Indiana Jones and the Vessel of Ra

Indiana Jones and the Vessel of Ra (2014)

Directed by
Stephen Spielberg

Writing credits:
George Lucas (character)
David Koepp (screenplay)

Genre: Action / Adventure / Thriller / Sci-fi

Tagline: Indy's back and better than ever!

Plot Outline: The Jones Family must stop a Nazi remnant group from breaking into the great pyramids of Egypt and unleashing a spirit who could resurrect Hitler... (more)

User Comments: Not the best of the quatrolilogeny, but a wharthy hair to the... (more)

User Rating: 7.2 / 10 (68,003 votes)

Runtime: 133 min
Country: USA
Language: English / Crimean Tatar / Turkmen / Azerbaijani
Color: Color (Turkalite)
Sound Mix: Thomas Dolby
Certification: USA:PG-13 / UK:PG / TURKEY:Mandatory

AMDB Trivia:

• The production was delayed when Harrison Ford was forced to undergo significant vocal coaching to correct the broad Irish brogue he'd developed as a result of his alcoholism.
  
• Sarah Michelle Gellar was briefly considered for a piece of trivia, but ultimately rejected because of her duck face.
  
• Several visual nods are given to the 1976 Ralph Bakshi animated version of the Indiana Jones saga, particularly during the scene in which Ort is stabbed in the back by a buxom female ostrich.
  
• Singer John Cougar Mellencamp criticized the filmmakers for creating an unsympathetic character bearing his name. Stephen Spielberg explained that nobody involved in the production was aware that there was an actual person named John Cougar Mellencamp.
  
• Sam Shepard's contract forbade him from squinting nobly into the sunset; Sean Connery insisted upon adding the provision after becoming worried that Shepard might hypnotize viewers with his interminable ruggedness.
  
• More than 30 writers worked on over a dozen unique scripts for this project before Spielberg called in David Koepp to "work the magic that made The Shadow a household name."
  
• On the final day of shooting, Sean Connery and Harrison Ford celebrated the film's completion with a drinking contest, and continue to do so even still.
  
• Indiana Jones and the Vessel of Ra sets a record for most usages of the word "Ort" in a motion picture (46). It soundly beat the previous record holder, Magic Eightball (1992), in which the word "Ort" was uttered zero times.
  
• The threadbare terrycloth bathrobe worn by Indiana Jones throughout most of the film is from the personal collection of Harrison Ford. The bathrobe was originally not an element of the script, according to Ford: "The first day of shooting, I showed up wearing it, and Steve [Spielberg] loved it. He decided to write it into the picture." Spielberg contradicts this anecdote in the DVD commentary: "We couldn't get the thing off him. His skin had grown over it in places. We had to tie it to a doorknob and slam the door. There was a lot of blood and moaning involved, just like when Harrison pees. And he did pee at the time, I hope to tell ya. Absolutely, he peed."
  
• Harrison Ford ad-libbed one of the film's most memorable lines: during the scene when Indy laboriously gets up from the chaise longue to greet his father, the script originally called for him to say "Jesus, Dad, you're looking better than me these days." After dozens of frustrating takes, Ford simply panted "this... fucking couch."
  
• Competing divisions were created within ILM to deal with "CGI whip physics" and "CGI snake physics." The two were eventually merged. In a 2007 interview, Lucas noted that "snakes and whips are similar objects that are animated differently."
  
• Natalie Portman was originally considered for the role of Indiana Jones' "daughter." In one early script, she was captured and brutally tortured by Nazis for 20 pages; another was noted for "uncomfortable" sexual tension in scenes with her father. The character was ultimately dismissed due to "low spin-off potential."
  
• Harrison Ford's body had to be stitched back together between takes on some scenes. Ford has "jokingly" cited necromantic magic as the key to his continued viability as an action star.
  
• In a 2008 Entertainment Weekly interview, Harrison Ford explained Indiana's tendency to stay behind his desk this time around: "He's a guy who's at a point in his life where he can maybe do the most good by taking the managerial role. Dad, son, Sallah are out in the field and they need to know they can rely on Indy to be near the phone when they call." Ford also noted his preference for an earlier draft that would have put Indy in a coma for the second and third acts.
  
• George Lucas in 2006: "We're basically going to do The Phantom Menace" (Empire Magazine, Issue 208). George Lucas, reflecting in 2008: "It was similar, but not precisely analogous to The Phantom Menace. I am satisfied that it was a film more like The Phantom Menace than not."

AMDB Goofs:

• Anachronisms: Between the production of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Indiana Jones and the Vessel of Ra, Harrison Ford lapped Sean Connery and became almost six years older than him; both men had to wear extensive makeup to correct this temporal gulf.
  
