Just reinforces the fact that Lucas is sometimes his own worst enemy

We definitely dodged a bullet with Saucer Men from Mars, but City of the Gods definitely would’ve been a big upgrade from Crystal Skull

This movie definitely should’ve been made about 8-9 years earlier

I read the Darabont script years ago and it broke my heart that it wasn't the movie we got.

When I heard "Indiana Jones & The City of the Gods" I thought it was going to be something more akin to that one old game where he goes to Babylon because the Russians were digging there in search of something even bigger than the atomic bomb. It even makes sense with the whole idea that we shouldn't have access to such destructive power. Still much finer than the mess we ultimately had.

Lucas was always at his best when he had people around him prepared to say "No, that's crazy" and stick to their guns. Yes, Darabont's script was way better than the one we got, and had a much better title - bad George!

The "nuke the fridge" was actually a great idea. It just happened in the wrong place. If it had happened during the film's climax, the audience would have embraced it because you can get away with a lot more during the film's climax than you can in the opening moments.

The biggest flaw for me was the lack of Sean Connery. John Hurt's character was clearly meant to be Indy's father, but they had to recast the role/introduce a new father figure for Indy, and it needed to be Henry, not a guy we had never met before. This crucial part of the story would only work if we had seen that character before his mind had deteriorated. It's Mutt and Indy's entire motivation to go on this advemture.

The more and more I learn about George Lucas, the more and more it seems like he’s his own worst enemy. For the original trilogy, he had people keeping his ideas in check, but after that he was giving free rein to do whatever he wanted. Had we gotten city of the gods, I think it would’ve made for a far superior Indiana Jones 4

Lucas really needed more people to challenge his decisions around him in the 2000's considering this movie and the prequel trilogy.

Yes indeed, Darabont's script actually sounded like a more plausible and doable ending with a story to it. Would have rather seen that film than the one we actually got!

Frank Darabont's script was really good. Too bad they changed it. Also, the "nuke the fridge" moment is from the first draft of Back to the Future where Marty hid in a fridge during a nuke blast to time travel home!!

I've chewed over what I would have done for Indy 4. This is my basic bullet points 1. Still a search for El Dorado/Akator, it ties into Indy's past and the Percy Fawcett Lost City of Z quest and a Spanish Conquistador, heck I even considered the reason Indiana Jones was after the Golden Idol at the beginning of Raiders was because it connected to Akator as a possible "key" the Spanish Conquistador used/the one adventure/treasure that got away. 2. The reasons the Russians want Akator is they're flat broke from WW2 and all that wealth would be an enormous boon to funding their space program/war machine 3. Marion is the one who calls Indy to the quest because Oxley sent her to get Indiana Jones. Also no kid of Indiana jones but Indiana Jones and Marion seeing they had their treasure in each other the whole time. 4. The Crystal Skull isn't an obviously alien skull but a human shaped skull that has properties similar to what it had in the movie. 5. The Crystal Skull was once a real human skull turned crystal because Alien technology/whatever the twist about Akator's Gold is ala a metaphor about atomic energy. But no aliens actually show up.

Indy dumping an entire mag into an alien is metal as fuck lmao

I don’t hate it, but Last Crusade was just such a perfect ending. It’s like Return of the Jedi, we never should’ve seen these characters again after they resolved their stories

I think it's awesome that the script for City of the Gods manages to tie the atomic test at the start of the film to the ending, thus driving home the theme of man's hubris and thirst for power and knowledge leading to his demise. The version we got was entertaining, but the ending seemed disconnected from the rest of the film, with no real connecting through-line. I'm personally fine with the aliens, since the Indiana Jones franchise has always had supernatural and mysterious elements, but the way they were written left too many plot holes and problems in my mind.

The main problem with Crystal Skull is that, no matter how good it could've been, it was never going to be ideal. When you dissect how Raiders and the character of Indy were crafted, nothing's really going to work terribly well outside of World War II. Ultimately, I think it comes down to the power fantasy that Spielberg was able to inhabit in both Raiders and Last Crusade. I think that's one fundamental reason Temple of Doom just wasn't as good overall, even if parts of it were strong, and why Last Crusade soared - despite being very, very, very similar to Raiders - simply due to the dynamic of adding Sean Connery as Indy's father.

