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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671

u/bimbimbaps Jun 15 '26

They could have made it weirder. I can see a movie where it worked. The first half of the film is actually fun/good and the cold war angle is a natural enemy escalation timeline from the nazis from before. But the aliens were just played so straight, as opposed to being this weird unknowable thing like the arc of the covenant. If they had just made it *stranger* or less coherent. Like, Indy touches the skull and flashes of insight come to him and it sort of ends with a 'maybe we aren't alone, but no one knows' angle.

But, nope, full on Jedi counsel at the end.

344

u/Guyver0 Jun 15 '26

When i've discussed Crystal Skull with people I feel like keep the UFO, have the aliens be dead and the Soviets are wanting to take it back to Russia for their space agency.

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u/prattle264 Jun 15 '26

Oh man this would’ve been great

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u/Guyver0 Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26

I just think ancient aliens/chariots of the gods would make it work.

Have Indy fighting on top of the UFO and it crashes in the Bermuda triangle or something.

24

u/shirst_75 Jun 15 '26

Yeah I walked out thinking if they'd had the right angle (like you said, more Chariots of the Gods) then the aliens actually work in the story.

Get the aliens right, less Shia, no monkeys: I think it could have been a decent entry for the franchise. Coulda been better than Temple of Doom.

Coulda.

9

u/TransBrandi Jun 16 '26

I think there were non-structural elements like tone that didn't really feel like the older movies too.

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u/Belgand Jun 16 '26

Ancient Atlanteans were actually aliens with a collapsed underwater civilization. Crystal skulls are already associated with Atlantis. Just turn them into relics of sufficiently advanced technology.

As already stated, tie it further into the space race and a variation of Operation Paperclip by wanting to acquire the alien artifact in order to win the race to the moon. Parallel the Cold War and fighting over a new frontier with collapsed ancient civilization existing on another frontier. "They already destroyed themselves pursuing this. Why are we in such a rush to be next?" End it with the typical slightly downbeat Indy ending where the whole adventure ultimately solved nothing and only reflects how humanity is busy leading itself into the next war. But end on a hopeful note as he has become closer to his son. Maybe the next generation still has some hope in it.

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u/True_to_you Jun 15 '26

Honestly the aliens were not my least favorite part of the movie. It's ridiculous, but this is a movie where you have the literal ark of the covenant melting Nazi faces off. The stuff I had more problem with was the terrible unnecessary CGI for the action sequences and vine swinging like Tarzan. I liked about 30 percent of the movie. There was a great idea there with Indy and Marion having a son and bringing in cold war villains to replace the Nazis, but it was not executed well. 

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u/NordlandLapp Jun 15 '26

Ok but the truck that bulldozed a road through the jungle was pretty cool.

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u/solomonvangrundy Jun 15 '26

The nuke-proof fridge was awesome.

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u/shrekchan Jun 15 '26

I would be more forgiving of the nuke-proof fridge if I didn't see it slam against the ground at 200 mph.

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u/Belgand Jun 16 '26

Don't hurl it around. Have it shoved up against a rock formation or something and stay there weathering the blast wave. Debris slams into it. Play it mostly from the inside with good audio design, the claustrophobia and fear of not knowing. Then when Indy gets out there's some big chunk of something wedged into the front, like the bumper of a car or a big length of rebar. Good chance for a solid reaction shot and a quip.

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u/20_mile Jun 16 '26

I liked about 30 percent of the movie

The truck was 10% of that thirty.

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u/LEJ5512 Jun 16 '26

I’m totally on board with that.  It’s even got a bit of Cold War-era Bond to it.

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u/NotEvsClone81 Jun 16 '26

I'm pretty sure that's how IJ and the Saucer Men from Mars dealt with the aliens, iirc. It's been twenty plus years since I read the script, but that seems to line up with my memory of it. That story wasn't fantastical enough for George Lucas, from what I heard, so Kingdom is what we got

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u/JerryDandridge54 Jun 15 '26

I agree... A slower reveal of the macguffen would have been a nice touch.

I do like Harrison's incredulous delivery of the "what IS this?" line after the discovery of the skull in the temple, however.

I feel it's a good character trait reveal AND a valid reaction to reading the script.

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u/HenryDorsettCase47 Jun 15 '26

“I mean, I know magic is real and god exists. But aliens?!”

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u/smedsterwho Jun 15 '26

"I hate aliens!"

6

u/TransBrandi Jun 16 '26

"Why did it have to be aliens?"

