Synopsis:

A new take on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, aiming to bring the film into the realm of the watchable by matching the tone (music/colour/pacing/characters) from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Intentions:

To make Indy 4 watchable again. To restore dignity to this great character. To see if it is possible to make Indy 4 feel anything like Raiders of the Lost Ark. The anticipation for Indy 4 prior to 2008 was crazy, and arguably the end product was just as big a letdown as those other Lucas related films. I recall people walking out saying “it was ok I guess”. But we all know it wasn’t. This edit attempts to make Indy 4 at least watchable, and at best enjoyable. Changes in Version 2 (August 2012) •Audio Remix in 5.1 surround (better integration of Raiders of the Lost Ark soundtrack) •Addition of Ants/Fight with Russian scene during the Forest Chase •Removal of Indy’s College promotion/wedding. Movie now ends at the top of the mountain •New end credits sequence, featuring the score from Raiders of the Lost Ark •Improved colour correction •Minor tweaks and improvements throughout •New motion menu for Bluray and DVD release •New cover art/poster.

Change List:

There are hundreds of changes, but here is a general feel for the major ones. Edits to entire film. 1-Film Score: The large majority of the score has been completely replaced with the score from Raiders of the Lost Ark. This was a painstaking process, matching each musical beat to this new edit of KOTCS. The intention was to improve the tone, and evoke the old feeling of Raiders through that classic music. As a result of these changes, many sound effects also had to be replaced to allow the new music to be integrated naturally into the film 2-Colour Correction: The entire film has been colour corrected, scene by scene, toning down the over saturated look of the film. This was achieved by fixing the white balance, and bringing the skin tones back within a more ‘natural’ range. This helps bring the film more in line with the other 3 films colour-wise Major Changes to Characters. Indy - Silly/goofy humour removed (eg falling off the speed train etc) - Cheesy lines removed (eg “I’m sorry, I meant drop dead comrade” “damn i thought that was closer”) - Poor line deliveries removed (eg “It’s Oriana himself”) - Improved action pacing (indy using his whip looked rather slow in the original...) Spalko - Removed her monologue when she first meets Indy. Also indy doesn’t get introduced, so his “who was that woman” makes more sense later. - Entirely removed her sword fight with Mutt - Removed as many bad lines as possible Mutt - Tried to make him less silly. - He no longer sword fights or swings with monkeys. - Just tried to make him less annoying in general Marion - Removed as many silly moments as possible. - There were quite a few poor acting moments from Marion. I just cut what I could, but it was impossible to fix everything. Mac - Got rid of most of his “JONSEY”s from the film. - Removed painful banter with Indy “bet ya 10 bucks we get out of this etc” - Removed annoying dialogue like “you don’t know him YOU DON’t KNOW HIM etc” - He’s no longer a triple agent etc. stupid idea. - He no longer falls on the ground for no reason, then lies on the ground for no reason before being sucked into the vortex to another dimension. Added an explosion to make a reason for his fall, then he gets sucked in almost straight away. Ox - Removed as many stupid moments as possible. Including dancing with the Russians and twirling his stick around when he first meets indy in the tent. -The “HELP” scene in the quicksand is gone. Select Changes to individual scenes (not an exhaustive list, but a general idea) Opening Scene - Removed Gophers, Elvis Song, Car race to make the tone more menacing. Makes the impact when the Russian attack more intense. - Shortened dialogue with Spalko. - Shortened gun powder scene - Tightened up warehouse chase, and added new sound effects/music etc. Doom town - Removed completely. FBI scene - Cut all dialogue alluding to the bomb. This was challenging and required a mask over indy's mouth. Indy’s house - Cut obvious and unnecessary dialogue “first Marcus, then dad”. Thought it was more powerful to just show this visually. - Cut stupid expression on indy’s face after “taking them away”. Diner Scene - Reintroduced ark theme to replace skull theme - Used music from Raiders basket chase instead of “shake rattle and roll” Motorbike chase - Many small edits, including tightening the jump from car to motorbike - Cut library chase. Traveling by plane (both scenes) - Replaced music with travelling by plane music from Raiders. This meant replacing all sound effects of planes/boats etc Graveyard - Cut scene with the ‘living dead’ spidermen in the graveyard. - There would have been no poison on the end of the dart that indy blew into that guys mouth anyway. In the tomb. - No more CGI scorpions - Removed unnecessary dialogue - Indy no longer goes to steal the knife. - Indy doesn’t do the working it all out scene “he put it back where he found it” etc. This becomes obvious later, and just slows things down. Russian Camp - Modelled the interrogation on infodroid’s unfinished edit. Used footage from The Watchmen and Raiders to show what the Russian might do if they used the skull etc. - Also used the sound design from when the ark is being kept on the ship In Raiders. Seemed suitable. - Ox is less stupid - Marion is (a little) less hammy Quicksand - Much shorter (no more stupid ox) - No snake. This was hard to achieve, but I’m willing to live with it to avoid having that stupid snake scene. Truck - Shorter, punchier dialogue between the three when having their argument. - No more comedy triple kick, or losing the knife. When indy kicks the guy, he goes down first time, then it’s straight to business. Indy doesn’t waste time. Forest Chase. - Very challenging scene to edit. Removed sword fight, mutt in the trees, as many shocking CGI shots as possible, ants, and fight with the Russian, Marion and her stupid facial expressions. This scene plays faster now, but at least feels like an Indy scene, instead one of the worst scenes in cinema history. - Ants/fight with Russian reinstated. -The jump off the cliff has been ‘zoomed in’ to give the impression the jump was not quite so high, and hopefully looks just a little more believable that they would attempt/survive such a stunt. Waterfall - Only 1. It’s still stupid, but 3 times less stupid. Inside the Temple - The natives no longer live in the walls - Got rid of everyone screaming everyone else’s name. With the aliens - The skeletons do not merge into a CGI abomination. They remain skeletons. - Mac doesn’t have a lie down for no reason - Added “Water! Water!” from Temple of doom as they try to escape the temple. - Removed Alien ship completely. They went to another dimension through a portal, so no need to see a ship. The promotion/Wedding - Deleted for version 2. Credits now start, with the closing credits music from Raiders, on top of the mountain. So there you go, a bit of a rundown of some of the more significant cuts. Those of you who know the film well will notice many more. Hope you enjoy it!

Additional Notes:

Having seen a couple of fan edits of KOTCS from this site, I realised I was enjoying the film more and decided it was worth a go of my own. The major reason for wanting to do my own edit was to a) Do it in 1080p HD using the BluRay b) Try something fairly radical with the score. Most fans of Raiders would agree that the classic score is so perfect, so I decided to integrate it into the film to try and better match the tone of the two films. William’s KOTCS score wasn’t too bad, but it certainly didn’t have the magic that Raiders has. So there you go. That’s my reasoning.

Other Sources:

Raiders of the Art (Soundtrack, and some footage) Watchmen.

Special Thanks:

All those who reviewed and gave feedback on version 1, and made suggestions in the forum. Thank you!