After watching the first trailer for the upcoming film adaption of the Tomb Raider video game series 4 months ago, you had a general idea of what the movie would center around. Lara would be heading to an island right in the center of “the Devil’s Seas,” a place not meant to be taken lightly. But Lara made a promise to herself that she’d avenge her father’s death and stop Trinity, an evil organization on the verge of unleashing a dangerous force on the world.
A second international trailer for Tomb Raider was released earlier yesterday. In this trailer, although the first one shows Lara promising to herself that she’d stop Trinity because of a video recording left by her father, you get the idea that her father is somehow alive. Not only that, but Lara’s motivation to travel to Yumatai (possibly the island) appears to stem from her wanting to find her father. In the video game that the movie is based off, the 2013 Tomb Raider, Lara shipwrecks onto Yumatai–much like the upcoming movie–and discovers an ancient cult titled the Solarii Brotherhood. They worship a sun goddess, Himiko, in hopes of resurrecting her one day.
Whether or not the movie will follow this exact plot still remains to be seen, as the second trailer doesn’t shed much light on Trinity’s presence on the island. Nor do any of the trailers say that the island is actually Yumatai. But, considering that it’s public knowledge that the film is based on the 2013 video game, then it’s not hard to believe. After all, a lot of the shots seen in the second trailer look to be taken straight out of the game. For example, when you see Lara make that daring jump off her sinking boat into the water… That was first shown by Square Enix back at E3 2011 to show off the game when it was still in development. Find the trailer embedded below.
Whether MGM, GK Films, Warner Bros. Pictures, and Square Enix decided to follow the exact plot from the 2013 Tomb Raider remains to be seen. Lara’s motivation to travel to the island is confused by the two trailers so far; one shows her wanting to go to the island to stop Trinity, one shows her wanting to go to find her father. I think that’s because there’s a little bit of both spilling into her motivation to stop Trinity. Stopping them could lead to her father, granted that he’s alive.
You see Lara taking her battle with grief to the ring, her intelligence shine as she cracks various ciphers, and her precision with the bow and arrow. Trinity’s plan seems pretty obvious: use Lara’s specific skillset to open up a dangerous tomb, one that should remain closed (again, it’s not known whether or not it’s Himiko’s tomb). The question everyone is asking, though: Will Tomb Raider break the curse of films adapted from video games? There was no success with the Hitman franchise, nor Assassin’s Creed, but maybe the director Roar Uthaug and his team have channeled their inner Lara Croft and finally cracked that impenetrable cipher.
To find out, check out Tomb Raider in theaters on March 16, 2018. The film stars Academy Award Winner Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft, Dominic West as Lord Richard Croft (her father), and Walton Goggins as Mathias, the antagonist from the video game and–what looks like–the film as well.
