From the abundance of fedora hats travelling around London recently, one would almost think that there was a new Indiana Jones movie on general release.
The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull hails the return of the snake-fearing, whip-bearing archaeologist, and it is a welcome return. The back may not be as straight, and a paunch is evident, but the sense of adventure and the now familiar smirk is prevalent.
During a comparatively uninspired set of opening credits, a KGB envoy arrives at a top secret government location in the Nevada desert to the strains of Elvis Presley’s "Hound Dog". There they proceed to kill everyone in sight. Jones (Harrison Ford) is hauled out of a car boot along with his sidekick Mac (Ray Winstone), and ordered by head honcho Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett) to locate a specific box in a warehouse containing all of the artefacts the US government does not want the public to see. Among these artefacts is the Ark, but it is a box containing mangled remains that Spalko seeks. Despite Indy’s best efforts, she escapes with it.
Accused of aiding and abetting Communist spies, Indy is given a leave of absence at his college. Before he sets off for London, he is approached by a James Dean-like figure named Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf), who tells him of the kidnap of his mother and Indy’s old friend Professor Oxley (John Hurt). Off we go again.
The two travel to Peru to track him down, and learn that he has discovered the location of the fabled Crystal Skulls, which together can give the power and knowledge of mind control. They find one of them buried with a band of Conquistadors who supposedly discovered El Dorado, before they themselves are kidnapped by Spalko’s agents. Taken to a small settlement near the Amazon, they are reunited with Oxley and Mutt’s mother, none other than Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen).
Having stared into the eyes of a Skull for too long, Oxley is something of a gibbering wreck, but he is able to communicate to Indy the whereabouts of the other skulls, which are thought to be extraterrestrial.
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Article comments
1 - Brent
The more I think about the "alien element" in this, the more I think that it fits with period. The original "Indiana Jones" movies were an homage to the serials of the 1930s, right down to the setting. And of course so many of those serials featured a mystical, magical aspect, along with an unnamed sinister conspiracy (but not overtly Nazis - they were after all the government of a power at which the US was at peace). Update the film to 1950s - as they had to because of the age of the cast - and you obviously have to replace Nazis with Soviet agents. More importantly though the films that replaced the serials in this period, the American International pictures and similar drive-in fare, were obsessed with flying saucers and aliens. It has a feel that is appropriate for the times they depict.
2 - Catherine
Hmm, interesting. I did not know that (the '50s alien obsession, I mean). Putting it that way casts it in a new light and goes someway to explaining what seemed like a rather absurd deviation from the norm of the movies. I will admit that I'm no IJ expert, it has only been the past month or so that I have seen the initial trilogy. Your comment also puts a new spin on the first three movies, so thank you for that:)