Line #7 VideoGame/IndianaJonesAndTheInfernalMachine


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/indiana_jones_and_the_infernal_machine.jpg]]
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3	''Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine'' is a 3D action-platformer game based on the ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' film series, developed for the PC by Creator/LucasArts and published in November 1999. Ports were subsequently developed by Factor 5 and [=HotGen=] for the Platform/Nintendo64 and Platform/GameBoyColor respectively.
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5	Indiana Jones is hard at work in Utah, doing some archaeology (and not finding a lot) when old flame [[VideoGame/IndianaJonesAndTheFateOfAtlantis Sophia Hapgood]] drops in on him to elicit his help investigating a strange machine part and [[DirtyCommunists Russian activity]] in Babylon. Soon Indy finds himself travelling to the four corners of the earth in search of more machine parts, before the Russians do something everybody's going to regret.
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8	!!''Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine'' provides examples of:
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10	* TheForties: The game takes place in 1947.
11	* AbnormalAmmo: The EasterEgg cheat makes your bazooka fire rubber chickens.
12	* {{Acrofatic}}: Volodnikov proves to be surprisingly fast on his feet for an overweight bookworm when you chase him down for a gear you need in Nub's Tomb.
13	* AKA47: All of the weapons Indy collects over the course of his quest are referred to with generic descriptors. The official strategy guide reveals their real-world basis, however.[[note]]The 9mm Pistol is a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TT_pistol Tokarev TT33]], the Machine Pistol is a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauser_C96#M1912_Mauser_export_model Mauser M1912]], the Rifle is a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SKS Simonov SKS]], the Submachine Gun is a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PPSh-41 PPSh-41]], and the Pump Action Shotgun is a Browning model, most likely the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winchester_Model_1897 Winchester Model 1897]].[[/note]]
14	* AllTheWorldsAreAStage: There are sections of the Aetherium that revisit past locations, and items found there are used in the boss fight.
15	* AnachronismStew: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vsevolod_Pudovkin Vsevolod Pudovkin]] was still alive and well in 1947. It's unlikely a ship would be named after him, and pretty much impossible when he was [[DeadArtistsAreBetter still active]].
16	* AngelicAbomination: Marduk, the Babylonian god, is revealed to actually be a strange {{Energy Being\|s}} from an equally strange realm known as the Aetherium, which is home to several other EnergyBeings. He is also capable of possessing the bodies of mortals, and compelled the Babylonians to build the Infernal Machine so he could conquer Earth.
17	* ArtifactOfDoom: To an extent, the Machine Parts. Using them depletes a special meter, and Indy dies if the meter empties.
18	* AutoSave: The PC version generates an autosave at the start of each level, but ''only'' at the start of each level. Forgetting to manually save can easily result in being sent right back to the beginning, especially if a seemingly-easy jump results in Indy bouncing off the world geometry and plummeting to his death.
19	* AwesomeButImpractical: Indy's whip. Awesome, because it's Indy's whip, and it can be used to disarm Communists. Impractical because Indy has to stop moving to use the whip, which is also ''incredibly'' slow to use, making it almost useless in a fight and difficult to use on puzzles and obstacles (''especially'' when you have several whip-swings in sequence and they have to be performed quickly). [[spoiler:And the boss battle at the end ''requires'' you to use the whip to injure Marduk.]]
20	* BaitAndSwitchGunshot: Turner is introduced this way, courtesy of an unfortunate mook.
21	* BagOfSpilling:
22	** Any 'key' items from a level that Indy still has in his inventory when he passes to the next level will disappear, even if that next level begins immediately following the events of the previous one.
23	** Also [[InvertedTrope inverted]]. Between each level Indy is able to visit a 'shop' in which he can exchange the credits earned from finding treasure for health restoration items and ammunition.
24	* BigBadEnsemble: [[DirtyCommunists Volodnikov]], [[spoiler:[[GeneralRipper Turner]]]], and [[AngelicAbomination Marduk]].
25	* BilingualBonus: The Soviet enemies all speak grammatically correct Russian.
26	* BookWorm: Volodnikov, according to Turner. Later proven right when Indy discovers an elevator under the ruins of Babylon, confirming Turner's claims.
27	* BottomlessMagazines: None of Indy's weapons need to be reloaded. In addition, his standard revolver has infinite ammunition.
