Booby Traps!

wolfgang

New member
Hello Raven members and Indy Fans. I'm kinda new here and I believe this is the right place to discuss what's bothering me.
I'll start by saying that I love love love Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. So here's my problem: My favorite part on all the other 3 films is when he has to outwit a series of Booby traps. Those are:

Raiders- The Idol temple at the beginning.
Temple- The bugs/spikes tunnel
Crusade- The temple to get to the Holy Grail.

My question is, which scene in do you guys/girls consider to be the "Booby Trap" scene in KoCS. The graveyard, where he solves some puzzles??? The Alien pyramid at the end??? Just would like to hear your thoughts on it 'cause I found it was kinda missing. Thanks.

(By the way, like many of you, my favorite scene in this one is the beginning. From the Paramount logo to the mushroom cloud.).
 

wolfgang

New member
Yeah, I guess. The sad thing is that I don't consider there to have that many. And I know there are a bunch of Booby traps throughout the film, but I still feel ther's something missing.
 

Dr.Jonesy

Well-known member
wolfgang said:
Yeah, I guess. The sad thing is that I don't consider there to have that many. And I know there are a bunch of Booby traps throughout the film, but I still feel ther's something missing.

I feelt the retracting stairs was good enough. There could've always been more. But oh well. What can you do?

The spike room owns, though!
(y)
 

wolfgang

New member
Yeah, I think the retracting stairs were awesome!!! And it got me into a "Yeah, now the more are coming." ANd then....nothing. That's just the way I felt. It doesn't make me hate the movie! But thanks for letting me know how you guys see this!
 

Dr.Jonesy

Well-known member
wolfgang said:
Yeah, I think the retracting stairs were awesome!!! And it got me into a "Yeah, now the more are coming." ANd then....nothing. That's just the way I felt. It doesn't make me hate the movie! But thanks for letting me know how you guys see this!

It could've used at least one more.

But it doesn't bother me really.
 

WrathofGod

New member
yeah i guess the stairs were the booby trap, but when you compare the tension created inside the temple in Raiders or the room of spikes in Doom or even the more deadly puzzle based booby traps in Crusade, the retracting stairs come a resounding last as far as tension and suspense go, for me at least.

I don't really consider the entrance to the graveyards tomb much fodder as it was a very easy thing for Indiana Jones to solve, like flicking on a light switch.
 

Dr.Jonesy

Well-known member
WrathofGod said:
yeah i guess the stairs were the booby trap, but when you compare the tension created inside the temple in Raiders or the room of spikes in Doom or even the more deadly puzzle based booby traps in Crusade, the retracting stairs come a resounding last as far as tension and suspense go, for me at least.

I don't really consider the entrance to the graveyards tomb much fodder as it was a very easy thing for Indiana Jones to solve, like flicking on a light switch.

The Raiders temple had the same amount of tension as the retracting stairs.

The spike room had quite some tension.

But the 3 challenges in Last Crusade makes my palms sweat. The tension there is higher than in any other booby trap.
 

Violet

Moderator Emeritus
Dr.Jonesy said:
The Raiders temple had the same amount of tension as the retracting stairs.

The spike room had quite some tension.

But the 3 challenges in Last Crusade makes my palms sweat. The tension there is higher than in any other booby trap.

The three challenges worked extremely well because Henry Snr was dying. I feel the Spike chamber also worked very well, again because there was a geniune threat to Indy and Shorty, not only because of the spikes, but they were depending on Willie, someone who really was a fish out of water and was in a room full of disgusting bugs crawling all over her in the dark.

The Raiders temple works better than the stairs to me, because of the poison darts and the boulder as Indy runs out of the temple. The first walkthrough of the temple, is quite tame. The stairs are pretty impressive in terms of it's scale and puzzle at the top but I felt very little tension. I guess I would have "raised the stakes" like Rollins had in his novelisation, by Marion's fear of heights, though it wouldn't have made much logical sense after the rubber tree and three times it drops (in any case, I would have rubbed out the rubber tree altogether).

I always feel there was a lot of missed oppotunity in the graveyard scene. Playing on Mutt's fish out of water.
 

TheLastCrusader

Active member
Violet Indy said:
The three challenges worked extremely well because Henry Snr was dying. I feel the Spike chamber also worked very well, again because there was a geniune threat to Indy and Shorty, not only because of the spikes, but they were depending on Willie, someone who really was a fish out of water and was in a room full of disgusting bugs crawling all over her in the dark.

