Questions I have always had about the Indy Flicks

thegreatgalling

Master Member
RPF PREMIUM MEMBER
I am one of the biggest Indy dorks, but there are STILL a few things that I have noted that I really never found many answers to. They don't quite fit in "gaffs" and they really aren't plot holes; just head-scratchers.

I'd appreciate a point in a right direction about the following. Feel free to answer or post your own irksome moments or questions! No doubt there will be the "Indy is just fiction" responses, but I get that. I'd also prefer to keep any Crystal Skull bashing in my hats, if you know what I mean.


RAIDERS


1. It always bothered me that the gun that fires after Indy uses his whip to disarm a bad guy in the first few minutes gave off no muzzle flash or signs of being fired yet we hear the sound effect of a gunshot.

2. One of Indiana's famous lines has always baffled me. Is it "Adios Stupido?" or "Adios Satipo?" To my ears, Indy clearly says "Stoopeeeedo." If he is attempting to speak Spanish and say "See ya, stupid" the accent he places on the word is just wrong. It would be said "Stooooopido." On my very first copy of Raiders on DVD, the subtitles read "stupido." On the recent DVDs they read "Satipo" and it has been since accepted that this was the characters name. Is it an attempt at revisionist history to undo a language gaff that an astute prof. wouldn't make? If his name was "Sapito" thats one thing. But "Satipo." I don't buy it.

3. Is Sallah mistaken when he says the others call Belloq "Bellosh?" Is this just the way they incorrectly pronounce his name?

4. Is anyone else in conflict about whether Indy's stealing of an idol STILL BEING WORSHIPPED would violate the moral code he establishes in other films? We know he has no respect for the death (using bones and torches, throwing around carcasses, etc), but this?

5. Does the "You sound like my mother!" line to Marcus sort of imply his mother is alive until it is later established that she died years before, in Last Crusade?


LAST CRUSADE


1. I never quite grasped the circumstances in the scene where Indy is accosted on his way to the office by hundreds of rabid students. Why does this happen? Is this to show he is amazingly popular among students? Is it to show that his adventures keep him from being a thorough professor?

2. While it is more dramatic to have the news about Indy's father being missing delivered at the end of Donovan's pitch about the grail, I would have slugged him for waiting so long to tell me that "my father is the man who disapeared."

3. I won't get into the flames from the torch dropping into Petroleum, the fact that Indy opens his eyes in the stuff, or that the grail tablet rubbing magically stays dry.

2. Why doesn't Indy wait for the Nazis to take off in their boat further and simply "sneak" out of the box with the motorcycle, instead of dramatically pulling away while they are still on shore, giving them more time to catch up?

4. Has anyone given thought the "great seal" talk? Why is that the boundary and the price of imortality? How did the grail get there? Who made that rule? And doesn't it imply that removing the grail would simply take away one's ability to remain immortal, and not that the whole ground will open up and swallow you and the grail?

5. When the knight waives. What is he thinking? Is it "I know you are righteous, thank you for destroying my home, losing the grail in the Earth, and likely killing me?" is it "I know it was the crazy woman's idea to take the grail and not yours, so we cool?" is it "Thank you for putting me out of my misery since I have sat here for 700 years with a romance novel that has lost its suspense after the 1000th read?" In all seriousness, I suppose the knight has no ill will?


CRYSTAL SKULL


1. I know I am asking for it, but can anyone give me a decent fan explanation for what happens in the end of Crystal Skull with the thirteen heads slamming into each other and turning into a living, organic being?


And for good measure, YOUNG INDY:


1. I wonder why we see almost zero reference to the trilogy in the entire series? Is it because Paramount has the rights and Lucas merely paid to use the "character?" No theme, no Abner, no Marion, really nothing direct. Yes we see the peacock diamond, and Indy wears a subtle chin scar, but that's all folks.

I am sure I will think of more.
 
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I've got no answers for you but along the same lines...

