A lot of superstitions, "hocus-pocus"?

Gear

New member
This is my reasoning

Well, I've said this before on similar threads and I think it works. Indiana was a man of the 1930's, Spiritualism had just gone out. It was considered uneducated to believe in such "childish" things. The common answer to such "hocus-pocus" was "If I can see it and touch it then it is real."

Although mystical things had happened to him, Indy brushed them off as being "explainable through logical occurance".
 

Kooshmeister

New member
What I wanna know is why Temple of Doom was made into a prequel anyway. Apart from the title saying the date, I can't think of anything in it that suggests it takes place prior to Raiders, and in fact, it was years before I even figured out it's supposed to be a prequel.
 

The Drifter

New member
Kooshmeister said:
What I wanna know is why Temple of Doom was made into a prequel anyway. Apart from the title saying the date, I can't think of anything in it that suggests it takes place prior to Raiders, and in fact, it was years before I even figured out it's supposed to be a prequel.

LMAO!
I'm right there with you. When I was a wee lad, my dad first got me into Indiana Jones. I never knew ToD was a prequel either (Hey, I was like 7, I did not read the text that said the year!).
My dad told me it took place before Raiders.

Like you said, they could have made it a true sequel taking place AFTER Raiders.
It would have made more sense that way IMO.
 

Kingsley

Member
Well, we were gonna have it that Abner taught Indy to keep a 'sceptical' point of view when in professional company. You know, 'keep this stuff under your hat, people will think you're crazy...etc'
Well, Marcus isn't "professional company"... he is a close friend, a confident. If Indy can't talk with him about his true feelings, then he almost has nobody else.
 

AnImaginaryBoy

Active member
The thing I find a little bit of a struggle about that bit of dialogue from Indy is the reference to his mother. From what I heard, Indy's Mum died of scarlett fever when he was a child, and that was one of the things that drove the wedge between himself and his father, and while I'm not saying it wouldn't happen, but to refer to her in such an offhand, half joking way doesn't seem to fit in with what we presume to be a particularly painful memory for Indy. Or maybe I'm just talking out of my bum.
 

eroc

New member
Lonsome_Drifter said:
If Indy thought the heart-ripping was just a trick, why did he try so hard to cover his own heart while climbing the bridge?

Also, did you ever notice how Short Round was the one who gave Mola Ram the idea of going for Indy's heart?
"Cover your heart Indy! Cover your heart!" Then Mola Ram, was like "Hey, good idea!"


It's like when people who aren't religious find God on their deathbed. Better safe than sorry, right?
 

Uki

Member
That (what AnImaginaryBoy posted) does make sense, but (and I speak from personal experience, as my little sister passed away five years ago now) it is not unheard of to refer to a close relative who has died in an offhand, half-joking manner. Our family always refers to her: "Oh, you sound just like Kelly," or "That was a Kelly-move." It's those little references that keep her memory alive.

Now, as to an "In-World" explanation as to the hocus-pocus remark, I certainly don't agree that it's impossible. That's an awfully negative and defeatist attitude. Indy went through some crazy stuff in India in '35. Perhaps he told Marcus about it, perhaps he didn't. I can't say that if I had experienced voodoo and possession on my trip (Why did you end up at Pankot during a trip to China?), that I would tell my best friend. If I were Indy, I would've recommended that Willie and Shorty keep mum on the subject. (Who's going to hire the wacko singer or adopt the loony toon kid who claim to have seen all of that?)
Also, it's entirely plausible that A) Indy is being sarcastic and B) he's trying not to let Marcus Psyche him out. (Yeah, I survived some Satanic cult in India, but, having been brought up under Henry Jones, Sr, I'm not trifling with the powers of the Ark of the mother-jumpin' Covenant!):whip:
 

Dust McAlan

New member
I was thinking about this long and hard not too long ago, and my best guestimation is this: in Indiana's line of work, there's a lot of tall tales and there's a lot of truths. Just because something is said to have spiritual or mystical powers doesn't mean that it really existed and/or has said powers. There's a lot of fakers trying to pass off objects and items as actual objects of God or Kali or Bhudda or what have you, so for Indy, just because this object is considered a holy relic with awesome powers does not, in fact, mean that that actually is true. The Bible was written some 2000 plus years ago, the text of Bhudda was written X-number of centuries ago, Siva's tale was written X-number of years ago....who's to say who embellished what?

