When people think of the INDIANA JONES films, there is now that little extra stigma that is KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL. Aliens, monkeys, and a nuking fridge. For years, we have looked in the direction of George Lucas and shook our head. And now, we have a bit of a confirmation that our head shaking was aimed correctly.
In a new interview with Empire, Steven Spielberg says that he understands how fans feel about the fourth one, and that he wasn’t very keen on the premise in the first place. But in the end, it came down to his friend, Georgy Boy:
“I sympathise with people who didn’t like the MacGuffin because I never liked the MacGuffin. George and I had big arguments about the MacGuffin. I didn’t want these things to be either aliens or inter-dimensional beings. But I am loyal to my best friend. When he writes a story he believes in – even if I don’t believe in it – I’m going to shoot the movie the way George envisaged it.”
There ya go. Damn you, George…
However, one of the biggest faux-pas of the film…the nuked fridge…was Spielberg’s fault. And he admits that:
“What people really jumped at was Indy climbing into a refrigerator and getting blown into the sky by an atom-bomb blast. Blame me. Don’t blame George. That was my silly idea. People stopped saying ‘jump the shark’. They now say, “nuked the fridge”. I’m proud of that. I’m glad I was able to bring that into popular culture.”
I just hope that if there’s a fifth one, something good will come of it. And if Lucas writes it, no. more. aliens.