Short round driving them off in their wedding is the best idea ever honestly

The fact that George actually thought he could creatively object to a celebrated writer like Frank Darabont, and by proxy Spielberg, is further proof that late stage George Lucas completely lost touch with reality during and after the prequels.

One of the drafts was being written by the third film’s scribe, Jeffrey Boam. It featured all the same traits, the Soviets looking for aliens for potential psychic properties. It was supposed to film in 1996, but they put it on ice when _Independence Day_ came out and they didn’t want to be the follow up act. Jeffrey Boam’s last film ended up being _The Phantom,_ he died four years later in 2002. George also intended for Indy to have a daughter, not a son (keeping it in continuity with the bookends of the TV show). It was Spielberg who had it changed to a son, since he had just done a Father/Daughter relationship in _The Lost World: Jurassic Park_

It's saddening to see how many people hate this movie. It's definitely not as good as the first three but it's still really entertaining and interesting to watch.

Yes, Darabont's script is pretty amazing. It's really remarkable how every single scene in it that survived to be in CRYSTAL SKULL is executed way better in Darabont's script. Mind you the 'snake scene' is so OTT I don't know how it would have played on screen. Indy is not afraid of snakes anymore, and he literally gets swallowed by a giant anaconda, then regurgitated, and so comes back his terror of snakes.

I've long held the bones of what we got were great. That a pulp hero man of action from the 30's should feel a little silly during a story set in the 50's. Where the genre motifs shifts on him from the pseudohistorical and mystical to the pseudoscientific and futuristic. Where he is both a relic of the past and out of place in the "modern" day , while also being more clear-eyed and sagacious about what is important in the grand scheme of things. Sadly didn't get much of that kind of introspection or meta awareness of the genre conventions that was always at the heart of the Indy movies.

The sad thing is that despite this movies issues, it will probably still feel more like a classic Indiana Jones movie than Dial of Destiny will, just for the fact that it had Lucas and Spielberg attached to it.

I’m happy with the Indy 4 we got and I think it’s a classic 15 years later.

Spielberg never wanted to make this movie, and it shows! He only did it cause Lucas and Ford wanted to. There's only a few moments that really feel good enough for Spielberg's standards. The university bike chase is one of them. It does feel like an Indy movie at that point. Indy facing the nuclear blast in the distance is also a pretty iconic image.

This version sounds so much better than what we were given.

I will say right off the bat, I was the young demographic for Crystal Skull it was my Indiana Jones, I grew up with the originals but I was just at the right age for action films and also unapologetically love Shia LaBeouf. Crystal Skull is by no means the best Indy but I cant say any of them are bad either, Crystal Skull has its faults but I think alot of people who unfairly judge it likely haven't seen it since its original run or romanticize the original trilogy as if it also wasnt filled with unrealistic fantasy adventure gimmicks.

Crystal Skull just had too many shark jumping moments.. and the fridge wasn’t the worst offender. Cate Blanchett was amazing btw

Dude, we could've had the Darabont script, but we didn't! Wtf Lucas?!

Would be sick to have Short Round come back

Actually, it was Harrisson Ford that pushed for Lucas to make a fourth Indy movie. And then Lucas talked Spielberg (who was resistent at first) into making it. And this was actually revealed by Kathleen Kennedy herself 15 years ago in the film's biography. Though keep in mind that these events revolve around the film we actually got though, not the first attempt.

Can't believe this channel only has 1.2K subs! You got one more now buddy!

"heel and face turns" 😂😂 The Big Show would be proud

I wish they went with the Darabont script honestly

Makes me sick seeing what we could’ve gotten before Lucas didn’t like the script around 7:00-7:45.

