When they open the Well of Souls there’s a lot of noise as gas moves around. I actually got the impression that , by opening the lid they were releasing built-up pressure ffro m a hermetic seal, rather than breaklihng vacuum (that air seemed to be coming out rather than going in). Regardless, there seemed to be a pressure differential between the air inside the WoS and the ambient air.
And that’s completely inconsistent with the gaping hole in the construction that Indy and Marion escape through near the Flying Wing. And before you say that Indy broke down the wall between the WoS and where that stone was, recall that there were a lot of holes in that wall through which the snakes were coming (Indy saw them, which is how he knew there was a space behjind that wall to break into). In fact, the fact that there were living snakes in there at all shows that the chamber couldn’t have been hermetically sealed, and that the pressure should’ve long ago equalized.
The bottomn line is that Spielberg/Lucas liked the drama of that pressure venting when the broke the seal on the WoS, so it’s there. Consistency be damned. Why should this part of the film be different from anything else.
(FWIW, there’s a smidgen of justification for the whole thing. IIRC, some tombs have been found pretty well sealed, and they’ve taken air samples from them to compare with today’s air. But that’s a long way from what’s depicted in the film.)
Yeah, but he could climb his way up the chimney above the pit that he swings across to the opening at the top. Wait, why didn’t he climb down that way?
Stranger
Yes, I know that is now sealed away behind the Inexplicably Slow Moving Door. Hey, if the movie is going to be inconsistent, so can I.
Here’s a minor thing that always bothered me…minorly.
Jock has a Yankees hat on, and when Indy discovers the snake Jock says “Oh that’s just my pet snake Reggie.” In 1982, this was an obvious reference to Reggie Jackson, since Jock was a Yankees fan and all. It would’ve been much cooler had the snake been named Lou or Joe D, or Lefty or something.
But what evidence? He hears a throb/hum (which could be related to the storm brewing overhead) and the Nazis have some electrical problems. That’s not really evidence of anything supernatural (since there are perfectly reasonable explanations for all of it). But he closes his eyes before anything really weird transpires, so his commitment to keeping them shut (and telling Marion to do likewise) is a “feeling” or a “hunch”, but it’s rooted in a very simple kind of faith (even if it is partly a terror-based belief).
Regarding your assumption: You, sir (or madam) are mostly correct. Jones didn’t contact the pilot enroute, he planned for just such a need all along.
I just found the August 1979 third draft of the script online
which is fairly close to the final product (Kasdan maybe did one more draft or this one got edited and changed on-set as it was being filmed). Indy, Satipo and Barranca have a lot more dialogue in the opening than what was shown on screen. Not sure if their partnership was implied and spoken of as much onscreen or not. Been a while since I saw the film. If you don’t won’t to fool with reading it, basically Satipo and Barranca are scared about getting back to civilzation after a bunch of their porters become frightened and run off. Indy says something like, “Don’t worry, I have a plane standing by just in case we need to get out fast.”
This draft also has the “Chinese gangsters shooting at Indy as he runs behind a large gong” sequence which was dropped, but picked up and used in “Temple of Doom.” Haven’t looked past that (about page 20 or so) to see what other changes there are.
Regarding your question of why he didn’t just use the plane all along – in this draft, Indy is picking up artifacts here and there in the tunnel and putting them in his pockets. I assume he was there for more than the little fertility head and needed the porters to carry it all out of the jungle. So, he probably planned to come back to civilization with far more stuff than a small plane could carry. The plane was just, as you surmised, a back-up “if everything goes to hell” escape plan.
^^^I just glanced at the script again while checking the link. My last paragraph is misremembered. Seems that Indy just planned to grab the idol and have the plane fly himself, Satipo and Barranca out with the idol if need be.
This rationale doesn’t really make sense; the plane was a small, two man, open cockpit sea plane. There was no way it could have taken off with four people.
There’s no point, really, trying to make sense of the film. It is an exemplar of what it is; a B-movie styled cliffhanger without a lot of logic in the plot. That it works so well, and you don’t question these things until afterward is a testament to how well paced the film is. The viewer just doesn’t have time to sit and think about the absurdities.
I see your point, but am only pointing out that in an earlier draft of the script this was Lucas/Kasdan’s rationale for the plane being there. Not mine.
I’ve read a bit more of the draft. Up through Marion’s into. Much more background on her father, etc. I can see why it went through at least another pass as it is a bit dialogue-heavy. Glanced at the ending – action leading up to the climax seems different as well.
