Milo Giacomo Rambaldi is a historical personage. The work of Rambaldi, often centuries ahead of its time and tied to prophecy, plays a central role in the show.
According to Alias creator J.J. Abrams, in a feature on Rambaldi included on the season 5 DVD box set, the Mueller device and Milo Rambaldi were originally intended simply to be MacGuffins.
Rambaldi's technological developments are sought after by numerous governments and rogue organizations in the series. Arvin Sloane is generally obsessed with obtaining Rambaldi's work and unlocking its secrets.
There seems to be no limit to Rambaldi's genius; he was highly adept in automatism, life extension, protein engineering, mathematics, cryptography and cartography. Rambaldi is said to have predicted the digital Information Age. He invented a machine code language around 1489, cryptographic algorithms, and sketched the designs of a portable vocal communicator and a prototype that reflected the properties of a transistor.
The character draws its inspiration from real-life historical figures including Leonardo da Vinci and Nostradamus. Rambaldi's artistic-looking manuscripts, written in code, are a direct reference to Leonardo's method of recording his work.
The Rambaldi subplot, which dominated the first two seasons of the series and was greatly explored in the second half of the third season, was virtually nonexistent in the early episodes of season four. However, it continued to lurk in the background of the series and, as series creator J.J. Abrams promised, resurfaced in full later in the season. Rambaldi and his works continued to figure heavily through the end of the series.
Rambaldi (1444–1496), an artist, alchemist, engineer, mystic, and renaissance man in the vein of Da Vinci, served as chief architect to Pope Alexander Sextus.
Rambaldi was born in Parma, educated by Vespertine monks, and worked as a student of the arts until he was 12. During his travels to Rome when he was 18, he met Cardinal Rodericus and was retained privately as an architect, consultant and prophet when Rodericus of Borgia (Borja) became Pope in 1492.
His writings and plans are written in multiple languages ranging from Italian and Demotic hybrids to elusive mixtures of symbols (pre-masonic cipher encryptions). Rambaldi also created the earliest known watermark which he used on all of his documents: a naked eye, visible only when viewed under black light, known as the eye of Rambaldi, which helped distinguish original works from forgeries many years later. His waterpapers were all handmade from a unique polymer fiber.
Despite Borgia's benevolence, Rambaldi and his works never became famous due to Archdeacon Claudio Vespertini, who feared the revolutionary implications of the technologies defined in Rambaldi's belief system: Rambaldi believed that science would someday allow us to know God. Vespertini attempted to pursue and destroy everything he could find and keep the name of Rambaldi "invisible".
When Alexander VI died in 1503, Vespertini ordered that the name Rambaldi be erased from all inscriptions between 1470 and 1496 and his workshop in Rome destroyed. Rambaldi himself was excommunicated for heresy and sentenced to death by flame. However, Rambaldi died in the winter of 1496, a lonely man without a known surviving heir.
Not long after his death, a second workshop was discovered in San Lazzaro and was destroyed by the Vatican. Plans and sketches were sold and traded as if without value during a private auction. These plans have since been located, starting in the 15th century and continuing to recent years, around Italy, France, Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Plans were also found in private collections and museum warehouses. During the Third Reich, documents interpreting his designs and teachings were highly sought-after. It was during this time that the nickname Nostravinci arose among auctioneering circles. The design directive for many of these drawings remains unclear to this day and has inspired some impressive forgeries, even prime examples of digital piracy. However the eye of Rambaldi was proven to be the only accurate method to identify genuine artifacts.
The symbol, <o>, generally referred to as the "eye of Rambaldi," is the symbol of The Magnific Order of Rambaldi. In the episode Time Will Tell, a direct descendant of Giovanni Donato (who may, in fact, have been Donato himself) describes the Order as "Rambaldi's most trusted followers, entrusted with safeguarding his creations. Sadly, like most things that once were pure, criminals now use this symbol to infiltrate the Order." Some followers of Rambaldi have the mark tattooed on their hands, including Anna Espinosa.
The glyph is also said by Irina Derevko to represent the struggle between "The Chosen One" and "The Passenger", whom Irina believes to be her two daughters. (See Rambaldi's prophecies below) The circle in the center of the design is said to be the object around which they will do great battle.
The Rambaldi Eye (<o>) appears in one frame of the Alias title sequence (seasons 1-3) after all the letters in the word Alias appear. In season one and three, it flashes as ALIAS is spelled out and Victor Garber's credit appears. In season two, it appears on ALIAS when "With Lena Olin" appears. Season four doesn't have a Rambaldi sign, but it appears in season five when Balthazar Getty appears.
One of Rambaldi's prophecies is central to the Alias story arc. Written on the forty-seventh page of one of his manuscripts, it reads:
This woman here depicted will possess unseen marks, signs that she will be the one to bring forth my works: bind them with fury, a burning anger. Unless prevented, at vulgar cost, this woman will render the greatest power unto utter desolation. This woman, without pretense, will have had her effect, never having seen the beauty of my sky behind Mt. Subasio. Perhaps a single glance would have quelled her fire.The woman has been speculated to be Sydney, as included with the prophecy is a drawing that strongly resembles her. Rambaldi also mentioned three physical anomalies in the prophecy which Sydney also has. Sydney tried to disprove that the prophecy refers to her by climbing Mt. Subasio and see the sky.
