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Despite that the Doppelganger was meant to be a skinless version of Lara, it actually looked nothing like Lara; it was extremely thin, had large alien eyes and a human looking chest making it seem like it was male.
Lara Croft's name was picked from a phone book for sounding "UK friendly".
Originally conceived with a male lead character; changed to a female character in order to reduce similarities with Indiana Jones.
In 2006, the character Lara Croft was honored with a star on the Walk of Game in San Francisco.
The city of Vilcabamba is a real-life location, as the last stronghold of the Incan Empire after the invasion of the Spanish. Vilcabamba was built shortly before the Spanish invasion, was used as a stronghold from 1539 and fell in 1572. It was found again by Hiram Bingham, the discoverer of the far better-known site of Machu Picchu, but he failed to realize it's significance. It was ignored for decades until the excavations of Professor Edmundo Guillan and Polish explorers Tony Halik and Elzbieta Dzikowska that Vilcabamba was found once again.
James Bond, Indiana Jones and Sarah Connor are major influences behind Lara Croft.