00:00.10 kinkella Hello and welcome back to the pseudo archeology podcast episode 115 I am Dr Andrew King Kella your host and we are about to embark on an act by act breakdown of Indiana Jones and the current kingdom of the crystal skull. Now a sign of a movie that's not that great is that it's hard to remember right? and so when I think back to Indiana Jones for I can't really remember it. You know now I did just watch it. Earlier today for this podcast I watched it all the way through right from beginning to end and there's nothing striking when you rewatch it. It's not like you go oh my god what what's happening you just remember these sort of limp scenes all over again, you go? Oh yeah. Oh right? you know? So. It's a bad sign when you when you can't remember again if we talk about something like star wars you remember that you remember exactly how that movie goes because it's structured so well the movie takes you by the hand. Through scenes that are needed 1 of the reasons why it's so hard to remember parts of Indiana Jones 4 is just there's scenes in there you guys that are not needed at all. But with that said let's start at act 1 in the beginning so there is darkness and then we open onto what. 01:34.37 kinkella Well, we open onto the paramount mountain you guys know that image right? that iconic image of the paramount movie corporation in in blue right? with the white lettering and the mountain and this is like a trope that was used in the original Indiana Jones Movie and raiders of the lost ark and in that one they fade from the paramount mountain into a real mountain at that point they were in South America if you remember the very beginning of raiders of the lost ark now as we go through this movie. You're going to see a bunch of those they're recalling the other 3 movies really mainly of course the first one they're they're doing all these little subtle recalls which um, actually I just use that word subtle. That's the completely wrong word to use. They do these overtly over the top hit you over the head recalls of the past movies now I always tell people who are into analyzing a movie watch the very first scene like. Record in your head the very first scene because it gives you an idea of how the tone is going to be of the entire movie and unfortunately the very first scene in Indiana Jones 4 is the paramount mountain fades into. 02:58.54 kinkella A prairie dog house like a little prairie dog hill like a like a molehill you know and the little prairie dog comes out and looks around and then quickly some 1950 s cars zoom on by. But the fact that they needed to put the stupid prairie dog in as the very first scene it just tells you oh no, they've screwed up the tone now you will hear me hit tone again and again and again because movies that stay to their tone are successful and movies that screw up their tone aren't. Raiders of the lost ark has great tone everything in that movie makes sense. There's a serious edge to it. But it's a fun fantastical adventure romp. But it's serious. This movie's not and that's what kind of destroys it now in terms of the good. As those 50 s cars drive by. We immediately know we're in the 1950 s you hear Elvis is hound dog playing on the radio. There's like these teenagers in this car like just sort of happy and laughing. But then they come across like an army convoy right? and they're in the desert. So already if you're going 1950 s and in desert, you're already thinking maybe atomic testing or something you know, um and to make sure you know they soon make a turn onto a dirt road where there is an atomic cafe. That's the name of the cafe says atomic cafe so you're like okay. 04:31.26 kinkella I get this and we see that this is a desert army base I think they say Nevada 1957 on a card on there and you're like all right? So although the ah the prairie dog is highly stupid and awful. The rest is really great again. This is like Steven Spielberg you know I think the guy knows movie making um now as you get to the army checkpoint all of a sudden you realize that the army men in the trucks are are fake. They're like russians you know and they ah murder all the. Real United States army men at the army checkboard and they go in and you're like okay this is what's going on right? We're off already. We we understand what's happening. Um, they pull up to like a large large storage area like a large storage building. Huge. And then the trunk of 1 of the cars opens and first they take out some guy who you don't know who he is who's going to end up being one of the supporting characters which is a terrible move because you'll never guess who they should have taken out first. Yes, the person who they took out second Indiana Jones so they take Indiana Jones out of the trunk second sorry to laugh I'm like come on Steven Spielberg you know this? ah and then of course his hat they throw his hat out first to the trunk and then he. 