Artifact of Death: Difference between revisions

* The Ark of the Covenant, in ''[[Raiders of the Lost Ark]]'', supposedly grants the owner great power, and may be used as a Radio to God. However, opening the ark releases the Wrath of God, and anyone who looks upon the spirits that are released dies an extremely gruesome death. Arguably, it's less about ANYONE than "anyone who opens/handles/misuses the Ark with bad intent." The ancient Israelites (at least within the movie 'verse) did use it to make armies invicible and topple kingdoms. The Ark leaves Indy and Marion unharmed less because the angels automatically kill than because Indy knows not to look -- he respects the power of the Ark and by extention the "Hebrew God whose Ark this is". Belloq and the Nazis ape Jewish rituals (even [[Lampshaded]] by one of the Nazi officers) and assume they only need to dress up and say the right words to make the magic box work. They don't die so much because they opened the Ark, but because they did so out of hubris.

** At least one of the false Grails from ''[[Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade]]'' causes you to suffer [[Rapid Aging]] till past the point of death, as Walt Donovan [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36WEn-9zs1U found out rather painfully].

** As with the Ark of the Covenant, Indy manages to get through the Three Tests (of Penitence, Faith, and... spelling?) and choses the right Grail by understanding there's more to the [[MacGuffin]] than just a nifty prize. Donovan and Elsa, again with the hubris... don't.

* [[Cymbal-Banging Monkey|The toy monkey]] from the [[Stephen King]] story ''The Monkey'' kills whenever it claps its cymbals, as does the one from <s>rip-off</s> homage ''[[Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders]]''.

* The short cartoon ''Awfully Lucky'' has the Paradox Pearl, which grants its holder incredibly good luck -- followed immediately by incredibly BAD luck.

* Played with in ''[[Duckman|Duckman and Cornfed in Haunted Society Plumbers]]'' with a diamond called the [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Sharon Stone]].

*[[Dramatic Thunder]]* }}