Indy 4 Dossier: What We Know to Date
by Tom Burns

[Disclaimer: If you DON'T WANT TO KNOW anything about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, catch up to the already available online information, read any STORY SPOILERS or SPECULATION, see new theories on what might happen in the movie, or see SPOILERS OF ANY KIND concerning Indiana Jones IV, this article isn't for you and we urge you to TURN BACK NOW. You've been warned. Proceed at your own risk. This article isn't designed to spoil the new Indiana Jones movie for anyone, but instead aggregate all of the information to date into one place.]

STORY SPECULATION:

[BEWARE POTENTIAL SPOILERS BELOW! DO NOT PROCEED IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ AVAILABLE INFORMATION, SPECULATION, AND POTENTIAL SPOILERS. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED... AGAIN!]

And now the fun bit. What’s actually going to happen in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull? We can make some educated guesses based on WHAT'S ALREADY ONLINE. According to the message boards on The Raider.net, one of the coolest Indy fan sites, a preview copy about a kid’s book tie-in to Crystal Skull appeared briefly (and was removed) on Amazon.co.uk. The text read: "Indiana Jones has been all over the world, on exciting quests for missing artifacts but now he has settled down, as a college professor. But when a young man called Mutt thunders into his life with a cryptic letter from his old pal Ox, Indy is drawn out into the adventure of his life." While this may or may not be true, it does gel with some of the things we know about the production. Spielberg did film scenes at Yale University (standing in for Indy’s Marshall College) earlier this summer, and the set pics posted online showed Dr. Jones riding on the back of a motorcycle driven by Mutt.

Rumors have it that Jones witnesses an anti-Communist rally and then onto the Shia-chauffeured motorcycle chase, which the New Haven Independent described as "professor Ford gets pursued by bad guys in black sedans through the Yale campus, up to athletic fields, where he may just catch a football for a moment of lighthearted shtick." Assuming this is all correct, Mutt would allegedly seek out Indy, and we’re willing to wager that the paternity issue doesn’t raise its head until much later. There’s also some confusion on the web regarding whether this "Ox" is, in fact, Ray Winstone’s character Mac.

What could draw Indy out of semi-retirement? It’d have to be something big - either fortune and glory, a friend in trouble, or (our best guess) Marion needs him. We know from set photos (that have appeared online) and the location shoots that eventually Indy, Mutt, Marion, and Mac end up in the South American jungle (one of few official set photos shows the gang entering a pyramid-like temple and facing off with Agent Spalko and her evil Russkies for the secret of the crystal skulls. We learned that much from the sad story of Tyler Nelson, a newbie extra who didn’t understand what a non-disclosure agreement was, and the newest image released to Empire Online. In this image, Blanchett holds a sword to Indiana’s throat, which is interesting because the upcoming Dark Horse Comics adaptation has an image of Shia holding a VERY similar looking sword. Are LeBeouf and Blanchett going to throw down swashbuckler-style? Empire also got another great image with Mutt, Indy, and Marion in a very Raiders-esque truck with Indy holding a very Raiders-esque rocket launcher that you can find here.

So, is the story just Indy and pals trying to beat the Russians to some skulls? Apparently, not quite, according to what's out there. There’s been a TON of talk that Crystal Skull has major ties to Raiders of the Lost Ark, and that a big sequence (filmed in New Mexico) involves an action sequence in the rumored secret government compound Area 51, the place where both the Roswell alien crash wreckage was taken AND where the Lost Ark was placed at the end of Raiders. This rumor has been somewhat bolstered by the skulls' mythological links to the Ark, the possible presence of Abner Ravenwood (big-time Ark expert), and the Vanity Fair images of Karen Allen and Shia LeBeouf, which look like they were taken among the very endless stacks of crates we all marveled at as the Raiders credits began to roll. What do the crystal skulls and the Lost Ark have in common? We don’t know, but we’re "jones-ing" to find out. (Pun intended.)

OUR OPINION: We had hopes that the film was a little more jet-setting in scope - an apparent Connecticut to New Mexico to Mexico City trip sounds like a business-class flight - but, like we said, the Raiders connections are really getting us excited. And if they can play the father-son dynamic half as well as they did in Last Crusade, then the Indy/Mutt relationship might not be so bad after all.

FINAL OPINION:

We’re cynical bastards here at The Deadbolt, but there’s something about the pure pulp-magic of Indiana Jones that just melts our hearts. Granted, we’re not completely sold on this whole alien thing, but... it doesn’t sound half bad. Spielberg has been on fire over the past few years, the cast is great, Marion is back, Raiders references galore - provided that the film doesn’t spend most of its time setting up Shia as the "new" Indiana Jones, this could be a nostalgic throwback to the heady days of 1989 that even old farts would enjoy.