see also The Crystal Skulls
The film was in development since the 1989 release of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, because Spielberg and Ford disagreed over Lucas' original concept. Screenwriters Jeb Stuart, Jeffrey Boam, Frank Darabont and Jeff Nathanson wrote drafts, before David Koepp's script satisfied all three men.
Shooting finally began on June 18, 2007, and took place in New Mexico; New Haven, Connecticut; Hawaii; Fresno, California; and soundstages in Los Angeles. In order to keep aesthetic continuity with the previous films, the crew relied on traditional stunt work instead of computer-generated stunt doubles, and cinematographer Janusz Kamiński studied Douglas Slocombe's style from the previous films.
Marketing relied heavily on the public's nostalgia for the series, with products taking inspiration from all four films. Anticipation for the film was heightened by secrecy, which resulted in a legal dispute over an extra violating his non-disclosure agreement, and the arrest of another man for stealing a computer containing various documents related to the production. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was released worldwide on May 22, 2008.
Plot
In 1957, Colonel-Doctor Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett) and a convoy of Soviet agents posing as U.S. soldiers infiltrate a military base in the Nevada desert.
They force Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) to lead them to a crate in "Hangar 51", which holds the remains of an extraterrestrial creature that crashed ten years before in Roswell, New Mexico. Jones attempts to escape but is foiled by his partner Mac (Ray Winstone), who reveals that he is working with the Soviets. After a fight and an elaborate vehicle chase through the warehouse, Jones escapes on a rocket sled into the desert, where he stumbles upon a nuclear test town and survives a nuclear blast by hiding in a lead-lined refrigerator. While being debriefed, Jones discovers he is under FBI investigation because of Mac's Soviet ties. Jones returns to Marshall College, where he is offered a leave of absence to avoid being fired because of the investigation. While leaving, Jones is stopped by greaser Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf) and told that his old colleague, Harold Oxley (John Hurt), disappeared after discovering a crystal skull near the Nazca lines in Peru.
In Peru, Jones and Mutt discover that Oxley was locked in a church-operated psychiatric hospital until the Soviets kidnapped him. In Oxley's former cell, Jones discovers clues to the grave of Francisco de Orellana, a Conquistador who went missing in the 1500s while seeking Akator (also known as El Dorado). Jones finds the crystal skull that Oxley hid in Orellana's grave. The skull is elongated in the shape that indigenous peoples formed their own skulls into, but the Soviets believe the skull, which magnetically attracts even non-ferrous objects, is from an extraterrestrial life-form and holds great psychic power. The Soviets capture Indy and Mutt and take them to the camp where they are holding Oxley, who has suffered a mental breakdown from the powers of the skull, and Mutt's mother, Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), who reveals that Mutt, whose real name is Henry Jones III, is Indiana's son.
The four escape from the Soviets, leading to a lengthy vehicle chase involving a sword fight between Mutt and Spalko, and a swarm of killer siafu ants.
Escaping on an amphibious vehicle, Mutt, Marion, Mac, Oxley, and Jones arrive at the Temple of Akator, a Maya-style pyramid in the Amazon rainforest. Claiming that he is a CIA double agent working against the Soviets, Mac enters the temple with Jones and the group, but reveals his true allegiance by leaving a trail for Spalko to follow.
The group enters the temple and Jones uses the skull to open the door to a chamber tomb, where thirteen crystal skeletons, one missing a skull, are seated on thrones. When the Soviets arrive and reveal Mac's complicity, Spalko places the skull onto the skeleton, and it begins communicating to the group through Oxley using an ancient Mayan dialect. Jones translates this to mean that the aliens want to give them a great gift. Spalko demands to know everything, and the skulls begin transferring knowledge into her mind. As a portal to another dimension appears over the room, Oxley regains his sanity and explains that the aliens are inter-dimensional beings who taught the Maya their advanced technology. Jones, Mutt, Marion, and Oxley escape from the temple, but Mac is sucked into the portal. The skeletons form into a single alien which continues to feed Spalko with knowledge; however, the knowledge overwhelms Spalko, causing her to ignite and disintegrate, with her scattered essence sucked into the portal as well. The temple crumbles, and a flying saucer rises from the debris and disappears as the Amazon floods the valley, thus erasing all evidence of Akator's existence. Back home, Jones is made an associate dean at Marshall College and marries Marion.
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