FAQ

Nerdy Flynn Carsen (Noah Wyle), a professional student with 22 degrees, is kicked out of college but offered a job at the Metropolitan Public Library in New York City as a librarian of historical relics. When part of the Spear of Destiny is stolen from the library, Flynn sets out to recover its parts. Accompanied by martial arts specialist Nicole Noone (Sonya Walger), who is charged with protecting Flynn from the Serpent Brotherhood, they must travel from Amazonia to Shangri La in the Himalayas in order to retrieve it.

Quest for the Spear is based on a screenplay written by screenwriter David N. Titcher. However, a novelization of the movie by Christopher Tracy, titled The Adventures of the Librarian: Quest for the Spear was released in 2004. The movie is followed by two sequels—The Quest - Das Geheimnis der Königskammer (2006) (2006) and The Quest - Der Fluch des Judaskelch (2008) (2008)—and a television series spinoff The Quest - Die Serie (2014) (2014–).

It's real in the sense that, in many mythologies and religions, the language of the birds is said to be a mystical, perfect, divine language used by the birds to communicate with persons of great wisdom. While the concept appears to have existed in ancient folklore all around the world, much like the concept of a creator of the universe, there is no verifiable secular equivalent, as the semantics of bird vocalization is not singular among the bird species, just like how humanity lacks a common language due to—or regardless of—the legend of confusion of tongues and the idea of Proto-Human language; not to mention that sapient-level communication between a human (or e.g. a wizard) and other animals or even plants is ultimately a fantasy story trope (another example being parseltongue in the Wizarding World franchise).

Unsure of whether or not Nicole is in cahoots with Edward Wilde (Kyle MacLachlan), Flynn returns to Library where the Serpent Brotherhood has assembled outside of the pyramid. Wilde and his henchmen, Lana (Kelly Hu) and Rhodes (David Dayan Fisher), exit the pyramid, dragging Nicole with them, her hands cuffed behind her back. Wilde tosses the three parts of the spear into the electromagnetic field created by the full moon, and the pieces reassemble. He first kills Rhodes then turns the spear on Nicole, but Flynn knocks him down long enough to remove Nichole's handcuffs. As Judson (Bob Newhart) does battle with the Brotherhood and Nichole fights with Lana, Flynn goes after Wilde and the spear. Possessed by the power of the spear, Wilde jabs at Flynn, succeeding only in knocking some of the stones out of alignment, enough that the pyramid begins to collapse. The gold capstone falls on Wilde, and Flynn grabs the spear and joins Judson and Nicole. Flynn gives the spear to the Library where it is put on display. Feeling pleased with himself, Flynn successfully pulls Excalibur from the stone and is honored with a portrait of himself to hang on the library walls with portraits of all the previous librarians. In the final scene, Flynn and his mother (Olympia Dukakis) are having lunch together at a sidewalk cafe when Nicole rides up on a motorcycle. She informs him that the Deadly Scorpion League has found H.G. Wells' time machine and that they have to get it back. Together, they ride off into the traffic, followed by four time-travelling ninjas intent on killing them.

The movies in The Librarian series are most often described as a blend of action, comedy, and satire, "cheesy", and movies that are a lot of fun to watch but don't take themselves seriously. Those who have seen The Librarian movies often compare them to the movies in the Indiana Jones franchise, i.e., Jäger des verlorenen Schatzes (1981) (1981), Indiana Jones und der Tempel des Todes (1984) (1984), Indiana Jones und der letzte Kreuzzug (1989) (1989), and Indiana Jones und das Königreich des Kristallschädels (2008) (2008). Also similar are the movies in (1) the National Treasure series (Das Vermächtnis der Tempelritter (2004) (2004) and its sequel Das Vermächtnis des geheimen Buches (2007) (2007)), (2) the Night at the Museum series (Nachts im Museum (2006) (2006), Nachts im Museum 2 (2009) (2009), and Nachts im Museum - Das geheimnisvolle Grabmal (2014) (2016)), (3) the Romancing the Stone series (Auf der Jagd nach dem grünen Diamanten (1984) (1984) and its sequel Auf der Jagd nach dem Juwel vom Nil (1985) (1985)), and (4) The Mummy series (Die Mumie (1999) (1999), Die Mumie kehrt zurück (2001) (2001), and Die Mumie - Das Grabmal des Drachenkaisers (2008) (2008)), all of which provide the adventure, thrills, and "cheesiness" that are part of The Librarian movies. Although they are a bit more serious in tone, the Robert Langdon series (The Da Vinci Code - Sakrileg (2006) (2006), Illuminati (2009) (2009) and Inferno (2016) (2016)) is also favorably compared. The Wizarding World movies (Harry Potter (2001-2011) and Fantastic Beasts (2016–)) as well as Duell der Magier (2010) (2010) may be of interest.

The American television movie The Librarian: Quest for the Spear has received a DVD release of an extended version in the US. Most changes are not important at all, but they help along to make the whole film a bit more fluent in its plot progression.