Thursday, January 15, 2009
Indiana Jones And What Came Before (Part Two)...
Sorry for taking so long, I know I promised more of these but as always, the real world tends to pull one away...
As last time, a warning... if you don't want to know the stories and a large amount of details about these adventures then read no further. This isn't a review, it isn't a synopsis, it's more of an example of what's known as a scriptment. I will try to tell the story the screenwriter wrote as detailed and quickly(or not) as possible.
SPOILERS WILL BE TOLD.
Still want to know? Alright...
George Lucas has commissioned several drafts for an Indy film over the last decade and a half. This is a script that Lucas commissioned back in the mid-90's.
Indiana Jones and the Sword of Arthur by Jeffrey Boam
Our story begins on an island, 1238. It's known as Enigma Island to be specific. We go down a cave and find two knights fighting, battling to the death. Finally one kills the other and picks up an object wrapped in a cloth... glowing. He uncovers it and the glow keeps us from seeing what it is as he holds it to the ceiling of the cave. Lightning and power shoots out causing the roof to collapse.
Cut to the same island years later, 1456. A Spanish Galleon is anchored off the shore. Some Spaniards are in the cave now being led by a man that seems a bit mad or drunk or a bit of both. They find the dead corpse of the knight from earlier. Through a large boulder they see a glow. They peer between the cracks, their faces all aglow and we...
Cut to a Museum. College students roaming around. They walk with their professor looking up at Indiana Jones. They walk outside and we notice we're in Arizona, 1950. They're waiting by their bus. The driver asks Indy if they should go and he tells him to wait another ten minutes. He's clearly waiting for something. He tells a student to take over and walks back into the museum. Three thugs and a small dude are watching him from a nearby cafe.
Inside the museum, Indy goes up to a man and they make a package trade as they walk by one another. He opens it as he gets around the corner. Gold, Persian relic. The man Indy got the package from leaves nodding to the thugs. Indy is on a payphone telling Anthony it went well. One of the thugs comes up behind Indy and sticks a gun into his back.
Outside, Indy, the three thugs and small man walk past the bus. The students wonder where he's going and the Bus Driver throws a fit as to why they aren't going yet. Indy tells him to take them to the train station without him.
A warehouse a little later. Indy's tied to a crate. The usual banter about "My employer wondered where his property ended up" commences. Indy banters and then runs into the thugs. He beats them all up, is about to go when one of the thugs pulls a machine gun that's fallen next to him. He bolts from the place, runs into the street and gets a guy to drive him him off as they're chased by the thugs car. Car chase. Machine gun fire. A bike race ahead. Swerves and misses. Cop cars join the chase. Thugs run directly into one of the cop cars.
Cut to the train getting ready to leave the station. Indy gets out and sees a motorcycle with a greaser talking to a girl. Pushes him off and takes the motorcycle. He heads for the moving train. He's not got long though as their is a gorge up ahead. He jumps to the porch railing of the train as the motorbike flies off the cliff exploding. Inside the car a conductor is taking tickets and comes to a dirty, dusty Indy who has just sat down in his seat. He punches his ticket.
Indy in his classroom. He's giving another archeology speech. Yada, yada. Talks about the island we seen earlier. Anthony Brody, son of Indy's old pal watches the speech. They all leave and the two start talking as they walk to Indy's office. Knock on the door. A hot women, early 40's named Arianna Smith, she's a former foil/lover(?). He punches her. She gets up they banter as a guy comes off screen, Seabastion Collins. He and Indy shake hands, he's a former student. They both tell him of a relic they were hunting. A torn piece of parchment is handed to Indy. They talk of the mad Spaniard we saw earlier. They tell of how this could lead to Enigma Island which no one seems to be able to find. They want Indy to go with them to a castle in France to obtain the rest of this parchment so they can figure where this island is.
Back at Indy's house. Night. he's packing and arguing with Anthony. "Excalibur is a myth!" stuff like that. Indy tells Brody that the castle is run by a bunch of ex-Nazis bent on world domination. Yada, yada.
Cut to the airport. Indy Arianna and Collins wait to get on board. They get on board and we cut to a flashback.
