A film we never got: Indiana Jones and the City of the Gods
There are a lot of things wrong with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008). The basic idea hails from early 2000, and getting from there to the final film was a messy process. Various scripts and re-writes were produced throughout, but the stand-out one among them is the "initial" version by Frank Darabont. This version actually came in three iterations, of which the last one has been leaked online. This one was called Indiana Jones and the City of the Gods. The final iterations of Darabont's script is far from perfect. What we know about the earlier iterations tells us that they contained some really good ideas, and some really bad ones. No matter what, although I think that the third and final script for City of the Gods was better than Crystal Skull, I also feel that it was still deeply flawed.
In this (lengthy) post, I will envision how a better version of the film-that-wasn't could have come about, and what it could have been like in the final instance. This is Indiana Jones and the City of the Gods, the way I wish it had happened.
The main thing would be to remove George Lucas from the project, at least as much as possible. He provided the core of the story, which can work well enough, but literally all of his specific ideas thereafter weakened the film. Lots of damn stupid things that we see in Crystal Skull were already in City of the Gods— and each of them was insisted upon by George Lucas. His involvement, and his insistence on certain ideas, also dragged out the process of getting to a workable script in the first place. As we'll see, there are ways in which such issues could have been avoided.
The idea for the film first came into being in February 2000, when the American Film Institute held a ceremony honoring the life and work of Harrison Ford. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas were both there as speakers. This was the first time in years that the three had been in a room together, and at some point in the evening, the notion came up that they should do another Indiana Jones film. And they actually all agreed that it was a good idea. Lucas in particular had been thinking about this for years, and he had in fact proposed Indiana Jones and the Saucermen from Mars to the other two five years before. Ford and Spielberg had hated it, but Lucas was obsessed with making a 1950s sci-fi B-movie tribute involving aliens and flying saucers. He immediately began pushing for that idea again, but the other two still hated it. Eventually, they came up with a compromise wherein aliens could be a plot element, but not the overwhelming focus that Lucas had envisioned.
Lucas collected all his old notes and outlines (he's known for never truly ditching any idea), which included the screenplay for a never-filmed episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles about mysterious Peruvian skulls carved out of crystal. That produced some basic ideas, but Lucas's insistence on including all sorts of stuff that Spielberg didn't like caused a lot of delays. Frank Darabont, who had been a writer for The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (and who was fresh off his Oscar-nominated screenplay for The Green Mile now), was only hired to write a screenplay in July 2002.
Darabont's first version was rejected, apparently for two main reasons: the introduction of a thirteen year-old daughter of Indy and Marion as one of the main characters, and the use of Nazis in South America as the main villains (seeking revenge on Indy for his actions in the previous films). Lucas and Spielberg agreed that the film, to be set in the 1950s, should feature Soviets as the villains. They also felt, as did Ford, that the Nazis had been "worn out" as villains in the franchise. It was Spielberg who particularly disliked the daughter idea, because he felt it to be too much like the character of Kelly Curtis in the sequel to Jurassic Park. For this reason, he asked Darabont to write out the character.
Darabont's final draft was completed in November 2003. It pleased Spielberg and Ford immensely, but Lucas continued to object vehemently— despite the fact that many of his ideas were included (often against Darabont's better judgement). Eventually, Darabont came to consider the project as having wasted "a year of my life". Lucas kept on tinkering with the screenplay, creating various re-writes and hiring several writers to draft revised versions. This ultimately led to 2008's Crystal Skull.
So what was Darabont's third draft actually like? For the most part, better than the film we got. But also still flawed, in considerable part because Darabont and Spielberg didn't just chuck out the bad ideas that Lucas insisted upon. I'll put a detailed outline of Darabont's script below a spoiler-cut, in case you're unfamiliar with the gist of it, or wish to compare my proposal, below, with Darabont's draft.
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This film, all in all, would probably be better than what we eventually got. But it also has clear weaknesses. Most obviously, it's too convoluted. Both Escalante and Von Grauen can just be completely cut out. In fact, Yuri can be cut out, too, largely or entirely— to be replaced by the more imposing Thin Man as the lead villain. The treacherous Porfi is also superfluous. The various "Lucas additions" can all be removed, and the opening can be made far more fast-paced. The ending can also be radically re-worked, because it's rather chaotic. These cuts create room for Belasko to be moved more to the foreground, which means that he and Indy can be played off each other more.
How could this have come about? Well, let's assume that things go the same way in early 2000. But George Lucas happens to decide that he's too busy with creating the Star Wars prequels to be very involved. He offers Spielberg and Ford his ideas, notes etc. — but he's too busy to be an active participant. Spielberg puts correspondingly more of a mark on the initial drafting process. The idiosyncratic additions that Lucas was so bent on all get left out. Spielberg hires Darabont as early as 2001, and Darabont's first draft for City of the Gods is done in the Spring of 2002. It's essentially the same as his OTL first draft, but without the ill-advised "Lucas ideas".
