I Hate Indiana Jones: Day 55

Day 55: Indiana Jones and the Failure to Raise the Stakes

When it comes to The Crystal Valley's failures, and mistakes, it seems like they're split almost evenly between things that they did incredibly poorly, and things that they just entirely neglected to do. Today's entry falls squarely into that second category.

After escaping from the atomic explosion using his ability to be terribly written, Harrison Ford finds himself in an even worse predicament - he's suspected of being in collusion with the Russians by the US Government!

Amazingly, this plot development leads to absolutely nothing happening. The one way in which it effects the plot is that Indiana Jones is put an extended leave of absence. That's right, he isn't even fired, he's just given a forced leave. This would be quite an obstacle if this were a film about a crusading teacher trying to get his underachieving class of ne'er-do-well students to graduate before their fraternity loses its charter, then that would be an obstacle. Since it's the story of a roguish adventure who trots across the globe, battling totalitarian regimes and crazed cultists alike, the looming loss of tenure doesn't exactly seem like it's going to get in the way of the punching and shooting we've come to expect from Ford.

It's not like it would have been so hard to use the governmental blacklist to complicate Indiana Jones' adventure. With his passport revoked, he could have been forced to sneak out of the country. Perhaps suspicious G-Men could have trailed him to Peru, hoping to find him meeting with Soviet agents, and then helping rescue him at a key moment, partially redeeming the federal government in the audience's eyes. Who knows, perhaps he could have even out his position as a suspected Communist to good use, and bluffed his way into gaining the trust of the secret Communist agents of South America, at least until Cate Blanchett showed up and foiled his schemes, that is.

Really, had they done anything at all with the idea of Harrison Ford being a suspected Communist and losing his job would have been superior to what they did - that is to say, nothing at all.

Why open a door if you have absolutely no intention of going through it?