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

Plot

Noah Wyle plays Flynn Carsen, a perpetual college student who has 22 academic degrees. Carsen?s 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 constantly worried about her son and encourages him to get a job, find a bride, 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, is said to have existed for centuries. 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 (of which the Louvre version is said to be a copy), and the Spear of Destiny.

Carsen finds that the job entails more than he expected 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 travels 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 are useful.

Cast

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. The entrance to Shangri-La visually quotes the 1937 film Lost Horizon.

Inaccuracies

There are a number of details in the film that differ from standard historical and scientific orthodoxy. The Mayan temple in the jungles of Brazil would be a change in pre-Columbian history. The Maya being driven to Brazil by the Toltec would also alter current theories. Mayans didn't build the Aztec Teotihuacan, so the Librarian's knowledge of secret death-traps in one would be little help in surviving the other.

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.

Sequels

A sequel, The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines, aired on TNT on December 3, 2006. It was released on DVD December 19.

External links

• 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"
• Movie Reviews
• Find a Library Copy

de:The Quest ? Jagd nach dem Speer des Schicksals nl:The Librarian: Quest for the Spear pl:Bibliotekarz: Tajemnica W?óczni