The Raiders temple works better than the stairs to me, because of the poison darts and the boulder as Indy runs out of the temple. The first walkthrough of the temple, is quite tame. The stairs are pretty impressive in terms of it's scale and puzzle at the top but I felt very little tension. I guess I would have "raised the stakes" like Rollins had in his novelisation, by Marion's fear of heights, though it wouldn't have made much logical sense after the rubber tree and three times it drops (in any case, I would have rubbed out the rubber tree altogether).
I agree, the "retracting stairs" is not nearly as suspenseful as any any of the earlier booby traps. Though I think they intended to raise the tension by having the arguably slow and *older* Ox in the front with Indy screaming "move, Ox!" which was for the better, but still it doesn't come close to the fingernail biting tension of the spike chamber scene.

I always feel there was a lot of missed oppotunity in the graveyard scene. Playing on Mutt's fish out of water.
Definitely agree. So much opportunities. They could've really went to the max, by putting both their lives at stake or something. This scene is just so underwhelming. At this point of the movie we've already seen Indy survive a nuclear blast for chirst's sake!
 

Ska

New member
I feel that someone needed to die on the retracting staircase. Mac wasn't really needed after that point, so he could have fell into the spike pit and met his doom. This would have given the stairs more of a booby trap feel.

I also enjoyed KOTCS, but I feel like the retracting stairs are another example of having a good set piece, but not knowing what to do with it or how to use it to it's fullest potential (the jungle cutter being another).

It's like the set makers came up to Lucas and Spielberg and said, "We made this awesome staircase thingy and this tank-like jungle cutter with huge spinning blades." And Spielberg replies, "Woah! That's awesome! Now what do we do with them?"
 

TheLastCrusader

Active member
Ska said:
I feel that someone needed to die on the retracting staircase. Mac wasn't really needed after that point, so he could have fell into the spike pit and met his doom. This would have given the stairs more of a booby trap feel.
The plot needed Mac. Because because of him, the commies find the location of the alien chamber.
This proves where the problem of the 3rd act is really at.
 

WeAreGoingToDie

New member
Whenever I hear "booby traps" all I think of is this scene:

JR-jessicarabbit-boobytrap1.png

JR-jessicarabbit-boobytrap2.png
 

wolfgang

New member
I love the last Crusade Booby Traps, and I agree with Violet and Dr. Jonesy that it has a lot of tension. My favorite is when they have to actually choose a cup and then Donovan dies. And that's the thing, in Raiders someone dies, in Crusade, someone dies, in Temple, no one dies, but it makes you sweat! On Kingdom nobody dies....the should have had a commie with them at least to fall into the spikes. It didn't even have to be Mac. By the way, I love the pictures, WeAreGoingtoDIe!
 

Violet

Moderator Emeritus
WeAreGoingToDie said:
Whenever I hear "booby traps" all I think of is this scene:

LMAO!! When I hear 'booby traps', I think of Data in the Goonies saying the word, 'booby traps' and falling into that pit of spikes just to be saved by a cord with trick teeth.

Anyway... what's silly about Ox being the tension, is that he's only meant to be a couple of years older than Indy! Maybe being hypnotised by the skull was meant to build that tension?

And someone did die in ToD.... Mola Ram died from burning his hand on the Sankara Stone and lose grip falling to his death. Technically that's a booby trap in a small way.
 

Nurhachi1991

Well-known member
I consider the Ugha Warriors living booby traps because if some unsuspecting person randomly walked in there they would be killed in seconds.
 

wolfgang

New member
HEY! Nurhachi, you are right! I think you made me found a wa to be able to sleep at night! Hmm, considering that the ants are a booby trap, we could say that its the Ants, then the 3 waterfall, then the Ugha Warriors, then a puzzle (the bricks) that lead to the falling ground, that leads to the retracting stairs, the final booby trap that should have lasted longer. I still think some Russians should've been killed at least by the warriors then or somehow.
 

wolfgang

New member
And someone did die in ToD.... Mola Ram died from burning his hand on the Sankara Stone and lose grip falling to his death. Technically that's a booby trap in a small way.[/QUOTE said:
I know you wrote this quite a while ago, but anyway, I too would consider the glowing Shankara Stone a Booby Trap, but its not part of THE Booby Trap scene in the movie. Just like the quicksand in Crystal Skull. Yes, its a Booby trap, but its not included in THE booby trap scene of the movie....nevermind....I think too much about these things maybe.
 

James

Well-known member
I think there's a fine line between "booby trap" and "cliffhanger". Most people really aren't that interested in the actual trap (or rather, the mechanics of it), so much as watching Indy try to get out of it.

To this end, I think the best "trap" in KOTCS was Doom Town.
 

TheLastCrusader

Active member
wolfgang said:
I know you wrote this quite a while ago, but anyway, I too would consider the glowing Shankara Stone a Booby Trap, but its not part of THE Booby Trap scene in the movie. Just like the quicksand in Crystal Skull. Yes, its a Booby trap, but its not included in THE booby trap scene of the movie....nevermind....I think too much about these things maybe.
Yes, you seem like a real thinker :hat:

:rolleyes:
 
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