August 1957 — Indy and his former WWII intelligence partner George “Mac” McHale head for one of Indy’s favorite places to do archaeology work — the central coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. They spend several weeks exploring Mayan ruins and gathering artifacts.[1]
August 30, 1957 — Indy and Mac are abducted by Soviet KGB agents in southern Mexico. The abduction team is headed by Dr. Irina Spalko, a Ukrainian scientist and specialist in psychic research.[1]
Indiana Jones, 1957
August 31, 1957 — After almost two days of travel (part of which was spent locked in the trunk of a car), Indy and Mac arrive with their Soviet captors at the U.S. Air Force’s Nevada Test and Training Range, better known as “Area 51.” The Soviets infiltrate the base, and knowing Indy was on the analytic team that worked on the Roswell UFO crash, force him to locate the case containing the heavily-magnetized mummified alien body. Mac suddenly reveals that gambling debts have forced him to work for the Soviets. As Indy manages his escape, Spalko and Mac make off with the alien remains. (In eluding his Russian pursuers, Indy inadvertently cracks open the crate containing the Ark of the Covenant.) Indy gets clear of the area on a rocket sled, which blasts him for several miles down a track at fantastic speed, causing him to pass out from the g-forces.[2]
September 1, 1957 — Indy is lost and disoriented, wandering through the Nevada desert. He comes upon a town that is mysteriously deserted. It turns out to be a model town designed to test the results of an atomic explosion — which is about to be detonated. Indy seeks shelter in a lead-lined refrigerator in one of the model homes. He survives the blast, and is apprehended by the FBI, who decontaminate him and subject him to a hostile interrogation regarding his “assistance” to the KGB. He is released on the orders of General Robert Ross, who knows Indy from his OSS days in World War II, and assures the FBI he is not working with the KGB. The FBI warns Indy he is now a “person of interest.”[2]
September 20, 1957 — Indy is back at his teaching position three weeks after the incident in Nevada[1]. The Dean of Students, Charles Stanforth, pulls Indy from his classroom and says the FBI came in with search warrants and went through his office. The Board of Regents instructs Stanforth to place Indy on “indefinite leave,” essentially firing him. Stanforth resigns in protest. Not wasting time, Indy plans on leaving the country that very day, taking the train to New York and getting an overnight flight to London, and from there possibly to Leipzig University in Germany where he is “owed a favor.” As his train pulls out of the station, he is convinced to hop off by a young leather-jacketed motorcyclist, Mutt Williams. At the local diner, Mutt tells Indy that Indy’s old friend Harold Oxley had found a crystal skull in Peru, suffered a mental breakdown, and was later kidnapped. Indy relates that crystal skulls are associated with the lost city of Akator. Mutt gives Indy a letter from his mother, who was another friend of Oxley’s…and is now a fellow prisoner. (Oxley had looked after and Mutt and his mother after her husband was killed in World War II.) The letter says Indy is the only one who can help her and Oxley, and contains a riddle written by Oxley in an ancient South American language. At this point, KGB agents attempt to capture them, but Indy and Mutt evade them on a motorcycle. [2]
September 21-23, 1957 — Indy and Mutt travel to Cusco, Peru, by way of Havana and Mexico City. [2]
September 25, 1957 — After some time trying to pick up Oxley’s trail in Cusco, Indy and Mutt find out he has recently stayed in the local psychiatric hospital. Oxley’s scribbles on the walls and floor of his cell lead them to the grave of Francisco de Orellana, a 16th century conquistador who has searched for Akator. They discover the skull at the grave, with Indy reasoning that Oxley had returned it there after failing to get it back to Akator. [2]
September 26, 1957 — As the sun rises over the Peruvian graveyard, Indy and Mutt are captured by Mac and a group of Soviets. They are taken by air and river to the KGB camp deep in the Amazon jungle late that night, where they find Oxley, and Mutt’s mother, who turns out to be Marion Ravenwood. Dr. Spalko believes that the crystal skull belongs to an alien life form and holds great psychic power, and that finding more skulls in Akator will grant the Soviets the advantage of psychic warfare. Spalko uses the skull on Jones to enable him to understand Oxley’s ravings and identify a route to the lost city. Indy, Mutt, Marion, and Oxley escape with the skull, but Marion and Indy get trapped in a dry sandpit, and are recaptured by the Soviets. In the midst of all this, Marion reveals that Mutt is actually Indy’s son — born Henry Jones III, later becoming Henry Williams after her marriage to Colin Williams.[2]