Spielberg and Ford like it, but insist on taking out the South American Nazis. Without Lucas around to take issue with lots of other details, more focus is on this central problem, and Von Grauen (the last remnant of Darabont's 'Nazi villain' idea) gets cut entirely in the subsequent re-writing process. The second draft goes all-out on the stream-lining, meaning that all the fat gets trimmed (including Escalante et cetera). I imagine that this is where they decide that the Thin Man makes for a better lead villain than Yuri. They now know that they'll have a final screenplay by late 2002, and plan to produce the film 2003, with the planned release in 2004. They conclude that the film should be set later than Darabont initially planned (which was '54). Raiders was set in '36, and Crusade in '38. Meanwhile, was made in '81, and Crusade in '89 (eight years in between, while in-universe only two years passed). To keep ages vaguely consistent, we should use '81 as a reference. This means that 2004 equates to 1959 in-universe.
One thing that occurs to me is that a trimmed-down version of the script will probably be on the short side. I personally have no problem with a tight, none-too-bloated feature film, yet it's not generally the aim for a big, blockbuster production like this. It seems to me that the obvious way to fill the whole thing out just a bit more would be to bring back the idea of Indy and Marion's daughter. Darabont was right about that: Ford isn't getting younger, and short of a re-boot, the easy way to give your franchise a future is to include a character to whom he can pass the torch (or rather, the hat). This film is the last chance to introduce a kid that Indy never knew about: he hasn't seen Marion since '37 or so (they split up before Crusade). So now that they re-unite, you have your chance to reveal that Marion was pregnant at the time and never told Indy.
The timing means that you'd have to age the daughter up a bit: she'd be twenty-two instead of thirteen. That's just as well, since it means she can be a useful party to the adventure. Just find a decent actress born c. '82 and you're set. No matter how opposed Spielberg was initially, he did agree to put Mutt in Crystal Skull, so it's clear that he can be convinced of the merits of the basic idea.
With all this in mind, we have a pretty decent foundation for a tightly-plotted, fast-paced, coherent film. Darabont hands in his final draft, Spielberg and Ford love it, and the next year, they make their final Indiana Jones film, to be released theatrically in 2004. So what does that film look like?
1959. It's been twenty-one years since we last saw Indy. The world has changed. But some things always stay the same. Some men just can't stay out of trouble.
The story opens at night, in medias res. A group of professional (para-)military agents infiltrate a secret military base in Nevada (the Area 51 warehouse that Crystal Skull also starts with). We hear them speaking Russian to each other. They are led by the Thin Man, who dresses in black and has a scar running down his face through a milky-white eye. They are there to purchase two mysterious packages—one big and one small pouch—from two corrupt American scientists. One of these scientists is Yuri Makovsky.
Their plans are interrupted, however, by the arrival of none other than Indiana Jones. He has been tracking the infiltrators, and takes action to stop them. This tells us that despite the passage of time, Indy is still involved in adventures. But age can't just be waved off: the Thin Man is a highly capable fighter, and his soldiers are no push-overs. Indy is outmatched. During the fight, several Soviet soldiers and one of the American traitors end up getting killed. Some quick dialogue also reveals that Indy knows Yuri. He calls the traitor "a disgrace to his profession".
US government agents arrive, but too late: the Thin Man gets away with the bigger of the two pouches. Yuri flees along with the Soviets. Indy, however, has managed to get his hands on the smaller pouch. The government agents blame Indy for not stopping the Soviets. Indy bites out that he was there, and they were still miles away, but the lead agent doesn't want to hear any of it. "You're a relic, doctor Jones. It's time you face that." There is no absurd suspicion that Indy himself is a communist agent. He's just sixty years old, and a lot of officials have started to feel that he's too old for this shit. So he's basically sent packing back to Barnett College, with the government assuring him they'll handle this whole affair from now on— and Indy is to stay out of it. Clearly, he has his doubts about the agents' competence. He slips the small pouch into his pocket, and doesn't tell the agents about it.
Back in Fairfield, up-state New York, Indy won't have to be bored for long. The pouch is revealed to contain a brightly-coloured crystal, and Indy begin to look into it. As he's walking through the university complex late in the evening, after researching what he can about this strange object (to no great effect), it turns out that the Thin Man and Yuri have tracked him down. A chase/fight in the empty university building ensues. The ruckus alerts a guard, who calls the police. Yuri ends up falling to his death over a railing, just before the cops arrive. The Thin Man decides to flee just before he can kill Indy. Our hero searches Yuri's pockets, and finds the key to one of New York City Central Station's lockers. Just then, the police storm in. Seeing Indy over Yuri's corpse, they assume Indy is the killer, and he makes a hasty exit. Time to head to NYC!
In New York, Indy finds a crystal skull in the locker, and instructions to meet somebody in a hotel room. The crystal that Indy has with him fits into an indentation on the skull's forehead, and in fact is magnetically drawn to it. Just then, a gun is prodded into Indy's back. A young woman has come up behind him, who mistakes him for Yuri, and asks him if he thought he could just get away with double-crossing her. Indy tells her he's not Yuri, and that Yuri is dead, but before they can get to some kind of clarity on what's going on, the Thin Man and his stooges show up again. We get a big fight in Grand Central, wherein the young woman demonstrates the same kind of inventive, ad hoc fighting techniques that Indy is also known for. They manage to get away, if barely.
