Indiana Jones in The Temple of Doom promotional photo via Disney
The heat of a Cypriot summer has just hit us and sitting in a cool dark auditorium waiting for the start of one of this year’s expected ‘Blockbuster’ movies is just the what will help. Indiana Jones has the sort of global appeal that allows it to have this tag. But will it be the success that the production company would like to believe? On the day that I went, the cinema had fewer than a dozen people, this may be due to the fact that I chose to go to the cinema on an unpopular day; or maybe there was something exciting to watch on the television! Fortunately, it’s being screened at several venues and at various times both indoors and out, this might make up the numbers and allow the film to become the hit that it is hoped it will become!
The movies of Indiana Jones, are only a part of a larger franchise (Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas) which include a prequal TV series, games, comics and novels. They all follow the story of Dr. Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., who is a fearless professor of archaeology. The character is portrayed in all of the movies by Harrison Ford, and supported in all of the films by other well-known professionals including – Karen Allen, Sean Connery, Paul Freeman, John Rhys-Davis, Denholm Elliot and Ke Huy Quan to name but a few of the many wonderful, talented actors who starred in the films. The main antagonist, in several of the films, being the Nazis and their obsession and theft of ancient priceless artefacts that as Indy very clearly stated “It belongs in a museum!"
Between 1981 and today there have been five Indiana Jones movies:
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023) – this being the final instalment of the series!
Every one of the films has high speed car chases, Indy chasing after someone who has either stolen or hidden a priceless ancient artefact. They all have a moment of unbelievable events, in the latest film, they fly a plane through a time fissure and, as expected, return to the present alive and well! Our hero archaeologist has now grown old and this is very obvious in this movie, where he is facing retirement and a future alone, until the appearance of his goddaughter played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who is not afraid of adventure and is able to stand her ground against the villains of the story.
Fast action, cliffhanger moments when our hero is being chased through narrow streets, deep in caves and across wild remote countryside. When his route is punctuated by, traps set to delay the progress of anyone aiming to find the treasure, moving rocks, spikes, and life-threatening creepy-crawlies, insects, snakes, all of which have been created to add to the adventure. These are films that take us into another world, one of unbelievable secrets and breathtaking danger! Imagine going on a quest with Indiana Jones, going back in time and meeting with Archimedes, becoming involved in chases and swashbuckling adventures.
Indiana Jones in the Last Crusade promotional photo via Disney
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny promotional photo via Disney
For most of us going on an adventure such as these is nothing more than a dream, one which however much we may wish for it will never become a reality, the closest to this will be visiting one of the Disneyland parks and riding on their fast-moving Indiana rides, which hopefully, can make you feel as if the adventure has really begun!
“If You Want To Be A Good Archaeologist, You Gotta Get Out Of The Library!”
Indiana Jones - Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull
Photo credits:
Public domain
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