History Headscratchers / IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull

* I just noticed that on Indy and Mutt's journey to Peru, we see them make a stop at Cuba. I'm not an expert on the state of the world in that time period, but could American's have taken a plane ride to Cuba in the 1950s?

** Two words: MnogoNukes. Three more: Perceived "bomber gap".

** Every Indy film has a prologue that ultimately just exists to get the real plot in motion. The idol scene in Raiders introduces Indy and Belloq, the nightclub scene in Temple introduces Willie and Shortround and provides the reason the trio gets stranded in India, the flashback in Last Crusade gives Indy some backstory and introduces his father, and the Area 51 scene in Crystal Skull establishes that it's now the 50s and Indy is not a young man anymore, introduces Spalko, and brings the idea of aliens into the Indy universe before diving completely into it when the Skull is revealed.

*** Four people went from Private all the way to full Colonel, Creator/JimmyStewart being one of them, and receiving a field commission was definitely not unheard of, such as AudieMurphy. Plus, he's a [=PhD=], he wasn't going to be sent to enlisted basic, he was obviously put through officer's training.

A refrigerator, no matter how sturdy, will '''not''' withstand even a handgrenade, much less a nuclear bomb. Running after fifty+ years is no indication of survivability in an explosion. Anything can still run if it isn't abused or neglected. Lead lining is not only not a thing, it would serve no purpose in a refrigerator, especially since lead is a horrible insulator.
** But lead are commonly used for radiation shielding,which is better than other material such as wood.

*** Jumping out of a plane using an inflatable raft doesn't stretch the imagination... but I'll tell you what ''does'': the fall off the mountain. Having done something like this myself, what on ''earth'' is that raft made out of? Indy, Willie, and Shorty should have fallen ''right'' through the bottom. (Simple physics, really.) That's assuming the raft didn't pop like inlatable rafts tend to do when subject to those kinds of stress.

*** Four people went from Private all the way to full Colonel, Creator/JimmyStewart being one of them, and receiving a field commission was definitely not unheard of, such as AudieMurphy. Plus, he's a PhD, he wasn't going to be sent to enlisted basic, he was obviously put through officer's training.

***** Phone call for you: It's BarefootGen. The author was actually ''very'' close to Ground Zero and he was saved ''by a brick wall''.

** The Russians bring that corpse with them to South America. We see it briefly at the beginning of Indy's interrogation scene, when Spalko shows Indy that it has a crystal skeleton similar to that of the Akator aliens. She implies that the Roswell crash, and the several similar crashes in the USSR were alien races who were *also* trying to locate the Akator aliens.

*** Four people went from Private all the way to full Colonel, JimmyStewart being one of them, and receiving a field commission was definitely not unheard of, such as AudieMurphy. Plus, he's a PhD, he wasn't going to be sent to enlisted basic, he was obviously put through officer's training.

** The Russians bring that corpse with them to South America. We see it briefly at the beginning of Indy's interrogation scene, when Spalko shows Indy that it has a crystal skeleton similar to that of the Akator aliens. She implies that the Roswell crash, and the several similar crashes in the USSR were alien races who were *also* trying to locate the Akator aliens.

* The film is set in the mid-'50s. Yet the M35 military trucks seen at the beginning of the film (and the thinly-disguised one we see rampaging through the jungle later) weren't built until the late '60s. It's not like there aren't thousands of the older correct trucks in the hands of collectors and movie prop motor pools. Likewise, the Jeeps are also '60s-era or later round-nosed CJ Jeeps, not the square '50s Willys Jeeps. And again, it's not like there aren't hordes of earlier Willys Jeeps available. They easily get all the civilian vehicles (beautifully) right, and then blow it with the military ones.

** The film is set in the mid-'50s. Yet the M35 military trucks seen at the beginning of the film (and the thinly-disguised one we see rampaging through the jungle later) weren't built until the late '60s. It's not like there aren't thousands of the older correct trucks in the hands of collectors and movie prop motor pools. Likewise, the Jeeps are also '60s-era or later round-nosed CJ Jeeps, not the square '50s Willys Jeeps. And again, it's not like there aren't hordes of earlier Willys Jeeps available. They easily get all the civilian vehicles (beautifully) right, and then blow it with the military ones.

* So what was the point of breaking into area 51? The alien corpse here sort of never again figures into the movie at all. The skull they use is the one Oxley / Oriana found.

* Instead of his long-lost son, Mutt, wouldn't have made more sense if Indiana Jones was accompanied by an older Shortround? They spent alot more time together, and had a fairly close emotional connection (Indiana saving him from the cultists, him saving Indiana from Mola Ram's brainwashing). Even before meeting Indiana, Shortround had come from a childhood surviving the Japanese bombing of Shanghai and living as a under-aged taxi driver. Mutt, on the other hand, had never been shown engaging in a high stress situation before, yet he manages to swing through a jungle with a bunch of monkeys and evade a pursuing group of angry commies. This "suddenly had a full-grown son in-between movies" thing seems to be getting very overused.

* Instead of his long-lost son, Mutt, wouldn't have made more sense if Indiana Jones was accompanied by an older Shortround? They spent alot more time together, and had a fairly close emotional connection (Indiana saving him from the cultists, him saving Indiana from Mola Ram's brainwashing). Even before meeting Indiana, Shortround had come from a childhood surviving the Japanese bombing of Shanghai and living as a under-aged taxi driver. Mutt, on the other hand, had never been shown engaging in a high stress situation before, yet he manages to swing through a jungle with a bunch of monkeys and evade cannibals a bunch of angry commies. This "suddenly had a full-grown son in-between movies" thing seems to be getting very overused.

* Instead of his long-lost son, Mutt, wouldn't have made more sense if Indiana Jones was accompanied by an older Shortround? They spent alot more time together, and had a fairly close emotional connection (Indiana saving him from the cultists, him saving Indiana from Mola Ram's brainwashing). Even before meeting Indiana, Shortround had come from a childhood surviving the Japanese bombing of Shanghai and living as a under-aged taxi driver. Mutt, on the other hand, had never been shown engaging in a high stress situation before, yet he manages to swing through a jungle with a bunch of monkeys and evade cannibals a bunch of angry commies. This "suddenly had a full-grown son in-between movies" thing seems to be getting very overused. x

* Instead of his long-lost son, Mutt, wouldn't have made more sense if Indiana Jones was accompanied by an older Shortround? They spent alot more time together, and had a fairly close emotional connection (Indiana saving him from the cultists, him saving Indiana from Mola Ram's brainwashing). Even before meeting Indiana, Shortround had come from a childhood surviving the Japanese bombing of Shanghai and living as a under-aged taxi driver. Mutt, on the other hand, had never been shown engaging in a high stress situation before, yet he manages to swing through a jungle with a bunch of monkeys and evade cannibals a bunch of angry commies.

* Instead of his long-lost son, Mutt, wouldn't have made more sense if Indiana Jones was accompanied by an older Shortround? They spent alot more time together ({{Indiana Jones: Temple of Doom}}), and had a fairly close emotional connection (Indiana saving him from the cultists, him saving Indiana from brainwashing). Even before meeting Indiana, Shortround had come from a childhood surviving the Japanese bombing of Shanghai and living as a under-aged taxi driver. Mutt, on the other hand, had never been shown engaging in a high stress situation before, yet he manages to swing through a jungle with a bunch of monkeys and evade cannibals a bunch of angry commies.