History YMMV / IndianaJones

** The use of [[IndyPloy improbable escapes to get Indy out of danger]]. While the original trilogy was always fondly remembered for its masterful action choreography, some of the more silly escapes were affectionately mocked by fans. Case in point: Indy somehow hitching a ride on a Nazi submarine in ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'' without drowning, and surviving falling out of a plane in an inflatable raft in ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom''. Both were widely derided as ridiculous, but few people thought they were bad enough to spoil good action movies. But when Indy survived a nuclear explosion in ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull'' by hiding in a refrigerator, it was widely held up by critics as one of the worst moments of the film, and many fans believed that it finally stretched the audience's suspension of disbelief to the breaking point.
*** In fact, ''Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'' [[TropeCodifier is where the idiom "Nuking the Fridge" comes from]], akin to JumpingTheShark but for a movie franchise instead of television.

* ToughActToFollow: ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull'' fell flat with fans (but [[CriticalDissonance not critics]]) due to comparisons to the original trilogy.

** The racism and colonialist imagery of ''Temple of Doom'' which is today seen as an OldShame for the franchise, was already there in ''Raiders of the Lost Ark''. Spielberg's biographer and film critic Joseph [=McBride=] points out that ''Raiders'' begins with stereotypical imagery of angry natives chasing out the white man after he steals an artifact from their culture, and the middle half set in the Middle East is full of orientalist imagery, with the idea of a white man shooting an Arab played for BlackComedy. What balanced it was the fact that in ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' the main bad guys are the Nazis whereas ''Temple of Doom'' paints local Indians as a psychotic cannibal child-sacrificing cult while the English Colonial Army serves as TheCavalry, making the colonialist baggage unmistakable. ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' is likewise a GenreThrowback to a whole slew of pulp fiction and adventure movies, where ''Temple of Doom'' is largely based on ''Film/GungaDin'' which is adapted from a Creator/RudyardKipling story, deriving in both cases from a more [[ValuesDissonance values-dissonant]] time.

* MemeticMutation:
** "He chose...poorly."
** "We have top men working on it"
*** "''Who?''"
*** "''Top.'' Men."
** The IndyHatRoll.
** "Snakes. WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes"
*** "Asps. Very dangerous. You go first."
** "No ticket."
** The infamous scene of Toht's face melting is used as a reaction image similarly to the [[YourHeadAsplode head explosion]] from ''Film/{{Scanners}}''. ''Website/{{Cracked}}'' and ''Blog/ToplessRobot'' use these regularly.
** Donovan's RapidAging is also a good reaction image, as seen in our TV
** '''KALI MA!!!'''
** "We! Are going! To ''die!'' :("
** "ThatBelongsInAMuseum!"
** "Nuking the Fridge", used in the same context as jumping the shark.

* CrazyIsCool: Hardly needs to be said in Henry Jones Sr.'s case. The man took out fighter plane with an umbrella and a flock of seagulls. While quoting Charlemagne.

** ''Temple of Doom'' gets enough flack that its Rotten Tomatoes score of '''85%''' might surprise some people.

** [[TheyPlottedAPerfectlyGoodWaste Spielberg and Lucas wanted Willie to be completely different from Marion]], to the point that Kate Capshaw was asked to dye her brown hair blond.
* [[DracoInLeatherPants Draco In A Leather Dress]]: [[TheBaroness Irina Spalko]] is one of the rare female examples. In her defense, she does have ''some'' genuine {{AntiVillain}}-ish character traits but not enough to fully qualify for the {{trope}}.

** The racism and colonialist imagery of ''Temple of Doom'' which is today seen as an OldShame for the franchise, was already there in ''Raiders of the Lost Ark''. Spielberg's biographer and film critic Joseph [=McBride=] points out that ''Raiders'' begins with stereotypical imagery of angry natives chasing out the white man after he steals an artifact from their culture, and the middle half set in the Middle East is full of orientalist imagery, with the idea of a white man shooting an Arab played for BlackComedy. What balanced it was the fact that in ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' the [[AcceptableTargets main bad guys are the Nazis]] whereas ''Temple of Doom'' paints local Indians as a psychotic cannibal child-sacrificing cult while the English Colonial Army serves as TheCavalry, making the colonialist baggage unmistakable. ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' is likewise a GenreThrowback to a whole slew of pulp fiction and adventure movies, where ''Temple of Doom'' is largely based on ''Film/GungaDin'' which is adapted from a Creator/RudyardKipling story, deriving in both cases from a more [[ValuesDissonance values-dissonant]] time.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Henry Jones Sr.
** Sallah, thanks to his loyalty and usefulness to Indy. It's rather telling that Sallah returned in ''The Last Crusade'' to much fanfare because of his being a well-liked character.

** For many a little Asian boy in the 1980s, [[BadassAdorable Short Round]] was the ONLY positive and heroic Asian role model he could relate to.

Is [[BadassBookworm Indy]] a true-blue hero? Is he a BloodKnight trying to break out of the humdrum existence of a university professor? Is he an underdeveloped manchild trying to live out the adolescent fantasies of youth with a "secret identity"? [[TakeAThirdOption Or is he a combination of all three?]]