They head to the address that Indy found in the locker, and on the way there, the young woman introduces herself as Abby. She quickly tells him that she's part of an expedition. The skull was stolen anyway, and they need it. (She doesn't clarify why.) But their contact, Yuri, was a double-crossing snake, who also took the Thin Man's money and gave the skull to him. "Everybody sure wants this thing badly," Indy grumbles as they arrive at the hotel room.
Inside, they encounter a shady character who hands them fake passports, and two plane tickets to Peru. Abby and Yuri had originally arranged to travel to Peru together, before he betrayed her. Indy now takes his place. Shortly after they leave, the Thin Man arrives at the hotel room as well, and in a rage, murders the shady criminal after learning that the people he's pursuing are already on their way to Peru— along with the skull.
Plane flight travel montage!
When the two arrive in Peru, it turns out that someone Indy knows very well s waiting for them: none other than Marion Ravenwood! The two are shocked to see each other, and then that's compounded when it turns out that Abby is Marion's daughter (Abby presumably being named after Marion's dad, Abner). It's revealed Marion is now married to the wealthy and flamboyant Hungarian nobleman and archaeologist Peter Belasko. The man is in it for the fame than anything else, he's written several best-selling books about archeology. He's a total sell-out, and thus the ideal foil for our hero. This is only enhanced by the fact that he's also married to the woman who Indy obviously still loves. Indy assumes that Belasko is Abby's father, and bites out to Marion that she "sure must have moved on quick" after the two of them split up. Marion is clearly hurt, but then coldly angry, and walks away rather than refute the accusation.
Indy and Marion are angry at each other, and furthermore, the hostile dynamic between Indy and Belasko is stressed right from the start. Belasko condescendingly tells Indy about his grand expedition to find the lost City of the Gods. He needs the skull to unlock the city's secrets. The magical city can, the legend says, make wishes come true. Many expeditions have tried to locate it before, but all of them failed. The last one was headed by an old friend of Indy and Marion, Professor Vernon Oxley— who has been missing since then. Abby points out that it was Marion who actually did all the work. She clearly doesn't like Belasko much, either. Belasko brushes it off, and Indy (who, after all, still has the skull) is roped into the adventure. Belasko condescends some more, saying that he might even deign to share credit for the city's discovery with Indy.
Belasko claims that the Nazca Lines are actually a code that, if interpreted correctly, can help locate the hidden city. He claims to have developed a visionary theory to make this interpretation work. ("Yeah, your one actual contribution," Abby points out.) They'll have to rent a plane to photograph the Lines from above. This ends up being undertaken by Indy and Marion. The latter knows exactly what they need to photograph (unlike Abby), and Belasko won't go because he's afraid of heights (so Indy has to go with Marion, because it's a two-person job). Indy makes a comment about Belasko being afraid of height, to which Marion icily reminds him of his own fear of snakes.
During their flight, Indy and Marion are attacked by the Thin Man, who has pursued his opponents to Peru and is now piloting another plane. A dogfight follows, just as it occurs in Darabont's final OTL script— just with the Thin Man taking the place of Yuri. The Thin Man's co-pilot uses a machine gun to take out one of the support struts on Indy's biplane, which means Indy has to walk out on the wing and lash it back together with his whip. Meanwhile, the Thin Man comes up fast and uses his propeller like a buzzsaw, chopping up the tail on Indy's plane. To stop the Thin Man, Indy lets go of his plane's wing and is whisked back to the Thin Man's plane, barely grabbing that wing's support strut. He then swings around and punches the Thin Man, forcing the plane to swerve and dive. Indy climbs into the gunner's seat and the Thin Man flips the plane upside down, hoping to make Indy fall out. Instead, the gunner falls out and Indy uses the co-pilot controls to flip the plane upside down again, causing the Thin Man to fall out himself.
With Marion in an unstable plane, Indy tells her to wing walk over to his plane. But then the Thin Man re-appears, floating down on a parachute, armed with a machine gun. He fires at Indy, taking out the plane’s engine. Now Indy's in worse shape than Marion. She flies over the top of Indy's plane. He grabs the bar that spans between the landing gear, and then lets the plane he’s piloting fall out beneath him. Then it's revealed that there's a jungle plateau ahead, and Marion can't get the plane pulled up in time. Indy is dragged through the canopy, hitting tree-tops and scaring monkeys, until they've passed over the plateau, and he is finally able to drag himself into the cockpit.
"I'll take it from here", he says. So naturally, he engine dies the very moment that he puts his hand on the stick. The plane comes in hard and fast, its wings sheared off by jungle foliage, and it belly-flops on the ground. Indy gives Marion a cocky smile, and she points to the flames that have just erupted from the engine. They grab the camera gear and make it out just before the plane explodes. Thankfully, Indy is also able to recover his whip, which was still wrapped around the wing struts. Naturally, his hat is somehow still on his head as well.