28	* BrickJoke:
29	** In Volodnikov's first scene, a message from his superiors reminds him that "Socialist Theory disavows the existence of supernatural powers." [[spoiler:At the end of the game, when Indy reveals to him that God was not on the other side of the portal, he [[IronicEcho repeats the phrase]].]]
30	** The climax of the Return To Peru level. Indy retrieves an incredibly more valuable and ornated golden idol, much like the one René Belloq stole from him. Due to how elaborate its traps were this time, it is suspected Belloq's idol might have been nothing but a decoy.
31	* CallBack:
32	** The secret level, Return to Peru, is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin exactly what it means]]. Indy returns to the location where [[Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk the first movie began]]. Also serves as BookEnds, if and only if the player didn't purchase the Secret Map; in which case, the level will take place after the end, and will feature closing credits.
33	** The cheat codes for the game require you to pair up the parts of the eponymous machine with Indy's previous love interests: Urgon_[[Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade Elsa]], Taklit_[[Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk Marion]], Azerim_[[VideoGame/IndianaJonesAndTheFateOfAtlantis Sophia]] and Nub_[[Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom Willie]].
34	* CharacterNameAndTheNounPhrase: '''Indiana Jones''' and the '''Infernal Machine''', as is standard naming convention for the franchise.
35	* ChaseScene: Indy chasing after Volodnikov in a Benny Hill-esque fashion in the Nub's Tomb level, much like chasing a chicken. Blocking a path with a mid-sized statue [[TooDumbToLive is all it takes]] to trap Volodnikov.
36	* ChekhovsGun:
37	** That mirror you find in Teotihuacan and use to solve one puzzle turns out to be the key to defeating Marduk's first form.
38	** King Solomon's three gems return in the final level and are used to open doors to reality which weaken Marduk's second form.
39	* ChummyCommies: [[spoiler:Volodnikov at the end of the game. He arrives after the final battle to give Indy and Sophia a helping hand out of the ruins of the Infernal Machine, and after a brief chat about what was on the other side, the three go out for drinks.]]
40	* ColorCodedSpeech: The subtitles are different colors depending on who's speaking.
41	** Indy is orange.
42	** Sophia is purple.
43	** Volodnikov is green.
44	** Turner is blue.
45	** The Shambala caretaker is pink.
46	** The Nubian boy is teal.
47	** Marduk is gray.
48	** {{Mooks}} are white.
49	* ConvectionSchmonvection: Indy can hop across stone blocks floating in lava with no ill effects. He only dies horribly if he actually comes into contact with lava. The same goes for enemy {{Mooks}} (who explode if they touch lava).
50	* DayHurtsDarkAdjustedEyes: Indy spends King Solomon's Mines and Nub's Tomb in underground caverns, and flinches in pain when Sophia opens a trap door leading to the surface and blinds him with sunlight at the end of the sequence.
51	* TheDayTheMusicLied: At the end of the game, a rather sinister musical stinger heralds [[spoiler:Volodnikov's approach. It quickly turns out he's not looking to pick another fight, and simply asks Indy what he found in the Aetherium.]]
52	* DevelopersForesight: There's a segment of King Solomon's Mines (to be specific, the stretch of track immediately to the left of Switch 3) which always puts Indy into a cutscene. This is because if the player were to hop out of the cart in the room beyond, and then jump to a lower level, there'd be no way of returning to the cart.
53	* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: Indy's reaction upon finally meeting Marduk face to face is rather flippant.
54	-->'''Indy:''' Marduk! You're one of those angry gods, I'll bet. Ugly too!
55	* DirtyCommunists: Being set in 1947, they replace the Nazis as the main antagonists, years before [[Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull the fourth movie]].
56	* DiscOneFinalBoss: Volodnikov is the leader of the enemy forces who harass Indy for the first three quarters of the game, but once Indy obtains all four parts of the Infernal Machine [[spoiler:he bows out of the plot and Turner and Marduk become the main villains from that point forward]].
57	* EasilyForgiven: [[spoiler:Volodnikov. Indy doesn't seem to have too many objections to him sending hordes of mooks to kill him in the end, and they all go out for vodka after Indy (truthfully) denies meeting God in the Aetherium.]]
