Murray- Crystal Skull

Once scene that is a parody of thee earlier films in the Crystal Skull is when Indy is caught in the quick sand and must grad the snake in order to pull himself out.  Throughout the films it has been brought to the viewers’ attention that Indy is terrified of snakes.  This is his one weakness.  Instead of powering through the fear he has like usual Indy is rendered practically helpless.  It is making fun of the idea that he is a fearless warrior.  Instead, he is more childlike than ever before.  In Raiders Indy is trapped in the snake pit but uses fire to fend off the snakes.  His intellect is what saves hi from his greatest fear but in this case instead of being able to deal with the situation at all Indy must simply let go of his fear.  Intellect would tell Indy that the snake grabbed would kill its pray by constriction not venom.  Therefore, he would not have any fears about grabbing the snake but he is helpless.  Logic fails Indy in this instance.  Instead of being the iconic male that we know him as Indy is a child.  The bravado is gone. It also reflects the fact that Indy must face his fear of snakes in all phases of his life.  In The Last Crusade, Indy must face the pit of snakes in his youth.  In Raiders of the Lost Ark Indy again has to face snakes as an adult.  Now in the Crystal Skull Indy is facing the same old fear only as a matured adult.

            Another aspect of the scene that is a parody is Ox going for help.  Indy almost never asks for any type of help.  He asks for favors and when sticky situations arrive he deals with them on his own.  In this case he is rendered helpless and must beg for Ox to come get help.  In return Ox brings the Russians that Indy was trying to escape from has help unknowingly.  This plays into the idea that Indy can never win.  With him everything that can go wring does.  Playing into the same sentiment is how Indy and Marion get stuck in the first place.  Indy points out that, quicksand is rather harmless unless the air pocket inside pops.  Of course as he says this the air pocket bursts putting him in danger.  This mocks the concept that the worst always happens to Indy.  Even when Indy thinks he is safe something occurs which puts him in danger.  In particular it is mocking the scene from Raiders where Indy puts the bag of sand and takes the Idol.  Instead of the plan working the bag of sand is too heavy and triggers the booby traps the moment Indy looks away.  Just like in the quicksand Indy believes he has managed to secure a situation that is not putting him in danger but in reality as soon as Indy thinks he is safe everything collapses around him.