Thursday, December 1, 2011

Case Study No. 0096: Flynn Carsen

NOAH WYLE IS BOOKISH ACTION HERO
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Noah Wyle is a librarian turned action hero in The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines. Keywords: Gabrielle Anwar, Olympia Dukakis, Bob Newhart, Jane Curtin
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Added: 4 years ago
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NARRATOR: Why wait for Harrison Ford to put on his fedora, when you can watch Noah Wyle in action in "The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines" seeking ancient treasure under secret chambers. Noah says Flynn was just a regular guy, still living at home with his mother, until duty called.
NOAH WYLE: Uh, and then he gets this job working for this library, which is unlike any other in the world. It's the repository for all things mystical, fantastical, mythological ... Holy Grail, Spear of Destiny, Excalibur, the real Mona Lisa, the Goose that lays the Golden Egg, King Midas. You name it, it's in the safe keeping of the librarian, which is a perfect job for this guy. What he's ill-suited for is the missions that he's oftentimes sent on, which is when one of these items is lost or stolen, or if one is uncovered somewhere in the world, he has to go and bring it back to the Library and oftentimes retrieve it out of the clutches of an evil group.
NARRATOR: In this case, Noah's Flynn has to battle General Samir, a mercenary and his thugs. Not to mention a few ghosts along the way, to find King Solomon's Mines.
NOAH WYLE: And one of his first stops on this mission is at an archaeological dig, where he encounters this beautiful archaeologist played by Gabrielle Anwar, and she sort of tags along for the ride against his wishes, but she ultimately proves her worth to him and the romance ensues because they're really flip sides of the same coin.
NARRATOR: The ongoing adventures of the Librarian begins Sunday at 8 PM on TNT.

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From wikipedia.org:

The Librarian is a series of made-for-TV original movies from TNT starring Noah Wyle as a librarian who protects a secret collection of artifacts.

The Librarian: Quest for the Spear (2004)
Quest for the Spear introduces Flynn Carsen (Noah Wyle) who is hired by the Metropolitan Public Library as a librarian. What Flynn doesn't realise is that the library has existed for centuries and protects a range of historical and often magical items in a secret section of the library, including The Ark of the Covenant, Pandora's box, and Excalibur. When part of the Spear of Destiny is stolen from the library, Flynn must recover it with the help of Nicole Noone.

The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines (2006)
Return to King Solomon's Mines begins with Flynn attending a party at his mother's house where he meets up with his "Uncle" Jerry, a close friend of his late father. Soon Flynn is on a quest to locate King Solomon's Mines, and along the way he teams up with Emily Davenport, an archaeologist who helps Flynn translate the Akon(aklo algolis) language. When they meet up with Jerry in Kenya all is not what it seems because Kenya holds the hot gates that lock nyarlathotep with the magickal shields and if he is released in his true form, then the black pharaoh will awaken the black hierarchy to roam the earth once more.

The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice (2008)
Curse of the Judas Chalice finds Flynn suffering from a series of strange dreams which led him to New Orleans, where he finds himself in the midst of uncovering a conspiracy that involves the notorious vampire Prince Vlad Dracul. Once again, Flynn must overcome his fears and protect one of the world's most sacred artifacts, the Judas Chalice, or face the consequences of it falling into the wrong hands.

The Librarians are the guardians of powerful and magical relics, and have been for centuries, and often undertake global-spanning adventures to recover items and store them in the Library. Some of the relics in the library include:The Mona Lisa, Excalibur, the Ark of the Covenant, the Fountain of Youth, the Nautilus, Noah's Ark, Pan's Flute, Pandora's box, Poseidon's trident, the Shroud of Turin. There are also living assets within the Library, for example, the Loch Ness Monster can be seen in the water around the "tree" made of walkways at the end the Judas Chalice adventure.

The Librarians wish only to increase their knowledge, and use the relics for the betterment of mankind. They have been fighting a secret war with the Serpent Brotherhood since at least the fall of the library at Alexandria many centuries ago.

There have been many librarians of note over the centuries, including:

* The Scholar, The greatest Librarian of all, legend says that over two thousand years ago he built the Library and is the keeper of its secrets. He was known as Yahuda which is the Hebrew name for Judson.
* Eldred the Truly Wonderful, a historical Librarian who was considered great.
* Judson (Bob Newhart), he served as the Librarian and now is mentor to those who take up the mantle. Possibly the "Scholar," the original Librarian.
* Edward Wilde (Kyle MacLachlan), the previous Librarian before Flynn, he faked his own death to steal the Spear of Destiny.
* Flynn Carsen (Noah Wyle), the current Librarian, a highly intelligent and resourceful adventurer.

The Serpent Brotherhood were a splinter group of the Librarians, who separated off back when the Library was in Alexandria in ancient times. The Brotherhood wished to use the powers of the artifacts to rule the world, and this disagreement led to a secret war between the Librarians and the Brotherhood, who incited the riot that led to the destruction of the first Library (in Alexandria). The Brotherhood take their name from the serpent that brought knowledge to Adam and Eve.

The 'Library' has existed at least since ancient times, and houses both magical and powerful relics. In ancient times the 'Library' was located in the Library of Alexandria, and is currently in the New York Public Library in New York City.

The library at Alexandria was destroyed when the Serpent Brotherhood incited a riot that destroyed it (sometime before the 8th Century). It has yet to be revealed where the 'Library' was housed between the 8th century and the 1890s when the New York Metropolitan Public Library was built.

