Interrogation scene: Book and Comic vs. Movie

[Kooshmeister]

Watching Crystal Skull today I noticed how fundamentally different the scene where Indy is questioned by the FBI is between the book, comic and film. In the book and comic, Smith (or is it Taylor? Musgrove and Eaton these guys are not) insists that there's nothing in Hangar 51 but "airplane parts," whereas in the film he actually asks Indy what was in the crate ("You tell us. You've seen it before.").

Also when General Ross shows up, Smith and/or Taylor makes a point of questioning Ross' loyalties as well as Indy's in the comic, whereas in the film, Ross is on a first-name basis with one of them ("Shut up, Paul.") and is able to browbeat them into backing down at least a little.

So, in the novelization and comic book, the FBI know what is at Hangar 51 and deny that it's anything other than airplane parts, and go as far as questioning General Ross' patriotism when he vouches for Indy, and in the film, they seem like they don't know what was in the crate Spalko took, and appear genuinely curious, and one of them appears to be friends with Ross who is able to use his authority and/or his apparent friendship with one of them to make them back off.

I prefer the movie's version, honestly. The "government denies everything" plot point is old and done to death; having Smith openly admit there's something besides airplane parts in Hangar 51 (or not know and be curious about it, depending on how you interpret his line) is a breath of fresh air to me.

And with a single line - "Shut up, Paul." - we learn a little bit more about these characters than we would have otherwise. Not much, admittedly, but at least it tells us that General Ross and Agent Smith are on a first-name basis which suggests a friendship or at least that they've known one another for some time. Much better than having Smith just be a one-note jerkwad government stooge. He's still a jerkwad government stooge, but one who may or may not be friends with General Ross.

 

[TheMutt92]

Nice point. What other major difference are there between the film and novel/comic adaptations?

 

[Darth Vile]

The book obviously offers a little bit more, but on the whole, I agree. The movie version is a little more concise and fitting.

 

[Kooshmeister]

Nice point. What other major difference are there between the film and novel/comic adaptations?

Let's see. I made a list for the novelization by James Rollins:

-The book opens with a prologue showing how Francisco De Orellana got the Skull and was subsequently killed.
-Indy and Mac's capture in Mexico is actually shown (well, told, really, since it's a book).
-There's only three MPs at Hangar 51 vs. the movie's four.
-Instead of Indy picking up his fedora himself, one of the soldiers grabs it and puts it on his head for him.
-Indy actually sees the Ark when its crate is smashed open.
-Instead of falling through a skylight and onto the rocket sled, Indy and Dovchenko wind up in the rocket sled room thusly: Dovchenko is driving a jeep and Indy gets in and they drive down the stairs into the sled room.
-When Indy and Mutt get chased by the KGB agents, there's only one car vs. the movie's two.
-There's a scene back in Russia where Spalko dissects the alien from Hangar 51.
-Spalko uses her psychic powers to read Mac's mind, and in his thoughts he wants to know if she'll kill him once they get to Akator and he is no longer useful. She replies, "If I feel the slightest need."
-Dovchenko doesn't regain control of the driverless truck; it hits a tree.
-Instead of getting into the car, Spalko starts out the chase in one of the ducks, the one with Oxley and Mac. When Indy jumps in, she jumps onto the hood of the car behind them.
-The young soldier driving Spalko's car gets eaten while still in the car, instead of getting out and running, then being eaten.
-Spalko doesn't get out and run, either. She remains in the car and stays perfectly still after crushing the ant that bites her and the ants ignore her, eat the soldier sitting beside her who doesn't stay still, then go after the others.
-Instead of Dovchenko being stunned and falling backwards into the ants, Indy uses his own momentum when he runs at him to flip Dovchenko into the ants.
-Also, Spalko doesn't see Dovchenko get eaten and remains completely unaware of his fate afterwards. As far as she and the other Soviets are concerned, Dovchenko just got lost along the way.
-There is more exploring of the Akator temple, including the discovery of giant turbines powering something and, in the treasure room, Indy and the gang find the corpses of past discoverers of Akator, who have all had their eyes burned out much in the same way Spalko does later.
-In addition to following the tracking devices Mac leaves, Spalko also senses when Indy and co. find Akator using her psychic powers.
-Only three soldiers survive the ant attack/cliff scene vs. the movie's four. Also instead of being sucked into the vortex, they die in a variety of gruesome ways (for instance one gets impaled when Spalko's sword flies out of the scabbard and hits him).
-Indy explains that the reason the Skull didn't "speak" to Spalko is because she wasn't a teacher like he and Oxley are. The aliens respect those who educate others.
-Spalko doesn't explode. Her brain completely crystallizes, and instead of her body exploding, she has an out-of-body experience in which her non-corporeal self precedes her (dead) earthly body into the vortex. Also the aliens do not unite into one being as in the film.
-Indy asks Oxley how he got past the guards at Chauchilla Cemetery twice. Oxley simply explains he went in both times during the day, when the guards were sleeping.

