We all remember when Harrison Ford used to take on challenges, often mystical and deadly, in his quest to seek the treasures of the past in the iconic Indiana Jones franchise. And to bring those adventures of a lifetime to the big screen, we have Steven Spielberg to thank. With four films of the series under his belt, he knows the ins and outs of how to make an Indiana Jones film.
Although he has supported all the films that have been part of the franchise to this day, his one major concern from the series comes from its last film, which was Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The regret in question was making the plot device to be extraterrestrial aliens, which also may have been the downfall of the movie.
Steven Spielberg Was Concerned With Adding Aliens In Indiana Jones 4
The Indiana Jones franchise has always been about the quest to know the unknown and exploring the unexplored in search of treasures that have eluded humanity in the past. This meant director Steven Spielberg had the task of creating a premise that was both mystical and, at the same time, believable for the audience.
But the choice of having aliens as the major plot device in Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull was something that even he thought about on several occasions before implementing it.
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In an interview with Empire (via Slash Film), the Jaws director talked about the fourth film in the series, which also had George Lucas’ contribution to the creation of the story. While he said that he had no qualms about creating the film with Harrison Ford as the lead, he did have a huge concern with the MacGuffin, as they call it, being creatures from outer space.
He said that even when he didn’t like the plot device, he still went ahead with the new idea that the Star Wars creator had envisioned. He said:
“I’m very happy with the movie. I always have been… I sympathize with people who didn’t like the MacGuffin because I never liked the MacGuffin. George and I had big arguments about the MacGuffin. I didn’t want these things to be either aliens or inter-dimensional beings. But I am loyal to my best friend.When he writes a story he believes in – even if I don’t believe in it – I’m going to shoot the movie the way George envisaged it.I’ll add my own touches, I’ll bring my own cast in, I’ll shoot the way I want to shoot it, but I will always defer to George as the storyteller of the Indy series. I will never fight him on that.”
Although it was ambitious, this particular choice may have also been the downfall of the film in the end.
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Why Did Indiana Jones 4 Fail?
Not only was the MacGuffin disjointed from the target audience to a certain level, but the installment itself was an unnecessary one which everyone felt.
Since The Last Crusade was to be the end of the franchise, Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull felt pretty much out of place in the series. Along with this, there was the use of laughably bad CGI in a series that was iconic for its practical visual effects which seemed closer to reality.
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Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull, streaming on Disney+.
