Indiana Jones and the Magic Fridge

[Shurik]

I never saw anything wrong with any of the movies' storytelling. It was fantasy after all. I mean a box that holds vengeful spirits which kill everything that looks at them? That was the first film, guys.

Same with me. The first movie had the vengeful spirits, the second had some evil cult, the third had an immortal knight guarding the Holy Grail (and Indy's dad was instantly cured by it). The fridge scene was OK for this sort of a movie and KOTCS was far more enjoyable than The Temple Of Doom.

 

[Professor Zoom]

I love the Atomic Fridge. Very ingenious solution to a certain-death situation in the Saturday-morning movie serial tradition. Because that's what the Indy movies are.

This. The movies always seemed to reflect the popular culture of the time they were set. So, 1950s, commies and aliens? Makes total sense.

About the only thing that really bothered me in the Indy movies (in terms of stunts) was the life raft. It just looked so wrong. Toast always lands butter-side down for a reason.

Yeah, the blue screening was a little wonky... especially viewed through the lens of now... but... meh, I don't mind. There's still enough in Temple of Doom that I enjoy it.

 

[sojourner]

I actually think the nuked fridge scene would have worked better if we had seen it just roll a few times and end up in the street outside the remains of the house. Having it get shaken like it's in a paint mixer is what made it break the suspension of disbelief for me.

 

[Gojira]

I loved the fridge scene, it was fun and I never understood the complaints about it when there are other similar far fetched things in the entire series. A Knight that has lived for several hundred years, the spirit of God from the first movie and so many other implausible things that never bothered me.

I love movies that features aliens and the Indy franchise had dealt with so many other things that it felt natural to me. I loved the most recent movie and did not have a problem with it.

 

[sojourner]

There was a nice bit in KOTCS. When Indy and son are on the motorcycle chase there's a moment where the exchange looks that perfectly mirrors the scene from Last Crusade's motorcycle chase when Indy and his father exchange looks. Son happy and excited, the father disproving in both cases.

 

[davejames]

I loved the fridge scene, it was fun and I never understood the complaints about it when there are other similar far fetched things in the entire series. A Knight that has lived for several hundred years, the spirit of God from the first movie and so many other implausible things that never bothered me.

I love movies that features aliens and the Indy franchise had dealt with so many other things that it felt natural to me. I loved the most recent movie and did not have a problem with it.

I love aliens too, but ultimately I just think they're way too "scifi" for an Indiana Jones movie.

Ancient spirits and immortal knights might be equally ridiculous, but at least they're a lot more consistent with the world of religious artifacts and archaeological ruins Indy was a part of.

Of course it didn't help that the surrounding movie was such a silly, ridiculous farce. Maybe if it had treated the material with the kind of seriousness Raiders had, the alien thing would have worked after all. But it was just hard to take anything in that movie seriously.

 

[RandyS]

I never saw anything wrong with any of the movies' storytelling. It was fantasy after all. I mean a box that holds vengeful spirits which kill everything that looks at them? That was the first film, guys.

Same with me. The first movie had the vengeful spirits, the second had some evil cult, the third had an immortal knight guarding the Holy Grail (and Indy's dad was instantly cured by it). The fridge scene was OK for this sort of a movie and KOTCS was far more enjoyable than The Temple Of Doom.

Agreed.

Besides, as has been said, they're fantasy films. Why does everything have to make sense?

 

[Professor Zoom]

Of course it didn't help that the surrounding movie was such a silly, ridiculous farce. Maybe if it had treated the material with the kind of seriousness Raiders had, the alien thing would have worked after all. But it was just hard to take anything in that movie seriously.

It's funny that you say that... I always think of Last Crusade in that way... that's why it's my least favorite of the trilogy.

 

[JoeZhang]

So in the first film he finds the ark and people are concerned that he survived a fall into a lake in a raft?

Can someone start a "That Superman who can fly and survive nuclear explosions - how come the bottom of his boots don't get dirty?" thread?

 

[Silvercrest]

Only if it also covers where Superman hides his boots when he's Clark Kent.

 

[JarodRussell]

I hate it when people go "It's fantasy, why do you complain at all?"

The knight survived for several hundred years because of the Holy Grail. That's what the Holy Grail does. That's why everyone wants it. Either by magic, or by scifi, explain it any way you want.



But does a fridge really protect you from a nuclear blast? Would you survive the crash unscathed?



Had they introduced another magic or scifi device that protected him from the blast, I would have been okay with it. But a simple fridge is nothing that can protect you from such a thing.


It doesn't have anything to do with realism, it's all about logic.




I would have also been okay with them NOT showing how he survived. He gets in the fridge, closes the door, the nuke detonates, and FADE TO Indy waking up in the desert, with the fridge only barely visble as a HINT in the background. Or Indy waking up in a hospital bed.

 

[Trekker4747]

The fridge part I can "buy" it's "plausible" enough to wave away. But the way the fridge "landed" is too much. It was blown miles away by the shockwave and crash landed and then bounced around on a rocky desert floor before coming to a rest. Indy walks out perfectly fine.