Indy is an educated guy, experienced archaelogist and general adventurer... so why in Raiders does he think a bag of sand will weigh the same amount as a gold idol and even worse, lightens the bag?

Don't get me wrong, the whole sequence is in my opinion one of the greatest movie scenes ever put on film but that one detail does bug me a bit.
 
I've got no answers for you but along the same lines...

Indy is an educated guy, experienced archaelogist and general adventurer... so why in Raiders does he think a bag of sand will weigh the same amount as a gold idol and even worse, lightens the bag?

Don't get me wrong, the whole sequence is in my opinion one of the greatest movie scenes ever put on film but that one detail does bug me a bit.

Because he knows it is a gold-covered wood carved idol that weighs about the same as a bag of sand.
 
"Satipo" is the name of the character.

"Bellosh" sounds like Sallah heard Belloq's name from somebody with a german accent.
 
I'm not an expert, but i'll give how i viewed them:

RAIDERS

3. He's telling indy how the 'others' say it. Different parts of the world, different dialects, etc, That's just the way the locals said it in my book. Not a typo or error.

4. I never knew the idol was still being worshipped. If it was, it seemed the locals were more than willing to let belloq walk away with it, too. That doesn't strike me as being workshipped. They were guarding the temple, though. Raider's Indy was more or a tomb raider. It wasn't more towards LC where the 'it belongs in a museum' line was heard.

5. Just a retort. More of a stop nagging response than indicative of whether she was living or not.

LAST CRUSADE

1. I took it to mean he rarely holds office hours because he doesn't like office hours and he is rarely there to have them.

3. Maybe his pockets are lined with plastic and sealable :) The rest just looked cool on screen. Not EVERYTHING has to make total sense :)

2. Who says the nazi's don't see anything and start searching back where the crate was instead of just taking off. You gotta get out while you can, especially when you're hiding in a box. The bad guys have their backs to you, haul ass the other way.

4. It's just dramatic license. Who are you, or anyone else, to say that isn't how immortality from the chalice would work? Maybe it wasn't so much the seal itself, but you're in a cave and the immortality lasts as long as you're within X feet of the chalice. That distance just happened to be where the seal was, or the seal was put there intentionally. Hard to have a problem with the immortality having a distance limit if you have no problem with the immoratility portion. And you know, if you beleive the chalice has biblical powers and all that, who's to say god didn't direct it's final resting place and use the temple as a security system. Anyone trying to steal it gets eaten up by the earth.

5. The Knight was ready to die. He'd been alone there for hundreds of years and could barely lift his sword. The wave was an acknowlegement that Indy was worthy of the cup and a good bye together.

On young Indy, I don't know what george was doing. There were plenty of good and fun ones, but according to the series and movies indy was a world class adventurer by the time he was 12. I thought in Raiders it was said or implied that he met Marion while in or just out of college. By the end of the young indy series he had yet to set foot in college, hence no abner and no marion. He hadn't met them yet. The everyone is related to everyone or knows everyone didn't surface until the SW prequels ;) I do recall reading somewhere though, that they used the young indy stuff as a method of testing special effects technology.
 
Young Indy

In the first episode they use the same chant for the egypten diggers that they used in Raiders. It sound like they say "Allia amen"

In the Crystal skull Indy tells about the time he was kidnapped by pancho villa.
 
Muzzle flash isn't always a big obvious thing on many firearms.

There should have been some evidence of recoil though.

I don't have the scene handy to look.

Did they even use blanks or did he just dry fire it?
 
In Last Crusade, I always thought it was gas floating on top of water, thus it ignites and Indy can swim in it. They come up a sewer manhole, I didn't think the city had rivers of gas and oil running under them.
 
I can answer one of the questions, Indy opening his eyes under water with the petroleum in it.

The petroleum would have been sitting on top of the water, like when you put cooking oil in a pot of water. So under the surface it would have been 99% petroleum free.
 
Because he knows it is a gold-covered wood carved idol that weighs about the same as a bag of sand.

