Oliver S. Lindenbrook
Prof. Sir Oliver S. Lindenbrook was a Scottish scientist who taught at the University of Edinburgh. Recently knighted, he was honored by his colleagues and his students. His favorite pupil Alec McKuen gave him an unusually heavy piece of lava he'd bought in a curio shop as a present for him. Inside, Lindenbrook discovered an ancient plumb bob belonging to the long missing Icelandic explorer Arne Saknussem, containing a message written in blood detailing how Saknussem had journeyed to the center of the Earth. Elated, Lindenbrook wrote to a prominent Swedish professor named Peter Göteborg for advice. When Göteborg didn't reply, Lindenbrook realized the Swedish scientist aimed to steal his discovery and reach the center of the Earth first.
With Alec, Lindenbrook journeyed to Iceland where the scheming Professor Göteborg's coachman knocked them out and imprisoned them inside of an eider feather storehouse owned by Hans Belker. Hans freed them, and the three went to Göteborg's hotel to confront him - only to find him dead, having been poisoned by a third party. Lindenbrook appropriated all of Göteborg's equipment and belongings for his own use, and enlisted the services of Hans. Göteborg's widow Carla eventually joined the expedition after a rough start where she had to be convinced of her dead husband's intended theft of Lindenbrook's idea. Lindenbrook allowed her to come along however, so that a Göteborg could be on the historic journey.
Throughout their adventure beneath the earth, Lindenbrook and his companions were faced with dangers such as floods, prehistoric monsters, falling rocks, deep abysses and winding, twisting salt caverns, all the while following a trail of three carved notches left as a guide by the long lost Arne Saknussem. Further dangers were endured at the hands of the third party - Arne's descendent, the arrogant Count Saknussem, who joined Lindenbrook's begrudgingly, despite being the poisoner of Carla's husband. The Count would eventually overstep his bounds and be killed in an avalanche of rocks after the group crossed an underground ocean Saknussem named after himself.
After the Count's death, Lindenbrook, Alec, Carla and Hans discovered the city of Atlantis, sunken in an earthquake at the base of a volcano in Italy. Here, they found the skeleton of Arne Saknussem. Lindenbrook mourned his illustrious predecessor. Arne's bony finger pointed to the open shaft of the volcano, through which the explorers tried to climb, only to discover it blocked by a rockslide. Using gunpowder found in the dead Arne's bag, they tried to blow the blockage. Lindenbrook was attacked by a giant chameleon, which grabbed his ankle with its tongue as he tried to light the fuse. Alec came to his rescue and drove a chisel into the chameleon's tongue with a hammer, making it release Lindenbrook, who successfully lit the fuse.
The explosion triggered a volcanic eruption which destroyed Atlantis and killed the giant chameleon in a sea of lava. Lindenbrook and his three companions survived by huddling in a bowl-shaped sacrificial altar stone, which was carried on the lava flow and propelled up the volcanic shaft and blown into the air. Lindenbrook, Carla and Hans landed in the ocean, the altar sinking to the bottom, and were rescued by a passing Italian ship. Alec meanwhile ended up in a tree at an Italian convent. The four members of the Lindenbrook expedition returned to Edinburgh where they were hailed as heroes. Lindenbrook, however, turned down the honor, insisting that, as he had no evidence of their adventure, he couldn't accept the crowd's adulation.
He promised to return however and bring back proof this time, with a solemn promise from Hans that he too would go with him again, as well as Carla, who had since fallen in love with her dead husband's one-time rival. The two kissed as Alec and Lindenbrook's class honored their professor with a rousing rendition of "Here's to the Prof of Geology."
