Which movie had the best traps?

No Ticket

New member
Raiders Hovitos Temple. By Far. Besides the light trap and the infamous boulder, many forget about the genius golden idol trap. A weight-focused trap. Awesome. If you read that Complete Indiana Jones (or whatever it's called) book it gives you a diagram of the temple and how it's traps work. The walls and structure of the temple are held in place and when the golden idol trap is tripped it causes these pillars or what-not holding everything in place to fall and make the temple fall apart.

It's really awesome.

But not to be outdone, LC and TOD are pretty awesome. Spike Room and the "Leap of Faith" (which isn't really a trap but it's cool none-the-less). Something KOTCS was missing. A really elaborate and cool temple trap. Yeah yeah, the stairs thing... but that wasn't nowhere near as cool.
 

Benraianajones

New member
No Ticket said:
But not to be outdone, LC and TOD are pretty awesome. Spike Room and the "Leap of Faith" (which isn't really a trap but it's cool none-the-less). Something KOTCS was missing. A really elaborate and cool temple trap. Yeah yeah, the stairs thing... but that wasn't nowhere near as cool.

I really wish that retracing stairs portion lasted longer, no sooner than it started, it ended. But the idea was a good one.
 

NLogan

Member
No Ticket said:
Raiders Hovitos Temple. By Far. Besides the light trap and the infamous boulder, many forget about the genius golden idol trap. A weight-focused trap. Awesome. If you read that Complete Indiana Jones (or whatever it's called) book it gives you a diagram of the temple and how it's traps work. The walls and structure of the temple are held in place and when the golden idol trap is tripped it causes these pillars or what-not holding everything in place to fall and make the temple fall apart.
It's really awesome.

I'm going to have to pick that up to see the "official" explanations of those traps and see if I came even close when I tried to imagine how they might have worked.

http://raven.theraider.net/showthread.php?t=7059
 

Indyman4

New member
Dr. Gonzo said:
The spike room is my all together favorite scene in Temple of Doom, but best trap movie? I think Raiders, in the teaser, was the best. Darts, spikes (stay out of the light!), Slowly closing stone doors and giant boulder. Great set piece.

Oh yes certainly. It was a multi trap. All the floor buttons, which led to the idol.... stand thing sinking down, which triggered the all the rocks crumbling down. Then the vine in the floor keeping on slipping out as Indy hang on to it, all while to doors are closing, then.... oh yeah the light trap that killed Sapito and the other guy, and then the giant boulder. :D totally a masterpiece.
 

TrailBlazer

New member
Swindle said:
Left on a plane without a pilot was fun, too bad the solution was cringe worthy.

Cringe worthy? I guess there are people who feel this way. Tho' what other way out of that situation was there? Certainly less cringe worthy than the refrigerator nuke escape, right?

And wouldn't you try it?

I mean, if you were in that EXACT scenario - jump out and risk it or certain death into the side of a mountain on a plane with no chutes?

I thought it was inventive and not entirely implausible, given the altitude relative to the slope of the mountains, the snow, etc.

It's actually an Indy moment I like.

That said, I still go with Raiders as tops in virtually every category, traps included.
 

JerryKing

Member
In the Indiana Jones series, "Raiders", certainly.
In the Allan Quatermain series, "King Solomon's Mines", followed by "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull".
 

NLogan

Member
NLogan said:
I'm going to have to pick that up to see the "official" explanations of those traps and see if I came even close when I tried to imagine how they might have worked.

http://raven.theraider.net/showthread.php?t=7059


Lame I just looked at Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide by DK Publishing because it is supposed to diagram and explain how the Chachapoyan Temple and the Grail Temple traps worked and while it did have some cool things it did not explain very much. For the light trap it shows a crystal magnifying the beam of light and the spikes are spring loaded on what looks like a recurved bow connected to some form of foot lever but it doesn't tell us at all how the light triggers anything.
 

Kooshmeister

New member
I love:

1. The giant rolling boulder. It's classic and it doubles as both an intruder-crusher and an entrance blocker.
2. The spike room. ("We....are going....TO DIE!")
3. The Breath of God, even though the second blade that comes out of the floor is a big cheat.
 

Niteshade007

New member
Kooshmeister said:
3. The Breath of God, even though the second blade that comes out of the floor is a big cheat.

That bothered me too. The penitent man kneels before God, not kneels before God and does a tuck and roll!
 

bennihana123

New member
Raiders' traps were so cliche that it worked perfectly. Darts that somehow shoot out of the wall and a perfectly smooth round boulder!
 

