Villains of Indy 5

What kind of villains do you want to see?

  • Cold War spies

    Votes: 8 24.2%
  • pirates

    Votes: 3 9.1%
  • bounty hunters

    Votes: 1 3.0%
  • Post-war nazis

    Votes: 9 27.3%
  • Somone else

    Votes: 12 36.4%

  • Total voters
    33

Kai Hagen

New member
The Cold War era Soviet Union doesn't ring a bell for me in the villain factor as much as the Nazis did before. The Nazis winning would've been a menace to a greater majority of the world. People like Gorbachev, Petrov, and the fact that Khrushchev backed down from the Cuban Missile Crisis made me lose my fear of the USSR. Maybe a Soviet villain film would've worked for me when the tensions during the Cold War were higher. What would've worked for me was if an early part of WWII era film was made depicting the Japanese navy. Japan had impressive planes, carriers, and battleships at this time. The Pacific would've been a new direction for this series. Too bad that another Indiana Jones movie wasn't made a few years after TLC was released when Harrison Ford had the energy.
 

seasider

Active member
Nazis hiding in Argentina sounds intriguing but

the fact that we've already had 2 movies where Indy has done stuff in South America is enough for me. I would be on board with evil Chinese baddies if it meant that we get to see grownup Shortround.
 

curmudgeon

Well-known member
Z dweller said:
If the movie is set in the 60s, I'd like to see Indy confront a shady organization, vying for world domination by exploiting the power of the macguffin du jour.

Some kind of sect or cult would also work for me, but a shady organization a la Bond would probably be more appropriate for the era.

The odds for this angle seem good.

Given Koepp's experience on the last two Dan Brown movies, a "secret society" that has an interest in religious and occult artifacts actually does't seem too left-field. It strikes me as the easiest option for the villains to have both an explainable motive for wanting an artifact and the means to provide expendable henchmen.

You could have that involve a rival archaeologist (a group like that would probably have one of their own) and could even use that angle to include a few SPECTRE/Bond-esque 60's-era spy pastiches.
 

Demi-Lune

New member
Kai Hagen said:
The Cold War era Soviet Union doesn't ring a bell for me in the villain factor as much as the Nazis did before. The Nazis winning would've been a menace to a greater majority of the world. People like Gorbachev, Petrov, and the fact that Khrushchev backed down from the Cuban Missile Crisis made me lose my fear of the USSR. Maybe a Soviet villain film would've worked for me when the tensions during the Cold War were higher.

I was always skeptical of them as villains in the run-up to KOTCS, but more because of the nature of the threat than the level of the threat.

The Nazis really *work* as Indy villains, not just in generic "well, we need an easily hateable villain, what's better than them?" kind of way but because they fit the stories like a glove. Fascism is all about the myths and legends of the past, and attempts to recreate them in the present, and that comes with plenty of interest in using history and archaeology to back your politics. If, in real life, Hitler had been told he might have a chance to recover the Ark or the Grail, I can totally imagine him taking it - for the symbolic value, if nothing else.

But the Soviet leadership? They'd just say "all right, so you found the city of the Lost Ark? Opium of the masses False consciousness. Dark ages rubbish. Just bulldoze the city and build some factories on the ruins." Writing themselves into the Grail legend just wasn't their kind of thing.

KOTCS makes this work via the shift to a more science-fiction oriented story, where the Sovs' presence actually works. Then again, a lot of people found that shift itself to be weird and not necessarily for the best.
 

Demi-Lune

New member
curmudgeon said:
Given Koepp's experience on the last two Dan Brown movies, a "secret society" that has an interest in religious and occult artifacts actually does't seem too left-field. It strikes me as the easiest option for the villains to have both an explainable motive for wanting an artifact and the means to provide expendable henchmen.

You could have that involve a rival archaeologist (a group like that would probably have one of their own) and could even use that angle to include a few SPECTRE/Bond-esque 60's-era spy pastiches.

The SPECTRE type villain is another iconic thing from this time period that my first instinct would be to say is very different from Indy's usual shtick... but actually, having read this idea, I think it could really work! SPECTRE-ish group that's also a Dan-Brown-ish society is basically what SD-6 was in "Alias" with the Rambaldi obsession. You could even work it into the villains' story that most of them are into the usual spy-era plots involving high tech gizmos and stolen nukes, but other factions there still think the real power should be found in the supernatural.
 

DoomsdayFAN

Member
The Man said:
Other, namely Satanists.

This would actually be great, but it'd be dumb to even go there if Spielberg was just gonna keep things light, which you know he will. This would be the type of villain that would warrant the story going almost pitch black at times. I think current-Spielberg is far too soft for that kinda stuff anymore.
 

IndyBuff

Well-known member
I'd like to see another rival similar to Belloq. It might be nice to see a smaller villain who uses their own resources to win at any cost.
 

seasider

Active member
When you think of movies of the 60's, you think of James Bond and the types of villains you had in those movies and you also had the age of the Spaghetti Western. Both genres have a strong influence on what we knows as Indiana Jones.

I think we will see some of that influence on whatever villain they come up with in Indy 5.
 

Kai Hagen

New member
I don't think the Chinese Communists would be the villains in this movie. The large market in mainland China is too important for Hollywood. Look what happened to Red Dawn. While in post-production, the villains were changed from China to North Korea in order to maintain access to China's box office. After the Sony hackings, I get the feeling that the North Koreans won't appear as the villains in any future US movies for a long time either.
 

TheFedora

Active member
IndyBuff said:
I'd like to see another rival similar to Belloq. It might be nice to see a smaller villain who uses their own resources to win at any cost.

Thinking this too. Could be similar to the looting type of villain I said I wanted to see a few months back. Villain be leader of an organized looting ring, on mission to collect rare antiquities for the rich artifact collectors... and they are willing to do anything in search of that huge payday.
 
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