58	* EldritchLocation: The Aetherium, home to the beings that compelled the Babylonians to build the Infernal Machine. It looks entirely mechanical inside, but has shafts filled with toxic air that can be swum through like water, is populated with hostile EnergyBeings, and has portals leading to different parts of Earth.
59	* EmergencyWeapon: Indy has three weapons with infinite ammo but not a whole lot of damage output -- [[GoodOldFisticuffs his bare hands]], his whip, and his {{revolver\|sAreJustBetter}}. Eventually he gains a fourth: a machete, which does solid damage, but obviously only up-close - its main use is the boring reality of cleaning paths in thick foliage and cutting ropes, although it has some niche usage in being the only one of Indy's weapons to be viable underwater.
60	* EternalEngine: The Infernal Machine, a giant interdimensional portal created by beings from another dimension.
61	* FinalBossNewDimension: The Marduk fight takes place in his home dimension, the Aetherium.
62	* FunWithAcronyms: There's an arbitrary rating under gameplay options called the Indy Quotient, which is a returning feature from ''VideoGame/IndianaJonesAndTheFateOfAtlantis''. The rate it goes up at depends on your difficulty level and whether or not you're using the in-game hint system.
63	* FusionDance: [[spoiler:Marduk's OneWingedAngel form is this, when he possesses Sophia for the final confrontation.]]
64	* GameBreakingBug:
65	** The N64 version frequently freezes up, due to the game pushing ''way'' past the limit of the console's hardware.
66	** "Palawan Volcano" can infamously end without loading the next level. Solution? Restart the game ''from the very start'' or get a save from someone who didn't get the bug and thus started "Palawan Temple".
67	** "The Infernal Machine" has been known to fail to spawn an aether current which Indy is required to swim down to reach the final boss. Without it, it's impossible to finish the level, and restarting until it spawns correctly is required.
68	** Reloading a save game during the final battle can cause King Solomon's green gem to inexplicably insert itself into Indy's inventory and despawn Marduk. No Marduk means no final boss to kill means restarting the level.
69	* GameplayAndStorySegregation:
70	** Indy is still able to visit the shop to buy health kits and ammunition between levels even when he's deep underground and/or miles from civilization.
71	** A little into King Solomon's Mines, a Russian minecar will enter the system. After a chase sequence it appears as a little green dot pinging around on the mine's network map, and Indy comments on it. However he won't ever see it again [[spoiler:until he accidentally makes it crash]] because the rail network has no passing places, so it would be constantly phasing through Indy's minecar whenever he's stopped.
72	* GangUpOnTheHuman: Enemies will never attack each other, except by accident. This of course makes sense between the Russians but none of the game's aggressive wildlife will attack the Russians either.
73	* GenericDoomsdayVillain: Marduk, in and out. His hostile behavior, incentive, and desire to lure the Babylonians into building a portal for him to invade Earth, a realm whose atmosphere is lethal to him, are never explained nor justified.
74	* GratuitousRussian: Volodnikov speaks in this manner, throwing Russian words into English sentences at random. While it makes sense when he's talking to the American Indy, it is baffling when he does this to his Soviet comrades.
75	* {{Hammerspace}}: In addition to his HyperspaceArsenal, Indy can be carrying at any one time several variants of health restoration items, up to four machine parts, plus whatever key items from the level he's found so far. This goes up to including a plank of wood that's bigger than he is.
76	* HealthyGreenHarmfulRed: Health is tracked by a set of wheels. First green, depleting into yellow. Then yellow depleting into red. Then red depleting into empty, black wheel. Once the red goes out, Indy drops dead.
77	* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:Volodnikov, to some extent. He lets Indy go and cancels his search after Marduk once he realizes how dangerous the outcome is (assuming he ever actually intended to use the Machine in the first place).]]
78	* HyperspaceArsenal: At the same time, Indy can be carrying his whip, three different sidearms, two rifles, a shotgun, a machete, [[StuffBlowingUp grenades, satchel charges, and a bazooka]].
79	* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: A possible fate if Indy falls into a trap, particularly in Palawan Temple. [[spoiler:It's also how you defeat Quetzalcoatl.]]
80	* INeedAFreakingDrink: The final scene of the game has Indy ask [[spoiler:Volodnikov]] for some good socialist vodka.
81	* InvisibilityCloak: Taklit's part allows Indy to turn invisible. It's great for slipping past foes Indy can't actually damage.
