| The Librarian | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Peter Winther |
| Produced by | Dean Devlin, Electric Entertainment |
| Written by | David Titcher |
| Starring | Noah Wyle Bob Newhart Jane Curtin Olympia Dukakis Kyle MacLachlan Sonya Walger Kelly Hu |
| Music by | Joseph LoDuca |
| Cinematography | Alan Caso |
| Editing by | Ron Rosen |
| Distributed by | TNT |
| Release date(s) | December 5, 2004 |
| Running time | 90 min. |
| Language | English |
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.
The series is produced by Electric Entertainment.[1]
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Noah Wyle plays Flynn Carsen, a perpetual college student who has 22 academic degrees.[2] 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 Tesla's Death Ray, the Holy Grail, the transmuted corpse of King Midas, the Ark of the Covenant, the Golden Fleece, a live 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), the original Little Boy prototype atomic bomb, a working jet pack, Ali Baba's Flying Carpet 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".
Whilst on a plane Carsen is ambushed by the Serpent Brotherhood and is rescued by a woman who forces him out of the plane whilst in mid-air. Once they land he finds that his rescuer, Nicole Noone (Sonya Walger), is a Library employee who blames herself for the death of the last librarian but who resists any friendly feelings for Carsen. They travel through the Amazon rainforest where they encounter waterfalls, headhunters, bridge collapses, and Maya death traps all with often tongue-in-cheek comedy and a touch of romance. They next travel to the Himalayas, ending up in Shangri-La, all the time proving that the years of Carsen’s book learning are useful.
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Noah Wyle | Flynn Carsen |
| Sonya Walger | Nicole Noone |
| Bob Newhart | Judson |
| Jane Curtin | Charlene |
| Olympia Dukakis | Margie Carsen |
| Kyle MacLachlan | Edward Wilde |
| Kelly Hu | Lana |
| David Dayan Fisher | Rhodes |
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.
An unrated, Region 1 NTSC DVD was released for this film on August 30, 2005, using an aspect ratio of 1:78:1.
The DVD features include deleted scenes, English and Spanish subtitles, a selected scenes commentary, and a "Behind The Scenes" featurette.
A sequel, The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines, aired on TNT on December 3, 2006. It was released on DVD December 19. The second sequel released on December 7, 2008, "The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice"
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