Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull deleted scenes, are not in the movie as not every scene made it to the final cut of Crystal Skull.
Below is a list of deleted scenes and their reasons:
- Mac’s head under the Truck
- Indy pulls the Trigger on Russians with a whip
- Other Doom Town scenes
- Mutt and Russians at Train Station
- Extended Diner Line
- Russians in Jungle
- Piranha
- Through Eyes and Tears
- Quartz Lights
- Leaving the Church
1. Mac’s Head under the Truck:
In the film, Indy helps the Russians find a box in maze-like Hangar 51 after Irina Spalko puts a repair on his neck. Basically, Indy refuses to assist the Soviets by saying, “Killing me will not gonna solve your problem”.
In response, Spalko drags Mac out of the warehouse and puts her sunglasses back on. Scared Indy is held back by two Russians, while Mac says “it’s all gone pear-shaped” before his head is held in front of the truck tire. Dovchenko starts the engine and drives slowly. Indy agrees to help the Russians to save his friend’s life. Note that in the scene immediately following the film, Spalko takes off his sunglasses and gives them to a nearby soldier.
2. Indy pulls the Trigger on Russians with a whip:
In the film, Indy instigates a fight with Russian forces in Hangar 51, punches distracted soldiers, knocks guns out of other soldiers’ hands, and quickly arms himself and Mac. Additional gags were also scripted and fired. As Indy wraps his whip around the soldier’s gun and tugs, he pulls the trigger and kills the soldier trying to get up. Indy pulls again and pulls the gun out of the soldier’s hand.
In an IndyCast episode, stuntman John Braver, who played a soldier with a gun, confirmed that the film was shot according to the script. This is present in the novelizations, and an approximation of how it plays out can be found in the preview for the DVD warehouse set.
3. Other Doom Town scenes:
Before asking if there was a phone in the Doom Townhouse, Indy used it, only to find that the cord had been briefly unplugged. Outside, a Russian walks past the Doom Town sign. It reminds me of Jeb Stewart’s 1995 screenplay. There, a sign reading “Bloomsburg- Please Drive Carefully” confuses lost Russians who can’t find it on a map.
The script has an additional exchange between Indy and Agent Taylor at the end of the FBI interrogation scene. There, Indy mentions “Washington friends” who can vouch for him, Congressman Freleng and Abe Portman. It’s worth noting that these particular lines are mostly taken from Frank Darabont’s 2003 draft when Dean Stanforth was named Dean Carl Stallings. It is named after Warner Brothers animator Friz Ferling and composer Carl Stolling.
4. Mutt and Russians at Train Station:
The scene where Indy gets on the train opens with another shot of two KBJ agents following Indy through the train station, and the wheels of a motorcycle enter the frame as Mutt arrives.
5. Extended Diner Line:
The script includes an additional exchange between Indy and Mutt at Arnie’s Diner that mentions the skull’s superpowers. Mutt’s line, “Laugh if you want” (which doesn’t make much sense). Given that the loss is only two lines, the motivation for removing them was probably due to the psychic nature of the skull early in the story. Perhaps, Indy’s line was deemed a bit too “on the nose”. The line about staring into the skull’s eyes and going crazy survived the comic book adaptation.
6. Russians in the Jungle:
In 2007, Bolshoi-trained dancer Tyler Nelson (not pictured) told a local newspaper about the interrogation scene, the Jones family visit, and the “crucifix skull”. His scenes and possibly other Russian dance scenes were reportedly cut by Speilberg.
Then there was a short shot of some Russians temporarily stuck in the woods, firing futile shots after the protagonist passed.
7. Piranha:
After the hero climbs off a cliff and lands safely in the river, before discovering the waterfall, there should be some dialogue between the characters, but Mac admires that he was for betting on the race. A piranha then latches onto Mutt’s finger, causing everyone to scream. Evidence that at least part of this was filmed can be seen in the final footage, where Oxley says “ Three times it drops”.
8. Through Eyes and Tears:
The film offers no explanation as to how the heroes scaled the seemingly unscalable cliffs to reach the lost city. The comic adaptation includes a panel depicting Advent.
In James Rollin’s novel, which also involves climbing, there is a humorous moment, with indy advising Mutt on safety issues, to which an exacerbated Mutt replies, “Man, how’s ANY of this safe?”
9. Quartz Lights:
In Darabont’s draft, Indy’s party appears to encounter a water turbine on its way to the antechamber that generates electricity for the dim green motion sensor lights leading to the chamber of the Gods. Along the way he encounters a water turbine, then a quartz-walled tunnel helps to escape. The mysterious quartz lights seen in the concept art and DVD shorts are either powered by generators or by reflected and refracted light from skylights.
10. Leaving the Church:
Filming officially wrapped on Oct 11 at Moorpark and North Hollywood First Christian Church in Colfax, before filming other scenes at airports around Fresno. Crews littered the Colfax exterior with leaves and parked a white convertible with a red interior and whitewall tires for Joneses.
It’s unclear how far down the street the wedding party went, but the cast and crew toasted with champagne in the parking lot of a nearby church.
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