This week we wrap up our Indy Jones arc with a discussion of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. We also run down the week in geek, including the new Iron Man trailer, the new Tron Legacy trailer, the new Eclipse trailer, Corey Haim’s sad passing, and Andy Whitfield’s cancer diagnosis. We look forward to seeing some of you in Texas next week for our second annual GWC International Meetup! Don’t miss one listener’s awesomely entertaining travel tips at the end of this cast, plus our resident Firefly expert Robin Hudson’s contribution regarding Inara’s secret.
You’re wroooooooooooong Chuck! He’s had briefcase armor since like the 70s. It’s unrelated to the gold skin with the circuits when he got the Extremis upgrade.
Edit: 1963
http://splashpage.mtv.com/2010/03/08/iron-man-2-briefcase-armor/ Peep that article
and there be listenin’…
does not take away from the cool however…
I kept on meaning to call this in over the past month, but kept on getting distracted… I’ve noticed someone else already brought it up, but I’ll throw it in for good measure.
The Indiana Jones stories are modeled after the radio serials of the early-mid 20th century. Lots of people like to complain about nuking the fridge and aliens and what have you, but I think once you take it in it’s intended context it becomes more interesting and makes more sense. Nuking the fridge seems obnoxious and outlandish, but I think if you imagine yourself listening to an old radio serial, it suddenly sounds not so unreasonable. It’s supposed to be over the top. It’s not an Indy thing so much as it is an idiosyncrasy of the story-type. I think when you get to the 50’s addressing aliens and atomic weapons is exactly what you should see it. Indy IV is a great movie. It’s a lot of fun.
Also, side note: Audra was asking about the rating on Raiders of the Lost Ark back a few weeks, assuming it was R. Raiders was actually PG, and interestingly enough, Temple of Doom was one of the films that brought about the creation of the PG-13 rating (The other being Gremlins.) There was a lot of concern from the public that Temple of Doom and Gremlins were too intense for a PG rating. R seemed too extreme, and thus the creation of PG-13.
Nice job Robin! Thanks for taking the time to do that piece for us!
Of course it doesn’t, I was referring more to the idea that he’s rockin Extremis
well, i went to high school in El Paso, so that part of Texas was all dessert and tumbleweed, for those who wants to see those in Texas… you can hit a bunch of tumbleweed when you are driving on the biggest street in El Paso.
i’ve also been to the rest of Texas some 10+ hours away from El Paso by car… Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, Houston… those are more like swampy than desserty…
As I’m listening to the cast at around minute 53 or 54, Audra asks why there was a detailed town created to test the effects of Atomic Weapons. For anyone that would like to know more about the United States nuclear test program that ran from 1945 to 1963, snag a copy of “Trinity and Beyond (The Atomic Bomb Movie).” It’s narrated by the Shat and very sobering. The video that is played makes you wonder how the Frak that Battlestar Galactica survived multiple direct nuke hits (among many other somber thoughts).
~Shooter Out.
FYI - Indy’s mother, Anna Mary Jones, died of Scarlet Fever in 1912 at the age of 34.
Adding to my viewing queue…
I agree. Thank you Robin. That was very enlightening.
Thanks for the nice comments, guys, both here and on Twitter! Glad you liked it! 
If enough people dug it, maybe I’ll do another one! ^.^
Indy IV may not be the best of the series, but I still remember enjoying it in the theater. Again, I think most of its detractors are the same people who disliked Temple of Doom, just because it didn’t have him fighting Nazis or going after christian artifacts.
Yes, there are some silly bits, but if you’re a forgiving enough viewer, you can still enjoy this one. Audiences, to me, have changed these days. Everything in movies has to be “plausible”, or else it gets nitpicked to death.
Whatever happened to just accepting fantasy as fantasy?
I’d like to add to the thanks, and I’d love to hear more of your insight into the show.
Especially in light of the ‘Mal is a bully’ conversation that’s been going on, I’d be facinated to hear more about how the shows creators saw Mal’s backstory and motivations, and anything they’ve revealed about his planned personal ‘arc’.
With regards Indy 4, am I the only person who completely missed how ‘naff’ the fridge thing was when watching the film? For me it was just another part of the movie and didn’t break my suspension of disbelief at all. It didn’t stick in my mind and it was only much later when people started using the phrase ‘nuke the fridge’ in place of ‘jump the shark’ that I even became aware there was an issue about this.
If I had to pick a moment that I remember jarring me, it was the monkey swinging. Oddly, that was also talked about a lot at the time (I saw some t-shirts of it), but over the longer term people seem to have stopped being bothered about it (it wasn’t brought up in the cast) and now all they mention is the fridge?
The fridge thing was implausible, but the swinging with the monkeys made me go ‘oh wtf’, so Im right there with ya.
I wasn’t a huge fan of Indy 4 (as i look back on my posts from when it came out…), but I wasn’t taken out of the story by the fridge or the aliens or whatever it is people say take them out. And I loved Temple of Doom, so I guess I’m a data point against that supposition… what got me was the mariachi music in Cuzco. Seriously!?
Quite frankly in a list of implausable things in Indy films I’m not even sure it makes the top five. Even if you ignore the supernatural stuff you have stuff like three people bailing out of a plane using an inflatable life raft as a parachute and then sledging down a mountain on it, or perhaps strapping yourself to a submarine to hitch a ride. I can’t quite get why this particular one gets singled out.
not ever losing the hat during all of the above is pretty amazing too. i lose stuff inside my own house.
No contest? 
Oh, wait. There will be one after the meet-up. Right? Right?