1. Marcus Brody
The First Time We Saw Him... Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) I'm not sure whether or not Indiana Jones is the type of guy to have a "best friend," but if he did, it'd probably be this wonderful little character: Marcus Brody. Brody works alongside Indy at Marshall College, and is like, the curator at a bunch of museum in
Raiders, he also serves as something of an exposition-server, 'cause that works if your character is written to be smart. When we first meet this man, there's an essence of cool sophistication about him - he's British too, which helps to cement that fact. He warns Indy about going after the Ark - sensible, we can assume - and is even seen again at the end of the movie going up against some shady government individuals. A real intellectual without a hint of buffoonery about him: I give you Marcus Brody.
When We Saw Him Next...Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) My, what eight years can do to a man: the passage of time between movies really didn't work in Marcus' favour, did it? The next time we see this guy is in the third Indy movie,
The Last Crusade and... well, he's become just a shadow of his former self. Gone is the elegant wit and sophistication of his
Raiders persona: Marcus is something of a running joke in this movie. He serves only to bumble or mess up a situation. I know the idea of an elderly man racing around a desert has a natural kind of humour to it, but the depiction we're given here seems like a completely different character all together, doesn't it? There's a whole bunch of lines nodding at just how incompetent Marcus is out on the field scattered throughout
The Last Crusade, but the winning has to be: "You know Marcus, he got lost once in his own museum." I can't imagine that slice of dialogue being attributed to the Marcus of 1981. And yet here, you can glimpse him wandering around a foreign country like he's accidentally escaped from a care home.
Can you name any characters who made a bizarre transformation in a movie sequel? Let us know in the comments section below.