History Film / IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull

* TemptingFate: When Indy and Marion get caught in the dry sand pit, he assures her it will be find so long as there isn't an air pocket. He doesn't even get to finish that thought before one bursts from them disturbing the sand, causing them to sink faster. Then a second one goes off.

* TheMountainsOfIllinois: There are no mountains or cliffs in the Peruvian Amazon jungle.

Followed by a fifth film, ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheDialOfDestiny'', set to be released in 2023.

The fourth film in the ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' series, released in 2008.

''Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'' is set 19 years after the [[Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade previous installment]], during the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, and begins with Indiana and his colleague, George 'Mac' [=McHale=] (Creator/RayWinstone) being captured by Russian soldiers seeking a powerful artifact that the U.S. government is holding. Although the Russians, led by Irina Spalko (Creator/CateBlanchett) obtain the artifact (a CrystalSkull of unknown origin), Indy manages to escape after a harrowing experience at a nuclear testing site in Nevada.

Indy and Mutt's journey eventually lead them to reunite with Indy's old lover — and as it turns out, Mutt’s mother, Marion Ravenwood (Creator/KarenAllen), who had also been kidnapped by the Russians, and Professor Oxley (Creator/JohnHurt), Jones' close associate who discovered the artifact and went slightly insane as a result. Now, reunited with Marion and accompanied by Mutt, Indy sets out to discover the secret behind the crystal skull, leading him on an adventure both familiar and entirely new.

* AluminiumChristmasTrees:
** The crystal skull and the story about returning all 13 of them to some place for... something. They even mention Mitchell-Hedges. What they don't mention is that the three known skulls are now proven hoaxes, as is the story of the 13 skulls. Though the first examination to prove this happened in 1967, a decade after the film's setting.
** Artificial cranial deformation in ancient Native Americans.
** The Soviets' interest in parapsychology, although it was more popular before Stalin's death in 1953.
** The derided "Kung Fu [[{{Mayincatec}} Aztecs]]" guarding the Andean graveyard. Pre-hispanic Andeans did actually practice a native martial art called ''Rumi Maki'' ("Stone Hand"), complete with a grading system of skill and focuses on combinations of hand strikes supplemented by rapid kicks, just as portrayed in the film.
** Not only does [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_quicksand dry sand]] of the type Indy and Marion get caught in exist, it's depicted relatively accurately; the different formation between quicksand and dry sand means that they follow different principles.

A fifth film, ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheDialOfDestiny'', is set to be released in 2023 with Harrison Ford reprising his role as Indy alongside new castmates Creator/PhoebeWallerBridge and Creator/MadsMikkelsen. While key details are unknown, the movie is meant to be the final film in the series, or at least the last one that stars Ford as Indiana Jones. Creator/JamesMangold (''Film/{{Logan}}'', ''Film/FordvFerrari'') takes over the directing reins from Spielberg, who remains as a producer. It will be the first film in the series released by Creator/{{Disney}} (who purchased Creator/{{Lucasfilm}} in the interim) rather than Creator/{{Paramount}}.

Indy and Mutt's journey eventually lead them to reunite with Indy's old lover, Marion Ravenwood (Creator/KarenAllen), who had also been kidnapped by the Russians, and Professor Oxley (Creator/JohnHurt), Jones' close associate who discovered the artifact and went slightly insane as a result. Now, reunited with Marion and accompanied by Mutt, Indy sets out to discover the secret behind the crystal skull, leading him on an adventure both familiar and entirely new.

** Mutt laughing at the Soviet spies after they crash, while Indy looks on unamused, is similar to how in ''Last Crusade'', Indy laughs after taking down a Nazi motorcyclist as his father looks unamused. Although Indy's unamused because they crashed into a statue of Marcus Brody.

A fifth film has begun shooting after a long stint in DevelopmentHell, set to be released in 2023 with Harrison Ford reprising his role as Indy alongside new castmates Creator/PhoebeWallerBridge and Creator/MadsMikkelsen. While key details are unknown, the movie is meant to be the final film in the series, or at least the last one that stars Ford as Indiana Jones. Creator/JamesMangold (''Film/{{Logan}}'', ''Film/FordvFerrari'') takes over the directing reins from Spielberg, who remains as a producer. It will be the first film in the series released by Creator/{{Disney}} (who purchased Creator/{{Lucasfilm}} in the interim) rather than Creator/{{Paramount}}.

* ForScience: Spalko's motives start out as a Communist AssimilationPlot, but by the end she seems to care more about raw knowledge for the sake of itself - ''all'' of it. [[spoiler: It proves to be a bit too much.]]

* TouchedByVorlons: [[spoiler:Oxley and Irina. The latter's brain painfully overloads from the aliens granting her wish - knowledge of everything.]]

* TheMountainsOfIllinois: There are no mountains or cliffs in the Peruvian amazon jungle.

* FiveManBand:
** TheLeader: Indiana Jones
** TheLancer: Mutt Williams [[spoiler:aka Henry Jones III]]
** TheBigGuy: George 'Mac' [=McHale=]
** TheSmartGuy: Professor Oxley
** TheChick: Marion Ravenwood
** SixthRangerTraitor: [[spoiler:Mac]]

* RememberTheNewGuy: Mac is introduced as an ally of Indy's from UsefulNotes/WorldWarII with whom he went on many secret missions. Then there's Harold Oxley, an old friend of Indy's who is appearing in the series for the first time. Charles also counts as this, although in his case he's more of an expy for Marcus Brody.