That's all I could remember. I'll do the differences in the comic next.

 

[Kooshmeister]

The comic book:

-The race between the teens and the army car doesn't happen. The comic begins with the convoy pulling up to the Hangar 51 gate.
-Throughout, Dovchenko never wears a hat. Not when in disguise as "Colonel Truman," nor when in his Soviet uniform. It's really weird.
-Instead of American Dodge M-57's, artists Luke Ross and Cliff Richards for some reason have drawn all of the "American" jeeps used in the Hangar 51 sequence as Soviet GAZ 69s (the type of car Spalko rides in in the jungle chase). It's a GAZ that Dovchenko and Indy crash down the stairs in (as in the novel, they don't fall through a skylight), and a GAZ that the soldiers who chase Indy to Doom Town use. Nothing says "undercover" like a bunch of people in American army uniforms driving Russian cars.
-Instead of the rocket sled being activated accidentally, Indy somehow knows how to operate it and starts it on purpose. And when it blasts off, no inrushing Soviet soldiers get burned by the backwash.
-Dovchenko is still conscious when the sled stops, and Indy knocks him out.
-Instead of three soldiers following Indy to Doom Town, their, uh, "American" car is filled to overflowing with guys.
-Only Agent Smith appears. Agent Taylor is nowhere to be found (although he's in the book).
-We never see Indy at the university. It cuts from Smith interrogating him to him and Stanforth talking at home, skipping the classroom scene entirely. Neither mentions the deaths of Henry or Marcus.
-Indy never gets on the train. Mutt intercepts him before he can board.
-As in the book, only one sedan chases Indy and Mutt. Instead of driving through a Red Scare rally, they drive through a football game.
-Indy kills both of the cemetery guards by knocking them both off of a cliff.
-The Conquistador Indy unwraps doesn't disintegrate due to "air not agreeing with him."
-When Mac and the Soviets meet Indy and Mutt outside the cemetery, the scene continues with Dovchenko wanting to kill Indy, and Mac remindimg him Spalko needs Indy alive.
-Indy, Marion and Mutt's attempted escape from the Soviet camp occurs the following morning rather than at night.
-As in the book, Spalko reads Mac's mind and warns him she'll kill him at Akator if she feels the need to. She switches vehicles here because she (somehow) falls out of the duck when Indy fires the rocket launcher, then is suddenly in the GAZ a few panels later.
-There are a lot of more ducks and GAZs in the jungle chase although they and their occupants are quickly forgotten about and disappear entirely.
-Mac's revelation that he is a CIA agent is followed by him revealing that he was the reason that General Ross was in Nevada to bail Jones out (I think this happens in the book too).
-There is no monkey attack, nor a cliffside jockeying sequence.
-Spalko's car does not follow Indy's duck into the giant anthill, and thus the young soldier is not eaten by the siafu. In fact no Russians arrive on the scene except for Dovchenko, who arrives on foot rather than in the truck.
-Dovchenko's death differs yet again. Dovchenko is oblivious to the ants entirely and lifts Indy by the neck, but then Indy points out the ants and Dovchenko is startled, and Indy shoves him backwards into the swarm.
-There are only two waterfalls. The first drop is the cliff that the duck drives off of. The Duck is not destroyed by the trip over the falls.
-As in the book, Spalko has only three guys with her when she gets to Akator. Considering the lack of the young soldier being eaten and the guys falling off the cliff, one wonders where the other Soviets are.
-In addition to the murals depicting the aliens teaching the Ugha, they also depict the Conquistadors' attack on Akator and one of the aliens missing its head.
-During the Ugha attack, Mutt gets a bolo around his neck inside the passage, and Indy punches out an Ugha warrior before they run down the steps.
-Spalko and the remaining Soviets find the entrance to Akator not because of Mac's tracers (as in the film) or Spalko's psychic powers (as in the novel), but because they find the Duck parked in the water near the entrance. Smooth, Indy. Real smooth. Don't try and conceal it or anything.
-Mac tries to get Mutt to take some gold, but Indy points out all the dead guys with gold in their pockets.
-As in the book Indy says the Skull spoke to him and Oxley because they're teachers.
-Instead of being sucked into the vortex, the soldiers with Spalko are burned up by the piercing gaze of the crystal skeletons.
-The skeletons also never grow flesh and combine into one being, and simply surround Spalko as she dies.
-Indy doesn't try and save Mac with the whip.
-General Ross attends the wedding.
-Mutt doesn't contemplate wearing Indy's fedora.