06:05.90 kinkella Bends down to pick his hat up and we get the sort of music sting of Indiana Jones now they are going to continue to use the hat thing I forget at least 3 times we remember that Indiana Jones famously had to scrabble for his hat when. He had to grab it right before the huge door went shut in the original raiders of the lost ark that is an iconic scene that called back to it in the first like three minutes of the movie. But then they call back again and again and it's like you guys don't do that. You know it. It just. It tests our patients you can do that 1 time but not 3 you know so the russians are the bad guys and then as we go into this ah large storage area. It has huge number 51 on it right area 51 and there's boxes in there labeled roswell right? So we know in terms of Pseudo Archeology we're like okay, they're going to do the aliens thing this is area 51 right? we're we're all there with it. And we then find out that Indiana Jones has found something 10 years back that is important to the evil russians right? This is the bad cold war russians headed by Kate Blanchette who does a great turn. 07:36.30 kinkella As the bad guy russian lady right? and I will say as I take these twists and turns with you in Indiana Jones for that. The acting's great. All the actors did a great job. Right? There's not a weak one in the bunch. But what are they going to do. They got a script that's very difficult to make come alive. So I am not blaming them at all they all did great even sheila le buff sheila buff is going to come in later as Indiana Jones's kid and Sheila Buff got some flak for this movie. But dude he did fine. He did a great job I saw him once actually in ah in an office he was walking out right as I was walking in. He's physically like a really small guy and just his physicality that that's a difficult casting. You know if you're physically very slight and you're sort of. Cast in what's supposed to be kind of a macho swashbuffling role. But in terms of acting I thought he did great and if you don't believe that he's a great actor watch peanut butter falcon I hope that you guys if you take anything from this podcast. You know, watch peanut butter falcon. It's an excellent movie just came out a handful of. Years ago. Sheila buffs in it I really my daughter and I both watches one of our faves anyway, here they are in area 51 okay, it's all aliens right? Ah there's a magnetic coffin in there. 08:59.41 kinkella Indian and Joe goes and find it. They open it up. There's an alien arm in there. So you know 10 minutes in and it's the whole body right? They cut it open and you realize this isn't alien. We're not like oh maybe it's aliens. We're like yes, definitely aliens so already the tone of this movie is that. There are aliens that is a thing that that we need to know is real in this world now that's not a bad thing and I know you're like Andrew Kingkea hosted The Pseudo Archeology podcast how can you say? That's not a bad thing because it's a movie. Right? I got no problem with a movie using something as dynamic and odd and strange as crystal skulls right? I'm just pissed when they put it on the history channel. There's a big difference. There. So anyway, of course. Ah. After Indiana Jones finds the alien shows them this this ah magnetic coffin full of this this alien there's going to be a chase right? Indiana Jones has to try and get out of there. Um, and this is where the movie also starts to fall flat. It becomes super high concept. Indiana Jones like swings through on some wire or something through the storage area. Um, there's like 20 russian russian soldiers with automatic machine guns. None of them hit him it just this is one of those moments where. 10:33.20 kinkella Immediately in act one of the movie I was like oh man, you know don't have that many russian soldiers there in the first part right? Don't there's no need for Indiana Jones to do some high concept swing on some wiring that he could would never work or on a rope or something like it just It was completely unreal right? And then he gets on this rocket propelled thing. It's obviously like a rocket tester and they get he gets propelled out of the out of the storage place and then of course when the rockets done. He does like a wacky prat fall off of it. Ah why they have to do wackiness in the middle of a movie that's supposed to have some sort of seriousness in the tone I don't know then of course he comes across this city when he's trying to escape this little town. He walks in and he realizes. This is a fake town for an atomic bomb test now. The atomic bomb is going to go off in like 60 seconds so it's like oh my god and he ah jumps into a refrigerator and this is the famous ah horrendous fridge scene. Where an atomic bomb goes off. But then since Indiana Jones is in a refrigerator that gets like rocketed several miles away through the air and then crashes to the ground. He's