Milo Giacomo Rambaldi is a fictional person from the American television series Alias. 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.
The character is named after Carlo Rambaldi, the creator and operator of many special creatures for Sci-Fi movies. Rambaldi won the 1983 Best Effects-Visual Effects Oscar for his work on the E.T. movie creature.
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.
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. Behind the scenes, the writers of Alias often referred to Rambaldi jokingly as "Nostravinci".
There seems to be no limit to Rambaldi's genius as he was highly capable 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 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 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.