An archaeological dig, 1925. Workers digging. A young Indy on his first professional dig. He meets, banters with a young Arianna. A younger, just as obnoxious Belloq is screaming at workers. Indy tells them to take a breather and he and they argue. Abner Ravenwood walks up and greets Indy. He and Ravenwood exit leaving Belloq angry. Indy and Arianna talk, they help one another, attraction starts to take hold and we...
Cut to French castle. The three tourist(Indy, Arianna and Collins) move about the castle. They follow a tour guide and banter/argue. They leave the tourist behind and head down another hallway. They enter an ornate room. Table in the center opens up revealing a secret passageway. Come to a stone door. Indy opens it and hey enter a vast depository of books, art, armor and tons of other stuff. Indy begins looking through books. He finds one with a page missing. Puts the parchment next to it. They match. Congratulations all around, then... Collins pulls a gun. Machine gun totting thugs come in. Big guy named Lugor comes from the darkened shadows. Arguing, betrayal. Yada, yada.
Indy and Arianna are tied back to back. swinging over a pit forty feet deep with spikes. Collins knocks out Indy. A torch slowly burns through the rope holding them up. The thugs close the door and wait outside as Collins departs the castle with Lugo. He tells them to make sure of their deaths or the Dark Knights won't be pleased(wait, Dark Knights? Keep reading). Collins and Lago head for the airport in their Dark Knight Car(Boam's word, not mine). Arianna is swinging the rope around toward an opening above. She swings them both up, but falls back toward the spikes. Indy with his whip lashed out and holds her suspended over the spikes. They escape. A group of cars outside. they shoot the tires of all but one car. Indy and Arianna steal the remaining one and head off away from the castle as we...
Cut to another flashback, 1925. Indy, Arianna and Ravenwood walking along a beach. Indy's telling Ravenwood about the location to some pirate treasure. Arianna leaves while Ravenwood and Indy talk. Abner Ravenwood's daughter, Marion Ravenwood age 15, walks up She's got a crush on Indy you can tell. Ravenwood warns him to keep away from her. He nods and the flashback ends.
Castle Birkenshire lies over the English coastline. Collins shows up. An aide tells him that Indy escaped. He tells Lugor to take care of it and heads down a hall filled with purple, red and black banners. Guards in black armor carrying rifles stand guard in the hall. Into a room with a round table are seated a group of Dark Knights wearing purple, red and black robes. The head lord, Markote talks to Collins. Another Lord, Benneth, who is skeptical of Collins also pipes in. Yada, yada. They argue. Benneth has no faith in him. Collins holds up the book and tells them the sword will be ours again.
Indy and Arianna are walking the streets of London. They head for a library, arguing all the way. Indy recognized a symbol(the Dark Knight symbol) on one of the guards and wants to research it. In the library, searching, searching... Arianna finds it. Indy reads what she's discovered. It turns out to be a Dark Ages Sect known as the Knights of Mordred. More explanation, more banter, more argument. Finally we hear this sect died out around the time of the Black Plague. About this time, Arianna looks up and sees Lugor walking through looking for them. They leave and several cars race toward them. Indy and Arianna get on board an empty double-decker bus and take off. A new car chase begins. We get the standard Indy-speak with terms like "trust me" and all. Cars follow, traffic darts and turns. Thugs shoot machine guns. Some climb on the bus. Gunfire, fights, crashes. Finally they get rid of all the bad guys only to crash into a building. As they exit they find police officers waiting for them.
Cut to Collins in the castle trying to decipher the code to the location of the island in the book. See, he's an ok archaeologist, but he's not as good as his teacher Indy and he's having great difficulty obviously. The Lords are becoming impatient. He tells them he'll have it decoded by tomorrow(he hopes).
Indy and Arianna at the American Embassy. They're walking away and she's asking Indy how he did it. He tells her he has friends. As they exit the embassy there are two cars near the street with flags similar to the Dark Knight symbol. One opens and a guy named Miller gets out. He asks them to get inside and all answers will be provided. They get in. From here they're transported to...
Castle Avalon. The opposite of Castle Birkenshire. This one is located in the English countryside. Large and open, not dark and oppressive like the other English castle. People move about in a hustle. Cartographers, researcher, technicians all work around the place. Indy and Arianna are taken by Miller to a man around another large, round table. The leader of this group is Oliver. He talks to them about Collins and tells them he is the leader of the "Society of the Round Table" and they are the decedents of Aurthur. They are the sworn enemies of the Dark Knights. He tells them of a thousand year old power struggle between these two groups for control of the sword known as Excalibur. He asks them to leave and not pursue this quest for the sword or the island. He says they will handle it. Indy agrees and asks to rest so they can leave tomorrow.
Benneth informs Collins that Jones is still alive. He believes Collins is a fool and has bungled the death of Jones and now has little faith he'll decipher the code to the island. Collins sends him away saying he'll have the coordinates soon enough.
Back at Castle Avalon. More argument, banter. Indy tells Arianna he's still going after Collins. This shuts her up momentarily. You can see he's warmed to her... just a bit. And we go into another flashback.
Workers are digging in pits along the beach we saw in the earlier flashback. Snide remarks between Belloq and Indy. They're all competing to be Ravenwoods assistant. He, Belloq and Arianna. Only one will win the job. Somehow he teams with Arianna to foil Belloq and they both go about finding the prize. They both find the gold medallion. The one we saw in Raiders. They are both carried out of the pit by the workers as they cheer and we leave the flashback.
Indy and Arianna sneak down from a hilltop overlooking Castle Birkenshire. A large ship by the shore his being loaded with supplies and men. They sneak down and enter a crate that is going to be put on board. Collins and Benneth are arguing again. The ship sets sail. Inside the cargo hold, Indy and Arianna exit the crate. Arianna and Indy split up. She goes for Collins cabin to find the book and Indy goes to the bridge to find their course. Then they'll radio the American or British Navies. Arianna goes into his cabin and starts looking through the mess for the book. Indy knocks a sailor unconscious and hides inside a locker. Collins and Benneth argue just outside. The guard awakens, moaning. Collins and Lugor hear this and open the locker catching Indy. Arianna gets captured as well. They begin to torture Indy to get Arianna to decipher the book. She relents when she can take it no more.
After she finishes decoding the book they put her back in with Indy. After a while one of the Dark Knights enters, they think it's their time. It's a spy, one of the Society of the Round Table that's been able to sneak on board. He rescues them and is about to put them into a boat when they're spotted. The Spy gets killed as the boat falls into the water. Collins leaves it because he thinks when the sun comes up they'll die in the beating sun. While in the boat, Indiana and Arianna talk, argue and get what's been brewing through the whole script out of the way. An airplane flies over. It lands in the water and drifts over to the boat. The pilot, a knight named Sir Gilliam picks them up.
Cut to Enigma island with the Dark Knight's ship anchored in the shallow water. Knights in armor riding horseback head for the cave. Once in the cave they start digging and eventually find Excalibur floating above the ground. A knight tries to grab the blade and his hand melts away. Collins opens up a black box that they've brought with them. A Dark Gauntlet is inside, the Gauntlet of Mordred. Collins grabs the sword with the Gauntlet on and it doesn't burn him. Collins takes the sword and kills Benneth. They leave the cave and notice men on horseback in the distance. They all get on their horses and ride toward them discovering a small castle and village with a group of people that don't even know they're there.
The plane flown by Gilliam with Indy and Arianna lands on the island and find the castle and village destroyed. The people are dead. Four knights greet them. Palin, Idle, Graham and Cleese(if you don't get the joke, I'm not going to tell you...). Collins, Lugor and the other Dark Knights are on the coast headed for the ship. The plane flies over with Idle and Graham on the wings dropping grenades. A battle ensues between Indy, Arianna, the knights in the plane and those on the ground versus the Dark Knights. Collins tries to destroy the plane with blasts of lightning from Excalibur. Big battle. Fights. Deaths. Arianna gets captured by Collins as he says she'll make a excellent sacrifice. Collins gets in a boat and heads for the ship. Indy tries to save her before he gets on board the ship, but fails.
Later at Castle Birkenshire. Collins presents the sword to Markote. He then proceeds to kill him and all the other Dark Lords, taking control saying that there can be only one king. We cut to another flashback. Arianna argues with Indy while he drinks whiskey. They argue over the fact that Ravenwood chose her instead of him. Shots of Indy telling Ravenwood he was leaving. And the flashback ends... The plane carrying Indy and the remaining Knights flies toward Birkenshire.
Meanwhile, at the castle Collins is performing a ceremony with the Dark Knights around him. He's going to transform Excalibur into a weapon of darkness. Big, long winded speech about "knowing what society needs" and "saving the world from itself." He plans on sacrificing Arianna right as Gilliam's plane crashes through the skylight. The Knight of Arthur versus the Dark Knights of Mordred do battle. A large fight with the remaining forces of good and those baddies in the castle. Indy is looking to save the girl. Arianna fights with Collins and she knocks Excalibur free. She does a good job smacking him around until another Dark Knight shows up behind her and knocks her out. Collins and the Dark Knight are starting to leave and he realizes he doesn't have the sword. He turns to see Indy with his hand wrapped up, holding Excalibur bathed in warm, glowing light. Indy starts to take out Dark Knights as fire and lightning bolts fly. Good is slowly triumphing. Indy looks for Arianna, where is she?
Collins is aboard the Dark Knights plane with Arianna in tow. The plane starts to take off. A storm is coming. Collins talks about how Indy will come after her and Excalibur will come to him. Yada, yada. Indy runs after the plane on foot down the runway. He grabs a chain and uses it like a whip, latching onto the tail of the plane as it gets airborne. Indy gets onboard the plane and finds Collins holding her with a gunn pressed to her side. He tells Collins to give the girl up and he can have the sword. A shot is heard. The two remaining Dark Knights are shot dead by the pilot... who now lifts his goggles to reveal that it's Sir Gilliam. The storm outside worsens. Collins hands over Arianna. Indy starts to hand Collins Excalibur blade first as it cuts into his hand, then suddenly flips the sword around and slams it down on Collins' Gauntlet. It shatters into many pieces... Indy puts the sword in Collins' hand along with some torn banner he wraps around him so he can't remove it and Collins screams. Indy kicks him out of the plane. His body disappears into vapor and the sword plummets toward the Atlantic Ocean. Right before it hits the waves the Lady of the Lake rises and takes it with her hand. Indy falls back into the plane from exhaustion...
Cut to Indy teaching a class. Brody and Arianna walks in. Final chatter. Yada, yada. Some corny dialog about one kind of adventure he hasn't done: relationships. They kiss. The boys in class cheer, the girls are disappointed. Indiana Jones and Arianna walk off the campus as the Raiders theme comes up and the credits roll.
THE END...
Would this have been better than Crystal Skull?
You be the judge.
Previous entry: Part One.
Labels:
Film,
George Lucas,
Indiana Jones,
Saucer Men From Mars,
Scripts
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15 comments:
Seems ALOT better than KOTCS, However I am still pulling for an Atlantis based Indiana Jones 5.
For f***'s sake is this a Disney blog or a Luca$$film blog?
Um, yes. I think this would have been decidedly better.
Lucas Need To Stop - This is his blog, he reserves the right towhat post ever he likes to.
Go ride Indy in Disneyland and ask the same thing. Go ride Star Tours in Disneyland and ask the same thing. It's a part of the parks, so it's a part of the Disney world.
It certainly sounds better. I vote "yes".
It is a happy ending, after all!!!!
It was my understanding that George, Steven and Harrison ALL had to agree on story and script and that there were many times where 2 of the 3 liked earlier story and script versions.
You would be correct about that...
As much as I hated Crystal Skull, this one sounds too generic to be an Indiana Jones film, IMHO. Plus I hate all those flashbacks. Keep moving the story forward please.
How do you find out this stuff? Is it for real?
Yes, it's real. And there are more to come...
Nice name for a blog Spokker, "Red Sky Disney." Where did you come up with that?
Spokker, shut down your idiotic blog at once!
It's bad enough that you're already skating on thin ice with the rest of us.
I just thought that the saucer men one was so over the top that it couldn't be real. I checked the date but it wasn't April 1st. Is LucasFilm really that insane?
I think the biggest problem with this script was that the writer didn't have a grasp of what drives Indiana Jones. There were times (mostly the first half, but not exclusively) where I thought "Indiana Jones wouldn't do that" or felt that something, such as being captured by the police, was not in keeping with the style of Jones' adventures. The lightning to plane battle sounded majorly hokey, but with a few rewrites and less instances of "insert useless banter here" and more adventuring then this could have been a sound film.
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