Personally, I always felt a 4th Indiana Jones movie should be the inverse of 'Last Crusade'. Indy finds out he & Marion share a daughter, who happens to be an archaeologist thief/cat burglar hired by a communist spy. Once Indy learns about this, he goes off to find & rescue his daughter - not from Russians, since she is quite resourceful, but from herself who - unlike his father, is more on the morally gray side - looking for that fortune & glory her father desired once upon a time. During the early 00's, I wrote a rather brief treatment for such a story. Marion & Henry, Sr would be in it, mainly caneos. The main villain would be Indy's daughter's stepfather - Marion's husband - who works for the CIA, hires his stepdaughter (who thinks they're biologically father & daughter) & ends up being a communist spy. The movie's mcguffin would've been the Spear of Destiny - once owned by Rasputin & Tzar Nicholas II, had the power to heal any wound. This spec script was written way before the spear got used in the game. 😢 Interestingly enough, Indy's daughter would've been set up as the likely protagonist in a future/continuation of the series, where she'd be the archaeologist getting in all sorts of trouble - think a more adventure-serial version of Lara Croft - w/father Indiana Jones making brief appearances as a museum curator.

I would’ve loved to see the Darabont Script and I’m sure it would’ve been better than the Crystal Skull but im still really happy with the Crystal Skull we got. I mean it has everything a good Indiana Jones movie has. Creepy Crawleys, a giant tough guy he has to fight, a love interest, a good macguffin, and so on. Crystal Skull is definitely in my top 4 Indy films

After Dial of Destiny, I think we can all look back on Crystal Skull a little more fondly

First half of Crystal Skull and Shia was perfect.

Gonna use that line: You're my fortune and glory

I don't even hate _Crystal Skull_ (in fact I think it's incredibly over-hated, if not underrated), but goodness does _City of the Gods_ sound like a better script. Has anyone ever stated what George allegedly didn't like about the script?

Everyone's talking about how disappointing it is we didn't get Darbont's version, but at the pace AI is moving, it won't be long before we can just make City of the Gods ourselves.

I love the clip of the Frank Darabont interview and how he trips over his words. My guess is that his thought process was something like this: Well, let's see, I don't wanna call George a total narcissist but something akin to a father holding his screaming wife and children in the family Subaru hostage because he just wont stop and ask for directions. I would have preferred that script too. To be honest, I feel that the thing with the refrigerator was the least of the problems with this film. This film was divided between two separate stories. The coming of age story could not establish itself appropriately. This film should have been about Mutt becoming an adult. The size and scale of the main quest ought to have been something that he could solve. An aged Indiana Jones swoops in to become the father he never was and assist Mutt. It should not have been about Jones. The other story was the main adventure story, which was muddled because it turns into a bizarre sci-fi plot. The villains do not get enough screen time. Lastly, I think the title was terrible. It did not fit the scope of this film because there was too little time to establish the aliens.

These videos are great. I'm taking my time with them because one of my favourite things is hearing about what could have been with film and TV.

I'm surprised you didn't mention the symmetry of Marion begging Indy not to look at the skull, in Darabont's script. It's like poetry, it rhymes. That said, I genuinely think Crystal Skull is marginally better than the Darabont script. Drabaont nailed a few character moments, and the ending was heaps better, but by-and-large I think the Darabont script comes off feeling like a fan fiction more than an original Indy adventure.

I absolutely had, and have NO problem with Crystal Skull. I thoroughly enjoyed it 🤷🏻‍♂️

