Uncharted Among Thieves

Plot

The narrative opens with a quote attributed to Marco Polo, "I did not tell half of what I saw, for I knew I would not be believed." The plot revolves around the doomed voyage home of Marco Polo from China in 1292. After spending almost 20 years in the court of the Mongol Emperor Kublai Khan, Marco Polo departed with fourteen ships and over six hundred passengers – but when he arrived in Persia a year and a half later, only one ship and eighteen passengers remained. Polo never revealed what had happened to the lost ships.

The story begins in media res, with a wounded Nathan "Nate" Drake (Nolan North) waking up to find himself in a train hanging off a cliff with a bloody stomach wound. Through flashbacks, it is revealed that former associate Harry Flynn (Steve Valentine) and old girlfriend Chloe Frazer (Claudia Black) approached him with a job to steal a Mongolian oil lamp from an Istanbul museum. Nate accepts the job when he learns that the lamp may lead to the treasure of Marco Polo's lost fleet. Harry and Drake acquire the lamp, which contains a map showing that the lost fleet had been transporting the Cintamani Stone from the mythical city of Shambhala (better known as Shangri-La) before being thrown ashore in Borneo by a tsunami. Taking the map, Flynn double-crosses Drake, who is arrested and imprisoned for three months. Chloe, who claims to have had no knowledge of Flynn's treachery, asks for the help of Drake's friend Victor "Sully" Sullivan (Richard McGonagle) to secure his release.

Nate and Sully follow Flynn and his boss Zoran Lazarević (Graham McTavish), a Serbian war criminal who is widely thought to be dead, to Borneo. With the help of Chloe working within Lazarević's camp as a mole, they discover that the lost fleet never actually possessed the Cintamani Stone. They locate a tomb containing the bodies of Polo's passengers, as well as a Tibetan Phurba and a letter from Polo saying that the next clue is in Kathmandu, Nepal in a temple. Flynn and his men appear in the tomb soon after and take the letter, while Nate and Sully escape by jumping off a cliff into a river.

While Sullivan backs out, deciding that the quest is too risky, Nate and Chloe head to Nepal, finding conflict as Lazarević's mercenary army ravages the city looking for the right temple. After surmising that the temple they are looking for is adorned with one of the symbols on the Phurba, the couple survey the area from the rooftop of a local hotel, finding its location.

En route to the temple, the pair runs into Elena Fisher (Emily Rose) and her cameraman Jeff (Gregory Myhre), who are tracking down Lazarević to prove he is still alive. Elena questions why Lazarević is after the stone, considering he doesn't need the money. Nate and Chloe scour the temple and discover that the Stone and Shambhala are in the Himalayas. Whilst leaving the temple, Nate and Chloe are ambushed. They reach the temple entrance to find Jeff has been shot in the crossfire. Despite Chloe's insistence to leave Jeff behind, Nate helps him push on until they are caught. Chloe reluctantly pulls her gun on Nate to protect her "cover", and upon entering the room, Lazarević executes Jeff and takes Nate's map with directions to Shambhala. Flynn is instructed by Lazarević to eliminate Nate and Elena, but the pair escape captivity.

Elena questions Nate's motives for wanting to rescue Chloe, but ultimately decides to help Nate. Together, they plan and catch up with Lazarević's train on a stolen jeep, driven by Elena. Nate is pushed by her on board the train and has to fight a group of soldiers, survive an attack from a helicopter (twice) and fights Lt. Draza, (who is in possession of the Phurba dagger). Drake eventually gets the dagger back after an intense fist fight. Draza regains consciousness, and attempts to kill Drake, only to be killed by Chloe. But Chloe, who is upset about Nate having taken Elena and Jeff along earlier, refuses to leave with him. As the two argue, Flynn arrives and shoots Nate in the abdomen. Chloe then jumps in front of Flynn, giving Nate a chance to run. With Flynn distracted, soldiers pursue Drake until he is cornered. With no other option, Nate shoots a pile of propane tanks, killing Flynn's men and sending Nate's half of the train over a steep cliff.

Returning to where the game began, Nate escapes the train and travels through a snow storm, recovering the Phurba among the wreckage before falling unconscious. He awakens in a Tibetan village, where he is reunited with Elena and is introduced to a German man named Karl Schäfer (Rene Auberjonois). Schäfer tells Nate that the Phurba is the key to finding Shambhala, but Nate tells him he is no longer interested. To convince him otherwise, Schäfer sends Nate and the village leader, Tenzin (Robin Atkin Downes), to find the remains of the men in his expedition, who were looking for Shambhala and the stone 70 years earlier. Traveling through a series of caves to an ancient temple filled with yeti-like creatures, Nate and Tenzin discover that Schäfer's men were SS members on an Ahnenerbe expedition, and that he had killed them to protect the world from the power of the stone. They return to find Lazarević's men attacking the village, Elena telling Nate that they are the reason for it. Tenzin and Nate go to fight for the village, facing a tank in the process.

After securing the village, Nate and Elena find out that Schäfer has been kidnapped along with the Phurba. They then track, and fight Lazarević's convoy to an abandoned monastery getting blown off the edge of a cliff in the attempt but they eventually gain entrance via the mountains and infiltrate it. The couple locate a mortally wounded Schäfer, who tells Nate he must destroy the Cintamani Stone. Schäfer then succumbs to his wounds and dies. Nate then tells Elena that he is going to continue his search. Elena then says she and Nate should split-up to find the secret entrance to Shambhala faster, which he agrees to.

Eventually, Nate locates Chloe, who surrenders the Phurba after he promises to take Lazarević down. Nate and Elena reunite and beat Lazarević, using the Phurba to unlock the secret passage to Shambhala underneath the monastery, but Lazarević corners them and forces Nate to choose out of Elena or Chloe (whose cover has been blown by Flynn). Nate agrees to his demands and is forced to go with Flynn to open the gate when it runs into troubles. When the gate opens the group is attacked by the monsters from the ice caves, but Lazarević manages to kill them. It is then revealed that they are actually the human Guardians of Shambhala, powered by the Cintamani Stone and dressed like monsters to scare off anyone who trespasses in the city. Just as Lazarević prepares to kill Elena and Nate, Chloe protected by Flynn, another wave of Guardians attacks, which allows them and Chloe to escape.

Making their way to the top of the central temple, Nate discovers that the Cintamani Stone is in fact a giant amber of petrified blue resin embedded in a giant, prehistoric Tree of Life. The true worth of Shambhala is the blue sap of the tree, which when ingested makes the drinker nearly invincible. As they prepare to go after Lazarević, a wounded Flynn arrives and detonates a grenade, killing himself and seriously wounding Elena. Nate leaves Elena in Chloe's care and sets off to confront Lazarević at the tree. Nate arrives just as Lazarević drinks the tree's sap, which renders him nearly indestructible and heals his old wounds and scars. Detonating the pockets of explosive resin in the tree with his weapons, Nate defeats Lazarević and leaves him to be brutally beaten and killed by the Guardians. Nate reunites with Chloe and Elena and they escape the city as a series of explosions begins to destroy Shambhala. Nate sets Elena down when they get out of Shangri-La, but the signs don't look promising. Nate begs Elena not to leave him as it fades out.

Back in the village, Chloe asks Nate if he loves Elena, which he does not deny. Chloe bids Nate goodbye as Sully leads a recovering Elena over to him. While Sully chases after Chloe, Elena and Nate pay their respects at Schäfer's grave before embracing. They share a kiss and together as they walk over to the edge of a cliff and watch the sun set behind the mountains.