Vikander’s Lara Croft in step with 2018
“Tomb Raider” hero no longer sporting cartoonish, hyper-sexualized outfits
Alicia Vikander is a new kind of Lara Croft.
The Oscar-winning actress assumes the role of the aristocratic British explorer in the Tomb Raider remake (in theaters Friday) with all the female empowerment of Angelina Jolie breaking into the male action-hero world in 2001’s blockbuster Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.
But Vikander’s Croft is noticeably in step with 2018 wokeness: She’s no longer wearing her predecessor’s hyper-sexualized outfits.
“It’s a very different take,” says Vikander, 29. “It has the essence of the Lara Croft character we all know. But it really feels like it’s been taken to our time.”
A breakdown of the variations:
The outfit is more practical than prurient
Jolie’s cartoonishly tight short shorts and bodysuits (based on the original 1996 Tomb Raider video game) have been replaced by Vikander’s tank top and khaki combat pants.
Vikander chalks up this sensible look to social evolution and a toneddown ensemble introduced in the rebooted 2013 video game.
“If you would ask boys and girls on the street what they find inspiring or attractive or even sexy, it’s a hell of a
different answer you would get today than you would have had in 1996,” says Vikander.
Lara Croft isn’t packing the dual pistols
Croft’s hardcore pistol-in-each-hand look is missing. But it isn’t a political statement about guns: It’s because the new movie is an origin story.
The emerging explorer starts off with a bow and arrow (from her childhood archery lessons) and picks up her lethal climbing ax.
Once again, it’s the 2013 video game that “showed an inexperienced Lara Croft seen in the movie,” says Rich Briggs, senior brand director for Crystal Dynamics, which creates the Tomb Raider games. “She doesn’t use the dual pistols, she hasn’t gotten to that point yet.”
She isn’t related to her screen dad in real life
In a fascinating 2001 Tomb Raider casting choice by director Simon West, Croft’s explorer father was played by Jolie’s real-life father, actor Jon Voight (before their now-resolved, but prolonged falling out).
In the rebooted version, Vikander’s Croft goes searching for her missing father played by Dominic West. No relation to Vikander or Simon West.
She’s not rich
Jolie’s Tomb Raider showed Croft at her aristocratic finest, living in amazing Croft Manor. But Vikander’s version is a struggling East London bike messenger who doesn’t want the money.
“She isn’t accepting her dad’s inheritance, because that to her means accepting her dad is dead. So she’s distanced herself from the family fortune,” says Briggs. “She can go to Croft Manor if she wants to, but she doesn’t use it.”
She takes some hits
Jolie’s Croft landed most of the stylized blows. But Vikander’s first scene shows her in a kickboxing ring, taking a blow to the face from her opponent. It immediately sets the tone. “Lara Croft still has a long way to go. She’s not the superhero or invincible when we start out,” says director Roar Uthaug.