* RememberTheNewGuy: Mac is introduced as an ally of Indy's from UsefulNotes/WorldWarII … just before he betrays him. Charles also counts as this, although in his case he's more of an expy for Marcus Brody.

* CrystalSkull: The current MacGuffin - albeit it's not even a human skull.

*** Paranoia? The Communists can invade even a nuclear test site. Seems [[TheCuckoolanderWasRight McCarthy was right...]] - in-universe.

* BombproofAppliance: A lead-lined fridge is used to survive a nuclear bomb blast.

** Indy gets one when a carload of Russians looking for him [[spoiler:in the nuclear test site]] drive off without him, [[spoiler:leaving him stranded in the middle of a nuclear test site ''with less than twenty seconds to go before detonation''.]]

* TheCameo: Along with the one in ContinuityNod below, Moses's staff from ''Film/TheTenCommandments'' is seen at the hangar.

* ArbitrarySkepticism: Indy dismissively tells Mutt the CrystalSkull legend is "just a story". Like the TheArkOfTheCovenant, right? He also calls Akator granting MindControl powers to whomever returns the skull there a "bedtime story", just as he did with the HolyGrail legend. It's possible though he was just being uncooperative with his captors, or that most stories of this kind are still false in the Indyverse, so he wasn't ruling it out on grounds of plausibility alone.
* {{Area 51}}: It turns out that this (here called "Hangar 51") is where the U.S. [[SecretGovernmentWarehouse government stores]] most of the dangerous ancient phlebotinum that Indy finds. And [[BadassBookworm Indiana Jones himself]] [[spoiler:was called in to help investigate the Roswell Incident]].
** And it is also the final resting place of ''[[Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk The Ark of the Covenant]]''

** The map showing the journey to Peru shows their point of arrival to be Cuzco, which is absurd for both historical and geographical reasons. Getting from Cuzco to Nazca at the time would've involved several days of arduous driving, almost all of in the Andes Mountains, and very little of it on paved roads. Mutt's motorcycle would have never made it.

* ArbitrarySkepticism: Indy dismisses the CrystalSkull as "just a story". Like the HolyGrail and TheArkOfTheCovenant, right? His skeptical attitude toward the Ark is also bit odd considering that he'd already been exposed to genuine supernatural phenomena in ''Temple of Doom'', but that's more of a continuity issue.
** Of course, he might have just been messing with his captors. Being uncooperative with the enemy seems to be a specialty of his. Or he knows this sort of thing is real but also knows that a lot of stories like that really are just stories. Just because ''some'' supernatural tales are real in the Indyverse doesn't mean ''all'' of them are.

* GenreShift / GenreThrowback: Where the previous three films were heavily based on the pulp adventure serials of the '30s and '40s, this one is derived in part from the pulp sci-fi of the '50s.

* KleptomaniacHero / GraveRobbing: Subverted; Indy is about to keep an ancient knife but a severe [[FacialDialogue look]] by Mutt makes him put it back.
* LastWords / FacingTheBulletsOneLiner: Parodied hard.

* ArtisticLicenseGeography[=/=]ArtisticLicenseHistory
** While teaching his class after [[spoiler: his interview with the Feds]], Indy mentions the Skara Brae archaeological site (or as he pronounces it, "Ska-ah Bray") as being on the "west coast of Scotland". Skara Brae is on the west coast of '''''Mainland''''', the main island of the Orkney Islands, which are just ''north'' of the Scotland mainland, not west of it. The historically significant island off the ''west'' coast of Scotland is the '''Isle of Skye'''. However, Indy ''does'' get Skara Brae's timeline right, as it was occupied long before Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids were built, and is often refered to as the "Scottish Pompeii".
** Indy learning quechua, an Andean language, from men in Mexican Pancho Villa's army. Not impossible, but pretty unlikely. Nahautl would've been more likely.
** The map showing the journey to Peru shows a country called Belize - it was British Honduras until 1973. While the name "Belize" ''does'' date to at least the 17th century (it comes from the Belize River), any 1957-vintage map would've used the then-official name British Honduras.
** Another problem with the map is that it shows their point of arrival to be Cuzco, which is absurd for both historical and geographical reasons:
*** Cuzco didn't even ''have'' an international airport until 1964. Any international flight arriving in 1957 would've landed [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limatambo_International_Airport in Lima]].
*** Getting from Cuzco to Nazca at the time would've involved several days of arduous driving, almost all of in the Andes Mountains, and very little of it on paved roads. Mutt's motorcycle would have never made it.

* DanBrowned: [[http://www.businessinsider.com/george-lucas-is-wrong-you-cant-survive-a-nuclear-bomb-by-hiding-in-a-fridge-2012-2 In an interview with The New York Times Magazine]], George Lucas took credit for the infamous scene in ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull'' in which Indy survives a nuclear blast in a lead-lined refrigerator, and insisted that his odds of surviving were about 50-50. This claim has been thoroughly debunked, and [[https://www.overthinkingit.com/2012/02/22/fridge-nuking-scientific-peer-review/?page=all a scientific peer review]] concluded he could have not survived.

-->--'''Mutt''': What's he gonna do now?\\

* IndyPloy: Lampshaded.
-->'''Mutt''': What's he gonna do now?\\