I remarked to my friend that in the first 15 minutes of the film they covered all the major plot points of the first 3 films. It's a glib remark, and not quite one that'd stand up to examination, but you get what I'm saying. Fight with a chain on some sort of vehicle? Tank chase! Mac's betrayal? "Because he didn't take my advice." The warehouse? The warehouse. The Ark? The Ark. Helping out the enemy? "As what? A Nazi stooge like you?" And opening the film with a popular song sure is fun.
It's the games that really come through a bit. Spalko's psychic powers and eventual standing on a platform and coming face to face with a force less benign than she expected? Very Fate of Atlantis. The trap when they're running down the temple on the receding platforms, to say nothing of the interdimensional idea? Infernal Machine. Hell, even the throne room with crazy things going on with heads and things coming to life that shouldn't is somewhat suggestive of Emperor's Tomb.
Maybe it's just because it's the fourth one in a film series and even farther down the line for those of us who know Indy in other media, but so many things seemed familiar, and not just as if they were going according to formula. I wonder how many were conscious and how many were not.