September 27, 1957 — On their way to Akator, Mac tells Indy he is a CIA double-agent to regain Indy’s trust, and Indy’s group once again fights its way out of the Soviet captivity. Indy and company survive three waterfalls in an amphibious vehicle, while many of the Soviets fall from a cliff while trying to pursue them. Mac had lied about being a double-agent and has been dropping transceivers to allow the surviving Soviets to track them. The adventurers gain access to the temple, and find it filled with artifacts from many ancient civilizations, identifying the aliens as extra-dimensional “archaeologists” studying the different cultures of Earth. They find and enter a chamber containing the crystal skeletons of thirteen alien beings, one missing its skull. Spalko arrives and presents the skull to its skeleton, whereupon the aliens reanimate and telepathically offer a reward in ancient Mayan through Oxley. A portal to their dimension becomes activated, and Spalko demands knowledge equal to the aliens’. The thirteen beings fuse into one, and in the process of receiving the overwhelming knowledge, Spalko is disintegrated and sucked into the portal. [2]
September 28, 1957– Indy, Marion, Mutt, and Oxley — who regained his sanity once the skull was replaced — escape, while the remaining Soviets are also drawn into the portal. Mac is caught in the vortex while trying to scrounge some of the treasure, and even though Indy offers him his whip to pull him to safety, he willingly lets go and is sucked in. Indy and the others escape and watch as the temple walls crumble, revealing a flying saucer rising from the debris and vanishing, while the hollow in the valley floor left by its departure is flooded by the waters of the Amazon. [2]
Early October, 1957 — Indy is reinstated at the college, and promoted to associate dean. Charles Stanforth withdraws his resignation. [2]
October 18, 1957 — Indiana Jones marries Marion Ravenwood at the college chapel.[2]
Late 1957 – ? — A return to a quieter life, but we’ve been promised one more adventure…
THIS SPACE WILL BE UPDATED WITH THE EVENTS OF INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY IN THE NEAR FUTURE
(I’ve seen it in the theater, but will need to re-watch it a few times to nail the chronological details)
Indiana Jones, 1969
APPENDIX A: Indiana Jones — Archaeologist
What are some details about how Dr. Jones practiced his trade?
Indy’s archaeological specialty is epigraphy — the study of written inscriptions and engravings.
The titles of any archaeological books or papers he has written over the course of his career are unknown, but he did write his memoirs at some point.[3]
He speaks around twenty languages, being fluent in Greek (ancient and modern), Hebrew, Latin, Spanish, French, Italian, and several Meso- and South American native dialects (excluding Hovito, of course). He can get by in German (and its older form, Anglo-Saxon), Swedish, Russian, Hungarian, Turkish, Arabic, and Hindi. His Chinese and Vietnamese are basic but serviceable, but he only knows a few phrases in Japanese. He can read Sanskrit and most Egyptian hieroglyphs, and can use American Sign Language. Welsh and Icelandic have totally eluded him.
His expertise covers a wide range of historical eras and geographic regions, but his focus tends to be on the pre-Columbian societies of the American southwest, Mayan and pre-Mayan cultures of Mesoamerica, and the Inca and related tribes of South America. He is also quite knowledgeable about ancient Greece, the ancient Near East (including Egypt), and the Indian subcontinent. His heart really wasn’t in his first teaching position — Celtic archaeology in the British Isles — but he came to appreciate it. His interest can be piqued by compelling stories and artifacts from the Nordic regions or the Far East, but those areas seem to be secondary.
Indy’s Gear
Indy travels light — a single camel-leather suitcase and a side satchel are all he leaves home with. In the suitcase is a shaving kit, a single change of clothes (either his field outfit or his “dress” outfit — vested suit & bowtie — depending on what he’s wearing at the time), and a few books, charts, and maps pertinent to his current expedition. Any other requirements can be bought in local markets or bazaars. The suitcase will stay behind at whatever his lodgings happen to be, but his satchel goes with him everywhere. The satchel is a WWI canvas gas mask bag with a customized leather strap, generally containing the following:
- Basic archaeologist’s tools — a small hammer & trowel, brushes, and chisels, rolled tightly in an oilcloth
- Notebook & pencil
- Travel papers, identification, and some local currency
- Strips of cloth (for wrapping artifacts)
- Gun oil
- Leather dressing
- Hat brush
- Soft cowhide gloves with straight thumb-seams and color-matched binding
He keeps a decent amount of empty space in his satchel so he has room to carry whatever small artifacts he finds. If he’s traveling through a wet or tropical environment, he may sacrifice room in his satchel for an extra pair of socks in a small waterproof bag.
His glasses case, a nickel-silver folding knife with a stag horn handle, and a few rounds of ammunition for his pistol are kept in his pants or jacket pockets.
The Hat — A sable-brown rabbit-felt fedora with a sheenless brown ribbon, size 7¼, originally made by Herbert Johnson Hatters of London. Acquired in 1912, Indy considers the high-crowned, wide-brimmed hat (with a tight front pinch) good luck, and an essential part of his equipment. He has it patched, dry-cleaned, and re-blocked after every adventure, and has replaced the interior sweatband “eight or nine times” by the early 1940s. (He owns a few other fedoras as well, but his original remains his favorite.)