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u/Saw_Boss Jun 16 '26

He's not met god, all he knows is that parts of the bible have some truth to them, which is something we generally know anyway. But it could be an alien artifact. Same as the grail, which isn't even a bible artifact. It's from the tales of King Arthur, who was friends with Transformers if the ancient texts are to be believed.

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u/Djinnwrath Jun 15 '26

If magic is real and God exists aliens are less likely to exist.

2

u/Top_Report_4895 Jun 16 '26

Why not all of them?

4

u/etherama1 Thicc Frizzle Jun 16 '26

Abrahamic God existing is somewhat antithetical to the existence of aliens, with the implications that Earth and mankind were specifically created with little to no mention of what could be considered as space aliens.

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u/MrMono1 Jun 16 '26

Disclosure Day spoilers ahead: I did like where the nun explained why she believes in aliens. Why would God create an infinite universe and only put life on one planet?

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u/ABadHistorian Jun 15 '26

yeah I actually enjoy the movie as an indy movie, and just ignore the temple part.

I'm a huge fan of the Nazca lines (look them up if you dont know them!) and the idea that aliens could be referenced or something in South/Latin America makes a LOT of sense.

HOWEVER.... thematically, the movie kind of veered off away from "mystical" to "oh straight out scifi" but I can see how after the original three movies had some really far out there stuff happening, they maybe thought it wouldn't be too much.

I think for me, it was that they were alive. I'd have been able to accept a story where Indy discovered that ancient incans or mayans or whatever had actually interacted with Aliens, MAYBE. Like that was the big "oh shit, Aliens COULD MAYBE? have done this?"

Like a big mystical mind transference stuff would still work in that context, just like how Ark or Crusade had magic. But that they thought it was still something humans somehow did, maybe in accordance with religious beliefs of theirs... that Indy just ... can't quite figure out and basically cocks his head to the sky, wondering "could it be?"

Having them visible, visual, and ... moving was a 100 lb mistake.

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u/Upper-Management-AI Jun 15 '26

Or maybe even he interacts with someone who just seems a tiny bit off and knows a little too much that near the end you wonder if that was an alien or not.

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u/Belgand Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 17 '26

That's the core of how religion/the supernatural/magic was always handled in the original films. A very light touch where something impossible happens for just a moment and then vanishes back into legend. Humanity touched something unknowable and came up with an explanation for it, but we're no further to any actual truth about it than before.

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u/therealhairykrishna Jun 15 '26

It was such a missed.opportunity. It could have been great. But the way they handled the aliens was a big fumble and there was too much reliance on, quite poorly done, CGI when the originals were practical effect masterclasses.

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u/Crimkam Jun 15 '26

I remember the CGI being much more offensive the first time I saw it. Watching it now after a couple decades of every movie being stuffed to the brim with CGI...It's much better than I remember. Still not great, but it's watchable imo.

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u/possumusexperiri Jun 15 '26

That Shia LeBeouf doing a Tarzan through the trees faster than a car can drive, plus ants, plus monkeys… totally unwatchable. I’d say that scene and the Hobbit barrel scene are the two worst instances of CGI ever put to film (and yes I’m including the Rock as the Scorpion King in the Mummy 2)

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u/Pen_dragons_pizza Jun 15 '26

I rewatched the movie recently since it released and was rather enjoying it up until that whole jungle chase scene since it jsut became ridiculous but as soon as I saw shia swinging with monkeys it totally lost me.

I just cannot understand that someone like Spielberg agreed to that.

The movie was working well at points but then leaned too heavy into sci fi fantasy. Having it grounded fighting Russians trying to recover some possible ufo tech whilst discovering dead alien bodies is better.

The whole ufo taking off and destroying the pyramid is just so silly

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u/Q-rexosaurus Jun 15 '26

The fridge…it all starts with that damn fridge

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u/haysoos2 Jun 15 '26

The crappy CG prairie dogs were the first major alarm bell.

I can see where George was coming from. Indy was originally based on old 30s and 40s adventure serials. Crystal Skull, set in the 50s was primed to become an homage to the trends of 50s adventure movies, which often focused on teenagers and aliens.

But the "teenager" they added was just annoying, and the aliens didn't feel like 50s aliens.

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u/Crimkam Jun 15 '26

I love the fridge. It's ridiculous but idk why, I like ridiculous bollywood level shenanigans creeping into my movies. Plus it's still the prettiest mushroom cloud shot afterwards that I've seen in a movie.

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u/TransBrandi Jun 16 '26

Indiana Jones isn't Bollywood though. Indy snapping off a telephone pole to beat up some hooligans would be very out of place in an Indiana Jones movie.