It's Abby who comes to find Indy and Marion. On the adventurous trek back to the expedition camp, she proves to be capable and resourceful. Indy comments on this while Abby is walking ahead for a bit, and Marion says "she gets that from her father". Indy scoffs at that, since he's sure that Belasko is a useless tool. And then it's revealed that Belasko isn't Abby's father. Her name is Abigail Henrietta Ravenwood— and that last name is only because Indy and Marion were never married. Indy is shocked. He has a daughter that he never knew about? He doesn't really know how to react to that.
Soon after, they reach the camp, where Belasko overlays the images of the Nazca Lines on top of a map in a certain way, so that the figures match to geographic features. The Lines actually point the expedition to the City of the Gods, like enormous yet hidden markers. Indy, however, then discovers a completely insane Oxley imprisoned in a truck, caged like an animal. Belasko is secretly using him to interpret the Nazca symbols and draw the itinerary of the expedition. Belasko himself is useless fraud.
Just as Indy reveals this to the rest of the expedition, the Thin Man arrives, leading a bunch of Soviet commandos. Indy has just finished untying Oxley, and the man's crazed antics create a lot of chaos during the shoot-out. Oxley escapes into the jungle, leading Abby along. Indy, Marion and Belasko are captured by the Soviets, however. Belasko cowardly pleads for his life, telling the Thin Man that he can lead the Soviets to the lost city. He only wants credit for the discovery, which will bolster his fame. He's happy to let the Thin Man take from the city whatever he wants. The Thin Man agrees, and Belasko is untied, joining the Soviets— to the outrage of Indy and Marion. Belasko says to keep the two of them tied up; "Nothing personal, I'm just looking out for number one." Indy cusses him out, and Marion tells him, deadpan: "I want a divorce." Belasko just laughs.
Belasko soon finds the entry to the lost city. He goes on with the Soviet team. Indy and Marion are left tied to a jeep, rigged with a bomb set to explode, but they are rescued by Abby and Oxley at the last minute. (Inside, Belasko hears the explosion and smiles wickedly.)
Going inside, our heroes find several Soviet soldiers killed by elaborate booby-traps. They reach the main temple, which has a complex aqueduct and still-working mechanical systems. The group finds artifacts from various ancient cultures. Unfortunately, the Thin Man, Belasko and the remaining Soviets circle back and capture them again. They all proceed to the circular central chamber, where they encounter thirteen headless skeletons made of crystal. The Thin Man takes out the crystal skull, in order to try fitting on one of the skeletons. He then hands it to one of the soldiers, who tries it, but ends up getting vapourised.
Belasko then suggests they force the captives to try it next, since they're expendable. "The brat first," he says, pointing at Abby. But Indy insists on going first. The skull psychically "tells" Indy which skeleton it belongs to, and Indy places it on its shoulders. Immediately, a mechanism activates revealing thirteen alien mummies sitting on thirteen thrones, each one in front of one of the skeletons.
A supernatural voice emanating from the one skeleton that has its skull restored asks about the other skulls. The group knows nothing about those other skulls, however, and the voice laments that the others are lost to time. The voice claims to belong to one of the alien beings that long ago came to Earth and guided all ancient civilisations and religions. The aliens built the crystal skeletons to retain their 'souls' once their natural bodies decayed. The voice thanks them for having restored his immortal form, and offers to use his power to grant their wishes.
Reading the minds of the Thin Man, Belasko and the remaining Soviets, the alien only sees greed, cruelty and a desire to dominate other people. The alien warns that this is self-destructive, but Belasko haughtily demands to be rewarded for all his (supposed) efforts, and the Thin Man threatens the alien (upon which the soldiers aims their rifles at the crystal skeleton). At this insolence, the alien effortlessly vapourises them, but the soldiers manage to fire wildly first, damaging the central chamber and causing the temple to rumble and shake ominously.
The alien asks Indy what he wishes for. Indy only wants for him and his companions to leave safely... and for Oxley's addled mind to be healed. The alien recognises the virtue of this, and bids them farewell. The alien also warns that he cannot stay on Earth any longer, and that the group has to leave quickly: the city won't be able to keep existing once the alien departs from Earth.
The remaining survivors flee through the aqueduct, as the temple begins to shake more violently, and starts to fall apart. They escape the city just in time to see the land swell and then break open. An enormous beam of light shoots upward into the heavens, and when it fades away, there is only an enormous crater where the city used to be. Oxley is very confused to see Indy and Marion, but his mind seems to be well in order again. He just has no idea how he ended up there. "We'll tell you on the way home," Indy says.
Back in the USA, the film ends with Indy marrying Marion. Afterwards, there's a big party, where they dance, while a slightly drunk Henry Jones Sr. (in a tiny cameo) sings Frank Sinatra's Fly me to the Moon, and Oxley slightly moves the cutlery with the power of his mind. Later, outside, as Indy and Marion step into a car to start their honeymoon, the wind blows off Indy's hat. Abby picks it up and hands it back to him— but after a second's pause, he puts it on her head and winks at her.
