10 Indiana Jones Quotes That Have Aged Poorly

Despite Harrison Ford remaining a popular actor, Indiana Jones isn’t the franchise with the most longevity, resulting in some then-entertaining quotes that haven’t aged well. Following the famed Star Wars alumnus’ character’s various quests for supernatural artifacts from the ancient world, Indiana Jones was never entirely politically correct. In addition to this, “Indy” leans heavily into the outdated James Bond trope of there always being a pseudo-Bond Girl around, generally needing to be rescued.

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Even some of the best quotes in the Indiana Jones movies don’t have the intended effect today. Despite the efforts of the later movies to show more respect for the histories they engage with and create better female characters, they struggle to compete with some of the earlier installments, which are generally considered the best Indiana Jones movies. Indiana Jones delivers great action and witty quotes, but which parts of them audiences want to take at face value fluctuates.

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10 “I Don’t Believe In Magic, A Lot Of Superstitious Hocus Pocus.”

Said By Indy In Raiders Of The Lost Ark

Indiana Jones’ shuffled timeline doesn’t do it any favors when the second movie happens first in chronological order. Indy’s assertion in the first movie that he’s a man of science and academia, waving off the warnings about the Ark of the Covenant, sets up some intrigue surrounding its power. However, this comment is a plot hole when the plot of Temple of Doom is supposed to have already happened and Indy should already be open to the idea of the supernatural.

Movie	Setting
Raiders of the Lost Ark	1936
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom	1935
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade	1938
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull	1957
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny	1969

The first three movies can be taken as standalones, along the same lines as the Mission: Impossible franchise. Only the latter two movies demonstrate a linear continuation of Indy’s earlier adventures, with explicit references to past installments. There are some smaller references among the movies of the original trilogy; yet Raiders of the Lost Ark is also much better than Temple of Doom, allowing some leniency for this mistake.

9 “Don’t You Know It’s Dangerous To Climb Into A Refrigerator? Those Things Can Be Deathtraps!”

Said By General Ross In Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull

Yes, it is dangerous to climb into a fridge, potentially resulting in suffocation. Indy was desperate, as he realized that a nuclear bomb was about to go off, and he had to seek shelter. However, a fridge most likely wouldn’t provide enough protection from the explosion or radiation either. Even if it had, Indy should have been severely beaten up from the fridge being thrown by the explosion.

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It has been debated how accurate Indiana Jones’ “Nuke the Fridge” scene is, but it is generally ridiculed as the most unbelievable part of the disastrous legacy sequel. Indiana Jones relies heavily on the supernatural but maintains a tone of realism with things that require it, and this incident demonstrates how the franchise is now stumbling. General Ross’ (Alan Dale) comment, which was probably supposed to be lightly comedic, just points out that it shouldn’t have worked.

8 “That Depends On How Reasonable We’re All Willing To Be — All I Want Is The Girl!”

Said By Indy In Raiders Of The Lost Ark

Indy gets a big heroic moment by threatening to blow up the Ark in exchange for Marion Ravenwood’s (Karen Allen) freedom, which is undermined about a second later. Belloq (Paul Freeman) essentially proves all that he has been saying about him and Indy not being so different, are both invested in the mystery of the Ark itself. He calls Indy out on his bluff, as destroying the Ark would be destroying a significant relic which they are all curious about.

On a different note, Marion never says that she’s tired of everyone calling her a “girl” in Raiders of the Lost Ark because this isn’t the kind of discourse a movie from 1981 is going to start on. The villains do this a lot, as they are kidnapping her and discussing how to leverage her to get to the Ark. Indy then also refers to Marion as “the girl” while bargaining for her, underscoring the point.

7 “For Crying Out Loud, There’s A Kid Driving The Car!”

Said By Willie In Temple Of Doom

Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw) is remembered as Indy’s most annoying love interest, far less adventure-savvy than Marion and scholastic than Elsa Schneider (Alison Doody). However, Willie has a tendency to point out obvious things that Indy is far too cavalier about. Short Round (Ke Huy Quan) is Indy’s sidekick, whom Indy gave a job after his family was killed, but maybe he shouldn’t be this involved in all the action. Temple of Doom is essentially Indy accidentally falling into trouble in the company of not the most well-equipped people.

Despite this, Short Round is pretty reliable throughout the adventure.After Temple of Doom, Short Round goes back to America with Indy and is enrolled in school, but never appears in the movies again. Yet to answer Willie’s question, Short Round is driving the car so Indy can have a stereotyped sidekick for one movie who will say emotional things but never be followed up on.