I wish they had swung for the fences and written in short round to be the new Indy. Short round was a mini version of Indy in temple. Ke huy Quan just won an Oscar for a comedy/action film. He could've come back as a Jackie Chan/Indiana Jones/ James bond super hero that was put through school by Indiana Jones and becomes a government super spy that moonlights as a museum curator himself in honor of Marcus Brody who he interned with through school. Indy keeps calling him short round the whole film for some reason. Hijinks ensue, the day is saved and in one of the final shots as they're wrapping up Indy's hat falls off, short round picks it up, and Indy says "Keep it kid. I've had enough of adventure and I just want to relax." Short round raises the hat to his head and right as he's about to put it on he stops and says "sorry Indy, it's not my style." And hands it back. Marion is waiting at the car and as they say their pleasantries, from around the corner a government messenger arrives and says "Dr. Jones your aid is requested by the president on an urgent matter. You have to come with me right now." Indy goes to put on his hat and follow and the messenger stops him and says "I'm sorry sir, this request is for the other Dr. Jones." And he looks at short round. Indy has a moment of disbelief, looks at short round and proudly smiles. Short round kisses Marion on the cheek, hugs Indy, gives him a final squeeze on the shoulder and says "Now is the time for love, Dr Jones." Indy looks at Marion, smiles, then turns to short round and says "Give em hell kid." the new Dr Jones waves to Indy and Marion as the plane takes off. He turns from the window, puts on his gear, and we hear the theme music rise as the words on the screen show "Indiana Jones will return..." Fade to black on the theme. Roll credits.

This movie was really bad but I agree it either been better with the other script. Great video as always, just one minor detail. When you mentioned Indy unloading his entire clip at 6:39 should’ve been magazine instead. Clips are used to quickly load rifle magazines but pistol magazines are loaded one round at a time unless you have a speed loader but not a clip.

At the very least the original idea commits to the alien instead of the tadaa type way it happened in the actual movie

Crystal Skull is always a frustrating film for me. It’s brilliant in some ways but then starts to fall apart in others. Some scenes still make me just wonder what they were thinking. We got so used to practical effects on the others that a lot of the CGI just felt wrong. The alien storyline was ok, but I’m just wondering if it would have been so much better if we never actually saw them, all in shadows, like Close Encounters. They generated no real fear to me. I’m hoping the final film will be better, it looks good, I just hope that it doesn’t fall victim like some other films to (god I hate the expression) wokeness. 😂 If Mission Impossible, Marvel et al can do great movies with strong characters of both sexes without hitting you over the head with it then so can an Indy film. I mean look at the original, a strong female character who stood her ground. Unfortunately as mentioned in the video, they softened her up too much I think.

So the lesson is, don’t let George Lucas do a movie with you

They should have done Indiana Jones and the Spear of Destiny.

For Indy5 it would have been great to see him in a gritty 70s horror film trying to save a lost kingdom Angkor Wat, Cambodia from a cult of blood thirsty Khmer Rouge. But we know modern Disney would have made Pol Pot the good guy.

So a main plot point in the Darabont script is that aliens who have interstellar travel have not yet discovered nuclear fission?

It would've been nice if in the 90s they did Indiana Jones And The Spear of Destiny.

There had been so many good books in the Indiana Jones Universe.... so many missed opportunities

In seeing how Frank Darabont’s script unfolded, I can certainly see how his adaptations of two Stephen King novels were so good. This was the movie they SHOULD have made, not the movie we got. Unfortunately the whole Mac thing, the Mutt thing and the Spalco thing - they did not really work. Here’s hoping Indy’s swansong is on par with the The Last Crusade at least. And it would be good to see Short Round in a cameo.

My god, Darabont's original Script sounded bloody FANTASTIC!!!! A lot less "bathos" and cringe moments. And also a lot more of a cohesive and meaningful story overall. Welp..... maybe some day A.I. can put this to reality of what could have been.

What is the clip at 2:03 from? It's a recreation of the Mac Brazel pic from the Roswell Incident, but I don't recall a modern adaptation of the story. Great video!

If only they had wrangled a real prairie dog instead of a cgi one in the opening logo transition the movie would have been a masterpiece.

I definitely wanna see your what could've been video for the Dark Knight Rises

If they would’ve changed the Nuke scene by having the fridge just be under debris instead of flying out of the town and would’ve completely cut the vine swing scene, city of gods would’ve been a perfect ending to the Indiana Jones Saga.