Indy and Marion ride off towards the sunset, and Abby grins, wearing that signature hat. The torch has been passed. New adventures await a new generation.
In this (lengthy) post, I will envision how a better version of the film-that-wasn't could have come about, and what it could have been like in the final instance. This is Indiana Jones and the City of the Gods, the way I wish it had happened.
The main thing would be to remove George Lucas from the project, at least as much as possible. He provided the core of the story, which can work well enough, but literally all of his specific ideas thereafter weakened the film. Lots of damn stupid things that we see in Crystal Skull were already in City of the Gods— and each of them was insisted upon by George Lucas. His involvement, and his insistence on certain ideas, also dragged out the process of getting to a workable script in the first place. As we'll see, there are ways in which such issues could have been avoided.
The idea for the film first came into being in February 2000, when the American Film Institute held a ceremony honoring the life and work of Harrison Ford. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas were both there as speakers. This was the first time in years that the three had been in a room together, and at some point in the evening, the notion came up that they should do another Indiana Jones film. And they actually all agreed that it was a good idea. Lucas in particular had been thinking about this for years, and he had in fact proposed Indiana Jones and the Saucermen from Mars to the other two five years before. Ford and Spielberg had hated it, but Lucas was obsessed with making a 1950s sci-fi B-movie tribute involving aliens and flying saucers. He immediately began pushing for that idea again, but the other two still hated it. Eventually, they came up with a compromise wherein aliens could be a plot element, but not the overwhelming focus that Lucas had envisioned.
Lucas collected all his old notes and outlines (he's known for never truly ditching any idea), which included the screenplay for a never-filmed episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles about mysterious Peruvian skulls carved out of crystal. That produced some basic ideas, but Lucas's insistence on including all sorts of stuff that Spielberg didn't like caused a lot of delays. Frank Darabont, who had been a writer for The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (and who was fresh off his Oscar-nominated screenplay for The Green Mile now), was only hired to write a screenplay in July 2002.
Darabont's first version was rejected, apparently for two main reasons: the introduction of a thirteen year-old daughter of Indy and Marion as one of the main characters, and the use of Nazis in South America as the main villains (seeking revenge on Indy for his actions in the previous films). Lucas and Spielberg agreed that the film, to be set in the 1950s, should feature Soviets as the villains. They also felt, as did Ford, that the Nazis had been "worn out" as villains in the franchise. It was Spielberg who particularly disliked the daughter idea, because he felt it to be too much like the character of Kelly Curtis in the sequel to Jurassic Park. For this reason, he asked Darabont to write out the character.
Darabont's final draft was completed in November 2003. It pleased Spielberg and Ford immensely, but Lucas continued to object vehemently— despite the fact that many of his ideas were included (often against Darabont's better judgement). Eventually, Darabont came to consider the project as having wasted "a year of my life". Lucas kept on tinkering with the screenplay, creating various re-writes and hiring several writers to draft revised versions. This ultimately led to 2008's Crystal Skull.
So what was Darabont's third draft actually like? For the most part, better than the film we got. But also still flawed, in considerable part because Darabont and Spielberg didn't just chuck out the bad ideas that Lucas insisted upon. I'll put a detailed outline of Darabont's script below a spoiler-cut, in case you're unfamiliar with the gist of it, or wish to compare my proposal, below, with Darabont's draft.
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This film, all in all, would probably be better than what we eventually got. But it also has clear weaknesses. Most obviously, it's too convoluted. Both Escalante and Von Grauen can just be completely cut out. In fact, Yuri can be cut out, too, largely or entirely— to be replaced by the more imposing Thin Man as the lead villain. The treacherous Porfi is also superfluous. The various "Lucas additions" can all be removed, and the opening can be made far more fast-paced. The ending can also be radically re-worked, because it's rather chaotic. These cuts create room for Belasko to be moved more to the foreground, which means that he and Indy can be played off each other more.
How could this have come about? Well, let's assume that things go the same way in early 2000. But George Lucas happens to decide that he's too busy with creating the Star Wars prequels to be very involved. He offers Spielberg and Ford his ideas, notes etc. — but he's too busy to be an active participant. Spielberg puts correspondingly more of a mark on the initial drafting process. The idiosyncratic additions that Lucas was so bent on all get left out. Spielberg hires Darabont as early as 2001, and Darabont's first draft for City of the Gods is done in the Spring of 2002. It's essentially the same as his OTL first draft, but without the ill-advised "Lucas ideas".