6 “That Cross Is An Important Artifact. It Belongs In A Museum.”

Said By Indy In The Last Crusade

The first three movies don’t look past the superficial concern of their being a powerful MacGuffin for Indy to find.

Indy’s mantra is about historical artifacts being delivered to the hands of experts who can study them and contribute to the enlightenment of society with their research. This philosophy glosses over the colonialist mindset of taking these artifacts from the cultures to whom they originally belonged, which are often depicted as exotic and violent in this series. Additionally, in the 1930s, the people who are going to learn anything from these artifacts being collected are mostly going to be white, with access to museums and universities in the West.

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Of the things that haven’t aged well about Indiana Jones, its most glaring issues include racial stereotypes and little concern for the appropriation of history and culture. The first three movies don’t look past the superficial concern of their being a powerful MacGuffin for Indy to find. How his theft of this object affects other people, and whether he has any right to it, isn’t a question that comes up.

5 “There’ve Been A Lot Of Marys, Kid.”

Said By Indy In Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull

Indy is characterized as a moderate womanizer throughout the franchise and thinks that a snarky remark is a smart thing to say to Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf) about his mother shortly after meeting him. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull tries to backtrack a little bit on the rest of the franchise, reframing undeniably Indy’s best love interest as the true love of his life. Despite their constant fighting, which broke them up shortly before a wedding, their feelings are deeply ingrained.

Willie is a whiny damsel while Elsa is a femme fatale, and both characters are very sexualized. Indy still gets to say sweet things like that “they all [other women] had the same problem” of not being Marion. Yet he doesn’t demonstrate a lot of regret about leaving Marion pregnant. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull tries to have it both ways with nods to Indy’s old characterization and treating Marion with more dignity.

4 “Why The Hell Didn’t You Make Him Finish School?”

Said By Indy In Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull

While having plenty of sarcastic exchanges with Mutt before Marion reenters the story, it also comes up that Mutt dropped out of school. Indy is polite about it, even though he definitely believes in a formal education. He even tells Marion she should leave Mutt alone about school — just before she tells him that Mutt is his son and he swiftly changes his mind, later demanding that Mutt reenroll.

The entire family dynamic isn’t handled amazingly well in this first legacy sequel, as the writers try to fast-track a happy ending.

Indy is a complete hypocrite who only sees one path to success and respectability, no matter what he tells Mutt before, and immediately tries to control his adult son’s life. The entire family dynamic isn’t handled amazingly well in this first legacy sequel, as the writers try to fast-track a happy ending. However, Indy’s comments about education, which might have been the only funny parts of this movie at one point, come across as obnoxious and don’t really add anything to the storyline.

3 “The British Worry So About Their Empire. Makes Us Feel Like Well Cared For Children.”

Said By Chattar Lal In Temple Of Doom

Temple of Doom exhibits the worst of Indiana Jones’ harmful racial stereotypes and its worst depiction of imperialism. During the infamous dinner scene, Indy tries to fish out information about the fictionalized Thuggee cult, who worship Kali through human sacrifices. Chattar Lal (Roshan Seth) and Captain Blumburtt (Philip Stone) make comments about the British having killed all the Thuggee, as though trying to reassure Indy. The cult is real in this setting and is the villain of this movie, while the British Empire exists in the background without being fully addressed.

Namely, Temple of Doom paints the unseen British as potential victims if the Thuggee gain the power they are after. Mola Ram (Amrish Puri) tells Indy: “The British in India will be slaughtered. Then we will overrun the Muslims and force their ‘Allah’ to bow to Kali.” Meanwhile, the earlier comment made during the dinner suggests the empire is cute, and not a real violent force doing more destruction than the fictional one in this movie.

2 “‘Now I Am Become Death, The Destroyer Of Worlds.’ You Recognize Those Words? It Was Your Own Dr. Oppenheimer After He Created The Atomic Bomb.” “He Was quoting The Hindu Bible.”

Said By Irina Spalko In Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull

Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is trying to make some point about the cost of knowledge against the backdrop of the rise of nuclear weaponry, but it fails to come across when it is just generally a bad movie. It also introduces Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchette) as the new main villain. Indy’s brief discourse on nuclear arms with Spalko only shows how the movie doesn’t understand what it’s talking about, comments which have only aged worse in light of more discussion about it in the real world and the Best Picture-winner Oppenheimer.

