Enough is Enough! I have "cracked the case" on my own Indiana Jones 5 script

RaiderMitch

TR.N Staff Member
Enough is Enough! I have "cracked the case" on my own Indiana Jones 5 script

After waiting forever for news on Indy 5 - and raking way to many leaves - I have had a brainstorm. As much as Shia has said in the past that he talked with Steven Speilberg and they had "cracked the idea" for Indy 5 - there has been little news of late. But after watching the cats and crew of the fan film "Indiana James and the Lost Shaker of Salt" and seeing their passion and fandom for continuing the legacy of Indiana Jones with their own film - I said sure why not - if you want something done - do it yourself.

So the idea for this one is its' 1961... A certain political leader is obsessed with finding Exacilber, the fable sword of King Arthur. The search actually began in the 1940s and the sword was recovered by his brother but was lost when his brother was killed on a mission in WW2.

Now the US Government recruits legendary "obtainer of rare antiquities" the retired professor Indiana Jones - who has settled down and has decided to begin writing tales of his past adventures. Indy turns them down, but they ask his son Henry "Mutt" Jones III to do it - which he agrees to do. Indy is urged by Marion to go with him as Mutt might not be "up to the challenge". Reluctantly, Indy does go - but Indy senses something odd about this quest. It seems they might be on the wrong side... because whoever finds the sword will lead the world - an occupation that may be just too much for any one man.

After a search through the jungles of VietNam, Indy meets up with Chinese and Russian adventurers - also seeking the sword for their respective governments - through a series of chases - globe trotting - aboard subs, and a climatic ending at the North Pole - Indy recovers the sword - but when he realizes that President Kennedy is acting very "power" mad to obtain the sword - and when he gets it in his hands he acts insane and talks about ruling the world. Indy sees that he is almost in the same shoes as his old rival Belloq was - when Belloq was working for Hitler who was obsessed with finding the Ark. Indy confronts Kennedy and convinces him to release Excaliber. The two come to the realization that the sword is too powerful for anyone on earth to wield. Kennedy surrenders the sword agrees with doctor Jones and says he will just have to take his chances and run the country without any mystical power protecting him. He tells Indy it would take a man of with a :strong arm" and pure spirit to wield the sword of power and there is no one on Earth who can fit that bill. He assures Indy that Excaliber will be placed somewhere safe from mankind.

Indy returns to his home and Marion - he patches things up with Mutt - who agrees that treasure hunting is a bit much for him. We pass by years later as Indy is finishing one of his last adventure novels and he leaves it open as what the late President Kennedy did with Excaliber. Did he through it back into the sea/lake like the knights of old did when King Arthur died?

EPILOGUE:
We cut to the moon landing where Neil Armstrong is getting ready to leave the surface of the Moon and the sea of tranquility. He removes a long box from the landing craft and when asked by Buzz Aldrin "whats in the box" - he says he doesn't know but it was President Kennedy's wish that it be left on the moon away from the hands of man. Inside is the sword of King Arthur left to gather Moondust in a crater.

The End.
How is that for a far out story - George Lucas - call me! It would work in Harrison Ford's age - have a legendary artifact - tie in the space race and 1960s - and having Indy working for a "bad guy" would be a cool twist... If anyone wants to help me start writing the screenplay - shoot me an email -- what do you thing -- too far out? was I breathing in too much leaf dust?
 

YouNeverKnow

New member
Sweet! I don't know if I'm sold on having Indy and Kennedy meet but I guess if he was in the military it wouldn't be too farfetched. Love the globe-trotting, from jungle to arctic? Awesome. The character arcs seem interesting as well.
 

Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
Pretty good fate for Excalibur, you could also have the Apollo 8 or 10 crew jettison it on the far side of the moon. (Apollo 8 has more history.) The moon has lakes too, pick one!
 

RaiderMitch

TR.N Staff Member
I like that dark side of the moon idea. I was thinking of Indy and Marion sitting on a porch swing listening to the radio about the moon mission and Showing them gazing up at the full moon. And rolling the credits. Kind of like the sunset ending in last crusade. But this is a final good night indy. And end the series.
 

Attila the Professor

Moderator
Staff member
I rather like this. It's the sort of thing that some of us have been saying would bring the gap towards making the inevitable "first couple years of the '60s" context make sense. (I suppose Vietnam is involved because the French somehow made off with Excalibur, or knowledge of it, at some point?)

I'm concerned about the prominence of Kennedy, just because of how it might deal a blow of unreality; remember, at the very least, things usually <I>look</i> how we expect them to look. Would a Kennedy lookalike/soundalike be enough for the extent that he's needed? It's neither a total cameo, nor a part so substantial that an actor would be able to establish himself firmly in the part.