Cagefighterkip

New member
RAIDERS: the darts, boulder, no contest
TEMPLE OF DOOM: the spike pit, classic
LAST CRUSADE: the entire penitent man will pass scene
CRYSTAL SKULL: the sliding stairwell, one of the few but awesome nontheless


:whip:
 

Benraianajones

New member
For me the last portion of LC will always be the best - I prefer it to the boulder from Raiders.

I love the scene where Donovan tells Indy it is time to decide what he believes - and Indy steps towards the giant lion adorned ancient staircase with the cobwebs in the hallway and all the dead bodies next to it. Also the music score to that bits great, and really tense. I think the ripsaw blades trap was the best - the word of God makes sense as a trap but not so exciting compared to the blades (or raiders traps) - and the "invisible" bridge is great too - although not really a trap.

I just find the tension on the 3 (4 inc: the false grails) tests to be the most exciting.
 

Indy's brother

New member
The obvious choice in my eyes is the entire fertility idol bit in Raiders. VERY close second would be the spike room in Doom. Spikes coming out of the ceiling and floor, meh. But combined with the score and the hilarious dialogue, genius. Plus, even though Indy is about to become a human pincushion, and Willie is the only one who can save them, Indy tells her to shut up,--twice!
Also, Harrison's right hand deserved an oscar for it's delivery of these two lines:

"The other one, the other right, your other right!"
"Do it NOW!

Oh hell, maybe it's not as obvious as I thought. The tone is so different between the two, it's probably unfair to compare them. I'll call it a tie.
 

michael

Well-known member
I change my mind, the Spike Room is now my favorite. The dialogue, music, and the whole concept. I mean, it's simple. A room that has spikes. The traps were simple in Raiders, the simpler the better. I absolutely the love the part of the score with this scene.
229.jpg
 

Bvance

New member
I agree with those who like the spike room in TOD the best. It is just great! I also recall Mr. Spielberg saying it was his favorite Indy scene, or at least his favorite of TOD.

Plus it gave us one of the funniest moments in all of the films:

Th_WeAreGoingToDie.gif


Indy's face at the end of this sequence is, how does Mastercard say it??? Oh yeh, PRICELESS! :D
 

Gustav

New member
I don't think the other films offer much competition for the first 10 minutes of Raiders. That^ one from Temple is pretty good though.
 

Darth Vile

New member
Bvance said:
I agree with those who like the spike room in TOD the best. It is just great! I also recall Mr. Spielberg saying it was his favorite Indy scene, or at least his favorite of TOD.

Plus it gave us one of the funniest moments in all of the films:

Th_WeAreGoingToDie.gif


Indy's face at the end of this sequence is, how does Mastercard say it??? Oh yeh, PRICELESS! :D

I love the premise of the spike room... and I really love some of the imagery e.g. the skeleton rising, Indy closing his eyes at the last second etc. But the problem I have with it is that... A) There is little logic to the spike room - in that I don't understand why it's there. Is it to keep people out, keep people in or just for torture purposes? B) The scene is played mostly for laughs e.g. Willie with the bugs, Short Round's dialogue etc. and thus lacks the peril that it could have had (as demonstrated to perfection in Raiders).
 

Benraianajones

New member
Actually, despite the humour I think that scenes quite tense, but we knew none were going to die. I think the quick cutting camera work, and music is good. Also, the scene is more of a character building/role reversal thing than an actual peril scene. We see Willie saving the boys for once. Of course, at the cost of having to be bugged by bugs.

As for the traps purpose - it could have been used for a variety of things. Just because you don't know what the thugee used it for exactly doesn't make it any less of a valid trap or lack logic. It could have been used for all 3 of the purposes you mentioned.

I don't really think the ones in Raiders are that special really, sure they are good, the best part of it is the large rolling stone everyone rants on about. Nothing else about Raiders trap at the start are that original or especially interesting. I also prefer the rip saw blades on the 3 trial to the Raiders ones/TOD spike room. That was a tense scene! As for the ripsaw blade that pops up from the ground - it is obviously there so people can not attempt just crawling thru there. All that were in the grail diary were clues of how to pass the trials. Not full explinations. It hinted he needed to kneel down at some point. To top it off, Indy realises to kneel at the LAST second, his sudden down motion combined with going forward leads him to roll forwards. It was sheer luck he avoided the one he did as he rolled.
 
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Dewy9

New member
Aside from the opening teaser in Raiders, which is just the best movie moment EVER, I'd go with the ones at the end of Last Crusade. The "leap of faith" is just too clever. I love it when a movie surprises me, and that's certainly one example.
 
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