If Spalko is arguing that an American scientist made a god of himself with scientific knowledge, Indy’s comment is completely flat. Where Oppenheimer got the quote doesn’t matter, the point is how he used it. It feels like Indy just trying to show off his own knowledge. Spalko responds with: “It was nuclear intimidation.” This might not be true either depending on one’s interpretation, and the whole conversation is pointless.

1 “You Knew What You Were Doing.”

Said By Indy In Raiders Of The Lost Ark

With time, Indy’s early relationship with Marion which led to his falling out with her father has come under fire. Many have interpreted Marion saying “I was a child […] It was wrong and you knew it!” to mean that she was literally underage at the time, likely in her late teens with Indy in his 20s, as he was her father’s student at university. Indy having to get the medallion from a former colleague after he broke his daughter’s heart might be an interesting subplot if it weren’t for this detail.

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The explanation of whatever happened is also rushed, and Indy is mostly unapologetic about it. His one excuse that Marion “knew what she was doing” rings hollow when held up to modern standards. This conversation is quickly moved past when Marion is presently an assertive, self-aware woman, yet she is still belittled by the movie. Several of the quotes from this scene are among the worst-aged of Indiana Jones, which created a scoundrel protagonist who doesn’t hold up as well as some characters.

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7/10 Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark

Archaeologist Indiana Jones is tasked with finding the biblical Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis, who believe it will make their army invincible. His journey spans from the jungles of South America to Egypt, facing deadly traps, fierce rivals, and a rekindled romance with Marion Ravenwood.

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*Availability in US Director Steven Spielberg Release Date June 12, 1981 Writers Lawrence Kasdan , George Lucas , Philip Kaufman Cast Harrison Ford , Karen Allen , Paul Freeman , Ronald Lacey , John Rhys-Davies , Denholm Elliott Runtime 115 minutes
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6/10 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

The second installment in Steven Speilberg’s classic film franchise, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom features the titular hero on an adventure in India, attempting to save the children of a remote village from a violent cult of the goddess Kali. Harrison Ford reprises his role as Indiana Jones, with a supporting cast that includes Kate Capshaw, Ke Huy Quan, Amrish Puri, and Philip Stone.

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*Availability in US Director Steven Spielberg Release Date May 8, 1984 Writers Willard Huyck , Gloria Katz Cast Harrison Ford , Kate Capshaw , Ke Huy Quan , Amrish Puri , Roshan Seth , Philip Stone , Roy Chiao Runtime 118 Minutes
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9.6/10 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

A sequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade sees the return of the titular hero, this time in search of his father who has been kidnapped by Nazis. Aided by his friends Marcus Brody and Sallah, as well as his father’s associate Elsa Schneider, Indy must travel Europe to locate his father and stop the Nazis from finding the Holy Grail. Sean Connery, John Rhys-Davies, Denholm Elliott, and Alison Doody also star.

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*Availability in US Director Steven Spielberg Release Date May 24, 1989 Writers Jeffrey Boam Cast Harrison Ford , Sean Connery , Denholm Elliott , Alison Doody , John Rhys-Davies , Julian Glover Runtime 127 Minutes
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7/10 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

The fourth installment in the Indiana Jones franchise, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull sees the return of the legendary hero 19 years after his last outing. In the film, Indy finds himself in a race against KGB operatives to locate a mysterious crystal skull, aided by his former lover Marion Ravenwood and their erstwhile son, Mutt Williams. Along with Harrison Ford, Karen Allen reprises her role as Marion, with Shia LaBeouf joining the cast as Mutt.

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*Availability in US Director Steven Spielberg Release Date May 22, 2008 Writers David Koepp , George Lucas , Jeff Nathanson Cast Harrison Ford , Shia LaBeouf , Cate Blanchett , Karen Allen , Ray Winstone , John Hurt , Jim Broadbent Runtime 122 Minutes
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6.7/10 Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is the fifth entry in the Indiana Jones franchise, directed by James Mangold and starring Harrison Ford in his final portrayal of the titular character. The film will see Jones in 1969 on an adventure with his goddaughter, Helena Shaw, as they find themselves in the middle of an uneasy space race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, with the former enlisting the help of former Nazis with ulterior motives.

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*Availability in US Director James Mangold Release Date June 30, 2023 Writers Jez Butterworth , John-Henry Butterworth , David Koepp , James Mangold Cast Boyd Holbrook , Thomas Kretschmann , Mads Mikkelsen , Harrison Ford , Phoebe Waller-Bridge , Shaunette Renée Wilson Runtime 2 hours and 2 minutes