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Is [[BadassBookworm Indy]] a true-blue hero? Is he a BloodKnight trying to break out of the humdrum existence of a university professor? Is he an underdeveloped manchild trying to live out the adolescent fantasies of youth with a "secret identity"? [[TakeAThirdOption Or is he a combination of all three?]]

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Is [[BadassBookworm Indy]] a true-blue hero? Is he a BloodKnight trying to break out of the humdrum existence of a university professor? Or is he a underdeveloped manchild trying to live out the adolescent fantasies of youth with a "secret identity"?
** Most likely all three.

* DamselScrappy: [[TheScrappy Willie Scott]]. After a boisterous HardDrinkingPartyGirl like [[ActionGirl Marion]], it's hard for some fans to accept that not every woman's cut out for the adventure shtick. Even her useful moments (punching a mook strangling Indy, stepping on Mola Ram's hands as he tried to climb pasted them) aren't enough to be RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap.

* EvilIsSexy: [[TheBaroness Irina Spalko]], all thanks to the beautiful Creator/CateBlanchett plus a sexy FakeRussian accent.

* CrazyAwesome: Hardly needs to be said in Henry Jones Sr.'s case. The man took out fighter plane with an umbrella and a flock of seagulls. While quoting Charlemagne.

* ValuesDissonance: Whether the series is a horrific affront to the field of archaeology or not gets debated by the experts themselves. Ultimately, they generally conclude that while Indy isn't exactly great as an archaeologist, the films shouldn't exactly be faulted for being inaccurate, considering the perception of the field has changed greatly since the film came out.

* ScapegoatCreator: Much like ''Star Wars'', expect any of the blame for problems to get thrown squarely at Creator/GeorgeLucas and no one else.

** The racism and colonialist imagery of ''Temple of Doom'' which is today seen as an OldShame for the franchise, was already there in ''Raiders of the Lost Ark''. Spielberg's biographer and film critic Joseph [=McBride=] points out that ''Raiders'' begins with stereotypical imagery of angry natives chasing out the white man after he steals an artifact from their culture, and the middle half set in the Middle East is full of orientalist imagery, with the idea of a white man shooting an Arab played for BlackComedy. What balanced it was the fact that in ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' the [[AcceptableTargets main bad guys are the Nazis]] whereas ''Temple of Doom'' paints local Indians as a psychotic cannibal child-sacrificing cult while the English Colonial Army serves as TheCavalry, making the colonialist baggage unmistakable. ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' is likewise a GenreThrowback to a whole slew of pulp fiction and adventure movies, where ''Temple of Doom'' is largely based on ''Film/GungaDin'' which is adapted from a Creator/RudyardKipling story, deriving in both cases from a more values-dissonant time.

** One of the novels in the series, published in 1995, is "ThePhilosophersStone". The villain dies by being touched by the stone, melting his flesh off. Two years later, ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone'' is released and Quirrell/Voldemort dies the same way, with his flesh crumbling into ashes

* {{Squick}}: According to the script and Word of God, Indiana and Marion's "relationship" started when [[http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/RaidersoftheLostArk.pdf she was 15 and he was 27.]] When they meet again, ten years later, Marion chastises Jones, stating, [[RomanticizedAbuse "I was a child! I was in love! It was wrong and you knew it!"]] Jones shows little remorse, and simply replies [[UsefulNotes/VictimBlaming "You knew what you were doing."]] It gets worse when you realize that [[http://moedred.livejournal.com/2009/03/04/ George Lucas originally wanted her to be]] ''11'' when they first met. Lessened with the release of ''Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide'' in 2008, which retcons her as being 17 years old when she first met Indy. Though she's still a whole decade younger than him, it's somewhat slightly less squick-y than ''[[{{Jailbait}} 15 or 11]]''.

* SpiritualAdaptation: Creator/StevenSpielberg wanted to direct a Franchise/JamesBond movie, but was rejected twice by Eon Productions. Creator/GeorgeLucas presented him with an idea "better than James Bond" and the rest is history. Spielberg would call ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'' "a James Bond film without the hardware".

** ValuesResonance: That being said, many archaeologists have praised the series for bringing the field to public light and encouraging people to get interested in it, if in a clumsy way.

* SnarkBait: The fifth film getting pushed back two years to 2021 got a lot of people amused by how it means we'll be asked to accept an almost 80 year old Creator/HarrisonFord as the same action hero he was in the '80s. He'll also be almost 20 years older than ''Creator/SeanConnery'' was in ''Last Crusade''.

* CompleteMonster: [[Monster/IndianaJones Now has its own page]].

* CompleteMonster: [[YMMV/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleofDoom Mola Ram]] and [[YMMV/TheYoungIndianaJonesChronicles Mattias Targo]]; see those respective pages for more details.

* {{Misblamed}}: Much like ''Star Wars'', expect any of the blame for problems to get thrown squarely at Creator/GeorgeLucas and no one else.

* CompleteMonster: [[YMMV/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleofDoom Mola Ram]] and [[YMMV/YoungIndianaJones Mattias Targo]]; see those respective pages for more details.