The Man in the Panama Hat

Kooshmeister

New member
Did anyone else like this guy? I mean, the air of mystery about him, and how despite his limited screentime, and the fact he has to walk with the aid of a cane, he still managed to be a memorable villain? As far as the movie's are concerned, he would seem to be Indy's single oldest enemy, apart from Belloq, and he set into motion the events that would go on to shape young Indiana's life.

"Small world, Dr. Jones."
"Too small for two of us."

I'd honestly love to more about this guy. What his real name is, where and how his obsession with Coronado began (he even names his private ship the Coronado), and why he has a bad leg.
 

WillKill4Food

New member
His name is Carlos Francis Coronado.
He was born in Colorado in 1840, the great-great-great-great nephew of the famed Conquistador Coronado. All of his siblings, aunts, and uncles died over the next few years. ("Coronado's dead, and so are all of his grandchildren." But his grandnephew isn't!)
At the age of 76, he set out in search of his ancestor's famed Cross, which would make its owner invincible for as long as they had the artifact. Hence, at the beginning of LC, he was old and needed a cane. After some struggle with a mischievious youngster, he procured the cross and spent the next 21 years healthy and didn't age a day.
When Indiana Jones stole the cross from his ship (which he named Coronado after his family name) on the way to Portugal (Carlos was at the time looking for the compass of Dias), Carlos slowly started to age and could not defeat Indy. His ship blew up and Indy jumped from the ship. Indy didn't jump fast enough and was still caught in the blast, but the cross protected Indy. Carlos and his men all died in the blast.
:dead:
 
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Indy~Annie

New member
WillKill4Food said:
His name is Carlos Francis Coronado.
He was born in Colorado in 1840, the great-great-great-great nephew of the famed Conquistador Coronado. All of his siblings, aunts, and uncles died over the next few years. ("Coronado's dead, and so are all of his grandchildren." But his grandnephew isn't!)
At the age of 76, he set out in search of his ancestor's famed Cross, which would make its owner invincible for as long as they had the artifact. Hence, at the beginning of LC, he was old and needed a cane. After some struggle with a mischievious youngster, he procured the cross and spent the next 21 years healthy and didn't age a day.
When Indiana Jones stole the cross from his ship (which he named Coronado after his family name) on the way to Portugal (Carlos was at the time looking for the compass of Dias), Carlos slowly started to age and could not defeat Indy. His ship blew up and Indy jumped from the ship. Indy didn't jump fast enough and was still caught in the blast, but the cross protected Indy. Carlos and his men all died in the blast.
:dead:

wow....:eek:

i never knew that!!! wow!!! yeah!!! looks like we do learn something new every day.:D he he i never even thought about him not jumping in time.......wow.....
 

WillKill4Food

New member
Indy~Annie said:
wow....:eek:

i never knew that!!! wow!!! yeah!!! looks like we do learn something new every day.:D he he i never even thought about him not jumping in time.......wow.....
Yeah, you do realize that I made all that up, right? :rolleyes:
 

Indy~Annie

New member
WillKill4Food said:
Yeah, you do realize that I made all that up, right? :rolleyes:
..............................just wait till i get my hands on your throat!!!!:eek:

well....now every time i see him in the movie i will think of your brilliant idea for his life.:rolleyes: lol

now i feel like a dork.he he
 

Attila the Professor

Moderator
Staff member
WillKill4Food said:
Yeah, you do realize that I made all that up, right? :rolleyes:

Wouldn't seem so, no. I do like the bit about how he slowly started to age.

To the topic at hand, I am a fan. I wonder if he was intended to any extent as a variation lying part way between Belloq and Donovan, with the wardrobe and history with Jones coming from the first and the industrial grasp operating as a scaled down version of the main villain who'd appear later in the film.

The Cross of Coronado story doesn't get enough press, but the way it builds on the Chacopoyan Idol (and, for that matter, everything else Indy searches for, but structurally, it's the Idol) as the one that <I>didn't</I> get away is one of my favorite things about Last Crusade. Also, of course, that it establishes Indy as a man of obsession. The quiet note in Raiders as he speaks of the Ark and Abner - "it was his obsession, really" - resonates forward into the moment where Indy admits that he's been looking for the Cross all his life. We also are offered Oxley's madness as another route this obsession takes, and the emotional toll Henry Sr's took, despite his eventually finding the grail, albeit briefly, and his subsequent illumination.
 

WillKill4Food

New member
Attila the Professor said:
Wouldn't seem so, no. I do like the bit about how he slowly started to age.
I was just writing in a biography for a character that did not have one.
There was a thread (I searched for it but could not find it, sorry) a while back where people made backstories for interesting characters that had only a few seconds of screen time (such as the Arab Swordsman, German Mechanic, etc.). I wrote that in the tradition of those others in response to Kooshmeister's prompt, as obviously there is no backstory to the character and any background info would have to be made up.
 

Dr._Jones_Jr.

New member
:mad: "That belongs in a museum!"

"So do you!"

Yeah he was a jerk. Thats what makes Indiana movies so good. Every villian is so hateable.
 