• Revealing mistakes: John Rhys-Davies can frequently be seen picking hairs from his beard and eating them with great relish and delight, wide-eyed and childlike, both in the film and in everyday life.
  
• Factual Errors: Due to the stigma associated with Nazism in the fifties, most remaining Nazis did not wear their full dress uniforms at all times, especially when visiting America.
  
• Revealing Mistakes: During the descent into Ra's tomb, George Lucas's idiot son can be seen shambling across the frame.
  
• Revealing Mistakes: Noticeable "morphing" effect in scenes where Ford transforms into his spry, 60-year-old stunt double.
  
• Revealing Mistakes: At the desert camp, Sean Connery shouts his dialogue at the dune behind David Warner; he had assumed that a Nazi army would be digitally inserted later.
  
• Anachronisms: Although Silly Putty was invented in 1949, the process of using it to pick up images from comics was not developed until 1962; Mallard Fillmore did not enter syndication until 1994.
  
• Revealing Mistakes: In the Viper Room, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is nearly bitten by one of the snakes; he had assumed it was a CGI composite.

Memorable Quotes:

Marcus Brody, Jr.: Indy, I'm afraid there's a man here to see you.
Indiana Jones: You're afraid?
Marcus Brody, Jr: Well Indy, he appears to be a Nazi.
Indiana Jones: Still?

Ort: (Tugging at Staff of Horus) So, you see, Dr. Jones, you are quite unable to posses any object which I cannot remove-
Indiana Jones: Ort! You madman-
Ort: ...from your clutches and take from you, rendering you-
Indiana Jones: This belongs in-
Ort: ...quite without the object which I have removed from your grasp.
Indiana Jones: -in a museum!

Indiana Jones: (Speaking into intercom) Jenny, this office was supposed to be snake-proof!
Jenny: Doctor Jones, the door won't open!
Indiana Jones: Snakes! Every time! (climbs onto desk)

Henry "Indy Jr." Jones the Third: (Speaking into phone) Pop, the Fifth Column have us surrounded! What should we do?
Indiana Jones: (Noticing the Fifth Columnist peeking in his office window) I'll get back to you on that (Hangs up; grabs whip).

Indiana Jones: There's only one maniac in this world who would tear up a national treasure just to chase some crazy myth.
Henry Jones: Ort?
Indiana Jones: Ort.
Henry "Indy Jr." Jones the Third: Ort?
Indiana Jones: Ort.
(Ort turns to reveal his face)
Ort: You are quite wrong indeed, Doctor Jones.
Indiana Jones: Ort!

Indiana Jones: (sighs loudly) I'm getting tired of all this jumping around.
Henry "Indy Jr." Jones the Third: Sit tight, pop, I'll handle it.

Sallah: My holy stars, Indy, how long has it been? You look positively weather-beaten! Your travels have surely taken their toll.
Indiana Jones: It's not the years or the mileage, Sallah, it's the extensive rusting of the undercarriage.

Indiana Jones: We've got to make sure that plane never takes off.
Henry "Indy Jr." Jones the Third: Looks like there are three cases of dynamite on the truck. I might be able to swing from that crane with my whip, dodge the gunfire, and toss the dynamite at the Nazis.
Indiana Jones: Help your old man sit up.

Ort: Take one last look at your family, Professor Henry Jones. For soon they shall be& quite beyond your reach.
Professor Henry Jones: Oooooort!

Henry "Indy Jr." Jones the Third: The final test... "Act not with haste, nor even at all; the patient man avoids the fall." A test of patience?
Professor Henry Jones: Indiana! You have to stand perfectly still! (Minutes pass and the gateway opens.)
Henry "Indy Jr." Jones the Third: He did it! Pop did it!

King Ra: Your superhuman abilities were our gift... passed through the blood.
Henry "Indy Jr." Jones the Third: Pop, if what he's saying is true, then the entire Jones family descended from these aliens.
Indiana Jones: Button it, sprout. Let this damn mummy explain it.

King Ra: There was&another tribe from the stars... you have known their spawn...their Führer will be resurrected... by the power of the hidden Vessel!
Indiana Jones: (Nonchalantly shoots Ra dead.)
Professor Henry Jones: Junior!
Indiana Jones: Nazis. Mummies. They're all the same.
Ort: Arrgh! (wakes up, clutching chest wound)
Professor Henry Jones and Indiana Jones: Ort!

Professor Henry Jones: Who knows what trouble that boy will get into on his own?
Indiana Jones: Just think: even if we're not around, he can still have incredible adventures. Just like his old man.
Henry "Indy Jr." Jones the Third: So long, pop. (faces camera) I have a feeling we'll meet again real soon.

– Dr. David Thorpe and JC Dracula (@Arr)