Okay... I can buy that though I've never heard that before. But now I gotta ask was this some detail I missed in the movie all this time? And if this is true, am I the only one that has never heard this before?
 
"4. Is anyone else in conflict about whether Indy's stealing of an idol STILL BEING WORSHIPPED would violate the moral code he establishes in other films? We know he has no respect for the death (using bones and torches, throwing around carcasses, etc), but this? "

Yep. Greatly conflicted.

In Raiders he gives the "boogeyman" speech to Marcus, yet in the prequal, he is all mystical "I understand it's powers" and clearly witnessed supernatural events.
He should have been severely signed on to the supernatural by Raiders.

Raiders he is a bad ass and anti-hero in one world, in the other he is the respected
professor. Marcus is happy to have him break laws and steal stuff for the benefit of the museum and let him have ligitimacy as a professor. It's a beautiful thing.
He lives in two worlds and one is very dark.

They screwed him up in the other movies.
 
RAIDERS


1. It always bothered me that the gun that fires after Indy uses his whip to disarm a bad guy in the first few minutes gave off no muzzle flash or signs of being fired yet we hear the sound effect of a gunshot.

2. One of Indiana's famous lines has always baffled me. Is it "Adios Stupido?" or "Adios Satipo?" To my ears, Indy clearly says "Stoopeeeedo." If he is attempting to speak Spanish and say "See ya, stupid" the accent he places on the word is just wrong. It would be said "Stooooopido." On my very first copy of Raiders on DVD, the subtitles read "stupido." On the recent DVDs they read "Satipo" and it has been since accepted that this was the characters name. Is it an attempt at revisionist history to undo a language gaff that an astute prof. wouldn't make? If his name was "Sapito" thats one thing. But "Satipo." I don't buy it.

3. Is Sallah mistaken when he says the others call Belloq "Bellosh?" Is this just the way they incorrectly pronounce his name?

4. Is anyone else in conflict about whether Indy's stealing of an idol STILL BEING WORSHIPPED would violate the moral code he establishes in other films? We know he has no respect for the death (using bones and torches, throwing around carcasses, etc), but this?

5. Does the "You sound like my mother!" line to Marcus sort of imply his mother is alive until it is later established that she died years before, in Last Crusade?


1. I always took it as the whip cracking really loudly, perhaps too much, but it announced our whip wielding hero.

2. The name is Satipo. I think Ford pronounced it wrong. Nothing more or less.

3. Just regional dialect followed by a laughing "Well that's just wonderful" type of response.

4. Who's still worshiping it? The Hovitos don't seem to have a problem with Belloq keeping it, so it's not them.

5. More of a "Why are you babying me, I'm a big boy" thing. Nothing to do with his mother.

Indy is an educated guy, experienced archaelogist and general adventurer... so why in Raiders does he think a bag of sand will weigh the same amount as a gold idol and even worse, lightens the bag?


Always thought the gold idol was hollow or plated wood. Could be really dense sand though. :)

And lastly, were there other Indiana Jones movies?
 
Okay... I can buy that though I've never heard that before. But now I gotta ask was this some detail I missed in the movie all this time? And if this is true, am I the only one that has never heard this before?

I don't think you missed any details. But notice whenever any of them carry, handle, toss or lift the idol it does appear to be quite lightweight, not like something of that size in solid gold would weigh. And I always thought maybe Indy had rocks or something heavy in the bag and the sand was for "fine tuning" at the scene...
 
2. The name is Satipo. I think Ford pronounced it wrong. Nothing more or less.

That's what I always thought. Ford says "Sapito", he just mixed it up and no one noticed. Or they let it go because it was a good take otherwise.

As for the "stupido" caption, I've seen some weird captions. I guess the people who type those up don't always have a script handy, and have to type what they think they here :lol
 
Other then the supernatural Ark stuff which is of course the whole focus of the film so you have to forgive it.

I was bothered by the temple trap triggered by light.
Light? Really? Did they have optical sensors back then? LOL
It's not possible.

Also the map room light show. Another WTF how is that supposed to work moment.
 
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