Suddenly, I don't feel so guilty for stepping on ants.note
Unmarked spoilers below!
- The killer Siafu ants that eat people alive. Oh yes, and they're coordinated enough to form a tower to reach you if you're out of reach.
- Know what's scarier? There really are ants like this in South America, tropical Asia, and Africa, that move in waves. This is NOT science fiction. While real life Siafu and Army Ants aren't as large as the ones shown in the film (and don't deliberately go after humans), they are extremely aggressive, and will swarm smaller animals and suffocate or sting them to death.
- It's really horrifying when even Indy and Spalko are disturbed by Dovchenko's death.
- That moment when the ants use their own bodies to build a tower and reach higher? Also real.
- When Dovchenko is dragged into the anthill, you can hear him yelling "Pomogi mne". It's Russian for "Help me!"
- Spalko's death from too much knowledge is pretty horrifying. Even more so in the adult novelization. As the alien beings leave this world, Spalko actually feels her skull painfully transform into quartz as the aliens flood her mental consciousness with all the knowledge in existence. It gets worse, as just before she dies, Spalko gets a terrifying glimpse at the Eldritch Abominations.
- The Greys have always been creepy, but to have one looking super pissed like the resurrected alien was at Spalko at the end? Terrifying.
- A 1950s-esque suburban neighborhood populated by eerily smiling plastic dummies, complete with "Howdy Doody" playing on a TV set. The creepiness isn't reduced by the fact that it's a nuclear bomb test site.
- The moment when the warning siren flares up
— followed by an instructional message that lets you know exactly what's about to happen.Indy: [in response to siren] Oh, that can't be good...
Announcer: All personel, it is now one minute to zero time. Put on goggles now, or turn away. Do not remove goggles or face burst until ten seconds after first light.
Indy: [slowly dawning horror] Oh, that can't be good at all... - The actual bomb going off is just as nightmarish, as the bomb burns and melts the plastic dummies before destroying the ENTIRE TOWN. It's so destructive that it ends up also killing the Russians who were trying to escape by car.
- It's all the more horrifying when you see those mannequins incinerate and realize that this is what would have happened to countless innocents—men, women, children, infants, pets—if this had ever gone down for real. As if to emphasize this, the camera keeps pointing out child-mannequins.
- Afterwards, as Indy just barely survives in the infamous fridge, and climbs a hill to see that infamous mushroom cloud twisting and rising into the air as the music builds. Welcome to the Atomic Age, Indy.
- Though it probably doesn't need to be said, this also isn't science fiction. The U.S. Army actually did create artificial towns like this to test the effects of nuclear weapons. They were known as "Doom Towns".
- The moment when the warning siren flares up
- Irina Spalko's plan for the Crystal Skull, i.e. using its power to brainwash large numbers of people into mindless followers of communism is downright terrifying, and the psychological nature of this attack is what makes it so bad. As Spalko herself puts it, you won't feel the brainwashing as it's happening to you.
- If you're ophidiophobic, the sequence where Indy has to grab the snake to get out of the drysand pit will likely make your skin crawl.
- A moment that was cut from the movie but appears in the novelizations and graphic novel proves Spalko’s psychic abilities true in an extremely chilling way. Prior to Indy blowing up the Jungle Cutter, Spalko and Mac are in the same vehicle as Oxley as Spalko attempts to get the skull to communicate with her. Mac expresses skepticism of ESP, claiming the skull puts people into self-hypnosis, to which Spalko explains that the bond between mother and child is an example of a sixth sense, telling him about a study she ran where a mother rabbit’s brain activity was monitored while the rabbit’s litter were put to death miles away. Mac, testing her further, tells her to guess the answer to a question he is thinking of. Spalko then holds eye contact with him for an uncomfortably long time before telling him the answer to his question, “Should I feel the slightest need.” Mac, incredibly unsettled, shuts up. Spalko then informs the driver of the vehicle that Mac wanted to know if she would cut his throat when they reached Akator.
