The Serpent Rouge

Lara Croft enters the Serpent Rouge in the car repair shop or backstage of The Serpent Rouge nightclub. She must find a hidden box with a certain item in it and takes it back to Barnard or Pierre.

## Known references

### 05A.01 – Pin-up poster

Picture in the gameOriginal
* Creator: Gil Elvgren
* Made in: 1964
* Name: A Polished Performance

On the wall in the garage a pin-up poster can be found. It shows a woman with a guitar and a boot in her hand.

### 05A.02 – Pneu Ponten poster

In gameTire posterThe car
The poster is a mashup and has elements from other posters.

The Tire poster:

* Creator: Leonetto Cappiello
* Made in: 1906
* This poster created for Pneu Dunlop, or Dunlop Tyres was created in 1946 to promote the International tyre manufacturing brand. Founded in 1890 in Dublin, Dunlop Tyres continues to trade to this day.

The Car: Citroen Traction Avant BL

### 05A.03 – Brambilla

It is about **Vittorio Brambilla** or his brother **Ernesto Brambilla**. Vittorio was a formula 1 driver from Italy and died in 2001. You see also in the first picture a helmet, probably used for car racing. It would be a theme that fit in a car repair shop. I red in an interview from one Core Member that he likes F1 (or formula one). So maybe it is his influence.

### 05A.04 - Other car repair stuff.

Thing to lie on and fix stuff under a carSpare motor blockCar lift
### 05A.05 – La'Flem

It says LA’FLEM WEISSBIER SCHNITZEN HUGO.

* “Flem” refers to Flemish Beer branches.
* “La Flemme” means laziness.
* The “Hugo” might be a reference to Victor Hugo

### 05A.06 – O'Sheas

In gamein Paris
O'Sheas doesn't refer to a beer branche but an Irish pub in Paris.It is called Kitty O'Shea It was named after Katherine O'Shea.

>
> Though to her friends she was known as Katie O'Shea, Parnell's enemies, in order to damage him personally, called her Kitty O'Shea because at that time "kitty", as well as being a Hiberno-English version of Catherine/Katherine/Katharine, was also a slang term for a prostitute. She lived the rest of her life in relative obscurity and is buried in Littlehampton, West Sussex, England.
>
>

The one in Paris is near Rue the Rivoli and Rue des Bourdonnais. But bar is also in New York, Orlando Florida and other places.

### 05A.07 – Slapper Beer

Picture in the gameLogo branche
Some trivia:

* Slapper beer is a reference to a real bear from Austria, called "Kaiser"
* The word “**slapper**” means also hooker in slang.
* The blue and white color on the background confuses me with the flag of Bavaria which produce also fine beers.

### 05A.09 – Mützig-beer

In gameLogo
At the bar (where Pierre worked before) there is a box of Mützig beer. It's a beer branche from France from the Alsace area.

### 05A.10 – Tanker tab

In gameLogo
Wanna drink from the Tanker tab? I think it spells “Tanker” or “Janker”. It is hard to read. The logo could be a reference to Heineken beer, I think. It’s a wild guess..

### 05A.11 – Betty Page calendar

Pin up posterOriginal
It is a poster from Betty Page. Found on the internet https://silverpinups.com/product/orig-1950s-bettie-page-bikini-pose-postcard-beauty-uncaged-by-bunny-yeager/

## Unknown references

### 05A.12 – Car lift poster

The texts says: *Single Post Lift Electro-Hydraulic*. Its probably a clue what to do in the garage.
But I couldn't find the original.

### 05A.13 – Huile de Monteur Poster

The poster says: “Huile de Moteur” or Motor Oil. I could not find it's original.

### 05A.14 – Crips

Crips could refer to a gang in California. But I don't think this is the meaning. Couldn't find.

### 05A.15 – Snauzer Bere

I could not find Snauzer as a beer branche but maybe it refers to the Schauzer dog.

### 05A.16 - Boxes

On the boxes you can read a text, but it is very tiny and not all the words are very clear.

### 05A.17 - Gramophone record

On the DJ boot there is a grammophone record with "ARTIST" on it and in purple. Could be a reference to "Purple rain" by Prince?

### 05A.18 - Control room

In the control room there is a table where you can switch the damaged light. If you look closely there are words on it like: SURROUND, FREQUENCY. It is very tiny to read.

### 05A.19 – Pin up posters

Edine or Erine posterUnknown pinup posterUnknown pinup poster
A couple of unused posters found in the paris2b.gmx.clz files.

* The first one says: “Edine” or “Erine”. It can also be found in the Rennes Pawn shop level.
* Unknown Formula 1 pin up poster
* Unknown Formula 1 pin up poster

## Trivia

### 05A.20 – Unreachable chocolate bar

There is a unreachable chocolate bar under the ground. This feature can also be found on another Tomb Raider games, like in TR2 in the Temple of Xian with the unreachable medi pack.

### 05A.22 - Strange square

There is a strange object or square in one of the rooms..

### 05A.23 - Beta shells

Yellow shells (Buck Shot) that can be used for the V-packer, could be picked up from the lift. If you pick them up it will be changed in regular V-packer ammo.

### 05A.24 – Beta gun

I found a missing gun floating in space. It is a Desert Ranger with a silencer on it. But you cannot pick it up. The silencer or the laser sight could be combined with some guns. The combine function didn't work properly so it was deleted in the final release of the game. Which is a shame because it would give so much more value to the stealth mode Lara would do.

A guide how to do it.

1. Go to the garage
2. Go to the tunnel
3. Flip the switch
4. See the guard going in the room, kill the guard.
5. Go to the next room where you can flip the switch to hear the song of Le Serpent Rouge.
6. Fly outside the building
7. Push the F11 button three times (you should see wireframe)
8. Because everything is now wireframe the gun should be white point in a black background.
9. Fly to the spot.

### 05A.25 - Pulp Fiction Reference

The box Lara Croft has to get from the nightclub has an unknown content. There was planned a cutscene were Pierre or the ex-janitor or the Bouchards bodyguard would look in it. Just like the scene of Pulp fiction were Vincent Vega stares in a glowing briefcase.

### 05A.26 - The red serpent poem reference

There is also a poem about the serpent rouge / the red serpent.

More information: https://www.renneslechateau.nl/2012/01/13/the-red-serpent/

## References

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gil\_Elvgren
2. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonetto\_Cappiello
3. ↑ https://nl.pinterest.com/pin/815573814122666552/
4. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citro%C3%ABn\_Traction\_Avant
5. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor\_Hugo
6. ↑ https://www.tripadvisor.fr/Restaurant\_Review-g187147-d1035590-Reviews-Kitty\_O\_Sheas-Paris\_Ile\_de\_France.html
7. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharine\_O'Shea
8. ↑ https://www.kaiserbier.at
9. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%BCtzig
10. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bettie\_Page
11. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulp\_Fiction#The\_mysterious\_666\_briefcase