Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

2008
PG-13
2h 2m

IMDb RATING

6.2/10

497K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

Play trailer1:52

Adventure Epic Globetrotting Adventure Action Adventure

Set in 1957, it pits Indiana Jones against Soviet KGB agents led by Irina Spalko searching for a telepathic crystal skull located in Peru.Set in 1957, it pits Indiana Jones against Soviet KGB agents led by Irina Spalko searching for a telepathic crystal skull located in Peru.Set in 1957, it pits Indiana Jones against Soviet KGB agents led by Irina Spalko searching for a telepathic crystal skull located in Peru.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.2/10

497K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

2,918

957

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award
- 10 wins & 42 nominations total

Trivia
Harrison Ford was adamant that he got to wield Indiana's famous whip. Paramount executives wanted the weapon to be computer generated because of new movie safety rules, but Ford branded the rule "ridiculous".

Goofs
In Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), Henry Jones drank from the cup of Christ, which was reported to give eternal life. In this movie he is said to have died. This is because he passed the seal on the floor where the grail was located. Once you cross the seal, you are no longer immortal.

Quotes
Indiana Jones: Brutal couple of years, huh, Charlie? First Dad, then Marcus.
Dean Charles Stanforth: We seem to have reached the age where life stops giving us things and starts taking them away.

Crazy credits
The movie begins with the Lucasfilm logo, followed by the 1954 Paramount "VistaVision" logo (with the text "PARAMOUNT" instead of "A PARAMOUNT PICTURE" and "A Viacom Company" instead of "A Gulf+Western Company" below "PARAMOUNT"). Gulf+Western became Paramount Communications in 1989, then merged with Viacom in 1994. The Paramount logo then dissolves into a gopher mound. (The static version of the current Paramount logo is seen at the end of the movie.)

Alternate versions
For those interested in the most arcane aspects of viewing this film, or simply skipped the theatrical and DVD releases, there is a detailed discussion of the differences between the original showing, and the broadcast premier on NBC TV, which may be found on movie-censorship.com. To summarize these differences, they mostly consist of differences in the aspect ratio of the film, a small amount of zooming the screen in order to tone down the most violent scenes, the dubbing in of less offensive language for a couple of 'four-letter' words, and, of course, the usual practice of broadcast television to de-emphasize the end credits in the name of advertising another program.

Connections
Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Made of Honor/Son of Rambow/Then She Found Me/Iron Man/Redbelt/Standard Operating Procedure (2008)

Soundtracks
Hound Dog
Written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller
Performed by Elvis Presley
Courtesy of The RCA Records Label
By arrangement with Sony BMG Music Entertainment

User reviews2.3K

Review

Featured review

The Best Thing In This Movie Is Cate Blanchett's Sexy Ukrainian Villainess

The problems with 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull' are manifold and it certainly does not match up to it's predecessors. The film looks too artificial. What worked with the other movies was that, taking into account that they were made before the CGI boom, they looked real. Here the overuse of CGI and bluescreen grafting is painfully apparent. The story is a mess. It lacks coherency and there are too many uninteresting subplots. And, what was with the aliens? Does Spielberg harbour a secret obsession for UFOs? The pacing is slow at times and boring. The dialogues are not anything noteworthy and the action sequences, while some are fun to watch, others are plain bad and again, the prominent CGI stands in the way. With the exception of Cate Blanchett, none of the actors stand out, even Harrison Ford plays the clichéd hero. Shia LeBeouf is miscast. Ray Winstone is wasted and the rest are forgettable. Blanchett is barely recognizable as the sexy Ukrainian military villainess. She looks alluring and I her use of the accent is hilarious. She makes an awesome baddie which somewhat makes up for some of the flaws. Among the few other likable things about the movie is the chase sequence which features some well choreographed stunts. Overall, 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull' disappoints and only Cate Blanchett makes up for some of the flaws.