Spielberg and Ford like it, but insist on taking out the South American Nazis. Without Lucas around to take issue with lots of other details, more focus is on this central problem, and Von Grauen (the last remnant of Darabont's 'Nazi villain' idea) gets cut entirely in the subsequent re-writing process. The second draft goes all-out on the stream-lining, meaning that all the fat gets trimmed (including Escalante et cetera). I imagine that this is where they decide that the Thin Man makes for a better lead villain than Yuri. They now know that they'll have a final screenplay by late 2002, and plan to produce the film 2003, with the planned release in 2004. They conclude that the film should be set later than Darabont initially planned (which was '54). Raiders was set in '36, and Crusade in '38. Meanwhile, was made in '81, and Crusade in '89 (eight years in between, while in-universe only two years passed). To keep ages vaguely consistent, we should use '81 as a reference. This means that 2004 equates to 1959 in-universe.
One thing that occurs to me is that a trimmed-down version of the script will probably be on the short side. I personally have no problem with a tight, none-too-bloated feature film, yet it's not generally the aim for a big, blockbuster production like this. It seems to me that the obvious way to fill the whole thing out just a bit more would be to bring back the idea of Indy and Marion's daughter. Darabont was right about that: Ford isn't getting younger, and short of a re-boot, the easy way to give your franchise a future is to include a character to whom he can pass the torch (or rather, the hat). This film is the last chance to introduce a kid that Indy never knew about: he hasn't seen Marion since '37 or so (they split up before Crusade). So now that they re-unite, you have your chance to reveal that Marion was pregnant at the time and never told Indy.
The timing means that you'd have to age the daughter up a bit: she'd be twenty-two instead of thirteen. That's just as well, since it means she can be a useful party to the adventure. Just find a decent actress born c. '82 and you're set. No matter how opposed Spielberg was initially, he did agree to put Mutt in Crystal Skull, so it's clear that he can be convinced of the merits of the basic idea.
With all this in mind, we have a pretty decent foundation for a tightly-plotted, fast-paced, coherent film. Darabont hands in his final draft, Spielberg and Ford love it, and the next year, they make their final Indiana Jones film, to be released theatrically in 2004. So what does that film look like?
Indiana Jones and the City of the Gods
1959. It's been twenty-one years since we last saw Indy. The world has changed. But some things always stay the same. Some men just can't stay out of trouble.
The story opens at night, in medias res. A group of professional (para-)military agents infiltrate a secret military base in Nevada (the Area 51 warehouse that Crystal Skull also starts with). We hear them speaking Russian to each other. They are led by the Thin Man, who dresses in black and has a scar running down his face through a milky-white eye. They are there to purchase two mysterious packages—one big and one small pouch—from two corrupt American scientists. One of these scientists is Yuri Makovsky.
Their plans are interrupted, however, by the arrival of none other than Indiana Jones. He has been tracking the infiltrators, and takes action to stop them. This tells us that despite the passage of time, Indy is still involved in adventures. But age can't just be waved off: the Thin Man is a highly capable fighter, and his soldiers are no push-overs. Indy is outmatched. During the fight, several Soviet soldiers and one of the American traitors end up getting killed. Some quick dialogue also reveals that Indy knows Yuri. He calls the traitor "a disgrace to his profession".
US government agents arrive, but too late: the Thin Man gets away with the bigger of the two pouches. Yuri flees along with the Soviets. Indy, however, has managed to get his hands on the smaller pouch. The government agents blame Indy for not stopping the Soviets. Indy bites out that he was there, and they were still miles away, but the lead agent doesn't want to hear any of it. "You're a relic, doctor Jones. It's time you face that." There is no absurd suspicion that Indy himself is a communist agent. He's just sixty years old, and a lot of officials have started to feel that he's too old for this shit. So he's basically sent packing back to Barnett College, with the government assuring him they'll handle this whole affair from now on— and Indy is to stay out of it. Clearly, he has his doubts about the agents' competence. He slips the small pouch into his pocket, and doesn't tell the agents about it.
Back in Fairfield, up-state New York, Indy won't have to be bored for long. The pouch is revealed to contain a brightly-coloured crystal, and Indy begin to look into it. As he's walking through the university complex late in the evening, after researching what he can about this strange object (to no great effect), it turns out that the Thin Man and Yuri have tracked him down. A chase/fight in the empty university building ensues. The ruckus alerts a guard, who calls the police. Yuri ends up falling to his death over a railing, just before the cops arrive. The Thin Man decides to flee just before he can kill Indy. Our hero searches Yuri's pockets, and finds the key to one of New York City Central Station's lockers. Just then, the police storm in. Seeing Indy over Yuri's corpse, they assume Indy is the killer, and he makes a hasty exit. Time to head to NYC!
In New York, Indy finds a crystal skull in the locker, and instructions to meet somebody in a hotel room. The crystal that Indy has with him fits into an indentation on the skull's forehead, and in fact is magnetically drawn to it. Just then, a gun is prodded into Indy's back. A young woman has come up behind him, who mistakes him for Yuri, and asks him if he thought he could just get away with double-crossing her. Indy tells her he's not Yuri, and that Yuri is dead, but before they can get to some kind of clarity on what's going on, the Thin Man and his stooges show up again. We get a big fight in Grand Central, wherein the young woman demonstrates the same kind of inventive, ad hoc fighting techniques that Indy is also known for. They manage to get away, if barely.