As a long time Star Wars fan ( 1977 ) I remember that NO ONE really criticized George Lucas harshly until the Phantom Menace. He was beloved universally. It was a great time to be a fan of Lucas, Star Wars and Indy ( even though I loved the Prequels and everything that led up to them also The Clone Wars. ) 🤨

Winstone was bloody good as the side ally/enemy/turned ally/turned villain/turned decent final act of remorse. Lol.

It doesn't matter what script was used, the fans who grew up with Indiana Jones are now all adults now and have already seen too many variations of stories, twists and plots and nothing would ever be fresh or original like it was when we're kids. The only thing that would change is the name of the movie that everyone complains about.

I dunno. The original idea seems more layered. I also didn’t mind the aliens. They kinda make sense in that by the 50’s we’ve moved away from lore involving the supernatural. By that time aliens, UFO’s have taken place of the occult. So thematically and from a pop culture standpoint, it made sense. Truth be told I didn’t enjoyed the movie with the exceptions of a few scenes. Heck I wished they went with the Darabont script after I heard about it.

City of the Gods. That would have been a worthy chapter.

Kingdom of the crystal skull isn't the greatest movie ever, but I do like it more than temple of doom. I don't think the idea idea of aliens existing being too ridiculous given that God literally manifests in the first film, as well as magic existing

What disappointed me the most about Crystal Skill was that Ford himself was clearly ready for action. He looked great and if he and Spielberg had been given a script worthy of the character and director, it really could have been something special. Instead, we got space aliens and Shia LaBeouf swinging from vines. I'm trying to keep an open mind about Dial. Maybe it'll be great. But I can't help but think it'll be fan service and a lot of "meh." Hope I'm wrong.

I love the part where the aliens offer to fulfill a whish. If I had to choose, I'd ask for a clean, free, sustainable and non-destructive source of energy. Much like the one that Telsa supposedly discovered (there might be something to that), for I believe all wars are waged over resources - and energy is the ultimate resource.

I don't need 'what could have been.' I'm more than happy with what was.

City of the Gods is the Indy film we needed

I think it’s a shame Shia lebouf isn’t carrying on the role of indies son. He was such a good pick

City of the Gods sounds like a great movie

More Gophers and it could have been a masterpiece

I've always said it: Somebody needs to make "Crystal Skull - The Phantom Cut"

This film should get a re-edit "special edition". Cut the nuked fridge and the vine swinging scenes, and limit the John Hurt character somehow. I agree that once Connery said no, then the script should have been re-written to not need Hurt's character. Also re-do the effects and editing for the climax so the "alien" angle is more mysterious and cryptic and less in your face. Those things would all make this a much better movie without having to reshoot...if anything it would be cutting 10 minutes or so from the run-time.

I feel like Lucas gets hyper fixated on themes.

I still like Crystal Skull because I'm a slut for Indiana Jones and I just don't think the film sucks as much as they lead it on to be. I also grew up with this film along the other three so I'm just nostalgic for them. That being said nothing beats The Last Crusade, although we shall see what The Dial of Destiny brings us!

I got to say the City of the Gods script sounded way more promising. But I hear Spielberg has approved/praised the Dial of Destiny film so I can only hope it is as good as he says it is.

Somewhere Gary Kurtz is hearing this and laughing while saying, "I told you so."

When the guy that wrote Shawshank hands you a script, you make that shit.

As a one sentence pitch "Indiana Jones but Close Encounters" does sound like a better movie than what we got. Not the details of it, but in concept.