82	* ItBelongsInAMuseum: Surprisingly [[ZigzaggedTrope Zig-Zagged]] considering that this is Indiana Jones. Indy makes a plea to [[spoiler:Turner]] to turn off the Machine so it can be studied and understood properly, while at the same time any treasures he finds during each level can be sold off between levels for first aid items and ammunition.
83	* IWantThemAlive: Volodnikov makes it very clear he wants Indy captured alive, intending to force him to help the Russians find the parts of the Infernal Machine.
84	* JungleJapes: Peru, a large jungle infested with snakes and the like.
85	* LethalLavaLand: The second and third Philippines levels take place in an active volcano.
86	* LightningLash: In the final level, Indy can electrify his signature whip [[spoiler:and actually has to do so to defeat the FinalBoss]].
87	* MacGuffinDeliveryService: In an interesting variation, the Russians ambush and capture Indy at the 3/4 mark instead of the end, but otherwise this is played straight when they relieve him of the three Infernal Machine parts he's collected up to that point. [[spoiler:Happens again when both Volodnikov and Turner show up at the end of Nub's Tomb to demand the parts from Indy, who surrenders them to his fellow Americans.]]
88	* MacheteMayhem: Indy can find a machete in the Philippines. It's usable as a weapon (and it's your only consistent option against the piranhas and sharks that infest the upcoming water levels), but Indy mostly uses it as a tool to clear vines out of his path.
89	* MadeOfExplodium: If the game wants to get rid of an entity without it being shot, then it explodes. A broken bamboo walkway falling into lava? Explosions. A minecart plunges into a pit? It explodes. [[spoiler:Quetzalcoatl, the giant snake boss of the Olmec Valley level, dies in a series of explosions that destroy each segment of its body.]]
90	* MalevolentArchitecture: The Aetherium. Its primary traversal method is through pipes of, well, aether, that Indy can swim through. Spend too long in it however and it depletes the same life meter as the Machine Parts, killing him if he doesn't recover the meter by stepping briefly into the real world.
91	* MetaTwist: The entire plot is arguably a subversion of the old movies. [[spoiler:At first it seems that the Russians want the machine to conquer the world, but that was really just Turner's delusion. Volodnikov reveals that he knew how dangerous the machine really was, and it's implied that he only looked for it because otherwise the Americans could have tried to actually use it (which indeed Turner does in the end, putting America squarely on the villains side for once).]]
92	* MinecartMadness: King Solomon's Mines. Indy even gets to ride the minecarts.
93	* MyCountryRightOrWrong: [[spoiler:Sophia Hapgood. Forced to betray Jones under Turner's orders, something she doesn't feel particularly guilty about.]]
94	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: The Infernal Machine level. [[spoiler:Indy spends the whole level fixing the titular Machine after Turner put all the parts in the wrong places. His subsequent attempt to free Sophia knocks both of them into the Aetherium dimension.]]
95	* NoGearLevel: The V.I. Pudovkin, where Indy is captured by the Soviets after gaining the third part and is stripped of all his gear and imprisoned.
96	* NonActionBigBad: While Volodnikov carries a pistol around, he never actually faces Indy in direct combat [[spoiler:and pulls a HeelFaceTurn before he gets the chance]].
97	* PetTheDog: Enforced. While Indy has no problem killing Communists, sharks, and hyenas, he can only shoot to ward away wolves in Kazakhstan and leopards in Olmec Valley. You can't shoot them directly. They're endangered.
98	* RagnarokProofing: The machines and puzzles designed to safeguard the parts of the Infernal Machine still work like a charm even after several millennia, not to mention the Machine itself. Duly lampshaded by our erstwhile protagonist in Teotihuacan.
99	-->'''Indy:''' After two thousand years, the machine still works. And old Azerim didn't even have a college degree!
100	* RedemptionEarnsLife: [[spoiler:Volodnikov, after cancelling the search for Marduk, survives the game and walks away with Indy and Sofia in the desert.]]
101	* RidingIntoTheSunset: At the end of the game, Indy, Sophia, and [[spoiler:Volodnikov]] walk off into the Babylonian sunset.
102	* RoaringRapids: Tian Shan River is all about navigating the titular river's rapids in a small rubber dinghy.
