Nuked Fridges

Double post but David Koepp talked a bit about The Nuked fridge part here:

Interviewer:
Since you brought up Frank Darabont, his unmade script for Indiana Jones 4 is widely available online, and a lot of fans say they prefer it to yours. Is that annoying, considering that yours was actually made and released, which is a bigger achievement?

Koepp:
No, it?s not. When you work on something that has a big history and fanbase, I always likened it to when you have free-throws in a basketball game, and the crowd is all waving trying to make you miss. And you really have to tune it out. If you want to ask me in another way and provoke me, I can say something more!

Interviewer: No, it?s fine! Unless you want to say you hate Frank Darabont or something!

Koepp:
I?ve never actually meant Frank Darabont, but I hear he?s a lovely guy. Just for the record, the Indiana Jones jumping into the fridge bit is in the Darabont script. And I loved it, which is why I pushed it into the movie! I thought it was a great idea!

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Gosh, that's awkward. Awkward question, awkward answer.

It's a useless question though, really. Koepp was hired to write a script, and was presumably told by the Beards what they did and didn't want, and was told which bits from previous drafts they wanted included. It's just how (blockbuster) scripts get written.

Yeah. I heavily dislike Koepp's script, but it's extremely difficult to determine how much is his fault given the unique writing process. I think he was given a strange list of ideas to corral together, although I still fault him for writing something so inert and weirdly paced.

One example of a mandated element I'm familiar with is that Spielberg insisted that Koepp keep Marion in the story, because he liked that aspect of Darabont's script. Great, except in Darabont's story, Marion's role had way more of a purpose and function. In the final story, she's more of a sixty minute cameo that feels shoehorned in. Is it Koepp's fault he couldn't make it work, or is he a victim of being forced to put a square peg into a round hole? There's room for debate, because we'll never how much input Koepp had on the storyline itself.

Darabont didn't invent the nuke scene either, as we all know. It was likely part of the outline he was given. He may or may not have had the power to argue for/against its inclusion.

Anyway, I was kind of hoping everyone had come around on this scene by now. For too long it has been cited as the epitome of why the movie didn't work, when the reality is that it's one of the few things the movie got halfway right.

Udvarnoky said:

Is it Koepp's fault he couldn't make it work, or is he a victim of being forced to put a square peg into a round hole? There's room for debate, because we'll never how much input Koepp had on the storyline itself.

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A lot of the blame surely has to rest on the three peeps in charge. Spielberg, Lucas and Ford couldn't reach an agreement in the 90s. M. Night Shyamalan claimed it was too difficult to get Ford, Spielberg and Lucas to focus. When City of the Gods was done, Spielberg and Lucas didn't agree (sidenote: does anyone know what Ford thought of that script? Has that been mentioned anywhere before?)

All of this suggests that we can't really blame Koepp, surely(?) He was the guy that finally got them to agree. For better or worse...

I am still waiting for Myth Busters to tackle this one or have they ?

This guy tried it:

Rescuers made a miracle find on Saturday afternoon by pulling a survivor from the wreckage of the twin blasts at a Tianjin dangerous goods warehouse, on the same as more blasts rattled the site.

Han Fengqun, 56, was found at 2pm in a shipping container 50 metres from the centre of the blast area.

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Yes and is that true..?? I think.not..!!!

Recently the 1963 film "Ladybug, ladybug" was shown on cable television.

It was set in the US and was about a group of children in school who are told that a nuclear attack is on the way.

They are sent home, then the school is notified that the warning was a mistake.

One girl heads for a dump, climbs into an abandoned refrigerator, and closes the door.

End of film.

If the film was made in Indy's universe too, I guess it was based on a true story.

WilliamBoyd8 said:

Recently the 1963 film "Ladybug, ladybug" was shown on cable television.

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Thanks for mentioning this, Mr. Boyd! Apparently, it was based on a true story about a school in California but, in the real incident, the kids were brought back before they reached their houses.

Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home,
Your house is on fire and your children are gone,
All except one,
And her name is Anne,
And she hid under the baking pan.

Best bit in the film, I could not stop laughing in the theatre. Iconic.