Cagefighterkip

New member
WillKill4Food said:
His name is Carlos Francis Coronado.
He was born in Colorado in 1840, the great-great-great-great nephew of the famed Conquistador Coronado. All of his siblings, aunts, and uncles died over the next few years. ("Coronado's dead, and so are all of his grandchildren." But his grandnephew isn't!)
At the age of 76, he set out in search of his ancestor's famed Cross, which would make its owner invincible for as long as they had the artifact. Hence, at the beginning of LC, he was old and needed a cane. After some struggle with a mischievious youngster, he procured the cross and spent the next 21 years healthy and didn't age a day.
When Indiana Jones stole the cross from his ship (which he named Coronado after his family name) on the way to Portugal (Carlos was at the time looking for the compass of Dias), Carlos slowly started to age and could not defeat Indy. His ship blew up and Indy jumped from the ship. Indy didn't jump fast enough and was still caught in the blast, but the cross protected Indy. Carlos and his men all died in the blast.
:dead:

i just learned more than i knew i ever wanted to know --- and im better for it.

thank you sir.
 

Attila the Professor

Moderator
Staff member
WillKill4Food said:
I was just writing in a biography for a character that did not have one.
There was a thread (I searched for it but could not find it, sorry) a while back where people made backstories for interesting characters that had only a few seconds of screen time (such as the Arab Swordsman, German Mechanic, etc.). I wrote that in the tradition of those others in response to Kooshmeister's prompt, as obviously there is no backstory to the character and any background info would have to be made up.

Oh no, I got the joke, fully. I was just confirming your own comment, but Indy~Annie confirmed such before my post arose.
 

Indy~Annie

New member
Dr._Jones_Jr. said:
:mad: "That belongs in a museum!"

"So do you!"

Yeah he was a jerk. Thats what makes Indiana movies so good. Every villian is so hateable.

ah ah ah!! thats not all the way true! what about Belloq? we all like him dont we? like in that thread whats your top 3 fav characters.it was mostly Indy then Belloq..and some one else but thats whats so good about the Indy movies they make some of the bad guys likable....or maybe im just crazy...? i like Vogel,Mola Ram and so on as well...:D
 

Dr._Jones_Jr.

New member
Indy~Annie said:
ah ah ah!! thats not all the way true! what about Belloq? we all like him dont we? like in that thread whats your top 3 fav characters.it was mostly Indy then Belloq..and some one else but thats whats so good about the Indy movies they make some of the bad guys likable....or maybe im just crazy...? i like Vogel,Mola Ram and so on as well...:D

I don't like Belloq, he tried to kill Indy a million times and holy crap is Vogel the most vile thing of all time! I think Vogel is the biggest thorn in the side villian out of the trilogy. Just evil.
 

WillKill4Food

New member
Attila the Professor said:
Oh no, I got the joke, fully. I was just confirming your own comment, but Indy~Annie confirmed such before my post arose.
Oh, okay. Just wanted to be sure.


Anyway, all jokes aside, "Panama Hat" is one of my favorite characters in the trilogy, so much so that I don't think my own story did him justice. Perhaps he could be Henry Sr.'s archenemy, they are around the same age.
 

Kooshmeister

New member
WillKill4Food said:
Perhaps he could be Henry Sr.'s archenemy, they are around the same age.

That's an interesting thought. He seemed to know where Indy lived, after all (granted he probably just followed Herman and the Sheriff like Fedora and the others did, but still). Maybe he and Henry had dealt with one another on occasion.
 

Indy&HanFan

New member
WillKill4Food said:
His name is Carlos Francis Coronado.
He was born in Colorado in 1840, the great-great-great-great nephew of the famed Conquistador Coronado. All of his siblings, aunts, and uncles died over the next few years. ("Coronado's dead, and so are all of his grandchildren." But his grandnephew isn't!)
At the age of 76, he set out in search of his ancestor's famed Cross, which would make its owner invincible for as long as they had the artifact. Hence, at the beginning of LC, he was old and needed a cane. After some struggle with a mischievious youngster, he procured the cross and spent the next 21 years healthy and didn't age a day.
When Indiana Jones stole the cross from his ship (which he named Coronado after his family name) on the way to Portugal (Carlos was at the time looking for the compass of Dias), Carlos slowly started to age and could not defeat Indy. His ship blew up and Indy jumped from the ship. Indy didn't jump fast enough and was still caught in the blast, but the cross protected Indy. Carlos and his men all died in the blast.
:dead:

you just made all that up? that's really good. i thought it was true when i was reading it!
 

Indy~Annie

New member
Dr._Jones_Jr. said:
I don't like Belloq, he tried to kill Indy a million times and holy crap is Vogel the most vile thing of all time! I think Vogel is the biggest thorn in the side villian out of the trilogy. Just evil.

oh.....well.....how could u not like Belloq?!? :)
 

QBComics

Active member
I feel like all the 2nd in line villains played a very important role. You needed someone that could also be as Bad-ass and just as hating as the main villain. And that's just what they did. Toht, Vogel, Dovchenko, Chattar Lal all were just so cruel to one of the characters, it'd make you sick. That is what I loved. :whip:

But then you get to Panama Hat: Who is he? He's a bad-ass who know one knew but hated. That's how well they "expressed" his character. Just enough too know he's bad. His death though was plain Random.
 
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QBComics

Active member
WillKill4Food said:
I didn't really think of Chatter Lal as evil, just misguided.

Heh, mabey. Kinda thought he was the weakest minor villain. I thoght Pat's character seemed more of the minor character. Doesn't mean I dislike the film though :)
 

Uki

Member
For that matter, wha about Fedora? That whole little clique is a shadowy corner of the Indyverse, where little light has been shed.
 
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