Why are some against an America centric Indy?

Raiders90

Well-known member
I'll be honest and say that my favorite sequence in the series takes place in the US: Utah 1912. I know many here want the next film to move away from America (and I don't want anymore South America either) but why is the USA unappealing? I feel if done right, like in the intro to Last Crusade, the setting doesn't matter. I'm not saying set the whole film in the US, but, at this point, America in the 50s or 60s is like another country in and of itself. Even places like Alaska can seem foreign if done right. Can someone explain why an Indy set at least partially in the US would be bad?
 

axelan

New member
A couple thoughts I have had on this.
  1. Americans might be more attracted to far off exotic or unknown places than they are used to.
  2. The US doesn't have the humanoid history that the rest of the world has. Of course South America hasn't been settled any longer than North but it has more mysterious ruins and precious metals that are attractive to most people and last the test of time.
 

Joosse

New member
What Axelan said, the history just isn't there.

Don't get me wrong, American history is also very interesting, but there isn't the kind of mystery there that an Indiana Jones movie would require.
 

axelan

New member
Thinking about this almost makes me realize just how young our species is. 5000 years from now instead of excavating the pyramids will archeologists be excavating ruins and then giving tourist tours of things like the Statue of Liberty, the Golden Gate Bridge, A submerged or glaciated New York City or Mt Rushmore?

What mysteries does North America actually have right now that originated on the continent?
I know there are theories or tall tales of giant humanoids and burial mounds in the US.
There might be some Native American mysteries in the cliff dwellings region of New Mexico that could be tied into things like the petrified forest national park. Similar to the stones in Temple of Doom. (Done poorly it could just implant ideas into idiots heads to do bad things to the national park).

Other than that, any American adventure over ancient artifacts would just be chasing artifacts across the country that originated in another country. Unless of course we are simply talking about young Indiana Jones adventures as he participates in things like the Mexican American war.
 

TheFirebird1

Active member
Raiders112390 said:
I'll be honest and say that my favorite sequence in the series takes place in the US: Utah 1912. I know many here want the next film to move away from America (and I don't want anymore South America either) but why is the USA unappealing? I feel if done right, like in the intro to Last Crusade, the setting doesn't matter. I'm not saying set the whole film in the US, but, at this point, America in the 50s or 60s is like another country in and of itself. Even places like Alaska can seem foreign if done right. Can someone explain why an Indy set at least partially in the US would be bad?
I think a lot of good points have been made here, but I wanted to throw in my own two cents about this.
One of the quintessential things about the Indy series is that every location presented provides some sort of impetus to further the journey. For example, the Utah prologue in LC establishes Indiana Jones's quest for the Cross of Coronado, and the scene at the Raven in Raiders introduces Marion Ravenwood and the Headpiece to the Staff of Ra. For any part of the U.S.A (continental or otherwise) to be included, it would have to help further the story. There's a few problems with that.
1. Let's say the mainland U.S. is the main base of operations for this film. What will be the MacGuffin, then? Will it be something dealing with one of the 576 federally recognized tribes that reside on the North American continent? Because if you choose one, you're going to end up limiting the region to whichever one the tribe ended up in. It also limits the potential amount of travel. You're probably not going to find any Native American artifacts of importance floating around anywhere else in the world during the sixties. As for another option, let's say that the U.S is simply used for a smaller part of the movie (for example, where some enemy is holding an artifact in an urban environment, a la Temple of Doom's opening). Putting Indy in an urban jungle for 25 minutes plus could become boring. Extremely boring.
2. And if we ditch the mainland and stick to, let's say, the harsh environs of Alaska, the film runs into the same problems mentioned before. If Indy is stuck in a barren, isolated landscape for a long stretch of the movie, he might not have much to do. And as for a MacGuffin, he'd have even less, even if there are some interesting myths in Alaskan culture, such as the Tlingit belief in malevolent Land-Otter People.
Finally, if they were to focus on the U.S., the safest bet would probably be Hawaii. It has a connection to Polynesian culture, which extends all the way to New Zealand, and would provide more artifacts for Indy to go after while also giving a pretty landscape to look at. The only problem I could see arising with that is not everyone wants to see another jungle-based Indy film, but it could definitely work.
 

axelan

New member
Another post with great points.

One comment

TheFirebird1 said:
You're probably not going to find any Native American artifacts of importance floating around anywhere else in the world during the sixties.

Unless Henry Wellcome 1853-1936 and his hired hands stole/acquired it. :) If there isn't a thread on this website about Henry Wellcome... It's a goldmine for Indiana Jones aficionados IMO.
 

Joosse

New member
Interestingly they could also have a mcguffin that caused the Asian tribes to migrate across the Bering straight and essentially caused the Americas to become inhabited? 🤔
 

Toht's Arm

Active member
I'd prefer remote, no matter what. So if it's the US, Alaska would be cool. Russian villains might work there, since Sarah Palin can see Russia from her house there, right? :p

If you wanted it to be the US, then there's always the possibility of a Viking artifact of some kind that found its way there, no?
 

TheFirebird1

Active member
Toht's Arm said:
I'd prefer remote, no matter what. So if it's the US, Alaska would be cool. Russian villains might work there, since Sarah Palin can see Russia from her house there, right? :p
I think a place like Alaska would probably work for an opening gambit, a la Peru in Raiders. Don't know how it would work if the majority of the film was set there, though, due to the lack of any major planet-destroying artifacts in the region.
Toht's Arm said:
If you wanted it to be the US, then there's always the possibility of a Viking artifact of some kind that found its way there, no?
L'Anse aux Meadows (the only confirmed Norse site in North America, if I remember correctly) is on the tip of Newfoundland, Canada, and wasn't discovered until 1960, so unless some artifact of great power was smuggled out of the site right after it was discovered, there's no possibility. And given that one of the main complaints with KotCS was that it pretty much was filmed right in Steven's backyard, I doubt they'll go that route.
And finally, I wanted to note something that I meant to discuss in my last post. One of the main problems I also have with a continental U.S./Alaska-centric Indy 5 (which was what the OP was somewhat alluding to in his main post) is that it could seem derivative of another adventure series, the all-too-corny National Treasure duology, which I wouldn't want happening.
 

axelan

New member
I just watched the old movie "The African Queen".

Africa is huge. The Nazi's were everywhere! lol. I wouldn't mind seeing Indiana have some adventures there.
 
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