The Jacket — A variant of the Type A-2 leather flight jacket, put into service by the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1931. Indy’s custom version has removed the jersey knits from the hem and cuffs, and altered some of the pleating to avoid getting the jacket caught on his gun belt.
The Shirt and Pants — Indy’s typical shirt for field work is a light tan (or “stone”) long-sleeved cotton poplin safari shirt, with shoulder epaulets, two breast pockets, and two vertical strips of pleated cloth running down both front sides from the shoulder to the tail. His pants are made from traditional cavalry twill, and are sometimes on the “reddish” spectrum of khaki, sometimes on the “gray” side. They have button-flap back pockets, deep hip pockets, and a four-inch military hem. His belt is a standard military web belt with a brass slide buckle. He also wears a gun belt (see below.)
The Boots — Indy always opts for Alden 405s — dark-brown, vegetable-tanned orthopedic ankle boots with rubber heels, steel shanks, and soft cotton lining. Size 10½ .
The Whip — Indy’s kangaroo-hide bullwhip is 10 feet long with an 8-inch knobbed handle and a 12-plait thong at the business end.
The Gun — Indy has had a number of sidearms over the years
- A Webley Green .455 revolver (often mistaken for the very similar Mark IV). This was gifted to him by the villagers of Whithorn, Scotland in 1925, and used on all of his early adventures. He retired it for awhile, then brought it back into action around 1938 and used it on most subsequent adventures through at least 1957.
- A Colt Official Police .38 revolver, used in the early 1930s, and dropped by Willie Scott out a car window while escaping Lao Che in Shanghai. (Indy has an empty holster through the rest of Temple of Doom.)
- A Smith & Wesson M1917 “Hand Ejector” Mark II revolver, chambered to fit .45 caliber rounds, with a custom (4-inch) barrel and lanyard ring on the end of the butt. (He seems to have owned a couple of these models.) Used by Indy in the mid-1930s, this is his iconic Raiders pistol.
- Indy went looking for the Ark of the Covenant with two handguns — his (second) S&W M1917 .45, and a slim Browning Hi-Power 9mm for back-up that he tucks in his jacket pocket (Watch Raiders carefully — he has to use it a couple of times. Presumably Belloq taking his first .45 made him want extra insurance.)
- In his youth in the trenches of World War I, he was issued a French Modele 1892 service revolver, later upgraded to a Belgian Nagant Model 1883 revolver. As an agent of French Intelligence later in the war, Indy carried or commandeered several types of small automatic pistols — an FN Browning Model 1900, an FN 1910, and a Star Ruby, all .32 caliber.
Indy is described by colleague Walter Granger as a “terrible shot,”[5] always jerking the trigger rather than squeezing it. He is much more dangerous with his bullwhip. Both the revolver holster (a Webley-brand “flap” model) and a button-snap quick release loop for the whip are threaded onto a gun belt, leather with a metal notch buckle, slung low around Indy’s waist.
The Holy Bee is grateful to the following for information used above: Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide, IndyGear.com, TheRaider.net, Indianajones.wikia.com, and the Internet Movie Firearms Database (IMFDB.com). Other bits and pieces were noted as I made my way through all the films, TV episodes, novels, and comics.
APPENDIX B: Did “Irresponsible” Indy Really Abandon His Classes That Frequently?
Many times when discussing Indiana Jones in depth (as one does), it is almost inevitable that someone points out that Dr. Jones is a “terrible” professor/university employee because he’s always dashing off and abandoning his classes to go on some adventure. But a careful examination of the chronology revelas that this may not be so cut-and-dried. Below is listed the chronology of Indy’s academic career.
Text in bold indicates a period where Dr. Jones needed time away from his normal class schedule.
1925 — Summer course in archaeology (University of London)
1925-27 — Normal academic years (U. of L., spring 1926 spent on an official college expedition)
1927-29 — Normal academic years (unnamed New England college)
Fall 1929 (Interior World novel)
Spring 1930 — Normal academic semester (Princeton University)
1930-34 (several novels) — Technically employed by Princeton, Indy has been granted a special “visiting professor” status with a flexible schedule and only a handful of regular classes to teach
1934-35 — (Mostly) normal academic year (Marshall College)
May 1935 (Emperor’s Tomb game)
1935-36 — Normal academic year
Mid-September – Early October, 1936 (Raiders of the Lost Ark)
Remainder of 1936-37 — Normal academic year
October-November 1937, just under 4 weeks (Great Circle game)
Remainder of 1937-38 — Normal academic year
Summer 1938, leaves summer school course (Last Crusade)
1938-40 — Normal academic years (except last 3 weeks of ‘38-’39, Fate of Atlantis comic)
Fall 1940 — Normal academic semester
Spring 1941 — (Golden Fleece comic)
1941-42 — Normal academic year
1942-45 — WWII (no teaching while working as an intelligence officer for the OSS)
1945-47 — Normal academic years
Fall 1947 (Infernal Machine game)
Spring 1948 — Normal academic semester
1948-57 — Normal academic years
Fall 1957 (Kingdom of the Crystal Skull)
Spring 1958 — Normal academic semester
1958-69 — Normal academic years (Hunter College)
Retired 1969
DETAILS & SPECULATION
Fall 1929 (Indiana Jones and the Interior World novel) — Due to the events of the novel, Indy mysteriously disappears in South America before the start of the 1929 school year, and his position is filled by someone else. When he re-appears, he is jobless and has to take a last-minute position at Princeton.
