Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

The plot of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull begins in 1957, when Soviet agents led by Colonel Irina Spalko kidnap Indiana Jones and his partner Mac in the Nevada desert. They force Indy to help them find a mummified alien body at a secret government site. Mac betrays him, and Indy survives an atomic test by hiding in a lead lined refrigerator, the film's most debated set piece.

After the blast, Indy is questioned and then put on leave from Marshall College. A young greaser named Mutt Williams finds him and asks for help, because Indy's old colleague Harold Oxley has vanished in Peru while hunting a crystal skull. That request sends Indy back into the field, nineteen years after the 1938 adventure of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Indy and Mutt are chased by Soviet agents, then follow Oxley's clues to the tomb of an explorer in Peru, where they find a skull. The Soviets capture them and take them to a camp in the Amazon. There they meet Spalko, Mac, a mentally damaged Oxley and Marion Ravenwood, who tells Indy that Mutt is his son. Spalko wants the skull's power for the Soviet Union.

The group escapes with the skull and travels to Akator, the lost city Oxley had been searching for. They learn that the skull belongs to one of thirteen interdimensional beings once worshipped by ancient peoples. Spalko follows them, returns the skull to its skeleton and demands knowledge from the beings. A portal opens, Mac and the Soviet soldiers are pulled in, and the beings pour so much knowledge into Spalko that she is destroyed. Indy, Marion, Mutt and Oxley flee as the city collapses, and a flying saucer leaves for another dimension.

The shape is easy to follow on a first watch: a kidnapping, a missing friend, a trail through Peru and a final act at Akator.

Kingdom of the Crystal Skull premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 18, 2008, four days before its US release on May 22. Variety covered the Cannes arrival, and the festival date was announced in advance with a worldwide release set for May 22, per Hello magazine.

The film opened in the US, the UK and Australia on the same day, May 22, 2008, according to Box Office Mojo. That was a change from the staggered releases of earlier entries: Raiders of the Lost Ark reached the UK about seven weeks after its US debut. The US rating is PG-13, the UK is 12A and the Australian classification is M.

The ending of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull has Spalko destroyed by the knowledge she demands at Akator, Mac and the Soviet soldiers pulled through a portal, and Indy, Marion, Mutt and Oxley escaping as the city collapses and a flying saucer leaves for another dimension.

The closing scenes are more conventional. Back in the United States, Oxley recovers his sanity, and Indy is reinstated at Marshall College and promoted to associate dean. Indy and Marion marry, and the film closes on the wedding. It does not set up a direct sequel.

What does the finale mean? In my opinion, it is the clearest sign of what this film tried to be. Raiders of the Lost Ark opened in 1936 with a booby-trapped temple in Peru and a golden idol, and it worked like a 1930s serial built around a lost relic. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull opens in 1957 in the Nevada desert, with a mummified alien in a government warehouse and a refrigerator that shields Indy from an atomic test. The Akator climax follows from that opening: the 1950s swaps serial adventure for science fiction, and the artifact is a skull that belongs to one of thirteen interdimensional beings.

It could be argued that this is a fair update, since Indy has aged into a new decade and the Cold War replaces the Nazis. The Soviets under Spalko take the role the Nazis had in Raiders and in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. It could equally be argued that the beings are less personal than the Grail Knight, played by Robert Eddison in The Last Crusade, who tests Indy one on one. Spalko is destroyed by an idea rather than beaten by a hero, so Indy has no direct hand in her end.

The production context matters here. The film is credited as a screenplay by David Koepp from a story by George Lucas and Jeff Nathanson, and earlier drafts came from other writers, including Jeb Stuart, Jeffrey Boam and Frank Darabont. A script that passed through that many hands could plausibly end up with a finale that tries to satisfy several ideas at once. That is speculation on my part, not a reported fact.

Perhaps the fridge escape and the Akator finale divide viewers for the same reason: they are the two moments where the film asks for the most belief, and the first arrives in the opening act. The budget was $185 million, and the saucer sequence is where a good share of that money shows. The wedding is the better payoff. Marion returns from Raiders, Mutt gets a family, and the film ends on people rather than on an effect. I would rank the ending behind the first three films, and Marion's return gives it a warmth the saucer cannot.

Filming began in Deming, New Mexico, where crews had spent weeks building a Morocco style set at a former air strip, according to a June 2007 UPI report. Sets there were built to stand in for both Nevada and Morocco.

Principal photography began on June 18, 2007. Yale University stood in for the fictional Marshall College, where Indy teaches and where he is put on leave. To see where this film sits in the story, the indiana jones timeline lays out each film in order.

The screenplay is credited to David Koepp from a story by George Lucas and Jeff Nathanson, with earlier drafts by Jeb Stuart, Jeffrey Boam and Frank Darabont.

Sean Connery did not return as Indy's father, according to a June 2007 news report, so Henry Jones Sr. does not appear (see the henry jones sr page for the character).

The film cost $185 million and grossed $787 million worldwide, the highest total of the first five films. Dial of Destiny cost more and grossed less. The full table is on the indiana jones box office page.

To place this film among the others, the indiana jones movies ranked page gives the order, and the indiana jones movies in order guide shows where it fits. The indiana jones 6 page covers what comes after, and the indiana jones movies hub links the whole series.