In the season two finale, Sydney's mother, Irina Derevko, reveals that Sydney is actually Rambaldi's Chosen One, and not Irina as Sydney wanted to believe.
During Season Three, an organization known as The Covenant tried to use a Rambaldi artifact known as "The Cube", which contained a live sample of Rambaldi's DNA to fulfill the first part of the prophecy. This woman here depicted will possess unseen marks, signs that she will be the one to bring forth my works: bind them with fury, a burning anger. The Covenant planned to fuse Rambaldi's DNA with Sydney's eggs to engineer Rambaldi's second coming. Sydney prevented this by destroying the lab where the procedure was underway.
When FBI Assistant Director Kendall tells Sydney the truth about the two years she was missing, he mentions that she's a celebrity among the Department of Special Research as she was the one to collect the most part of Rambaldi's works, which could also be what the first part of the prophecy meant.
During Season Three (Episode 20), another prophecy was revealed which had been told to Michael Vaughn. It says that the "Chosen One", the woman referred to on Page 47, and "the Passenger", Sydney's half-sister Nadia Santos, would fight and kill each other in battle. Irina Derevko recites a similar prophecy at the finale of season 4 that Rambaldi wrote:
When blood-red horses wander the streets and angels fall from the sky, the Chosen One and the Passenger will clash . . . and only one will survive.When Elena Derevko put in motion her scheme to destroy civilization using the contaminated water in conjunction with a giant Mueller device, the team spotted a horse that under the light of the device appeared blood red (which prompted Irina to recite the prophecy); Nadia passed a statue of an angel which had fallen from a building right before she was captured and later becomes infected with the contaminated water.
As predicted by Rambaldi, "The Chosen One" and "The Passenger" clashed over the Mueller device, and Sydney would have been killed if not for Arvin Sloane's intervention when he was forced to shoot Nadia when she began strangling Sydney. Sydney then destroyed the Mueller device and Nadia is left in a coma.
In Season Five, it is revealed that page 47 holds a secret message, which is briefly shown when Nadia after being cured tries to burn the page to prevent her father from finding it, which as predicted in the prophecy, results in Nadia's death. Arvin Sloane eventually translates the message which reads:
The circle will be complete when the Chosen One finds The Rose in San Chielo.Prophet Five, using its government contacts, was able to secure Anna Espinosa's release and later was able to genetically transform Espinosa into Sydney's double after the latter's DNA was sampled by Prophet Five. Sydney discovers Anna's impersonation and kills her, then begins impersonating Anna within Prophet Five.
Sydney is sent to Italy where she is approached by Sark at a betting parlor. Believing Sydney to be Anna, he explains that the former San Chielo monastery is now the La Fossa prison. After faking a robbery, Sark and Sydney surrender to the police and are taken to La Fossa. Sark fakes an illness and is taken to the infirmary, where he fights off the guards and accesses the security system to open the door to Sydney's cell. Sydney finds the basement, where an old man says that he has been waiting for her for a very long time. He indicates that he knows she's the real Sydney and quotes the message from page 47 and says that he is "The Rose". He then shows Sydney a wall where a drawing of Sydney was painted, similar to the one on page 47 and gives her an amulet before declaring ominously that it is only a matter of time "until the stars fall from the sky, until the end of light".
In the finale of Season Five, it is revealed that Sydney had misinterpreted the part of the prophecy that refers to "the beauty of my sky". Arvin Sloan shoots the ice under Sydney to prevent her (and the audience) of seeing a specific pattern on the wall inside Mt. Subasio when the rising sunlight seeps into the cavern and filters through the amulet that Sydney recovered from the Rose. Later while facing her mother, Sydney discovers that Irina had sent a virus to all the defence satellites forcing them to plunging to Earth in what appears stars falling from the sky and eventually the end of light comes indicating the end of the series.
As revealed in the final three episodes of season four, the first part of Rambaldi's endgame was the Mueller Device (which could be used to change human nature to hatred or peace, depending on the desire of the possessor, as wanted). The second part of the endgame was The Horizon (immortality), as revealed at the end of season five. Together, they would result in the possessor living forever and, with the help of the Mueller Device, changing the world the way they see fit for all eternity. However, this was averted when all known Mueller Devices were destroyed and Sloane, the only known beneficiary of The Horizon, was trapped in Rambaldi's own tomb by an explosion, left to exist but never be free for all eternity.
In August 2003, the actual CIA enlisted Jennifer Garner to appear in a recruitment video, which would be shown at fairs and college campuses. A CIA officer said: "Jennifer and the character of Sydney Bristow both reflect a lot of the qualities we look for in new career field officers."[30]
The Alias production team has participated in at least two spoofs based upon the series and featuring cast members.
Other spoofs and humorous references include: