Classic Movies Live Season 7, Episode 25 – Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
August 5, 2026
Almost 20 years after The Last Crusade putt a nice bow on Indiana Jones’ adventures, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas decided to get the gang back together for one last ride.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull sees an aging Indiana Jones fighting communists in a post-WWII world, now joined by a kid named Mutt (Shia Labeouf) who may as well be his son. It also sees the triumphant return of Marion Ravenwood, and the introduction of the incomparable Cate Blanchett to the franchise.
In the 1950s, Indiana Jones, friends, and enemies travel to South America to return an elongated, intricate skull. The immaculate construction of the skull and its strange magnetic properties seem both like it wasn’t really constructed so much as harvested, and also like anyone with that skull would have a hard time surviving in a city with any serious amount of metal. Unless that metal was… gold.
But of course, the real elephant in the room is that Crystal Skull has since its release been widely considered among the… lesser films in the series. So what do our hosts think? It’s been almost another 20 years, is it time for a reappraisal of Indy’s fourth adventure?
Also in this episode, we give some scattered thoughts on Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (which we also talked about back when it came out), and recommend a different movie about an aging action hero, Reflection in a Dead Diamond.
