{"id":1033814,"date":"2026-06-18T04:29:33","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T04:29:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1033814\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T04:29:33","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T04:29:33","slug":"inside-the-secret-indiana-jones-clash-that-has-vindicated-fans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1033814\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the secret Indiana Jones clash that has vindicated fans"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"HARRISON
\n\t\tIndiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull never sat that well with fans (Picture: Allstar\/Lucasfilm)<\/p>\n

Indiana Jones is one of the most beloved franchises in cinema history, spanning over 40 years, five films and a TV prequel series, among other ventures<\/a>, and raking in nearly $2billion (\u00a31.5bn) at the box office.<\/p>\n

It also cemented Harrison Ford<\/a> as one of Hollywood\u2019s truly iconic leading men and thrilled fans<\/a> with its throwbacks to 1930s adventure serials and derring-do.<\/p>\n

The Nazis were the bad guys, fedoras and whips were the accessories of the moment and archaeology was sexy \u00a0\u2013 all thanks to creator and producer George Lucas, and longtime director Steven Spielberg<\/a>, to whom Lucas offered the project on the promise that it was \u2018better than James Bond<\/a>\u2019 after the Jaws filmmaker had been rejected from the 007 franchise.<\/p>\n

But while every Indiana Jones film has been eagerly anticipated and provided a flavour of its own<\/a>, the fans\u2019 reaction was pretty unanimously muted (to put it mildly) to Indy\u2019s fourth adventure. To put in in context, audiences slapped it with a measly 53% score on Rotten Tomatoes, over 20% adrift of the franchise\u2019s next lowest, and compared to the series\u2019 high of 96%.<\/p>\n

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was a long-gestating comeback n 2008, nearly 20 years after Indy and his father Dr Jones Snr (Sean Connery<\/a>) had ridden off into the sunset in the pointedly named Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.<\/p>\n

And while The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull may have become the highest-grossing entry in the franchise, earning $786.6m (\u00a3591.6m), it\u2019s also widely considered the weakest in the franchise \u2013 and now we have a reason why.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"Harrison
\n\t\tHarrison Ford fronted the hugely popular five-film franchise that gave archaeology mass appeal as Dr Henry \u2018Indiana\u2019 Jones (Picture: Paramount\/Getty)<\/p>\n

\t\t\"Editorial
\n\t\tHowever, the fourth film, 2008\u2019s The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, was by no means a triumphant return to form after nearly two decades (Picture: Paramount\/Everett\/Shutterstock)<\/p>\n

Propelling Indy forward into the 1950s and seeing him deal with being the grumpy elder when it came to his tearaway greaser son Mutt (Shia LaBeouf) might have made sense for the then 60-something Ford, but the character seemed to flounder as well in this new setting.<\/p>\n

Then we come to the controversial ending, which saw Indiana Jones suddenly go all sci-fi on us with the revelation that the titular ancient crystal skull from Peru belongs to interdimensional beings that the early Ugha tribes worshipped as gods.<\/p>\n

The alien<\/a> then escapes in\u2026 a flying saucer.<\/p>\n

This final act flourish was always difficult for many fans to swallow and now we\u2019ve been vindicated with the revelation that both Ford and Spielberg felt that way too.<\/p>\n

\u2018<\/strong>Steven was struggling with that movie. Harrison was struggling with the movie. They didn\u2019t want to do a\u00a0Raiders\u00a0movie that involved aliens, and they kind of got into a fight with George about it,\u2019 confessed producer Kathleen Kennedy in a recent Spielberg oral history piece in Vulture<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"Editorial
\n\t\tThe movie\u2019s finale infamously features aliens (Picture: Paramount\/Everett\/Shutterstock)<\/p>\n

\t\t\"Mandatory
\n\t\tIt\u2019s now been revealed that both director Steven Spielberg and leading man Ford (pictured on set with actress Cate Blanchett and producer Frank Marshall) didn\u2019t like the extra-terrestrial ending (Picture: THA\/Shutterstock)<\/p>\n

\u2018<\/strong>I wanted it to be kind of a\u00a0War of the Worlds\u00a0sort of thing. Harrison said, \u201cI\u2019m not going to do another science-fiction movie.\u201d And Steven said, \u201cI\u2019m not going to do another science-fiction movie\u201d,\u2019 added Lucas. \u2018I said, \u201cSteven, this is perfect because it\u2019s the 1950s, when flying saucers were a whole thing,\u201d but he said \u201cno\u201d.\u2019<\/p>\n

Lucas then explained that after \u2018about five scripts\u2019, he and Spielberg finally compromised with \u2018Look, what if they\u2019re not aliens but from another dimension\u2019.<\/p>\n

Many would argue that\u2019s not much of a difference, with Kennedy confirming \u2018they ended up all of them doing what George wanted to do, which was probably the right thing\u2019.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tWhich is the best Indiana Jones film?<\/p>\n