They head to the address that Indy found in the locker, and on the way there, the young woman introduces herself as Abby. She quickly tells him that she's part of an expedition. The skull was stolen anyway, and they need it. (She doesn't clarify why.) But their contact, Yuri, was a double-crossing snake, who also took the Thin Man's money and gave the skull to him. "Everybody sure wants this thing badly," Indy grumbles as they arrive at the hotel room.
Inside, they encounter a shady character who hands them fake passports, and two plane tickets to Peru. Abby and Yuri had originally arranged to travel to Peru together, before he betrayed her. Indy now takes his place. Shortly after they leave, the Thin Man arrives at the hotel room as well, and in a rage, murders the shady criminal after learning that the people he's pursuing are already on their way to Peru— along with the skull.
Plane flight travel montage!
When the two arrive in Peru, it turns out that someone Indy knows very well s waiting for them: none other than Marion Ravenwood! The two are shocked to see each other, and then that's compounded when it turns out that Abby is Marion's daughter (Abby presumably being named after Marion's dad, Abner). It's revealed Marion is now married to the wealthy and flamboyant Hungarian nobleman and archaeologist Peter Belasko. The man is in it for the fame than anything else, he's written several best-selling books about archeology. He's a total sell-out, and thus the ideal foil for our hero. This is only enhanced by the fact that he's also married to the woman who Indy obviously still loves. Indy assumes that Belasko is Abby's father, and bites out to Marion that she "sure must have moved on quick" after the two of them split up. Marion is clearly hurt, but then coldly angry, and walks away rather than refute the accusation.
Indy and Marion are angry at each other, and furthermore, the hostile dynamic between Indy and Belasko is stressed right from the start. Belasko condescendingly tells Indy about his grand expedition to find the lost City of the Gods. He needs the skull to unlock the city's secrets. The magical city can, the legend says, make wishes come true. Many expeditions have tried to locate it before, but all of them failed. The last one was headed by an old friend of Indy and Marion, Professor Vernon Oxley— who has been missing since then. Abby points out that it was Marion who actually did all the work. She clearly doesn't like Belasko much, either. Belasko brushes it off, and Indy (who, after all, still has the skull) is roped into the adventure. Belasko condescends some more, saying that he might even deign to share credit for the city's discovery with Indy.
Belasko claims that the Nazca Lines are actually a code that, if interpreted correctly, can help locate the hidden city. He claims to have developed a visionary theory to make this interpretation work. ("Yeah, your one actual contribution," Abby points out.) They'll have to rent a plane to photograph the Lines from above. This ends up being undertaken by Indy and Marion. The latter knows exactly what they need to photograph (unlike Abby), and Belasko won't go because he's afraid of heights (so Indy has to go with Marion, because it's a two-person job). Indy makes a comment about Belasko being afraid of height, to which Marion icily reminds him of his own fear of snakes.
During their flight, Indy and Marion are attacked by the Thin Man, who has pursued his opponents to Peru and is now piloting another plane. A dogfight follows, just as it occurs in Darabont's final OTL script— just with the Thin Man taking the place of Yuri. The Thin Man's co-pilot uses a machine gun to take out one of the support struts on Indy's biplane, which means Indy has to walk out on the wing and lash it back together with his whip. Meanwhile, the Thin Man comes up fast and uses his propeller like a buzzsaw, chopping up the tail on Indy's plane. To stop the Thin Man, Indy lets go of his plane's wing and is whisked back to the Thin Man's plane, barely grabbing that wing's support strut. He then swings around and punches the Thin Man, forcing the plane to swerve and dive. Indy climbs into the gunner's seat and the Thin Man flips the plane upside down, hoping to make Indy fall out. Instead, the gunner falls out and Indy uses the co-pilot controls to flip the plane upside down again, causing the Thin Man to fall out himself.
With Marion in an unstable plane, Indy tells her to wing walk over to his plane. But then the Thin Man re-appears, floating down on a parachute, armed with a machine gun. He fires at Indy, taking out the plane’s engine. Now Indy's in worse shape than Marion. She flies over the top of Indy's plane. He grabs the bar that spans between the landing gear, and then lets the plane he’s piloting fall out beneath him. Then it's revealed that there's a jungle plateau ahead, and Marion can't get the plane pulled up in time. Indy is dragged through the canopy, hitting tree-tops and scaring monkeys, until they've passed over the plateau, and he is finally able to drag himself into the cockpit.
"I'll take it from here", he says. So naturally, he engine dies the very moment that he puts his hand on the stick. The plane comes in hard and fast, its wings sheared off by jungle foliage, and it belly-flops on the ground. Indy gives Marion a cocky smile, and she points to the flames that have just erupted from the engine. They grab the camera gear and make it out just before the plane explodes. Thankfully, Indy is also able to recover his whip, which was still wrapped around the wing struts. Naturally, his hat is somehow still on his head as well.