The current 'Library' is housed in the Metropolitan Public Library which has a secret annex that stores all of the magical and powerful relics. The entrance to the annex is behind a hidden door disguised as a shelf of books. When Judson was first showing Flynn the entrance, he gave Flynn a clue as to how to open the door by quoting the lines "If we shadows have offended, think but this and all is mended", to which Flynn replied "That you have but slumber'd here, while these visions did appear", and immediately realised that the way to open the secret door was to pull on a copy of "A Midsummer Night's Dream", the romantic comedy by William Shakespeare. Behind the secret door is an elevator shaft which can only be accessed by two marines opening two locks similtaneously. When Flynn remarked that the double lock was the same as is used on bases with nuclear weapons, Judson verified this and said they copied it from the library.

Recurring Characters:

Flynn Carsen (Noah Wyle)
A nerdish bookworm, Flynn is brilliant beyond compare. By the time he was 31 years old Flynn had obtained 22 academic degrees (12 Bachelors, 6 Masters, and 4 Ph.D.s), including four in Egyptology, a Ph.D. (or two) in comparative religions, and Ph.D.'s in cryptology and every language one can imagine.

Practically addicted to learning, Flynn would have continued being an eternal student had one of his professors not kicked him out of college, insisting that he get some real-world experience. Flynn applied for a job as a librarian in New York. Unexpectedly, he was successful in his job interview and was recruited into an ancient clandestine order of librarians who have protected a range of historical and often magical items (such as the Ark of the Covenant) for centuries.

Flynn is, effectively, a polymath, highly intelligent and resourceful. His years of study have made his powers of observation and deductive skills comparable with those of Sherlock Holmes. His ordinary skills (which didn't qualify him for the job) include knowledge of the Dewey decimal system, the Library of Congress research paper orthodoxy, web searching, and the ability to set up an RSS feed. En route to his first mission, Flynn managed to decode the previously untranslated Language of the Birds in just over seven hours, a feat that no other Librarian (save one, who created the book) had been able to translate. Flynn rapidly evolves into a brave hero, not easily overwhelmed by the supernatural.

When Flynn was still quite young his father was shot by an unknown assailant. It took many years for Flynn to identify the murderer, and discover the reasons behind it. He took clarinet lessons when he was young, and when he was nine years old he attended a book signing of Stephen Hawking where he began to argue with Hawking about the correctness of the central thesis of the book.

His geeky bookishness is coupled with a razor-sharp wit that unfortunately has a habit of manifesting itself at the worst times. Flynn hates being corrected. He is a bit awkward meeting women, as well as too busy globe-trotting and fighting evil to maintain a relationship, and so his mother is constantly trying to set him up on dates.

Charlene (Jane Curtin)
A doleful library employee who interviews Flynn for the job of 'The Librarian'. Flynn was granted the job of Librarian when he was able to tell Charlene very specific things about her only a few minutes after their first meeting, based solely on his keen observation (among them, having mononucleosis, being divorced two months before, owning three cats, and breaking her nose as a child).

Charlene is rather bureaucratic, threatening to dock Flynn's pay should he break something and insisting that he must keep his receipts if he wishes to get refunded for his adventures. Charlene keeps a humorless facade when Flynn makes jokes. In her words, she doesn't "do funny."

Dean Devlin has speculated that Charlene had in her youth served as bodyguard to a Librarian as Nicole does now, perhaps her Librarian was Judson.

Judson (Bob Newhart)
Judson is the head librarian, he had previously served in the role of 'The Librarian' and now acts as a mentor to those who take up the mantle. He thought very highly of the previous Librarian, Edward Wilde, and was saddened to hear of his death. He has a tattoo from the time he served in the Marines and is handy in a fight. He enjoys buying things on eBay and loves flying kites. It is hinted in the Curse of the Judas Chalice that Judson may be well over 2000 years old, possibly founding the Library.

Margie Carsen (Olympia Dukakis)
Flynn's mother, Margie is constantly worried about her son and encourages him to get a job, find a bride, and be happy. She likes to give surprise birthday parties and likes singing karaoke.

Edward Wilde (Kyle MacLachlan)
Edward Wilde was the preceding 'Librarian' before Flynn, and he was considered to be very good. He worked with Nicole for two years during which time she fell in love with him. During an adventure in the Antarctic involving the Serpent Brotherhood, Wilde had to build an igloo to shelter himself and Nicole. He made it appear to Nicole that he had been killed by the Serpent Brotherhood, but in reality Edward staged his own death to ally himself with the Brotherhood in an effort to steal the Spear of Destiny and take control of the world.

Nicole Noone (Sonya Walger)
Nicole is an adventurer who works for the library, and usually serves as the brawn to the Librarian's brains. She is the youngest of three siblings and the only girl. Her mother is English, and her father is South American (Argentine), but she never bothered to learn Spanish. She never had any pets, and her favorite stone is jade. She is fearless, loves adventure, and is an excellent fighter. She developed feelings for the previous Librarian, Edward Wilde, and felt an overwhelming sense of guilt when he was apparently killed. Judson told Flynn to "trust no one", a pun of Nicole's surname Noone.

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From libraryzen.com:

I couldn't help but post on the upcoming TNT sequel, The Librarian: Return To King Solomon's Mines. I am the proud owner of the original and love the ego boosting lines it contains.

Fight crime, answer life saving questions, save the world ... where do I sign up? If you haven't seen the first movie (The Librarian: Quest for the Spear) you should find at least one copy available to rent at your local blockbuster. Then, get ready for another adventure this December.

Some great lines within the trailer:

"In the depths of the New York Public Library lives ... the world's greatest mysteries"

"Be safe, don't get killed, save your receipts" (my personal favorite)

"You'd be surprised what you can learn in the library"

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