When Paramount released the title of the fourth instalment of the Indiana Jones series, it was clear that the object of desire was going to be a crystal skull. When they released their press kit, it included a photograph of the crystal skull – clearly alien in nature. From the press kit, it also appeared that the legendary city of Akakor would play a role in this story – it’s name changed to Akator. The kit contained a photograph of the so-called “Akakor Chamber” – a reference to Karl Brugger’s The Chronicle of Akakor book, which inspired the likes of Erich von Däniken to go in search of subterranean networks – including the infamous “Gold Library”.
In pre-release interviews, Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg commented that they had initially dismissed George Lucas’ idea to base the new Indiana Jones movie around a mythical crystal skull. The actor, along with director Spielberg, were looking for ideas for a fourth movie featuring the legendary character, and turned down several script possibilities, including one that saw the Dr. Henry ‘Indiana’ Jones Jr. hunting for the Lost City of Atlantis.
When producer Lucas suggested a script focusing on the crystal skull - a quartz cranium believed to hold supernatural powers - both his colleagues laughed off the idea. Ford admitted it became a struggle between the three men as they resisted Lucas’ idea - but they eventually gave in, conceding that the Star Wars filmmaker was “always right”.

The premiere of the movie was at the Cannes Film Festival on May 18, with a worldwide theatre release on May 22. “Crystal Skull” begins in 1957 Nevada, with Indy and his partner Mac (Ray Winstone) trying to escape from the Soviets who have kidnapped them. Blanchett’s fearsome Irina Spalko wants them to locate the crystal skull within Area 51 for some kind of nefarious mind-control plan involving alien intelligence (a long-standing Spielberg subject). A former colleague of Indy’s, Professor Harold Oxley (John Hurt), also was after the skull – and went missing in pursuit of it. LaBeouf’s young tough Mutt Williams tracks Indy down and pleads with him to help find their mutual friend, which sends the two on a quest to determine the purpose behind the mystical artefact and keep it out of the wrong hands.

In the earlier Indiana Jones films, the objects of antiquity that seemed to drive the story acted more or less purely as MacGuffins: plot devices that advanced the action, but whose explicit usefulness and others details were not of paramount importance. Audiences never needed to know exactly how the Sankara Stones worked or what they actually did in “The Temple of Doom,” nor exactly how the Arc would be put to use by the Nazis in “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” We knew the parties involved were evil, and that the artefacts were powerful, and that was reason enough to stop them. Even though Hitler believed in the mystical power of such ancient artefacts, it was never about that power for Indy, the consummate archaeologist. In “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” the nature of the artefacts is anything but understated.

Since The Da Vinci Code and the media-dumbing down, movies and books come with danger. Hence, members of Russia’s dwindling Communist Party called for a nationwide boycott of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, objecting to the depiction of Soviet troops invading top-secret American installations, killing guards and wreaking havoc. The Communists claimed that no Soviet terrorists were ever sent to the US in 1957. Instead, they said, the government successfully launched the first Sputnik satellite, “which evoked the admiration of the whole world.”
The film has two references to the name Mitchell-Hedges and his crystal skull. The only other skull mentioned is in the British Museum. And though the object of desire is not the Mitchell-Hedges skull, the crystal skull of the film is nevertheless equally carved against the grain, like the Mitchell-Hedges skull.
There is a further, somewhat obscure, reference to Mitchell-Hedges. At one point, Indiana Jones relates that he was once captured by Pancho Villa. It cannot be a coincidence that Mitchell-Hedges was captured by Pancho Villa too – suggesting that portions of Indiana Jones’ profile are indeed taken from the life and times of Mitchell-Hedges. Both are definitely larger than life characters.
Other topics in the movie address the Remote Viewing projects initiated by the US and Soviet governments, the alien theme, especially Roswell and Area 51, the Nazca geoglyphs, and the legend of Akakor, with a tiny addition of the El Dorado and Col. Fawcett stories.
However, of great interest is that the plot of the movie revolves around not so much bringing 13 crystal skulls together, but bringing back the 13th skull back to the place from where it was taken from, so that this “return” can set a sequence of events in motion.