That said, Indy walks into finding an artefact the same way every time: I've seen some weird stuff in my time, but that doesn't mean that the (insert artefact) has the powers of (insert powers).
 

thelaw

New member
He started off in TOD as a sceptic, seeing the Sankara Stones as "fortune and glory." But by the end, because of all he had seen, he had more respect and belief in their powers, and in powers related to them.

However, the rational mind will often try to find a logical explanantion. On Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a sceptical character described seeing a group vampires drinking blood as seeing a gang with messed-up faces. Granted this is a very extreme and unrealistic example, but it does illustrate the point that, given enough time removed from the incident, how strong one's belief in the supernatural, etc, eventually Indy might have remembered the events as: "Perhaps the external light reflected from the diamonds, giving the illusion of an internal light source. Perhaps indeed the 'Black Sleep of Kali' was simply the result of a hallucinogenic. Perhaps that same hallucinogen was piped into the air of that Thuggee temple to make us all believe we had seen Mola Ram rip the heart out of a still-living man. Perhaps seasonal change caused the crops to once again grow in that village."

Just like, in such a short time, Indy came to believe in the power of the stones, he could almost as quickly, rationalize himself out of those same beliefs. In some ways that rationalization could even reinforce his skepticism, easily leading him to disbelief in "hocus-pocus."

By TLC, we see that he must again learn to believe during the final "Path of God" challenge (the look on his face is priceless when he realizes he must take that first step on faith alone:D )
 

Young Indy

New member
You also have to consider the other adventures of Indiana Jones before 1936. The comics, the books, and the YIJ "Masks of Evil" which all have supernatural elements to them. In my mind I have always thought Indy was trying to put Marcus at ease about this up coming adventure. Clearly Brody was worried about Indy and he told him that magic and stuff doesn't really exist to put the old mans fears at rest. Indy knows they do though clearly.
 

Sam Falco

New member
I think the fact is that Indy's personality really is quite diverse depending on what environment he's in. When he's in "Indiana" mode, he's badass, fearless and willing to do whatever it takes to win (even if he DOESNT win every time). When he's in Dr. Henry Jones mode (his secret identity), hes a rational professor who strictly adheres to the things he teaches, this is made evident by the fact that in Raiders, the things he's telling the kids in his class directly contradict the events we JUST saw him parttaking in moments before in the film. Its also evident in Last Crusade when they more blatantly show it in the "X never, EVER, marks the spot" sequence. When he's in "Junior" mode, around his father, he's unsure of himself and oftentimes tries to compensate to try to prove himself to his father.

The point is, Indy is a very contradicted character and is oftentimes at war with himself. Obviously, continuity within the movies is explainable in a RATIONAL way because one was made AFTER the other, but if you wanna talk about the lore of the "Jones" world, this is the most likely explanation. Indy is a sort of superhero, so he has alternate personalities.

cheers :hat:
 

Major West

Member
Indy"Ale" Jones said:
Hmmm well seems to me he not only was poisoned and turned evil temporarily, but I seem to remember a certain Indy shaped voodoo doll that messed him up pretty bad during the big fight. I don't know about you all but I think that would make me somewhat of a believer. Thoughts?

Because Temple was made after Raiders, they couldn't go back and change the dialogue.:hat:
 

Dust McAlan

New member
Montana_Jones said:
He said that as he was packing his Webley.:gun:
Probably because he was remembering the Terra Cotta warriors he faced in the Emperor's Tomb, and how he didn't have a gun when he really needed one while facing the Thuggee guards on the rope bridge, and.....
 

Dust McAlan

New member
...and let's not forget what happened in the Tomb of the Gods, which, er, well we haven't read that yet, not to mention what happened in 1933 with the Philospher's Stone, and....
 
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