Albert Lin’s Life Comes Full (Great) Circle
The real-life explorer and adventurer is a lifelong fan of Indiana Jones, but he does some things a little differently.
A dirt-covered adventurer lifts his face to the sun, smiles, and adjusts his hat before setting off to find another lost civilization.
But it’s not a scene from an Indiana Jones film — it’s just another day in the real life of Albert Lin.
Lin, the host of Lost Cities Revealed with Albert Lin from National Geographic, searches for ancient civilizations around the globe long hidden from modern eyes. Much like his fictional hero, Lin travels the world — from the jungles of Mexico to the deserts of Sudan and Egypt — to unearth untold stories of lost peoples.
Lin grew up watching Indiana Jones in action beginning with Raiders of the Lost Ark. “I was hooked, and I think I was only four. I can’t believe my parents let me watch that,” he jokes. He’s found all kinds of inspiration from the quick-witted character, including the hat he wears during his own expeditions.
“I think my life is a little tip to Indy,” Lin tells Lucasfilm.com, “but the hat, the hat is very practical, also. Cruising around as an explorer in the deserts and jungles and mountains and oceans, you’re in the elements. So, yes, [the hat] is a tip to Indy, and also to my long-term skin health. Indy had it right. He had some good style to him. Every time I barely make a flight and roll through the gate as it’s closing, I think about Indy grabbing his hat.”
Lin and his team use the latest in LiDAR technology to dig into the past without any actual digging or disturbing the ancient locations. “We can discover and explore sites with laser beams in the sky in ways that have actually opened up an entire age of discovery,” Lin says. “We’re in a great age of exploration because of tools like that.”
Lin credits his career to Indiana’s bigger-than-life adventures. “Indiana Jones is a character in a made-up world,” he says. “But it inspired me to go out and see the world. And over time, I realized that it was all rooted in real [history]. I mean, there are real inspirations behind every one of those locations, and they’re as incredible as the movies, the stories, and now the game make them out to be.”
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle takes the titular hero around the world to places Lin has actually been to, and he credits the game developers for rousing some of the same emotions he felt then.
“One of the great things about this game is that it’s hard to tell whether you’re playing a game or if you’re actually there,” says Lin. “The game makers have done such a great job of visual storytelling that takes elements of the original film’s cinematic inspirations but blends them with an advanced form of [game] design to make it feel like you’re in that world. You do feel the same sense of awe that the stories that Indiana Jones brought you can make you feel.
“And having been there myself, you know, having been in the deserts of Egypt, it’s just as epic.”
And while they might use very different methods to examine history, Lin wouldn’t mind going on more adventures with Indiana Jones. “If I had to take Indy somewhere,” he muses, “I think I’d take him to the real world with the Chachapoya [in Peru]. That’s where his journey began, way back in the day, in the very first scenes of Raiders of the Lost Ark, and even in this game. But I’ve been there for real, and I think he’s got to see the real deal.”
Just like he was inspired by Indiana Jones, Lin’s real-world adventures are encouraging the next generation of explorers. And there’s still so much history out there to uncover.
“We forget that there’s a world of unknown out there, that not everything has been discovered, that there is an adventure waiting to be had in the quest that’s driven by our curiosity. And at the very core of our humanity, at the very core of what makes us tick, it’s following that explorer in all of us.”
Besides, Lin asks, who doesn’t want to grow up to become Indiana Jones?
“I just got lucky that that actually happened for me,” he says.
Ready to start your own Indiana Jones-inspired adventure? Visit the official home of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle to learn how you can play the latest release from Bethesda and MachineGames, in collaboration with Lucasfilm Games. And don’t miss all of our in-depth Indy coverage right here on Lucasfilm.com.