But, of course: that's sort of a silly concern. Conceptually, this is quite nice. And I've always liked the Indy being caught between the Reds and his own government angle for a Cold War story, with neither side deserving the artifact. Question: anyway that it would make sense for Indy to be responsible for destroying/getting rid of Excalibur? We haven't had that precise version of the loss yet, but we had it threatened the very first time around.
 

Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
Since possession of Excalibur is most associated with British sovereignty, your champagne villain (who meets no fate) seeking the sword could be Edward VIII who abdicated in 1937 due to a sex scandal and retreated to the Bahamas after being accused of having pro-Nazi sympathies.

I'd be tempted to set the finale at the assassination, but you're wise to hint at it delicately, as Kennedy recognizes the sword's powers but gives it up anyway.
Excalibur's scabbard was said to have powers of its own. Injuries from losses of blood, for example, would not kill the bearer. In some tellings, wounds received by one wearing the scabbard did not bleed at all.
Then Indy and Marion outdoors on a quiet night some years later (as in Space Cowboys) commenting on Kennedy's space goal nearly realized, cut to the astronauts on or above the moon ditching the sword, and roll credits! Needs a few more moving parts or course...
 

RaiderMitch

TR.N Staff Member
The whole Kennedy thing came into my head when I started thinking of how I heard he liked the Broadway show Camelot and took it further to him thinking he was King Arthur returned to save the world. And it puts indy in a difficult position to have to work against the "good guys". And considering how indy always loses the treasure anyway. Why not take it to the moon. Maybe he teams up with a former Nazi rocket scientist and that's who puts into the Apollo rocket and gets it off the earth. Since he saw how hitler acted and doesn't want to see any other wanna be world dictator happen again so he and indy get the sword off planet.
 

Col. Detritch

New member
That's pretty cool. I guess now you'll have to consider who the villain will be and where his allegiances lay politics wise. Considering the US hired Indy he shouldn?t be American IMO but I think a Briton would work and link to the English history of Excalibur. :D

The only concern I can raise, like Attila, is I feel the predominance of Kennedy might be a tiny bit of a stretch, especially the part where he becomes power mad. This could act as a bit of an anticlimax from your ending in the Arctic which has spectacular potential. But that?s just me. Anyway, good job Mitchell! :hat:
 

Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
If there's not enough plot for Excalibur and Indy 5 production proceeds at this pace, it could occur in the late 60's as the reel 1 MacGuffin...

The Bahamas, 1968. Open on a mountain-shaped cumulonimbus cloud, pull way back to reveal the spiral arms of Hurricane Gladys. A seaplane passes in the foreground. A few British officials, scholars and Indy take a small boat around to a deserted beach where an unmanned colonial ship has run ashore. They debate its origins (private collector, Bermuda Triangle?) as they climb aboard. The Royal Navy has identified it as a long lost courier of unspecified Crown Jewels, and tapped these few to discretely retrieve them. In the hold, they find hints of the Arthurian cargo, which has already been looted. The ship explodes and burns, Indy bails, others perish. The looters' trail leads to a stately Nassau mansion and cocktail party. Indy works and fights his way to the inner sanctum where the exiled Duchess of Windsor (the Morgana character here) clutches Excalibur. Indy takes pity and retrieves it.

200 miles away at Cape Canaveral, Florida, Indy is warmly greeted as he steps off the plane but doesn't notice his cargo being whisked away (at the request of Buckingham Palace). When he finally asks where it is, Apollo 8 blasts off in the distance. Days later, Marion by his side, Indy's in a funk as Jim Lovell, off the record, prepares to jettison the sword's cylinder in Lacus Oblivionis. Indy's had a few, grabs the microphone and argues with him over the radio before the module passes behind the moon. Higher ups take Indy aside to discuss a space-related matter of national security...

I think Tom Hanks is too old to reprise his role, but I like the 60's James Bond Caribbean locales.
 

Montana Smith

Active member
Let's face it, Indy's become a rubbish franchise. In 2008 he soiled his undies and those skidmarks just aren't going to wash out.

With George and Steven at the helm Indy'll just wear those undercrackers on the outside, Superman style, as he sets out to save the world again.
 

michael

Well-known member
KIND OF STRANGE...!

A few months after KOTCS came out, I had a dream about seeing the Last Crusade in a theater on a warm summer evening. It was pretty much everything like the movie, except at the very very end, it showed Indy going to the moon in outer space.

I left the theater thinking I really like the new take on the Last Crusade.

With that said, your idea is not half bad.

But Indy V is not being made. (would loved to be proved wrong here)
 

Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
Interesting, the ship that removed the former king form Europe was the SS Excalibur.
Churchill appointed the duke as the governor of the Bahamas, and on Aug. 1, 1940 the pair sailed from Lisbon aboard an American ship, The Excalibur. Ten cabins and a suite were taken by them, their staff, and their minders, displacing a number of other people anxious to escape from Europe to the United States.
 
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