***Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull*** is a 2008 American adventure movie directed by Steven Spielberg. The story of the movie was written by Spielberg and executive producer George Lucas. Set in 1957, this fourth movie in the Indiana Jones movie series is based around an older and wiser Indiana Jones (played by Harrison Ford) against agents of the Soviet Union–led by Spalko (Cate Blanchett)–for the crystal skull. Indy is helped by his former lover Marion Ravenwood (played by Karen Allen), Mutt (played by Shia LaBeouf) and friend Mac (played by Ray Winstone). John Hurt, Jim Broadbent, and Ian McDiarmid also play fellow academics.

The movie was in "development hell" since the 1989 release of *Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade*, because Spielberg and Ford did not agree over Lucas's choice of the skull as the center plot device. Screenwriters Jeb Stuart, Jeffrey Boam, M. Night Shyamalan, Frank Darabont and Jeff Nathanson wrote early versions, before David Koepp's script was chosen by all three men. Shooting finally started on June 18, 2007, and took place in New Mexico, New Haven, Connecticut, Hawaii, Fresno, California, and at soundstages in Los Angeles. This movie uses more stunts than CGI (computer generated images) so that the movie looks like the rest in the series. The music was created once again by John Williams.

Plot
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At the beginning of the movie, the U.S Army is doing weapons testing in Nevada in 1957. It is then revealed that the Soviets have taken control of some of the army and shoot some security people dead. A group of Soviet men and agent Irina Spalko then pull Indiana Jones out of the car and make him get an object that he found ten years ago. He finds the box and tries to escape, but his friend Mac turns on him. After escaping, he finds himself in a fake town. The U.S Army then explodes an atomic bomb. Jones gets into a refrigerator and barely survives.

Because Jones was Mac's friend for a long time, the U.S government thinks that Jones might be a Communist. At Marshall College the next day (where Jones teaches), the head dean informs him that he is on a "leave of absence" and that the dean resigned in order to protect Jones. Jones packs his bags and leaves New York. Before he can leave, though, a young man named Mutt Williams comes to him and shows him a letter. Williams says that Harold Oxley, one of Jones's old friends, has been kidnapped. Later, these people kidnapped Williams' mother Mary and will kill them both if the crystal skull cannot be found.

Jones reads the letter and the puzzle and says that Oxley was referring to Cuzco, Peru. Jones and Williams fly down there, where Jones learns that Oxley was put in a jail a couple of months ago. In the prison, Oxley scratched out some drawings. Jones and Williams head to a grave site where they believe Francisco de Orellana lies buried; legend tells that he found the crystal skull but was never found. They find the skull and come up only to find Mac and some Soviets pointing weapons at them.

All of them fly to a new camp in the jungle. Spalko tells Jones that she believes that the skull was made by aliens and that it holds great power. There, Jones finds that "Mary Williams" is actually Marion Ravenwood, his old lover. He also finds Oxley, who is out of his mind, rambling and unable to speak a full sentence. Jones finds out what Oxley is saying. As the Soviets and Jones figure out where to go, Williams starts a fire and tries to get them to escape. Jones and Ravenwood fall in quicksand and start sinking. As they sink, Ravenwood tells Jones that Williams' real name is Henry Jones III and that he is Jones's son. Williams uses a snake to get them out of the sandpit. They are recaptured.

The next day, the Soviets begin destroying the forest as they seek to reach the Temple of Akator, the area Oxley pointed out. Jones gets his ropes loose and takes over one of the cars, starting a long jungle chase. In the end, they find the area, the location where the crystal skull should be returned. Mac rejoins the group as a good guy, but in reality he was still not good, and left little blinking red lights as a trail so the slower Soviets can find where Jones and his party were.

In a chamber tomb, Jones and his party find 13 crystal skeletons, with one missing a skull. Spalko takes the skull away from Oxley and puts it back. The temple begins to crumble. Spalko wants to know everything in the world but she soon knows too much and explodes. Jones and his party start to escape. Jones stops to try to get Mac, but Mac says it is okay and lets himself be taken away. After Jones exits the temple, he sees the temple collapse and reveal itself to be a flying saucer. Back home, Jones becomes the associate dean of Marshall College. He and Ravenwood get married.

Cast
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* Harrison Ford as Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones Jr.
* Shia LaBeouf as Mutt Williams, a motorcycle-riding "greaser" and Indiana's sidekick.
* Cate Blanchett as Irina Spalko, a villainous Russian agent.
* Karen Allen as Marion Ravenwood.
* Ray Winstone as "Mac" George McHale, both a friend of and competitor with Jones.
* John Hurt as an unnamed friend of Jones who disappeared in 1937 while searching for the skulls
* Jim Broadbent as Dean Charles Stanforth, another friend of Jones who works at Yale University.
* Ian McDiarmid as Professor Levi.
* Igor Jijikine as Colonel Dovchenko, a Russian henchman.

Other websites
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* Official website
* *Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull* on IMDb
* *Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull* at AllMovie
* *Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull* at TheRaider.net
* *Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull* at Yahoo! Movies
* Uncensored trailer Archived 2008-09-04 at the Wayback Machine at *The Sun*