 

[Johnny Jones]

When Spalko makes Indy look at the skull, don't they first bring in a huge machine gun, prompting Indy to say, "Hey, even I'm not that tough," which they remove from its pedestal and then replace with the skull? And then when he stares at it and goes crazy don't his eye vessels burst and start "crying" blood?

Anyways do you suppose it was General Ross who persuaded the FBI to get off Indy's case so he could return to Marshall College and become the Associate Dean? I mean if they wouldn't believe his original story, they'd never swallow the rest of it.

Indy: ...and then the skeleton said, in Mayan, that it wanted to give us a gift... so Spalko asked for all the knowledge in the world, but the walls started spinning and falling apart, and then this vortex opened up in the ceiling and chased us while the mythical lost city collapsed...
Smith (or Taylor): Dr. Jones, you know as well as we do that hallucinogenic drugs are illegal in the U. S. of A. My country.

 

[Kooshmeister]

And then when he stares at it and goes crazy don't his eye vessels burst and start "crying" blood?
My country.

Yeah I forgot about that. Thanks for reminding me.

 

[TheMutt92]

Things from the book and comic I wish had made it into the movie (as taken from Kooshmeister's list:

The novelization:

-Spalko uses her psychic powers to read Mac's mind, and in his thoughts he wants to know if she'll kill him once they get to Akator and he is no longer useful. She replies, "If I feel the slightest need."
-Dovchenko doesn't regain control of the driverless truck; it hits a tree.
-There is more exploring of the Akator temple, including the discovery of giant turbines powering something and, in the treasure room, Indy and the gang find the corpses of past discoverers of Akator, who have all had their eyes burned out much in the same way Spalko does later.
-Also instead of being sucked into the vortex, they die in a variety of gruesome ways (for instance one gets impaled when Spalko's sword flies out of the scabbard and hits him).
-Indy explains that the reason the Skull didn't "speak" to Spalko is because she wasn't a teacher like he and Oxley are. The aliens respect those who educate others.
-Spalko doesn't explode. Her brain completely crystallizes, and instead of her body exploding, she has an out-of-body experience in which her non-corporeal self precedes her (dead) earthly body into the vortex. Also the aliens do not unite into one being as in the film.
-Indy asks Oxley how he got past the guards at Chauchilla Cemetery twice. Oxley simply explains he went in both times during the day, when the guards were sleeping.

The comic book:

-When Mac and the Soviets meet Indy and Mutt outside the cemetery, the scene continues with Dovchenko wanting to kill Indy, and Mac remindimg him Spalko needs Indy alive.
-Mac's revelation that he is a CIA agent is followed by him revealing that he was the reason that General Ross was in Nevada to bail Jones out (I think this happens in the book too).
-There is no monkey attack, nor a cliffside jockeying sequence.
-There are only two waterfalls. The first drop is the cliff that the duck drives off of. The Duck is not destroyed by the trip over the falls.
-During the Ugha attack, Mutt gets a bolo around his neck inside the passage, and Indy punches out an Ugha warrior before they run down the steps.
-Mac tries to get Mutt to take some gold, but Indy points out all the dead guys with gold in their pockets.

 

[James]

And then when he stares at it and goes crazy don't his eye vessels burst and start "crying" blood?

Anyways do you suppose it was General Ross who persuaded the FBI to get off Indy's case so he could return to Marshall College and become the Associate Dean?

The tears of blood are a recurring idea, and one section of the book is even titled, "Eyes of Fire". Additionally, Indy's eyes begin glowing red (and he trances out) when he first discovers the skull in Orellana's tomb. Interesting that the idea was considered- but ultimately scrapped- for both TOD and KOTCS.

I think it's logical to assume that General Ross had a hand in getting Indy cleared at the film's end.

 

[Kooshmeister]

I think it's logical to assume that General Ross had a hand in getting Indy cleared at the film's end.

"You owe me one, Paul."
"Fine, fine, fine. He did kill a buttload of Commies, anyway."