FILM · 2018 · UK
Tomb Raider
33 archived facts 3 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
26 Interesting Facts About Tomb Raider
- #001
Alicia Vikander wanted the character to be as realistic as possible so that she could perform her own stunts, and she put a great deal of effort into playing Lara.
- #002
Unlike the video game it is based on, the film contains no supernatural elements. Instead, the Death Queen is revealed to be immune to an unknown disease spread by touch and to serve as its carrier.
- #003
After escaping Vogel and landing by parachute, Lara is impaled in the side by a stick. This injury is the same one she suffers in the opening of the 2013 video game and serves as an important plot element for the opening sections.
- #005
The film does not explain why the island is so hard to find or why escape is impossible, but the 2013 video game does. In the game, Himiko is said to have supernatural power over the weather, with violent wind and rain keeping the island in a constant storm; after Himiko is buried, the island's weather calms and Lara is able to escape. The film hints at this with severe weather when they arrive and a clear, sunny sky when they leave.
- #006
Duncan Airlie James (Instructor Terry) is a six-time world Thai boxing/kickboxing champion and a K-1 fighter.
- #007
In March 2013, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer announced that it had acquired the rights to the Tomb Raider film series from Paramount Pictures, which had allowed the film rights to lapse after Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life (2003) "failed to find audiences" despite its worldwide success.
- #008
The old, rusted plane that Lara holds onto as she falls down the waterfall is a Mitsubishi G3M, a World War II Japanese heavy bomber known to the Allies as "Nell."
- #009
Alicia Vikander was a fan of the video game series while growing up.
- #010
Alicia Vikander gained twelve kilos of muscle over the four months before filming.
- #011
When Lara first enters the Croft group, Johann Sebastian Bach's Piano Concerto in F minor is playing. The same melody plays in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) while Lara exercises with ropes at home.
- #012
One of Lara's most important pieces of equipment in the 2013 video game is the red climbing axe she earns during the training stages and uses for the rest of the game. In the film, however, she does not get her iconic weapon until the climax.
- #013
In an interview related to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (2014) (Alicia Vikander/Jim Sturgess/Kali Uchis feat. Tyler, the Creator (2018)), Alicia Vikander said she did most of her own stunts and had to repeat some of them.
- #014
The inscription at the entrance to Lara's father's secret basement states that Lara's mother, Amelia Croft, died in 1996. 1996 is the year the first Tomb Raider video game was released.
- #015
Daisy Ridley, Emilia Clarke, Saoirse Ronan and Cara Delevingne were among the frontrunners for Lara Croft. Gemma Arterton, Hayley Atwell, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel, Emily Blunt, Alexandra Daddario, Rosario Dawson, Summer Glau, Rhona Mitra, Elizabeth Olsen, Jennifer Lawrence, Emma Watson, Kaya Scodelario and Kristen Stewart were also considered before Alicia Vikander was cast. Atwell would go on to take a voice role in Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft (2024).
- #016
It is an extremely rare example of a film whose trailer uses the mid-credits scene (the "I'll take two" scene in which Lara buys guns).
- #017
It was previously the highest-rated video game adaptation on Rotten Tomatoes.
- #019
The brown leather belt Lara Croft wears comes from the old (pre-1999) uniform of The Boys' Brigade, a British voluntary youth organisation.
- #020
Daisy Ridley turned down the role of Lara Croft because of her commitment to Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019).
- #022
This film marks the second time Dominic West played Alicia Vikander's father, after Testament of Youth (2014).
- #023
Tom Holkenborg worked on the score for this film after replacing Danny Elfman on Justice League (2017).
- #025
After Lara sets off back to camp, she takes a bow and arrow from her father's cave. It is the only bow she uses in this film. However, it is the second of the four bows she uses in the 2013 video game (the others being a makeshift longbow, a modern compound bow and a high-tech competition bow). She is also shown in a flashback as a teenager using a modern bow to shoot an apple.
- #026
Alicia Vikander was twenty-nine years old when this film was released in US cinemas. Angelina Jolie was twenty-six when Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) was released in cinemas.
- #027
The sound heard at roughly thirty-eight minutes is from the opening title sequence of Logan's Run (1976).
- #030
The Volvo XC40 that finally takes Lara Croft to her stately home has the registration plate UJ 7847. That same number appeared on a Humber Pullman used in Darkest Hour (2017), The King's Speech (2010) and Upstairs Downstairs (2010).
- #031
After the premiere of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life (2003), Angelina Jolie announced that she did not want to make another film as the iconic video game character, and the series was therefore rebooted. In late 2013, however, there were rumours that Angelina Jolie wanted to return as Lara Croft, but the rumour was false.
- #032
Kathryn Bigelow, Mimi Leder and Catherine Hardwicke were considered to direct.
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