Indiana Jones and the pseudoscience

I saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull this weekend. I enjoyed it as an action flick, but I would have to rank it as the third of the four Indian Jones movies (better than Temple of Doom, but not up to the level of the first or third installment). I don't want to write a review here, I would just like to point out the uses of pseudoscience in the movie. I don't necessarily dislike a movie just because it uses bad science or pseudoscience: it is fiction after all. As long as the movie works within its own world and doesn't push credulity too far, it's OK. The Indiana Jones movies have all depended on magical objects. But it's still fun to dissect the science and pseudoscience in a movie.

There will be spoilers here if you haven't seen the movie. The movie opens right away with three associations with pseudoscience. The opening scene occurs at area 51, although nothing is made of that and the various mythologies about area 51 are not developed. But in the warehouse, there is the body of a Roswell alien and this is central to the story line. This has become standard fair in movies since at least Independence Day. It will be tied in with other alien mythologies later. (A scientific blunder occurs here when they imply that gunpowder is magnetic).

The other reference to pseudoscience is the paranormal research of the evil communist bad guy (played by Cate Blanchet). A quick list of a half dozen areas are listed. The scary thing is that this is completely realistic. Both the US and Russian military had programs trying to develop ESP, remote viewing, and other pseudosciences as weapons or for spying. Of course they were complete failures and they should have known better, but that is how they spent some of our tax dollars.

The central MacGuffin of the movie, the crystal skull, is based on skulls manufactured in the early twentieth century but that a few hucksters tried to pass off as relics from ancient Mesoamerica. The real crystal skulls were shaped like human skulls, not the alien skulls of the movies (which reminded me of the skull of the creature in the alien movies).

Next, we see a reference to the Nazca lines in Peru, a popular object of speculation for pseudoscientists, mostly because of Erich Von Daniken and his Chariots of the Gods. Nothing special is made of the lines in the movie except as a clue, but Von Daniken's ancient astronaut hypothesis will be central to the story.

At one point, Jones uses automatic writing to get a clue, another pseudoscience.

It is at the end where pseudoscience enters most strongly, and the only point where it started to intrude for me. In the end, the views Von Daniken are basically supported. We were visited by ancient astronauts. These astronauts had taught they Inca agriculture and other skills, and built the City of Gold. What bothered me in the movie was the use of Von Daniken's racist arguments--these primitive peoples couldn't have made something this great on their own, and they couldn't have learned the skills of civilization on their own, so they needed helpers. I suppose if I didn't have knowledge of the arguments this wouldn't have bothered me. Von Daniken had a very low opinion of all non European civilizations and there is no need to further propagate that view. An archaeologist like Jones certainly wouldn't have this view of ancient people.

Spielberg has had a long association with the alien mythology and has even helped to create it and shape it in the continual back and forth play between the alien myth and popular entertainment. One of his earlier movies was Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which helped to create the modern alien. ET continued his fascination wtih aliens. More recently he was a producer for a television show based on the alien abduction stories in Communion.

I had wondered if Spielberg just enjoyed aliens for their use in stories or actually believed them. I recently saw an interview in which he said that he did believe in some of the stories when he made his earlier movies, but now has doubts. The ubiquitous cameras and video available today seemed to have eliminated UFO reports, rather than confirmed them. It's interesting that the convincing evidence for a filmmaker comes from the lack of convincing film, rather than the scientific evidence.

I wonder if these views influenced the end of Crystal Skull. In the film, there is an alien flying saucer, but instead of flying away, it disappears into another dimension. I don't know how much Spielberg contributed to the story (I believe the basic story was conceived by Lucas), but it is possible that these more elusive aliens are a result of Spielberg's evolving views on aliens.

That's all I could find, but if there are any other instances of pseudoscience in the film, let me know. Entertainment using pseudoscience can sometimes be a problem, if it feeds on and amplifies views already out there. In this case I doubt anyone will take the ideas seriously, any more than people believed there was a magical ark of the covenant that melts the faces of Nazis after the first Indiana Jones movie.