History Headscratchers / IndianaJones

*** The clothing damage and friction burns in ''Raiders'' aren't as problematic because those omissions are usual in the film industry.
What makes the fridge so problematic is the fact that it's the rather goofball solution to the most spectacular scene in ''Crystal Skull''. The raft is almost as silly as well, but at worse, you'd have the carachters dead by impact upon touching ground. The refrigerator should've been vaporized the moment the A-bomb went off. Not only it didn't but it was the only thing that survived the whole blast, the fact that it was explained by the lead lining thing makes it even more egregious. To be fair, Crystal Skull did come out in an era when film mistakes and ass-pulls were more vulnerable to fan over-analysis, so the fridge is much more noticed than the raft in ''Temple of Doom''.

* What's the purpose of Indy's glasses while teaching in college or at the dinner scene in Temple of Doom? While he does put them on to translate the Latin text in Donovan's house at the beginning of the Last Crusade, he doesn't seem to need them to read while doing field work during the whole series and he seems to be able to calculate distances. Plus he's not a particularly bad shooter without them, so we can infer he's got no sight problems. We know he's not [[ClarkKenting hiding behind them]] since everyone knows he's an archaeologist and the Nazis could never connect him to their loss of the Ark. We can also see that Jones' girl students fawn over him anyways so we may rule out that he uses glasses to shield himself from girl-lust. Moreover, he doesn't wear glasses when he's a lot older during the whole Crystal Skull film. So, why would he use the glasses?

** They could just be reading glasses that he doesn't strictly ''need'', but makes reading easier for him. Remember that he did take a blast of steam right in the eye during WWI, so that may be catching up with him. In ''Crystal Skull'' he ''does'' misjudge the distance of his swing.

** Maybe they are just his BrainySpecs to make him seem more distinguished, respectable and Professor-like? A bit of staid respectability seldom hurts an academic career.

* What's the purpose of Indy's glasses while teaching in college or at the dinner scene in Temple of Doom? While he does put them on to translate the Latin text in Donovan's house at the beginning of the Last Crusade, he doesn't seem to need them to read while doing field work during the whole series and he seems to be able to calculate distances. Plus he's not a particularly bad shooter without them, so we can infer he's got no sight problems. We know he's not [[ClarkKenting hiding behind them]] since everyone knows he's an archaeologist and the Nazis could never connect him to their loss of the Ark. We can also see that Jones' girl students fawn over him anyways so we may rule out that he uses glasses to shield himself from girl-lust. Moreover, he doesn't wear glasses when he's a lot older during the whole Crystal Skull film. So, why would he use the glasses?

* What's the purpose of Indy's glasses while teaching in college or at the dinner scene in Temple of Doom? While he does put them on to translate the Latin text in Donovan's house at the beginning of the Last Crusade, he doesn't seem to need them to read while doing field work during the whole series and he seems to be able to calculate distances plus a decent shooter without them, so we can infer he's got no sight problems. We know he's not [[ClarkKenting hiding behind them]] since everyone knows he's an archaeologist and the Nazis could never connect him to their loss of the Ark. We can also see that Jones' girl students fawn over him anyways so we may rule out that he uses glasses to shield himself from girl-lust. Moreover, he doesn't wear glasses when he's a lot older during the whole Crystal Skull film. So, why would he use the glasses?

* What's the purpose of Indy's glasses while teaching in college? He doesn't seem to need them to read while doing field work and he seems to be able to calculate distances plus a decent shooter without them. We know he's not [[ClarkKenting hiding behind them]] since everyone knows he's an archaeologist and the Nazis could never connect him to their loss of the Ark. We can also see that Jones' girl students fawn over him anyways so we may rule out that he uses glasses to shield himself from girl-lust. So, why would he use the glasses?

** Considering what RealLife archaeologists were doing to each other and to locals back in The Twenties and [TheThirties Thirties]], Jones' good standing among his peers may be FairForItsDay.

*** Also, Indiana Jones ''did'' return the Sankara stones, or at least one of them. Whereas mercenary Indiana could have given them to the Indian government (or, more likely, somewhere more likely to make him famous), he chose to give it back to the village it came from. Honestly, that was actually the most appropriate display of archaeological ethics he's done so far.

*** Indiana Jones is ''kind of'' a respected archaeologist. We get a flat-out statement in ''Temple of Doom'' that Indiana Jones has a reputation and it's not all that good. Given he engages in what would blatantly be considered black-marketeering, grave-robbery, and outright theft today--it's no wonder. Remember, Indiana Jones started as an {{Antihero}} in Raiders. He's also fairly decent at getting small jobs done (as we see with, "They're good pieces, Marcus.") but the big history-making scores elude him. Honestly, Indy's {{Greed}} is his tragic flaw as finding the ashes of a Chinese Emperor would be enough for most people but he wanted the Peacock's Eye more.

* I always found it odd that Idiana being a highly sucessful and respected Archeologist was more of an informed attribute than anything, at least going by his success rate on the movies. In Raiders, he lost the golden idol to Belloq, and while he does return witht he Ark, that was never made public. In Temple, he fails to return with the Sankara stones. In Last Crusade, he gets his only real hit by returning the golden cross of Coronado, but by the end of the movie the Grail and everything involved to it was lost. And finally, in Crystal Skull, he once again fails to return with the titular Macguffin.
** To be fair, there's probably oodles of successful digs and priceless historical finds and reputation-making discoveries to Indy's credit that we ''don't'' see, but since they no doubt offer less opportunity for punching Nazis and running away from supernatural beings, there's also a reason why we don't see any of them. Plus, with regards to the very first example, it's less that he 'lost' the golden idol and more that Belloq shamelessly stole it from him.

*** Maybe, but the point is that the creator nevertheless needs to put the work in to justify why the reader should apply WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief, which ''Crystal Skull'' doesn't really do in respect to the fridge. Okay, the movie is intended as a homage of 1950s science fiction, but that doesn't mean the creators can just throw in any old nonsense and expect the reader to buy it without setting it up beforehand. That's just laziness, especially since the audience for an ''Indiana Jones'' flick isn't necessarily going to be intimately familar with 1950s science fiction.

** [[AtomicRobo "Dammit, I don't even]] ''[[AtomicRobo like]]'' [[AtomicRobo Hitler]]."

** The Raiders novel states that his facination for the whip started after seeing a whip-act in a travel circus as a kid.

** The Raiders novel states that his facinatión for the whip started after seeing a whip-act in a travel circus as a kid.

* I always found it odd that Idiana being a highly sucessful and respected Archeologist was more of an informed attribute than anything, at least going by his success rate on the movies. In Raiders, he lost the golden idol to Belloq, and while he does return witht he Ark, that was never made public. In Temple, he fails to return with the Sankara stones. In Last Crusade, he gets his only real hit by returning the golden cross of Coronado, but by the end of the movie the Grail and everything involved to it was lost. And finally, in Crystal Skull, he once again fails to return with the titular Macguffin.

** Then the Millennium Falcon will fly over the castle, and the opening credits of ''Han Solo and Indiana Jones starring in: Twin Furies'' will begin.

*** The raft scene doesn't stretch the imagination much, when you think about it: As ''MythBusters'' showed, a raft can stay stable for a while, and it overturns at a certain height (although they didn't test a lower height since we don't know the plane's altitude, or if the raft were inflated while falling), and it falls off a cliff and into a river - we don't know the exact height, but it's probably not all that high, so it doesn't stretch one's WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief.\\

** Indiana Jones always does things that defy physics - like how in ''Raiders'', he is at one point dragged behind a truck and emerges with no clothing damage or friction burns.

** [[MathematiciansAnswer Yes]].