It’ll be an adventure: all the trailers, updates, and commentary for the Tomb Raider reboot

Warning: spoilers ahead for the 2018 Tomb Raider film and the 2013 Tomb Raider video game.

In one particularly brutal scene in the new Tomb Raider film, protagonist Lara Croft (Alicia Vikander) wrestles with a mercenary in the jungle. Doing everything she can to avoid capture and the strong threat of sexual violence, Lara breaks his grasp by biting him, then grapples with him in the mud, finally killing him by drowning him in a puddle. It’s a tense scene even for people who aren’t familiar with Crystal Dynamics’ 2013 Tomb Raider video game. But as a fan of that game, I found my hands sweating during the film sequence. I remember struggling through the notoriously difficult section of the game that inspired the scene. It’s the first time in the game that Lara kills someone, and the fight requires precise timing to break free from her attacker and avoid being shot. On my first play-through, I failed half a dozen times, watching Lara fall in various ways based on what I’d gotten wrong.

Released in summer 2001, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was an ungainly attempt to level up the art of cinematic Raiders of the Lost Ark knockoffs. It grafted the cutscene mythology of the popular video game onto an adventure that rappelled down the Uncanny Valley of early-2000s special effects. Director Simon West (Con Air) found a glimmer of possibility in the material by casting Angelina Jolie in the lead — not just because she fed the lust of male gamers and gazers, but because she brought in some of the sly unpredictability that won her an Actress in a Supporting Role Oscar for Girl, Interrupted two years earlier. Under better circumstances, Jolie could have offered her version of Harrison Ford’s knowing smirk through exotic locales and spring-loaded traps. But the script held her back, making her fight the stiff headwinds of an Illuminati conspiracy plot, gross objectification, and the comic stylings of actor Noah Taylor.

Fifteen years after Jan de Bont’s sequel, Lara Croft: Cradle of Life, brought Jolie’s exploits to a close, the franchise has been revived as a vehicle for Alicia Vikander, another upstart raising her profile after winning an Actress in a Supporting Role Oscar. The new Tomb Raider is a reboot of a reboot, adapting the 2013 video game by Crystal Dynamics, which was itself searching for a fresh start to a franchise that began in 1996, then foundered over a decade of sequels with diminishing returns. The new alterations to the story aren’t dramatic enough to elevate the series, but they do reflect a post-Gamergate shift in priorities, with an emphasis on Lara’s athleticism instead of her sex appeal, and a plot that sends her into battle on an island of men.

Lara Croft is back. Nearly a decade and a half after the last adaptation of the classic video game Tomb Raider, Alicia Vikander is taking over the title role of the daring archeologist in Roar Uthaug’s upcoming reboot.

The film is based off of the gritty 2013 game, which featured an updated version of Lara Croft’s origins. The trailer shows that the film is following the same track, opening with Lara returning home (in a scene that’s reminiscent of Iron Fist’s return home, right down to the set), to discover that her father has died. Before his death, he left behind a video message: he discovered a tomb called the Mother of Death. She has to get to it before a mysterious organization called Trinity opens it, because the fate of the world could be at stake.

Alicia Vikander’s version of Lara Croft looks identical to the character in the rebooted Tomb Raider video games. The film’s costume re-creates the grimy jeans and tank top combo, but also nails the little details: arrow quivers rise behind her shoulder, a bandage staunches a wound on her right arm, a second belt does whatever a second belt is supposed to do.

See for yourself:

Lara Croft is returning to theaters: Variety is reporting that the reboot of the video game adaptation will debut on March 16th, 2018, with Ex Machina star Alicia Vikander taking on the title role.

Vikander signed on to play the character in April, with Norwegian director Roar Uthaug directing. There's no word on who else will be appearing in the film.