The Tomb Raider franchise debuted in 1996 with the original Tomb Raider for PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and PC. The series has gone on to become one of the most recognized gaming franchises of all time. Even further than that, the series' protagonist, Lara Croft, is considered by many a gaming icon.
The Tomb Raider franchise has gone on to inspire feature films, countless reboots and re-releases, and many cosplayers of Croft's iconic look. However, the braid-sporting adventurer is far from perfect. Many of the games' stories represent her as a flawed and quick-to-error explorer, such as these moments from her history.
10 Lara Abandons High Society
Lara Croft made her debut appearance in the first Tomb Raider game. According to her backstory, Lara was born into aristocracy as the daughter of Lord Henshingly Croft. Her future was seemingly secure until a plane crash left her stranded in the Himalayas having to fend for herself in the wilderness.
Upon returning to her life, Lara found herself suffocated by high-class British society. As a result, she pursued her passion for ancient civilizations with dreams of continuing to explore the world. Sadly, this caused her family to disown her, forcing Lara to fully turn away from the comforts of wealth and fame.
9 Lara Is Betrayed By Natla
The first Tomb Raider game finds Lara recruited by a woman named Jacqueline Natla to locate an artifact called the Scion. This ancient talisman had been lost in the mountains of Peru, a worthy task for the ambitious Croft. However, she is attacked in Peru by Natla's associate, Larson, upon retrieving a piece of the Scion.
Lara discovers from Larson that Natla had ordered him to kill Croft and steal the Scion. She also learns that famed treasure hunter Pierre Dupont is in search of the rest of the Scion. Knowing that she's been betrayed, the iconic tank-top-wearing explorer is forced to set off to locate the rest of the Scion before Dupont or Natla.
8 Lara Fails To Catch Bartoli
Tomb Raider II was released a year after its predecessor. Whereas the previous game found Lara investigating Atlantean artifacts, the sequel revolves around a weapon from Chinese history: the Dagger of Xian. This dagger allowed the former Emperor of China to take the form of a dragon when plunging it into his heart.
Suffice it to say, locating this weapon is a high priority for the heroic Croft. Unfortunately, she finds herself racing to it against Marco Bartoli, an Italian cult leader. Lara ends up failing, as Bartoli secures the dagger and takes on the form of a dragon, forcing Lara to kill him and then escape his tomb before it caves in on her.
7 Lara Lets Dr. Willard Become A Mutant
The Tomb Raider series continued its annual releases with Tomb Raider III: Adventures of Lara Croft in 1998. Following the events of Tomb Raider II, Lara investigates a Polynesian meteorite that bestows its wielders with powers. Along the way, she agrees to help a scientist named Dr. Mark Willard search for its pieces.
Predictably, Willard's plans with the meteorites are more nefarious than Lara expects. Once she obtains all the meteorite pieces for him, Willard uses them to access the power of their source meteor. Lara later defeats Willard after he mutates into a spider-like creature, de-activating the meteorites in the process.
6 Lara Sets Free An Egyptian God
The plot of Tomb Raider: The Last Revelationwouldn't be out of place in an episode of the MCU's Moon Knight. Here, Lara Croft goes on an expedition to Egypt, discovering the tomb of the Egyptian god Set. Foolishly, Croft removes the Amulet of Horus from Set's sarcophagus, not knowing the chaos that would ensue.
She later finds out from an inscription on the amulet that removing it from Set's tomb would set the ruler of the Underworld free. In her efforts to make things right, Lara ends up at odds with her former mentor, Werner Von Croy. By the game's end, Lara appears to have been killed, the ultimate consequence of her mistakes.
5 Lara Is Suspected Of Murder
It's unclear what happens between the ending of The Last Revelation and the next Tomb Raider game, Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness. However, Lara has survived and returns to adventuring. She manages to confront Werner until they are both attacked by a stranger and Lara wakes up to find Werner's dead body.
Following this event, Lara is the prime suspect in Werner's murder, though she is determined to prove her innocence. She makes a run from the authorities and is eventually led on the trail of Louis Bouchard. However, the real culprit turns out to be Pieter Von Eckhardt, an alchemist who had been working with Werner.
4 Lara Leads Her Crew To A Shipwreck
The franchise was rebooted in 2013 with Tomb Raider for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC. The game is a new origin story for Lara Croft as she sets out on her first expedition to locate the lost kingdom of Yamatai. However, Lara's directions take her ship, the Endurance to the Dragon's Triangle, where they're shipwrecked during a storm.
Lara wakes up on a deserted island, the prisoner of an unknown scavenger. In typical Lara Croft fashion, she escapes his capture as his cave collapses in on him. Her adventure now is to locate the rest of the survivors, all the while learning more about this strange island and its violent inhabitants.
3 Lara Loses A Museum Job
The 2013 reboot spawned a whole new era of Tomb Raider content, including a comic series published by Dark Horse Comics. These comics follow Lara's story in-between each of the games in the new Survivor Timeline. In an arc that takes place before 2015's Rise of the Tomb Raider, Lara's life seems much more simple.
Lara has taken a job in a museum, which she also uses as a training facility. However, her normalcy is interrupted by the arrival of a videotape, revealing that the helmsman of the Endurance is alive and being held for ransom. By the end of her adventure, Lara is fired by the museum and later forced to attend therapy.
2 Lara Enters The Gulag
Rise of the Tomb Raider finds Lara amid a psychiatric evaluation. Despite the guilt she's faced after the Endurance was shipwrecked, Lara begins to investigate her father's findings on immortality. This leads her on an adventure where she returns to her family home before finding a mythical Russian city called Kitezh.
Along the way to the old Gulag, Lara extends her aid to several locals. Afterward, she is knocked unconscious by a soldier of Trinity and taken to the Gulag. There, she finds herself tied up by Konstantin, a Trinity commander. While she manages to escape, this misstep almost costs her life.
1 Lara Loses Artifacts To Dominguez
Shadow of the Tomb Raider, released in 2018, is the third and most recent installment in the Survivor Timeline. Lara Croft continues her conflict against the militia known as Trinity. In the process, she meets Dr. Pedro Dominguez, the leader of Trinity's High Council, who she follows on his quest for several artifacts.
Unfortunately, Lara's attempts to stop Dominguez don't go over so well. She manages to locate several of the artifacts: the Key of Chak Chel and the Silver Box of Ix Chel. However, when Dominguez holds her crewmate, Jonah, at gunpoint, Lara loses the box, almost letting Dominguez escape if it wasn't for volcanic debris.