Visible crew/equipment: When Dr. Irina Spalko is descending the cliff, you can briefly see the harness cable that is holding her up right next to the rope on which she is climbing down.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
Plot summary
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Jim Broadbent, John Hurt, Ray Winstone, Shia LaBeouf, Karen Allen
The movie begins in 1957, with Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) held captive in a remote US military base in Nevada. Soviet agent Colonel Dr. Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett) and her men force Indy to help them locate a crate containing the remains of an extraterrestrial being, known as the "Roswell Incident." Indy escapes but is caught up in a car chase between the Soviets and a group of teenagers called the greasers. He manages to eliminate the Soviets and survives a nuclear test by hiding inside a lead-lined fridge.
Indy returns to Marshall College, where he meets a young motorcycle-riding greaser named Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf). Mutt's mother, Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), reveals that Mutt's father, Harold Oxley (John Hurt), had recently disappeared while searching for the legendary crystal skull of Akator, a city of gold deep in the Amazon rainforest. Oxley had left behind a letter for Indy, urging him to find a new cradle that has information about the skull's location.
Indy and Mutt travel to Peru, where they meet up with Oxley's former colleague, Professor Harold Porter (Jim Broadbent). Following the clues in Oxley's letter, they decipher the location of the "Nazca lines" and find a hidden underground temple. Inside, they discover a crystal skeleton and a series of clues leading them to Akator.
The group is captured by the Soviets but escapes with the help of Mutt's fencing skills. They reach a small village near Akator, where the natives warn them of a powerful alien presence within the city. Pushing forward, Indy, Mutt, Marion, and Oxley enter the ancient temple of Akator. There, they encounter Spalko and her Soviet soldiers, who believe the crystal skull has immense psychic powers that could grant them world domination.
Indy and his group discover that the crystal skull belongs to an extraterrestrial being that had crash-landed on Earth thousands of years ago. The skull contains vast knowledge and can communicate with other beings. Spalko attempts to harness its powers but is disintegrated and consumed by the crystal beings. Indy and the others barely escape.
Inside the temple, they find a chamber filled with these crystal beings, with Oxley seemingly in a trance. Indy realises that the beings want their crystal skull returned, and Oxley snaps out of his trance and joins them. They return the skull, leading the beings to vanish and the temple to collapse.
Indy, Mutt, Marion, and Oxley are rescued by the US military and flown back home. The government covers up the events, claiming the temple collapsed due to a natural disaster. Indy and Marion get married, and Mutt swipes Indy's iconic fedora, hinting at his role as the potential successor to the Indiana Jones legacy.
More mistakes in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Indiana Jones: Put your hands down, will ya? You're embarrassing us.
Trivia: In the Mayan temple, Indy comments "I have a bad feeling about this." This line was a running gag in George Lucas' Star Wars saga, and was used by Harrison Ford at least once. (01:46:10)
Question: Why did the nuke fridge scene cause so much controversy?
Answer: Another problem is that people couldn't articulate what they didn't like about the film, and point to the "Nuke the Fridge" scene as a quick example of what they think is bad about it. In the realm of Indy, it's really no more outlandish than jumping out of a plane in an inflatable raft like in Temple of Doom.
It's considerably more outlandish. The raft scene was recreated/reviewed by Mythbusters, and they found that the raft floated down at a mere 22 mph. It would be hard/impossible in real life to stay on the raft, sure, but if you buy that bit of movie cheekiness, it would definitely slow their descent enough to survive, especially since they land a) on a slope and b) on soft snow. The fridge scene, however, has no such saving grace... it's completely ridiculous and unrealistic in every detail.
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Answer: People felt it was ridiculous and cartoonish, even by Indiana Jones standards. Even if it was possible to survive a nuclear blast via the lead lining of a fridge (it's not), or that the fridge would simply be thrown away rather than be melted/torn apart like everything else in the vicinity (it wouldn't), the impact of being flung what appears to be a mile or so through the air, then violently crashing into and rolling over the ground, would certainly kill anything inside. The controversy arose because usually, in "classic" Indy films, the fantastical elements were exactly that: fantastic, magical, and/or supernatural. This was presented as taking place in our reality, with no "power of God" or magic spells, and for many, that was just too much disbelief to suspend.