103	* RuleOfThree: Indy will only ever carry three raft repair kits at once.
104	* ShiftingSandLand: Meroë is in the middle of the Sudanese desert.
105	* ShipLevel: The V.I. Pudovkin takes place aboard Volodnikov's personal ship. Part of Palawan Island also involves swimming through a sunken Japanese freighter.
106	* ShockAndAwe: The robots encountered during Nub's Tomb and Infernal Machine attack with lightning bolts.
107	* ShoutOut:
108	** Using Indy's chalk on a wall has him produce a random little scribble, some of which are generic but others are references to other Creator/LucasArts properties such as ''VideoGame/DayOfTheTentacle''.
109	** In a final-level EasterEgg Indy inexplicably turns into [[VideoGame/MonkeyIsland Guybrush Threepwood]].
110	* SlippySlideyIceWorld: Kazakhstan, a snow-filled country just south of Russia and just as cold.
111	* SpoiledByTheManual: The manual for the PC version contains the pictures, names and backgrounds of all the bosses in the game, up to and including the final boss, as well as its true nature. It even shows Indy with an electrically charged whip, which you don't get until the very end of the game. However, it stops short of spoiling [[spoiler:[[FaceHeelTurn Turner's betrayal]]]]. The N64 manual omits all of this.
112	* StealthBasedMission: The V.I. Pudovkin starts with Indy stripped of all his weapons and gear. He is forced to make good use of trickery and [[InvisibilityCloak Taklit's part]] to slip by the guards and retrieve his belongings.
113	* SufficientlyAdvancedAlien: Heavily implied with Marduk, who lives in another dimension that can be accessed by portal (also years before [[Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull the fourth movie]]).
114	* TakeYourTime: The very last segment of the game has you [[spoiler:scrambling through a collapsing Babylonian ruin. However, despite the screen shaking, crumbling noises, and falling masonry, Indy's path will never be blocked and the only way to fail is to miss some jumps.]]
115	* TempleOfDoom: Teotihuacan and Olmec Valley take place in ancient temples.
116	* TimedMission: A particular puzzle in Olmec Valley requires the player to unlock a door and then perform a series of jumps to reach that door before it closes. The amount of time the player has varies depending on the difficulty setting.
117	* TooDumbToLive: From Meroë, Indy starts encountering Russian soldiers who only attack with [[StuffBlowingUp grenades]], no matter how far away Indy is. Most of the time they just end up blowing themselves up.
118	* TranslationConvention: Volodnikov's dialogue is in English even when it would make more sense for it to be in Russian. This causes a problem in Babylon when he refers to a 'plane', his radio operator assumes he means an airplane, and Volodnikov upbraids him for not understanding he means a plane in the dimensional sense. As the two are - canonically - speaking Russian this exchange makes no sense. In Russian the word for an airplane is самолет (pronounced sam-uh-lyot) whereas in the mathematical or physics sense the word for plane is уровень or слой (pronounced oo-ruh-vyen and sloy respectively), meaning there is no way the radio operator would ask whether such a plane was 'Soviet or American' but instead might ask how deeply they need to dig to reach this 'level' or 'layer.'
119	* TravelMontage: While not a montage, each level's loading screen takes the form of the ''Indiana Jones'' franchise's famous red line maps.
120	* TropicalIslandAdventure: The Palawan levels, which place on a tropical island chain in the Philippines.
121	* TheUnfought: You never battle Volodnikov; the closest you get is chasing him around to get a gear he found that you need.
122	* UnintentionallyUnwinnable: At one point in the Olmec Valley, Indy is faced with a boulder trap that he must trigger (because he needs the boulder/monumental Olmec head elsewhere in order to proceed). However, there's a ledge inside the boulder slide. [[SchmuckBait It seems like it's the obvious safe space to run to to not get squashed]], but all climbing onto it will do is get Indy permanently stuck in the slide.
123	* VisibleInvisibility: When Indy uses Taklit's part, he is rendered 90% transparent, but the player can still see him if they look close enough.
124	* WelcomeToCorneria: Indy has a set of canned responses used for picking things up. Most (but not all) key items get their own dialogue line, though.
125	* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Namedropped in one of the later levels when Indy breaks into a room full of them.

Context VideoGame / IndianaJonesAndTheInfernalMachine