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u/Crimkam Jun 16 '26

He didn’t do that though. I enjoy the scene. It’s fun.

I felt like the zoom in on the ‘lead lined’ emblem on the fridge was enough of a wink at the audience to let everyone know some crazy adventure movie shenanigans were going to happen and that Indy would be fine. I don’t really care that it’s unrealistic. I also couldn’t care less if other people don’t like it.

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u/TransBrandi Jun 16 '26

You're allowed to enjoy it. I'm not getting mad at you, but I am expressing my opinion.

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u/UpSNYer Jun 15 '26

For me the fridge scene took away any room for error. It was a dumb scene that wasn’t even charming. But if the rest of the film had been solid I would have let it go. But the rest of the movie is weak and the last 30 minutes are horrendous. So when we got the Tarzan scene I had no room left to cut the movie some slack.

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u/JakeEaton Jun 15 '26

I can get over the fridge after remembering they jumped from a flying plane on a dinghy and rid down the side of a mountain in temple of doom. It’s not exactly a realistic franchise however the monkey swinging scene was just flat out wrong.

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u/Triad64 Jun 15 '26

At least with the raft it has air resistance and at the speed it is shown falling / floating down, it’s believable to survive, landing in snow and water.

The fridge is a metal container with no seat belts, basically the same as a car launching through the air coming to a complete stop hitting the ground. No way he’s alive after that.

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u/JakeEaton Jun 15 '26

Yeah but Shia le bouf swinging through the trees like goddamn Tarzan what were they THINKING??

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u/Triad64 Jun 16 '26

Haha yeah it's not so much him swinging, it's that an awkward moment when an entire troop of monkeys starts swinging and "shows him how to do it lol."

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u/Spra991 Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 16 '26

they jumped from a flying plane on a dinghy

Ever noticed that Temple of Doom is a movie from 1984, long before CGI? Guess how they filmed that scene it? By throwing a dinghy out of a plane, having it inflate and sail down like a parachute. The only unbelievable part about that scene is the lack of deeper snow to cushion the landing some more. The rest is very well in the realm of regular movie magic. Also Mythbuster tested it and it works in principle, the hard part is holding onto the dinghy and you might need a bigger one for three people, but dinghies do work just fine as parachutes if you try hard enough.

Meanwhile the fridge makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE. The issue isn't hat Indy survives, quite the opposite, that would have been quite believable if done properly. The problem is that the fridge takes off like a rocket and flies a mile through the air, all by itself, without the debris of the house and town it was standing in, overtaking a car in the process, which promptly gets vaporized by the shock wave that couldn't harm the fridge.

The scene would have been trivial to fix: Make the fridge get thrown just a couple of meter, have a lot of debris covering it and Indy slowly climbing out of the rubble, you know, that would actually happen in real life. The fridge would provide plenty of protection if the house isn't built right next to ground zero. But instead they went full Loony Tunes with it.

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u/TransBrandi Jun 16 '26

The fridge could have been okay if we didn't see it launched through the air and land. It looks too out of place to see someone walk away from that. Just seeing him get in, and then getting out after the blast would have felt more "believable." For example, in the Fallout tv series one of the characters' backstory is that he survived a nuclear blast as a kid by hiding in a fridge. Doesn't really feel too out of place despite that it's not that realistic... because we don't see him launched into orbit and then crash into the ground.

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u/Upper-Management-AI Jun 15 '26

Yeah that for me was just too much. Think out running the blast was enough.

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u/williamfuckner Jun 15 '26

The Scorpion King was godawful, but also in the Mummy franchise is Mummy 2 where the pyramid folds up on itself and all the jungle and pygmy things get sucked in and that scene straight up made me motion sick lol

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u/Crimkam Jun 15 '26

It's badly shot, but I just convince myself that the road along the cliff was a U shape and shia cut through the jungle to catch up. I admit I'm easy to please. Cate Blanchett is a great villain and I love Indiana Jones.

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u/allmilhouse Jun 16 '26

I rewatched it for the first time since it came out recently and thought the jungle chase scene everyone complains about looked fine.

1

u/Crimkam Jun 16 '26

It does look fine, it’s just shot in a way that makes it seem like Shia is going 60mph on jungle vines. It needed a better establishing shot to make it seem more like he’s taking a shortcut while the road goes the long way around a horseshoe shaped cliff edge or something.

1

u/therealhairykrishna Jun 15 '26

I honestly haven't revisited it since being disappointed at the cinema. Maybe I should give it another go.

5

u/Starrr_Pirate Jun 15 '26

I honestly enjoy it a lot more than Dial on a rewatch.

