It's not old. Great posts, this is the place for them.NLogan said:Sorry to resurrect an old thread
According to Indiana Jones The Ultimate Guide,on pages 60 and 61,it shows an illustration of the temple and on page 61 has the explanation for this,saying that there is a prismatic crystal that directs and intensifies a beam of light.I think when it says it's directing a beam of light,it is talking about directing the light of the sun,which means it wouldn't be an active booby trap at night.But it doesn't matter,because that temple has all those other booby traps.Junior Jones said:Where does the light that keeps the trap from activating come from? If it is an outside light, what happens at night, or for that matter, on a cloudy day, or if a plant grows over the opening which provides the light?
Quoted from the link: "This is a supposed copy of a production illustration of the Chachapoyyan Temple layout from Raiders of the Lost Ark. You can see the boulder, the spikes, the pit and the idol sanctuary."Moedred said:The Ultimate Guide's quadruple crossbow looked ridiculous. Here's another illustration. It's fanciful but not much more accurate.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/99667814@N00/130552417
Mickiana said:But what triggers the cam system? Tesla pioneered the transmission of energy without wires. Maybe, just maybe, the light energy held a mechanism in a balanced state and any interruption to the light beam put the balance out thus triggering the spikes to move. This is implying advanced technology and of course Tesla was not working in South America even though he was alive in 1936. Maybe the same people who oversaw the construction of the temple also collaborated with Tesla, or he collaborated with them. I cannot imagine exactly what the technology or mechanism might be, but maybe someone can extrapolate?
Mickiana said:But what triggers the cam system? Tesla pioneered the transmission of energy without wires. Maybe, just maybe, the light energy held a mechanism in a balanced state and any interruption to the light beam put the balance out thus triggering the spikes to move. This is implying advanced technology and of course Tesla was not working in South America even though he was alive in 1936. Maybe the same people who oversaw the construction of the temple also collaborated with Tesla, or he collaborated with them. I cannot imagine exactly what the technology or mechanism might be, but maybe someone can extrapolate?
Mickiana said:That's exactly what I was thinking, but I was waiting for someone else to say it.
Rocket Surgeon said:The Shaft of Light had nothing to do with the operation of the machine. It was merely a clue to the peril, (and maybe just a burrow which led to some hungry animal with a nose to it's stinky buffet ) or manner to deceive the warrior trying to pass the test.
The actual "trip wire" was something similar to the pressure plates in the corridor leading to and surrounding the idol's altar.
Montana Smith said:Rocket, that's what I thought the other day, until I re-watched that scene.
Indy didn't tread on anything. He stopped before entering the light, waited, then thrust his hand into the light. The trap then activated immediately. The trigger was his breaking the light with his hand.
Rocket Surgeon said:He passed to the side of the light opposite of Satipo I believe, and in doing do triggered the trap, the correlation and timing of breaking the light and springing the trap is the coincidence I "supposed". Ever been surprised by an old rubber band breaking? Depending on it's condition it can be difficult to predict the "minimum breaking distance."
Let's go further and say the actual trigger plate is the ENTIRE section of the floor wall to wall and almost as long as the pit...
As coincidence goes it's not as far fetched as Indy getting the hat the whip the scar the fear of snakes...etc in the give or take 15-30 minutes of his life that make up the prologue of Last Crusade, or to take Raiders as stand alone it's not as far fetched as skitching on the sub.
I don't think they did either...Montana Smith said:Anything's possible, Rocket, as I don't think Lucas had figured out the mechanism. It's pulp so coincidence and a far-fetched plot are taken as a given. They go with the territory.
Absolutely, I'm merely thinking of less "otherworldy explanations". I look at it this way: it's obvious as a first time viewer that Indy is working from an greater level of understanding, (of the culture/the technology/his cohorts) and Harrison gives the impression that the gears are always working, (his brain, not the trap that is!) and that everything is potentially lethal always came across to me, not that he KNEW what exactly, but that he knew SOMETHING was amiss.Montana Smith said:The thing that strikes me, though, is that Indy was aware that the light was the danger. The moment he put his hand into it, the trap sprung.
I'm with you on it "keeping us in the dark" so to say, it never struck me as otherworldly, but it did leave me with questions. Questions I thought would be worth the explanation, explanations we never got!Montana Smith said:It's the first instance in an Indiana Jones film of something that appears otherworldly. From that moment on the audience doesn't know what to expect.
Well, they danced along the tenuous line of plausibility always striving to remain believable while stretching credulity...which probably helps the "punch" of the Ark. Unfortunately, in my estimation, they abandoned that position in each subsequent outing in concept through execution. That emotion the Cobra elicits vs that damn fake snake in crusade...uck. So Skull was the "Comfy Chair" they tortured us with?Montana Smith said:Now that we can look at them in hindsight, after four movies, a TV series, and lots of books, we know what to expect (more or less, but as with Monty Python's Spanish Inquistion, nobody expects a fridge!)
Rocket Surgeon said:Harrison gives the impression that the gears are always working, (his brain, not the trap that is!) and that everything is potentially lethal always came across to me, not that he KNEW what exactly, but that he knew SOMETHING was amiss.
Rocket Surgeon said:...it never struck me as otherworldly, but it did leave me with questions. Questions I thought would be worth the explanation, explanations we never got!.
Rocket Surgeon said:Well, they danced along the tenuous line of plausibility always striving to remain believable while stretching credulity...which probably helps the "punch" of the Ark. Unfortunately, in my estimation, they abandoned that position in each subsequent outing in concept through execution. That emotion the Cobra elicits vs that damn fake snake in crusade...uck. So Skull was the "Comfy Chair" they tortured us with?
Well I belong to the two intersecting subsets that remain politically correct to belittle, The Irish and the Catholic. As Frued observed: "This is one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever", because we don't care what you think. I don't get offended easily, although I easy offend if you catch my meaning.Montana Smith said:This is where I seem to differ from majority opinion. KOTCS didn't offend me, as I'd initially expected it would.
I always liked the way they tempered the mythology: the power of God or something, and if you believe in that sort of thing.Montana Smith said:When I look at all four films now, they form a complete world. It's not the same world we exist in, but one where much more is possible. Raiders used to bother me as it asked me to believe in God. Then Last Crusade asked me to believe that Jesus was the son of God. All the while I really liked the character of Indy, so I went with it.
I hear ya, but to the faithfull, God may as well have created the Interdimentional beings too.Montana Smith said:Now we have KOTCS everything falls nicely into place - I don't mind believing in inter-dimensional beings, as Raiders no longer has God and Last Crusade no longer has the son of God's cup. And to top it all, these inter-dimensionals also explain the light trap to me. All the while the character of Indy has remained constant.
Rocket Surgeon said:Well I belong to the two intersecting subsets that remain politically correct to belittle, The Irish and the Catholic. As Freud observed: "This is one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever", because we don't care what you think. I don't get offended easily, although I easy offend if you catch my meaning.
Rocket Surgeon said:I hear ya, but to the faithfull, God may as well have created the Interdimentional beings too.
But this is where we diverge, Indy to me has always dealt with historical mythologies, not current pop culture interpretations, (opening up can of worms ). ... I remain in the "Alien story disappointed me" camp. But it was great to see Indy again.