How did Indy clear his name?

Crack that whip

New member
DocWhiskey said:
Completely different case, but Indy is always supposed to be in the same adventure gear, but if he survived a nuclear explosion and was scrubbed down , wouldn't his gear be considered radioactive and be destroyed? You mean to tell me the fedora from Area 51 is the same as in Akator? Hmmmm...

Violet Indy said:
Maybe Indy's just got a closet full of khaki shirts, pants, leather jackets and fedoras both brown and grey? Kind of like Batman in the old TV series has a spare suit in the Batmobile? :p It would explain why the hat has been so good to not lose it's shape (alright, alright each film had a different hat but you get idea).

Jokes aside, yeah, I did think about that when I saw the film.

Actually, I've long assumed he does indeed have a whole slew of those same shirts and pants, and also has had more than one or two of the jackets and hats in his adventuring career. In fact, we know most of those items have been replaced, given all the damage we've seen them take in previous installments - back of shirt lashed open when whipped, sleeve torn off shirt, hole torn in knee of pants leg, bullet holes in left sleeves of shirt and jacket, etc.; he's even had a substantial hole burned through the side of his shoulder bag, so at the very least it's been extensively patched, if not replaced entirely. Moreover, even putting aside the extreme stresses his adventuring puts on his clothing and gear, a single copy of an outfit is just not going to last forever if somebody wears it on a regular basis for a period of 22 years or more.
 

Indy's Fist

New member
Indy goes to a clothes shop in England and buys the same items as he became very attached to them over the years.
 
Like Brundlefly and his famous influence, he has a closet full of extras. Takes the worry out of thinking about what to wear. It's utility and he can spend his time thinking of things that matter.

Like if Marion will still be with him...

Think about the money he probably saved buying in bulk!

Indy didn't clear his name, but we are meant to think he did...

Only well written scripts are so precise.
 
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Indy's Fist

New member
Rocket Surgeon said:
Like Brundlefly and his famous influence, he has a closet full of extras. Takes the worry out of thinking about what to wear. It's utility and he can spend his time thinking of things that matter.

Like if Marion will still be with him...

Think about the money he probably saved buying in bulk!

Indy didn't clear his name, but we are meant to think he did...

Only well written scripts are so precise.

Nice SW referrence! But even Raiders didn't explain many things either and that really was a great script. Besides if they explained everything then we'd have many folks crying that Lucas & Spielberg were force feeding us, so go figure.
 
Indy's Fist said:
Nice SW referrence! But even Raiders didn't explain many things either and that really was a great script. Besides if they explained everything then we'd have many folks crying that Lucas & Spielberg were force feeding us, so go figure.

I'd like to think Raiders unanswered questions were a bit more philosophical then convenient.

Funny thing is, the exposition in Raiders was pretty concise and moved the story along without being patronizing.

Needless to say I point this out because I think Crystal Skull to be the opposite...ham handed and spoon-fed.
 

Jones_Happens

New member
Such details are rarely ever rebvealed in a film like this. It is quite common to cut from the action to a nice, clean ending without a lot of exposition.
 

HJJNR

New member
DocWhiskey said:
Completely different case, but Indy is always supposed to be in the same adventure gear, but if he survived a nuclear explosion and was scrubbed down , wouldn't his gear be considered radioactive and be destroyed? You mean to tell me the fedora from Area 51 is the same as in Akator? Hmmmm...

I wonder the same thing when Beloch takes his "gear" in Raiders; gun, whip (satchel?) but hey ho its all there when he takes off for Tibet.

One thing that got me about KOTCS is that when he and Mac were taken by the ruskies, did Indy leave his jacket at the site he was taken from? Because it magically appears again when he and Mutt take off...

I've probably (once again) repeated what others have said lol!
 

Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
Wilhelm said:
Maybe they go back to the jungle camp and bring back the Roswell alien for the warehouse.
Perhaps he stopped by the FBI on his way to the Smithsonian with the alien remains, and bargained for his and Stanforth's reinstatement. But would Indy surrender the "find of a lifetime" for a couple of old academics? What if he kept the smaller crystal skull as collateral?
 

