her hair in the signature plaited braid hold up two pistols in a similar manner.
Dragon’s Triangle
There are some slight differences in the film’s plot and the 2013 game; however, some of these elements seem to have been borrowed from the game’s sequel, Rise of the Tomb Raider. In the 2013 game, Lara is a student of archeology sailing to an area called the Dragon’s Triangle for some casual adventuring. She and her friends are shipwrecked on an island called Yamatai, where she runs into Trinity and its leader, Mathias. She learns that Trinity is trying to resurrect the island’s ancient ruler, the Sun Queen Himiko.
In the film, rather than venturing out due to her own interest, she is following clues in the research her father left behind. So rather than a quest for herself, it’s a quest tied to her father’s legacy. She sets out looking for the “Mother of Death,” which we see her father mention in the trailer. This is similar to the plot of Rise of the Tomb Raider, where Lara sets out to find the Divine Source using her father’s materials and is in a race against Trinity to obtain it first.
The connection between Lara’s father and the island of Yamatai was created for the movie and is not present in the game; in the latter, Lara stumbles into this adventure on her own. The connection to her father is also similar to the 2001 Jolie film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, in which Jolie’s Croft chases a mysterious organization seeking to end the world with supernatural power.
We still don’t know much about the motivations of the film version of Trinity nor how the adventure on the island will affect the supporting cast. We’ll see when Tomb Raider drops in 2018.
