Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a 2008 American action adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg and the fourth installment in the Indiana Jones series. Released nineteen years after the previous film, the film is set in 1957, pitting Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) against Soviet agents—led by Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett)—searching for a telepathic crystal skull. Jones is aided by his former lover, Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), and her son, Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf). Ray Winstone, John Hurt and Jim Broadbentare also part of the supporting cast.

Screenwriters Jeb Stuart, Jeffrey Boam, Frank Darabont, and Jeff Nathansonwrote drafts before David Koepp's script satisfied the producers. The filmmakers intended to pay tribute to the science fiction B-movies of the 1950s era. Shooting began on June 18, 2007, at various locations in New Mexico; New Haven, Connecticut; Hawaii; and Fresno, California, as well as on sound stagesin Los Angeles. To maintain aesthetic continuity with the previous films, the crew relied on traditional stunt work instead of computer-generated stunt doubles, and cinematographer Janusz Kamiński studied Douglas Slocombe's style from the previous films.

The film premiered at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival on May 18, 2008, and was released worldwide on May 22, 2008 to generally positive reviews from critics,^[3]although audience reception was more mixed. There was significant praise for the performances, action scenes, John Williams' musical score, and the costume design. Criticism, however, focused on the dialogue, storyline, pacing, and overuse of CGI. It was also a financial success like the previous three films in the series, grossing over $786 million worldwide, becoming the franchise's highest-grossing film when not adjusted for inflation, and the second highest-grossing film of 2008. The film will be followed by an untitled fifth film planned for release on July 10, 2020, in which both Spielberg and Ford will return.

In 1957, Indiana Jones and his partner George "Mac" McHale are kidnapped in New Mexico by Soviet agents under Colonel Dr. Irina Spalko. The Soviets infiltrate a warehouse labeled "Warehouse 51" and force Jones to locate a mummified alien corpse, recovered ten years earlier. Upon its discovery, Mac reveals he is a double agent working for the Soviets. Jones escapes and unsuccessfully attempts to retrieve the body. After a fight with Spalko's sadistic henchman, Colonel Antonin Dovchenko, Jones escapes to Doomtown (a model town), at the Nevada Test Site, minutes before an atomic bomb test, and takes shelter in a lead-lined refrigerator. Jones is rescued, decontaminated, and apprehended by FBI agents, who suspect him of working for the Soviets; and though freed on the recommendation of General Ross, who vouches for him, he is put on indefinite leave of absence from Marshall College. His leaving also causes the dean's resignation to keep Indiana's job at the college.

Jones is approached by greaser Mutt Williams, who tells him that Harold Oxley had found a crystal skull in Peru, suffered a mental breakdown and was later kidnapped. Jones tells Mutt about the legend of crystal skulls found in Akator. Mutt gives Jones a letter from his mother, who is also held captive, containing a riddle written by Oxley in an ancient South American language. KGB agents attempt to capture them, but Jones and Mutt evade them and reach Peru. At the local psychiatric hospital, Oxley's scribbles on the walls and floor of his cell lead them to the grave of Francisco de Orellana, a Conquistadorwho has searched for Akator. They discover the skull at the grave, with Jones reasoning that Oxley had returned it there.

Jones and Mutt are captured by Mac and the Soviets and taken to their camp in the Amazon jungle, where they find Oxley and Mutt's mother, Marion Ravenwood, who reveals that Mutt is Jones' son, Henry Jones III. Spalko believes that the crystal skull belongs to an alien life form and holds great psychic power, and that finding more skulls in Akator will grant the Soviets the advantage of psychic warfare. Spalko uses the skull on Jones to enable him to understand Oxley and identify a route to Akator. Jones and his four allies escape with the skull, but Marion and Jones get caught into a dry sandpit, to be recaptured by the Soviets after Oxley accidentally got them caught. On their way to Akator, Mac tells Jones he is a CIA double-agent to regain Jones' trust, and Jones' team fights its way out of the Soviets' clutches, while Dovchenko is devoured by siafu ants. Jones and his allies survive three waterfalls in an amphibious vehicle, while many of the Soviets fall from a cliff while trying to pursue them. Jones and Oxley identify a head-like rock formation that leads them to Akator, unaware that Mac lied about being a CIA agent, is still loyal to Spalko and has been dropping transceivers to allow the surviving Soviets to track them.

The adventurers escape the city's guardians, gain access to the temple, and find it filled with artifacts from many ancient civilizations, identifying the aliens as extra-dimensional "archaeologists" studying the different cultures of Earth. They find and enter a chamber containing the crystal skeletons of thirteen alien beings, one missing its skull. Spalko arrives and presents the skull to its skeleton, whereupon the aliens reanimate and telepathically offer a reward in ancient Mayan through Oxley. A portalto their dimension becomes activated, and Spalko demands knowledge equal to the aliens'. The thirteen beings fuse into one, and in the process of receiving the overwhelming knowledge, Spalko is disintegrated and sucked into the portal. Jones, Marion, Mutt, and Oxley–who has regained his sanity–escape, while the remaining Soviets are also drawn into the portal. Mac is caught in the vortex while trying to scrounge some of the treasure, and even though Jones offers him his whip to pull him to safety, he willingly lets go and is sucked in. Jones and the others escape and watch as the temple walls crumble, revealing a flying saucer rising from the debris and vanishing, while the hollow in the valley floor left by its departure is flooded by the waters of the Amazon.

The following year, Jones is reinstated at Marshall College and made an associate dean, and he and Marion are married. As the wedding party leaves the chapel, a gust of wind blows Indy's brown fedora off the coat rack and deposits it at Mutt's feet. Mutt picks it up and is about to don it before Jones snatches it from his hands and puts it on with a grin.