I read the Frank Darabont script, and in my opinion it was worse than the finished film. -Mac isn't in the script, but there's a similar character: Indy's Russian friend Yuri Makovsky, who turns out to be a Russian spy. -After losing his teaching job, Indy gets drunk, enters the late Marcus Brody's museum, and tries to steal the golden idol from the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark. -Indy prepares to flee after an assassin sent by the Russians tried to kill him. Unaware of the attempt on Indy's life, Indy's father berates and slaps Indy, accusing Indy of always running away and telling Indy "It appears there's a reason you're named after the dog." -At one point Indy says, "The monkey pooped on my chest." -There are giant mutant animals in the jungle surrounding the lost city: a yard long dragonfly, hummingbirds the size of hawks, a snake with a head bigger than a horse's, and nine-inch long ants. -Indy is swallowed by the giant snake. He cuts his way out of the snake with a machete. -One of the villains is the president of Peru, who gets turned into a frog by an alien. -Another villain is a Nazi doctor, who is killed by a phantom Adolf Hitler conjured by an alien. -The script has too many characters. Besides Indy, Marion, Belasko, Oxley, Yuri, the president of Peru, and the Nazi doctor, there's also Belasko's right-hand-man, a treacherous Peruvian guide, a U.S. State Department section chief, a Japanese map expert, a Swedish psychic, and a Swiss anthropologist. -Instead of going down three waterfalls, Indy and his companions survive going down four waterfalls, and they do it in an ordinary truck instead of an amphibious vehicle. -Indy's father drunkenly sings "Fly Me to the Moon" at Indy and Marion's wedding reception and Oxley makes silverware dance with the power of his mind.

The Spielberg tactic (as i call it), he directs 1 box offixe film prior to a main Critically acclaimed film, to finance the projects he really wants to do. He released Jurassic park 7 months before Schindler’s list, which helped finance the latter, in the mid 90’s he directed the box office hit Hook which helped finance Saving private ryan and a guilty pleasure called Amistad. Then he directed the average The lost world to finance Minority Report and A.I, at the beginning of the century he released some guilty pleasure films like Catch me if you can and War of the worlds (financed by his previous films, Then Crystal skull helped finance Guilty pleasures like Tin tin and his more acclaimed films like War horse and bridge of spies financed by his terrible film Ready player one which helped finance Lincoln. A true auteur like Scorsese, Gibson or Malick don’t need hooks to finance their films, with the exception of Scorsese directing Hugo, perhaps. This new film (Indiana jones 5 right?) will help finance the next big great project

The city of the gods story sounds awesome but I can understand why Lucas didn't want it, because Indiana Jones is his baby maybe he thought the script too good and he wasn't good with that. Who knows.

Well, at least Hollywood is consistent about screwing Darabont over when he has a winning film project in hand or has done the work to bring it to near fruition. Christ Almighty. Im not joking, Franks storied career gives me that internal confidence to still keep going and not give up when im having a bad day and things arent going my way.

Great work! Please do one for dial of destiny !!

Fingers crossed that Dial of Destiny doesn't repeat any of these mistakes.

If Frank wrote and directed the 5th one coming out late June I bet it would be amazing!

I don't have a problem with the Crystal Skull story conceptually, but it definitely had problems that could have been fixed with another draft. First and foremost, making "Mary" and the parentage of "Mutt" a mystery was ridiculous as the audience generally knew the answer before they walking into the theater. Second, Mac was not a great character and his betrayal was meaningless. Had it been Sallah or Macus (sadly Elliot had passed years earlier) or Short Round and it would have had real bite. Similarly, Ox is a character we have never met before but are supposed to care about due to his Skull induced insanity. Why not cut out the middle-man and make it Marion whose life is endangered instead? It would certainly raise the stakes and urgency for the audience. Lastly, the story was too complicated for its own good. It felt like they stopped to give exposition every 15-20 minutes. Raiders was beautiful in the way it did a 5 minute info dump at the very start of the film and, for the most part, that was all you needed to know.

My vision for an "aged Indiana Jones" movie was a movie like "The Verdict" (Paul Newman) in which nobody believes him anymore about the Area 51 secrets. and consider him just another conspiracy theorist. His challenge is to prove the aliens exist, but in the end he realizes that the people can not handle this truth and buries the proof.

City of gods would have been awesome!

'Heel and face turns'. Wrestling fans are taking over.

Easily better than the Crystal Skull movie that we got, what could have been.

That ending does feel a bit close to Last Crusade, but I'd have taken it over what we got!

Frank Darabont of The Walking Dead fame I would assume....Wow he's been around!

Much better scenario, such a shame it doesn't come out.

Brilliant stuff