Pale Horse

Moderator
Staff member
Moedred said:
Perhaps he stopped by the FBI on his way to the Smithsonian with the alien remains, and bargained for his and Stanforth's reinstatement. But would Indy surrender the "find of a lifetime" for a couple of old academics? What if he kept the smaller crystal skull as collateral?

Don't forget the historical find of Francisco de Orellana's resting place.
 

Udvarnoky

Well-known member
The FBI basically dismissed Indy's entire decorated war record under the protests of a general they apparently trusted, so I don't know why finding the corpse of conquistadors would impress them.

It is interesting to think what became of Spalko's Amazon encampment, though. Somebody must have been left behind at camp, like that scientist seen monitoring Indy during the skull staring scene. I figure he evaporated along with David Koepp's interest in tying up loose ends.

The "movies of this sort don't dwell on exposition" excuse is laughable, by the way. The first act of the film makes a point of showing us that the scrutiny Indy is under is so severe that he has to split for Germany. There's not sweating the details and then there's the wholesale abandonment of a subplot you devoted substantial screentime setting up. That's lazy for any movie.
 
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Attila the Professor

Moderator
Staff member
Udvarnoky said:
The FBI basically dismissed Indy's entire decorated war record under the protests of a general they apparently trusted, so I don't know why finding the corpse of conquistadors would impress them.

It is interesting to think what became of Spalko's Amazon encampment, though. Somebody must have been left behind at camp, like that scientist seen monitoring Indy during the skull staring scene. I figure he evaporated along with David Koepp's interest in tying up loose ends.

The "movies of this sort don't dwell on exposition" excuse is laughable, by the way. The first act of the film makes a point of showing us that the scrutiny Indy is under is so severe that he has to split for Germany. There's not sweating the details and then there's the wholesale abandonment of a subplot you devoted substantial screentime setting up. That's lazy for any movie.

To further support your point: not just Germany, but Leipzig, in East Germany, that is, behind the Iron Curtain. We're to believe that no one in the first world was willing to cut Indy a break? That the scrutiny he was under was that extreme, and that widespread? Or, at the very least, that Indy figured he wouldn't be safe in an allied nation? That seems a bit much.
 

Udvarnoky

Well-known member
He says "Heinrich owes me a favor," so it could just be that he knows he has a friend there. I did appreciate the reminder that Indy has friends all over the world.

What's funny about dropping the government paranoia subplot is that Mutt would have still tracked Indy down either way. So given that they were going nowhere with the FBI suspicion angle, why bother with giving it such emphasis? You could still have stuff like the picketing on campus, to keep the Red Scare element as part of the backdrop.

Thing is, I don't have a problem with the federal witch hunt stuff being more about theme than plot, but you can't just not bother to address Indy's dramatically different circumstances at the end versus the beginning. It's noticeable when you don't resolve the dilemma you set up with a vengeance earlier.
 

Pale Horse

Moderator
Staff member
Udvarnoky said:
The FBI basically dismissed Indy's entire decorated war record under the protests of a general they apparently trusted, so I don't know why finding the corpse of conquistadors would impress them. (much more text I'm too lazy to type) ...

I like you, but sometimes you're too damn eloquent and verbose. :)

"Fed's don't like circumstantial evidence."

5 words.

Done.

LOL

But your point is made.
 

Attila the Professor

Moderator
Staff member
Just spitballin' here...

Pale Horse said:
I like you, but sometimes you're too damn eloquent and verbose. :)

"Fed's don't like circumstantial evidence."

They might when it suits them.

While anything Indy might know about the government's nefarious dealings are, ultimately, rendered moot by their knowledge of his exploits, this case might be different in that Indy, whatever else may be true, played a role in getting rid of an embarrassing blot on the US government, the incursion of a small Soviet expedition not only into the Western hemisphere, but onto a secret American base, involving concealed evidence of extraterrestrials. That's at least a couple strikes against the feds.

Indy's a bit famous within his world, and as Indy's public persona does not appear to be one that publicizes his more esoteric finds, he might be legitimate enough for any public claims he makes about the crystal skull misadventure to carry some weight.

I think Indy believes in keeping secrets, but maybe he could play the potential whistleblower, coupled with what glimmers of (mostly hearsay) evidence he actually has, to clear his name?
 
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