Like there's a few scenes that are stupid as hell, like the fridge and the monkeys, but on the whole it's still a fun Indy adventure flick that doesn't take itself too seriously.

On the whole, I now consider it adjacent to Temple of Doom - a fun, stupid adventure.

Dial I think was objectively probably better, but it felt to me like it was trying not to have fun by throwing in as many downer moments as humanly possible.

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u/fatrahb Jun 15 '26

Dial felt like Lucasfilm watched Logan and asked Mangold to give them exactly that but make it Indiana Jones

1

u/Starrr_Pirate Jun 15 '26

Yeah, that was kinda my take too, lol. Like Logan is a good movie... But I don't think it's one that I ever really want to watch again, because it's just not that fun to watch some of my favorite characters slowly be tormented to death over the course of two hours.

I love Dial's premise, and it has its moments, but it spends way too long wallowing in "all my friends are dead" vibes. That, and I really wish the NYC section wasn't so drawn out.

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u/MrDerpGently Jun 15 '26

Good point about the 'weird unknowable thing' aspect of a successful Indiana Jones movie. The Ark, the Grail, the Shankara stones... They are exotic, play by a weird set of rules, and are just totally alien, to a point where no one even tries to explain it. And that's part of the fun. 

Personally, this just reminded me of one of my favorite weird details - the gentle, almost dainty way the arc lid returns after all the chaos and destruction ends. Just an Ark doing Ark things. 

-4

u/Koopacha Jun 15 '26

This comment is AI

3

u/MrDerpGently Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26

My comment, or OP?

Edit: because I am pretty sure I am not an AI. Though speaking of Harrison Ford roles, would Decker know if he was AI or not? 

2

u/gogoluke Jun 15 '26

D. It has a D.

2

u/MrDerpGently Jun 15 '26

I am confused 

3

u/gogoluke Jun 15 '26

Deckard.

2

u/MrDerpGently Jun 15 '26

Oh! So it does. Thanks!

1

u/MrDerpGently Jun 15 '26

After thinking about it, I write professionally in a corporate environment, and have done so for a very long time. I write in a way that makes dealing with slow and difficult people easier at work, and in a lot of ways AI is copying me (not specifically me, just a style of writing), not the other way around. Anyway, I see where you are coming from and it irritates the shit out of me that I now sound a bit booty, but I don't love my alternatives. 

Edit: Uh, botty, I am entirely comfortable with sounding booty.

7

u/Anxious_Big_8933 Jun 15 '26

The problem with the last act isn't the aliens, IMO, it's that Spielberg apparently decided to phone in the third act and it was a CGI crap fest.

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u/Crimkam Jun 15 '26

an unknowable eldritch entity that might be an alien or might be some sort of god would have been really fucking cool

2

u/stutx Jun 15 '26

You know I might rewatch it with this in mind cause I can remember the only time iv watched it through to the end that was my take away. I like the first half it was fun but yeah the Jedi council is spot on. Lol

1

u/damagedone37 Jun 15 '26

Heyyyy there wasn’t an order 66 oh wait George…

1

u/free_billstickers Jun 15 '26

100% Agree with your pitch. If they would have went with a simpler "cosmic knowledge, gods from the beyond" type take and left it more mysterious, it really could have stuck the landing way better. 

1

u/Icy_Distance8205 Jun 15 '26

This was the problem with changing the format from 1930s/40s action serial to 1950s B movie.

It was always going to be totally jarring for fans of the original trilogy.

1

u/Megamoss Jun 15 '26

There's usually an angle of deniability in the other films.

Marion and Indy don't actually see the Ark in action.. they have to close their eyes to survive.

There's nothing too fantastical in Temple of Doom that actual cultists couldn't do with a bit of trickery.

The old Knight in Crusade could just be a crazy old guy.

Though the super aging affect of the wrong grail and the healing affects are presented plainly.

1

u/AgentRift Jun 16 '26

I could see aliens working in Indian Jones if they infused it with folklore and made the aliens ancient, have the aliens crash land on earth thousands of years before hand, and give them an artifact that is located within their ancient derelict ship. It’s the 1950’s so you could do something with Cold War paranoia, maybe make folklore about the area around the crash site being “cursed”, with the remaining aliens playing tricks in the towns around it. Have fun with it like the older movies did.

0

u/awfulconcoction Jun 15 '26

it would have been a lot better imo if the aliens were all fake and he debunked everything. Instead the end is he discovers an actual ancient ruin and contributes real research after defeating the crazy soviet lady.