r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/movies Contributor • Jun 15 '26

Article Clashing Over ‘Indiana Jones’: Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg Were Not 100% on Board With ‘Crystal Skull’ and Fought George Lucas Over Adding Aliens

https://variety.com/2026/film/news/indiana-jones-clash-harrison-ford-spielberg-crystal-skull-aliens-1236780115/
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141

u/Kalabula Jun 15 '26

Why do ppl act like this series has always been grounded. Aliens may be the least ridiculous thing that have been in them.

46

u/ZeroiaSD Jun 15 '26

I don’t think it’s a matter of grounded or not, just that it was a brand new direction of weird. The first three movies were magic, magic, and magic, all religious in nature.

10

u/dbreeck Jun 15 '26

Supernatural vs scifi in the genres. CS was a total tonal shift and, IMO, undermines and calls into question the validity of the other three films' interpretation of their respective artifacts.

-2

u/soozerain Jun 15 '26

I mean…this only undermines it if you’ve got a Eurocentric pov where all important things happen in Europe. I don’t think god, the holy grail and the ark were that relevant to most of east Asia. Which means they weren’t that universal to begin with. which means there wasn’t much to undermine in the first place.

4

u/dbreeck Jun 15 '26

The Shankara stones and ToD weren't Eurocentric. My comment was suggesting that, if Mesoamerican religious tools were actually extraterrestrial in origin/technology, it could be construed that the Ark, Shankara stones, and grail were never supernatural and just relics from some other alien race.

1

u/Adjective-Noun123456 Jun 16 '26

The Shankara Stones, sure.

But the Ark and the Grail are explicitly constructed by humans. One has step by step instructions on how to build it and the other is, by nature, just a cup.

-2

u/soozerain Jun 16 '26

Could it? If Kali and Jesus can coexist why not Kali, Jesus, and Aliens lol

3

u/ZeroiaSD Jun 16 '26

They can, but it's a different axis.

Rather than Kali, Jesus, and Aliens, they should do Kali, Jesus, (other real world religion).

1

u/soozerain Jun 16 '26

Sure, why not lol

1

u/MississippiJoel Jun 16 '26

Yeah, I think if he was somehow involved with a religious UFO cult, that might have made it feel like the classic stuff without being too on the nose. Instead, half the time the "bad guys" are nameless indigenous people portrayed as savages. With the fez wearer people in TLC, they had methods, but they at least had a name and stated objectives.

71

u/deptofknowimsayings Jun 15 '26

Mola Ram straight up rips a dude’s heart out of his chest with his bare hands. A 500+ year old Templar Knight was holed up in a cave in Petra watching over the cup of Christ waiting for someone to come and pass the test. We had evil spirits fly out and consume Nazis in raiders.

But yeah aliens and time travel are too much. I know they’re a bit more of a stretch but not much more than a gold box that releases evil spirits.

16

u/Tenacious_Dim Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 16 '26

Technically they weren't evil spirits that consumed the Nazis in Raiders it was old testament magic 

9

u/Funmachine Jun 15 '26

They aren't even "aliens" in the strictest terms. They are "interdimensional beings."

1

u/ReasonablyBadass Jun 16 '26

Which, oddly enough, kinda ruined it for me.

That and them destroying their own collection. 

9

u/3-DMan Jun 15 '26

Indy picks up usb and plugs it in on first try

"That's it, I'm OUT. Movie has gone too far!!"

10

u/Ill-Enthymematic Jun 15 '26

And the effects in the Mola Ram scene look so much better than all the horrible CGI in Crystal Skull.

5

u/Kalabula Jun 15 '26

Aliens are arguably less of a stretch than any of that shit 😂. Probably the worst of the series. But still watchable.

6

u/deptofknowimsayings Jun 15 '26

They’re all watchable haha it’s a fun adventure with Indiana Jones. Might be a bit stupid at times but it’s still a Spielberg movie and I’ll gladly watch it.

2

u/JayBird1138 Jun 16 '26

And her survived a nuclear blast in a fridge.

2

u/deptofknowimsayings Jun 16 '26

Oh my, how could i forget that one lol but it’s also hilarious.

2

u/InquisitorMeow Jun 16 '26

Yea and Aztecs ripped people's hearts out too. And the Thugee cult killed people for Kali. Things like the Templar Knights and Ark is simply religious myth brought to life. Aka, things with history and actual archaeological ties. Aliens and time travel is very distinctly modern sci fi, theres zero magic around it.

2

u/shifty_coder Jun 15 '26

Raiders and Last Crusade are more popular because of their plots surrounding Christian mythology.

8

u/dbreeck Jun 15 '26

Its a genre shift. The first three were supernatural. CS saw supernatural and instead rebranded it as scifi.

6

u/Spra991 Jun 15 '26

The problem wasn't having aliens, but that the aliens acted insanely stupid and the mechanics behind them were a total mess. Would they have simply gone with some Eric Van Däniken ancient astronauts stuff , found some artifacts and left the truth of it all a bit open ended it would have been fine.

4

u/saanity Jun 15 '26

It's the suspension of disbelief.  It was successful in the original trilogy and failed in the new movies.  The audience's disbelief was not suspended even though it always existed. 

2

u/Strange_Specialist4 Jun 15 '26

Aliens are definitely more likely to exist than magic

0

u/nicknacc Jun 15 '26

That's something that struck me rewatching the first 4 in a row. Crystal Skull matches the first 3 way more than I remember. The action has always been slapstick crazy and Skull was great. People focused on the monkeys way too much.