It's Abby who comes to find Indy and Marion. On the adventurous trek back to the expedition camp, she proves to be capable and resourceful. Indy comments on this while Abby is walking ahead for a bit, and Marion says "she gets that from her father". Indy scoffs at that, since he's sure that Belasko is a useless tool. And then it's revealed that Belasko isn't Abby's father. Her name is Abigail Henrietta Ravenwood— and that last name is only because Indy and Marion were never married. Indy is shocked. He has a daughter that he never knew about? He doesn't really know how to react to that.
Soon after, they reach the camp, where Belasko overlays the images of the Nazca Lines on top of a map in a certain way, so that the figures match to geographic features. The Lines actually point the expedition to the City of the Gods, like enormous yet hidden markers. Indy, however, then discovers a completely insane Oxley imprisoned in a truck, caged like an animal. Belasko is secretly using him to interpret the Nazca symbols and draw the itinerary of the expedition. Belasko himself is useless fraud.
Just as Indy reveals this to the rest of the expedition, the Thin Man arrives, leading a bunch of Soviet commandos. Indy has just finished untying Oxley, and the man's crazed antics create a lot of chaos during the shoot-out. Oxley escapes into the jungle, leading Abby along. Indy, Marion and Belasko are captured by the Soviets, however. Belasko cowardly pleads for his life, telling the Thin Man that he can lead the Soviets to the lost city. He only wants credit for the discovery, which will bolster his fame. He's happy to let the Thin Man take from the city whatever he wants. The Thin Man agrees, and Belasko is untied, joining the Soviets— to the outrage of Indy and Marion. Belasko says to keep the two of them tied up; "Nothing personal, I'm just looking out for number one." Indy cusses him out, and Marion tells him, deadpan: "I want a divorce." Belasko just laughs.
Belasko soon finds the entry to the lost city. He goes on with the Soviet team. Indy and Marion are left tied to a jeep, rigged with a bomb set to explode, but they are rescued by Abby and Oxley at the last minute. (Inside, Belasko hears the explosion and smiles wickedly.)
Going inside, our heroes find several Soviet soldiers killed by elaborate booby-traps. They reach the main temple, which has a complex aqueduct and still-working mechanical systems. The group finds artifacts from various ancient cultures. Unfortunately, the Thin Man, Belasko and the remaining Soviets circle back and capture them again. They all proceed to the circular central chamber, where they encounter thirteen headless skeletons made of crystal. The Thin Man takes out the crystal skull, in order to try fitting on one of the skeletons. He then hands it to one of the soldiers, who tries it, but ends up getting vapourised.
Belasko then suggests they force the captives to try it next, since they're expendable. "The brat first," he says, pointing at Abby. But Indy insists on going first. The skull psychically "tells" Indy which skeleton it belongs to, and Indy places it on its shoulders. Immediately, a mechanism activates revealing thirteen alien mummies sitting on thirteen thrones, each one in front of one of the skeletons.
A supernatural voice emanating from the one skeleton that has its skull restored asks about the other skulls. The group knows nothing about those other skulls, however, and the voice laments that the others are lost to time. The voice claims to belong to one of the alien beings that long ago came to Earth and guided all ancient civilisations and religions. The aliens built the crystal skeletons to retain their 'souls' once their natural bodies decayed. The voice thanks them for having restored his immortal form, and offers to use his power to grant their wishes.
Reading the minds of the Thin Man, Belasko and the remaining Soviets, the alien only sees greed, cruelty and a desire to dominate other people. The alien warns that this is self-destructive, but Belasko haughtily demands to be rewarded for all his (supposed) efforts, and the Thin Man threatens the alien (upon which the soldiers aims their rifles at the crystal skeleton). At this insolence, the alien effortlessly vapourises them, but the soldiers manage to fire wildly first, damaging the central chamber and causing the temple to rumble and shake ominously.
The alien asks Indy what he wishes for. Indy only wants for him and his companions to leave safely... and for Oxley's addled mind to be healed. The alien recognises the virtue of this, and bids them farewell. The alien also warns that he cannot stay on Earth any longer, and that the group has to leave quickly: the city won't be able to keep existing once the alien departs from Earth.
The remaining survivors flee through the aqueduct, as the temple begins to shake more violently, and starts to fall apart. They escape the city just in time to see the land swell and then break open. An enormous beam of light shoots upward into the heavens, and when it fades away, there is only an enormous crater where the city used to be. Oxley is very confused to see Indy and Marion, but his mind seems to be well in order again. He just has no idea how he ended up there. "We'll tell you on the way home," Indy says.
Back in the USA, the film ends with Indy marrying Marion. Afterwards, there's a big party, where they dance, while a slightly drunk Henry Jones Sr. (in a tiny cameo) sings Frank Sinatra's Fly me to the Moon, and Oxley slightly moves the cutlery with the power of his mind. Later, outside, as Indy and Marion step into a car to start their honeymoon, the wind blows off Indy's hat. Abby picks it up and hands it back to him— but after a second's pause, he puts it on her head and winks at her.
Indy and Marion ride off towards the sunset, and Abby grins, wearing that signature hat. The torch has been passed. New adventures await a new generation.
THE END
Okay, Inject this into my veins please...
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