magically fine. This was so bad that if you guys know the term jump the shark which is used. 12:08.27 kinkella Meaning when a movie kind of loses its reality or when it's super lazy or where they have no ideas left it comes from happy days I won't get into it but the tv show happy days. There was a movement where people started to say nuke the fridge like this movie has really nuked the fridge. Meaning the same thing luckily for Indiana Jones that terminology has kind of gone by the wayside people still use jump the shark instead but it it was a real low point for the movie just unbelievable and then as soon as it gets out. There's a stupid. Go for there again, right? They like prairie dog again. Why it's horrible humor which is not humor but 3 seconds after that Indiana Jones stands up. And you have an iconic scene where Indiana Jones looks up to see a mushroom cloud and it's like Indiana Jones has entered the atomic age just with a scene. No dialogue it looked incredible, right? but it was ruined by the setup. Anyway, in Anna Jones ah ultimately gets back to school where you always have to have that sort of school scene. You know where we learn that he's he's basically gonna be fired right? He's back at school. He's gonna be fired for for this. 13:45.86 kinkella These things things that he's done of course. Um, we're still in act one just barely right? We we sort of don't know where we're going this this sort of mini movie has already happened for those of you who watch James Bond James Bond does this all the time to where it the first act. Has a lot of some sort of leftover adventure like you're just seeing the very end of a previous adventure right? which is which is fun which is a trope which is it's fine that Indiana Jones does this. But anyway that's over the movie kind of has a little bit of a slow part indian jones is gonna be fired. He doesn't really know what to do. gets' on a train but then he runs into this biker kid named mutt who is of course going to be Indiana Jones's son. We're gonna figure that out later but they have a little meeting in a cafe. They start to talk um mut brings up the Mitchell Hedges skull we already did. That skull ah on a previous edition of this very own pseudo archeology podcast right? where I talked about the crystal skull of Belize with that skull. So we learned that one of Indiana Jones's old friends named Oxley was. Looking for that and has now basically disappeared and um this kid mutt his mom is missing whose name is marion and somehow this is another weak point in the script somehow Indiana Jones is supposed to be like Marion I don't know. 15:18.13 kinkella Never heard that one before he actually says like oh I've heard a lot of marys in my time. It's like dude what about the most iconic female in all of Indiana Jones movies no doesn't rate, you're not even going to make that connection. Now. It's weird right? Um, he should definitely have not said that name. It makes all of us go oh Marion. Ravenwood's going to be in this. We all know except for Indiana Jones he must be really stupid right? It's ah why does my precious Indiana Jones have to get destroyed like this. So anyway that they they have a little fight there. 15:56.27 kinkella They ah, they they get out of there. Um, and right at the sort of end of act 1 We. We see that the kid actually has some papers which are almost like a map or a series of clues towards where Indiana. Jones needs to go and what he needs to find in order to save these people. So now we know where we're going right? which is great and and now we're gonna shift into act 2 cause now we know. Okay, this movie's gonna be about Indiana Jones and this kid going to this place to try and find the stuff to try and save these people done. We're gonna cap this off with. Ah, motorcycle chase which I really liked of all the chasings in here. The motorcycle chasing is by far the best why because it's real It seems reasonable in our world. It looks like it's largely not done with cgi It's just cool. Motorcycle chasing done with real stunt people and it's awesome. Simple exciting fun. Ah, even though I just travelled on about the tone and that I hate all these little side jokes that suck there was a moment where. They're in the library at the end of the motorcycle scene and ah one of the students asked Indiana Jones something in Indiana Jones says you know if you're a good archaeologist. You'll get out of the library which I thought was a fair ball. 17:24.22 kinkella Right on the edge. But I thought that was fair for 1 of those side comments if that was the only one and there weren't all the other terrible ones I thought that would be that would be fine but that was great and then at that point we're gonna get into a plane and we're gonna have the awesome red line. Trace the map to where we're going which in this case is going to be Peru and we're going to pick that up with act 2 on the other side.