It's just one of those things that is hard to accept no matter how many fantastical of things have happened in the past. It just looked utterly silly and not like something at all one could survive. The awning fall and the liferaft fall both were shown to look "kinda" like it could be survivable. Because they didn't show the liferaft landing on the mountain side going Mach-1, tumbling off numerous rocky crags and crashing into things before finally coming to a rest at the bottom of the mountain with Indie looking fine and Willie's hair simply being messed up a little with her screeching about it.

The mine-cart scene is a little OTT and silly. But even then it's a bit of an "eh... whatever."

I don't think Crystal Skull buys enough forgiveness to wave around the absurd fridge landing.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Iron Man gets a similar treatment to the Nuclear Fridge landing, when his prototype suit crash-lands in the desert, after he escapes the cave. I don't believe that he and his cave-mate wired inertial dampeners into the suit. Why does Iron Man get a pass?

 

[Trekker4747]

Iron Man gets a similar treatment to the Nuclear Fridge landing, when his prototype suit crash-lands in the desert, after he escapes the cave. I don't believe that he and his cave-mate wired inertial dampeners into the suit. Why does Iron Man get a pass?

Because it was a good movie. The rest of the movie was good enough to have wave that away. And, believe me, it's a complaint I -and others- had. Similar to the other "slapstick" moments when he's testing various aspects of the suit and gets slammed into a concrete wall.

But Iron Man was a good movie so, meh, whatever.

If Indy 4 had been a good movie people would probably be a bit more forgiving over the fridge moment. It'd be, "Yeah, that was dumb, but it was great seeing Indy again!"

Instead the movie just kept heaping on piles of shit (again, chase scene, Shia doing fencing on the back of JEEPS SPEEDING THROUGH THE JUNGLE!, the multiple waterfalls) and it wasn't good enough to overlook the nonsense. Part of suspension of disbelief is suspending it, and it's the film maker's job to do that by whatever means they have to. Having a good movie buys a LOT of suspension of disbelief.

 

[davejames]

It's just one of those things that is hard to accept no matter how many fantastical of things have happened in the past. It just looked utterly silly and not like something at all one could survive. The awning fall and the liferaft fall both were shown to look "kinda" like it could be survivable. Because they didn't show the liferaft landing on the mountain side going Mach-1, tumbling off numerous rocky crags and crashing into things before finally coming to a rest at the bottom of the mountain with Indie looking fine and Willie's hair simply being messed up a little with her screeching about it.

Agreed.

Iron Man gets a similar treatment to the Nuclear Fridge landing, when his prototype suit crash-lands in the desert, after he escapes the cave. I don't believe that he and his cave-mate wired inertial dampeners into the suit. Why does Iron Man get a pass?

I don't think it should. That's definitely a moment that takes me out of the story for a second or two, because it just looks SO unsurvivable. But thankfully it doesn't become a trend (like in Indy 4), and the rest of the movie keeps his abilities to a fairly believable level.

 

[Argus Skyhawk]

When it comes to unbelievable events, fantasy elements do not belong in the same category as lapses in story logic. Aliens and lost arks with divine power belong in the first category, while refrigerators and inflatable rafts that bestow Wile E Coyote abilities upon their occupants belong in the second. That is why in Indiana Jones movies I'm not bothered by 700-year-old knights and village-protecting magical stones, but I definitely do not like scenes such the thousand-foot-fall over the cliff, the three increasingly deadly waterfalls, or the nuclear fridge.

 

[Edit_XYZ]

The nuclear fridge is a plot hole only because its reputation is that it's a plot hole.
An effect of nuclear phobia, perhaps?

Even the video at the beginning of the thread establishes that it's half-way realistic (and, by holywood standards, half-way realistic is hard core realism).

 

[RJDiogenes]

According to that video, the Atomic Fridge is survivable. The only thing they got wrong was the part about the fridge overtaking the car, which is well within the artistic license boundaries of a Saturday morning serial.

It's a very cool scene that has an ingenious cliffhanger escape and does a wonderful job of establishing Indy's new setting in the 1950s. It always amazes me the things that the audience objects to versus the things that they will accept and defend.

 

[Nerys Myk]

According to that video, the Atomic Fridge is survivable. The only thing they got wrong was the part about the fridge overtaking the car, which is well within the artistic license boundaries of a Saturday morning serial.

It's a very cool scene that has an ingenious cliffhanger escape and does a wonderful job of establishing Indy's new setting in the 1950s. It always amazes me the things that the audience objects to versus the things that they will accept and defend.

Exactly. The Indy films are over the top action adventure films that homage Saturday-morning serials. In that context, a nuclear safe, flying fridge is not out of place.

 

[RandyS]

According to that video, the Atomic Fridge is survivable. The only thing they got wrong was the part about the fridge overtaking the car, which is well within the artistic license boundaries of a Saturday morning serial.

It's a very cool scene that has an ingenious cliffhanger escape and does a wonderful job of establishing Indy's new setting in the 1950s. It always amazes me the things that the audience objects to versus the things that they will accept and defend.

Exactly.