His position at Princeton over the next four years is part-time and very fluid. He seems free to come and go as he pleases.
May 1935 (Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb video game) — Indy is contacted by a pair of Chinese government “officials,” who convince him to search for an artifact. This is problematic, as this was the tail end of of his very first year teaching at Marshall College, and taking off at the behest of a pair of pretty shady Chinese agents (one of whom turned out to be one of the story’s villains) would not sit well with his superiors. He was probably protected by his glowing recommendation from Princeton, his burgeoning reputation in his field (he’s referred to as a “famous” archeologist in the immediately subsequent Temple of Doom), and the intercession of Marcus Brody. But I suspect the newly-hired Indy came very close to being fired for this one.
(The film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom takes place over his summer break, but the epilogue of Emperor’s Tomb sets the events of Temple in motion.)
September-October 1936 (Raiders of the Lost Ark film) — After a normal academic year (1935-36), Indy once again leaves Marshall College for the events of Raiders. This time, he’s on an emergency mission for U.S. Army Intelligence, and I’m quite certain the university would approve this time off without repercussions due to the circumstances. (As should be obvious, the “South America 1936” prologue was during his summer break.)
October-November 1937 (Indiana Jones and the Great Circle video game) — Like the events of Emperor’s Tomb, this is another example of Indy “dashing off” impulsively, despite being warned by Brody that the university would not approve. Indy doesn’t care, rattling off the names of other professors who can cover his classes as he hurriedly packs his suitcase.
Summer 1938 (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade film) — Based on his very simple, basic intro to a morning lecture at the start of the film, it’s clear this is the first day of an introductory level archaeology class, and based on where it is in the overall chronology, it’s a summer course. After day one, he is swept up in the events of Last Crusade. The summer course would clearly have to be cancelled. Because he was (almost literally) pulled off-campus by people employed by millionaire industrialist Walter Donovan, it has to be assumed that Donovan used his wealth and influence to get the university to release Indy from his duties in order to go to work for him. What the hell, it was only a 101-level summer course.
May 1939 (Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis comic) — Indy spends the last three weeks of the 1938-39 academic year hospitalized for a gunshot wound. This would be accepted by the university as a legitimate medical leave.
Spring 1941 (Indiana Jones and the Golden Fleece comic) — It irritates me a bit to have to burn an entire semester for the plot of a comic that would have a microscopic fraction of the audience of the films, but it has to be done. During the spring semester of 1941, Indy is working as an advisor to an American archaeological dig in Greece. This was likely official university work, and he was scheduled no classes that semester.
Fall 1947 (Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine video game) — The adventure here takes place when Indy is on an approved sabbatical.
Fall 1957 (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) — Under suspicion of aiding communist agents, Indy is placed on “indefinite leave” by Marshall College. After the main events of Crystal Skull, he is re-instated. The negative feelings must linger, because after that academic year (1957-58), he quits and takes a position at Hunter College in New York City.
All of Indy’s other expeditions and travels across all media can be made to fit in the typical academic recesses of an American university — winter break (a few weeks in December and January), spring break (a week in March or April), and summer break (late May to early September). Admittedly, it’s a stretch sometimes. Likely after some crazy adventure — bruised, cut up, and fatigued — he puts his bow-tie and glasses back on and hits the lecture hall with mere hours to spare.
The events of the fall of 1929 were beyond Indy’s control, and he was indeed terminated from his position. To my mind, there were only two times (spring 1935 and fall 1937) when he abandoned his classes impulsively and without some kind of approval or permission (however grudgingly it was granted).
1. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull novelization
2. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Specific dates suggested by “The Diaies of Indiana Jones.”
3. Indiana Jones and the Golden Fleece
4. The explanation for keeping his job despite repeatedly abandoning it to go on some advenutre is offered by the out-of-Holy Bee-canon Marvel Comics series, but it makes sense.
5. Indiana Jones and the Dinosaur Eggs
Holy Bee of Ephesus 