As much as I liked Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I couldn't help noticing its plot holes. For me, the biggest of these concerns the alien vessel buried under the city of Akator. It's strongly implied that when the ship landed thousands of years ago, the natives of the region built their city over it. But then there's the scene where Indy and co. find the chamber full of artifacts from all over the world, collecting by the aliens, and there's the problem - if their ship was buried for all those centuries, just how did those aliens manage to get hold of all those artifacts? Come to think of it, why'd they allow their means of transportation to get buried in the first place?! It doesn't really make a lot of sense.
Indiana Jones IV plot holes
- Thread starter EJA
- Start date
I took the ships stranding as being tied to one of the skulls missing. Once the skull was returned and the being could reform the ship flew fine. I don't think there was ever a mechanical problem with the ship. The Akatorians likely hid the ship as a means of protecting their god.
The vaccuum force created by a ship that large wouldn't matter if the ancient treasure room was parallel or a few levels above. All was going to be obliterated during the ship's ascent anyway or by the lake that washed in.
The vaccuum force created by a ship that large wouldn't matter if the ancient treasure room was parallel or a few levels above. All was going to be obliterated during the ship's ascent anyway or by the lake that washed in.
Indy 4 so did not NEED Aliens, how about we leave it at that. Aliens why why why did it have to be aliens
They weren't Aliens.
Indy 4 so did not NEED Aliens, how about we leave it at that
They weren't Aliens.
They were definitely aliens.
And if the alien ship was stranded for all that time, how did they get hold of all that stuff from Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, etc, etc?
It's too generous to say there were holes in the plot. That presupposes that there was a plot. The story doesn't hold together in any way. Saying there are holes in the plot is like saying there are lakes between the Hawaiian Islands. There's just one great big hole with a few isolated fragments of plot scattered within it.
I mean, the first 15-20 minutes of the film seem to be telling one story: Indy gets in trouble at a military base, falls under suspicion due to the rampant paranoia of the McCarthy era, and loses his job. Now, in the original Frank Darabont script, that actually led somewhere. It had relevance to the story that followed. But in the finished film, from the moment Mutt arrives and addresses Indy on the train, none of that is ever mentioned or has any connection to the story that takes up the rest of the film. It's like we're suddenly in a completely unrelated movie.
Sure, in the final minutes, we see that Indy hasn't only gotten his job back but has evidently gotten a promotion, but there's not a single word about how or why that happened. It can't be the result of his crystal-skull investigation; he didn't bring back any evidence, any artifacts, anything except a story nobody would take seriously. He just got a random happy ending because it was the end of the movie. It was completely disconnected from the rest of the film. That's horrifically bad story structure.
And there aren't any real character arcs either. There's the guy who seems to be an ally and then a traitor and then a double agent and then a traitor lying about being a double agent, but it's just random switches to complicate events. Spalko is presented as the main villain, but at the end she seems to be only a seeker of knowledge and her fate appears more like transcendence than destruction. Mutt is resistant to the idea of Indy as his father until he suddenly comes around for no clear reason. Marion, this wonderful character returning to the series after far too long, is almost totally wasted, reduced to nothing more than the love interest, which is an even smaller role here than it was in the original film.
People complain about the aliens, but the use of aliens was the least of this film's problems. A solid script could've integrated that concept effectively. After all, Indiana Jones is about mythology, and UFO beliefs are a modern mythology, a New-Age belief system that from a cultural and psychological standpoint is functionally identical to a religious cult. And the '50s were just when that cult was getting started. So that part could've been managed. The problem is that the script is simply incoherent. Lucas had an excellent script to work from, the Darabont draft. Darabont's version had its flaws, like too many villains, a lack of a standout primary villain, and some action scenes that were too cartoony and overdone; and it lacked the Mutt character that Lucas insisted on having. But those problems could've easily been remedied in revisions. Instead, Lucas threw out that script altogether -- aside from keeping the McCarthyism stuff at the beginning even though it no longer had any meaningful followup -- and what replaced it was simply inadequate. It was just a string of set pieces with nothing really holding them together.
I mean, the first 15-20 minutes of the film seem to be telling one story: Indy gets in trouble at a military base, falls under suspicion due to the rampant paranoia of the McCarthy era, and loses his job. Now, in the original Frank Darabont script, that actually led somewhere. It had relevance to the story that followed. But in the finished film, from the moment Mutt arrives and addresses Indy on the train, none of that is ever mentioned or has any connection to the story that takes up the rest of the film. It's like we're suddenly in a completely unrelated movie.
Sure, in the final minutes, we see that Indy hasn't only gotten his job back but has evidently gotten a promotion, but there's not a single word about how or why that happened. It can't be the result of his crystal-skull investigation; he didn't bring back any evidence, any artifacts, anything except a story nobody would take seriously. He just got a random happy ending because it was the end of the movie. It was completely disconnected from the rest of the film. That's horrifically bad story structure.
And there aren't any real character arcs either. There's the guy who seems to be an ally and then a traitor and then a double agent and then a traitor lying about being a double agent, but it's just random switches to complicate events. Spalko is presented as the main villain, but at the end she seems to be only a seeker of knowledge and her fate appears more like transcendence than destruction. Mutt is resistant to the idea of Indy as his father until he suddenly comes around for no clear reason. Marion, this wonderful character returning to the series after far too long, is almost totally wasted, reduced to nothing more than the love interest, which is an even smaller role here than it was in the original film.
People complain about the aliens, but the use of aliens was the least of this film's problems. A solid script could've integrated that concept effectively. After all, Indiana Jones is about mythology, and UFO beliefs are a modern mythology, a New-Age belief system that from a cultural and psychological standpoint is functionally identical to a religious cult. And the '50s were just when that cult was getting started. So that part could've been managed. The problem is that the script is simply incoherent. Lucas had an excellent script to work from, the Darabont draft. Darabont's version had its flaws, like too many villains, a lack of a standout primary villain, and some action scenes that were too cartoony and overdone; and it lacked the Mutt character that Lucas insisted on having. But those problems could've easily been remedied in revisions. Instead, Lucas threw out that script altogether -- aside from keeping the McCarthyism stuff at the beginning even though it no longer had any meaningful followup -- and what replaced it was simply inadequate. It was just a string of set pieces with nothing really holding them together.
^ Most people have. I found the film to be enjoyable fluff but lacked the charm that the previous three films...and Christopher I think does a good job of pointing out the problems in the film. It is ultimately a flawed attempt. If they go ahead and do another one I'm hoping Lucas and company will concentrate more on making the plot stronger. I think Cate Blanchette was wasted as the Russian pyschic.
I'd be able to accept this film a bit more easily if they provided a rationale for why the spaceship was buried underground, and how the aliens got all those archaeological treasures.
To be honest, I'm not sure they should do anything else with the franchise. Ford's too old now, anyway. Why can't we just be satisfied with the first three movies and the Young Indy Chronicles?
To be honest, I'm not sure they should do anything else with the franchise. Ford's too old now, anyway. Why can't we just be satisfied with the first three movies and the Young Indy Chronicles?
I like it!
I thought it was implied the that aliens dimensionally shifted to that spot...it makes the most sense I think. These weren't conventional outer space aliens but aliens from another dimension, who probably use "portals" and such for travel.
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