Day 35: Indiana Jones and the Unmotivated Natives
When we last left Dr. Jones and his motorcylce-loving sidekick Shia Leboeuf, they had just arrived at a ancient Conquistador burial ground they'd found through the magic of bad writing. It's Dr. Jones' theory that his old friend Harold "Ox" Oxley, as assayed by John Hurt, found the mysterious crystal skull here and then, based on the symbol return etched into his cell wall, brought it back when he was done with it.
On the surface, this all makes perfect sense. Presumably it's a Conquistador resting place. The man who found the city of the Gods had been a famous Conquistador, and the crystal skull was his greatest discovery, so it's possible that would be buried with him. Notice how I said it 'seems' to make sense. That's all based on the idea that the Conquistador had been buried by other Spaniards which, sadly, is not the case. Upon arriving in the catacombs underneath the graveyard, Harrison Ford and Shia Laboeuf find both carvings and skeletons with bizarre elongated skulls. This identifies them as worshippers of the aliens, and makes this a native burial ground.
Which raises the question: why would be natives possibly want to bury the Conquistador is in one of their burial sites? They go so far as to mummify and arrange the corpses in an respectful way and surround them with all of the gold, and silver they'd plundered during their journeys. Were the natives not angry at the Conquistadors is for stealing their crystal skull? So why did they bury the crystal skull along with the guy who stole it? I know I'm asking for the motivation characters who died 400 years before the film starts, but it really seems like a question that should have been asked somewhere during the process.
After all, weren't losing their crystal skull? They worshiped the temple where the crystal skull was found and stolen from. Later events in the film will establish that those natives' descendants will try to kill anyone who comes near that temple, only backing off when the skull itself is presented to them. So why, 400 years earlier when presented with the opportunity to retrieve the skull and bring it home did they instead bury it with the man who had stolen it? Why go so far as to build an elaborate secret burial chamber to protect anyone from finding him and it?
Does that not seem like a lot of trouble to go to in order to continue the defilement of your culture's most beloved religious treasure?
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